My little Children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
(1 John 2:1a)
What an amazing blessing our brother (the apostle) John was and is to Christ’s church! These are sweet words, given to us by God. John had a desire that God’s church would not sin. God has that same desire. If this was John’s desire, and if it is God’s desire, we should ask the following: what things does John write to keep us form sinning? We ask this because we want to know what it is that can keep us from sin.
There is a whole chunk from 1John 1:5-10, but I would like to focus on verses 8 and 9 because they really get to the bottom of the issue of why we sin, and they give us an unbelievable solution.
So, what does John write to us, that we may not sin? He says,
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He is faithful and just to forgive! This could be a series by itself ( and indeed we have posted a video on this very miracle before), but for now, let’s just take a moment to love that truth.
Unfortunately, this sweet verse is one of the most abused and misused verses in the bible. There is a way of reading this verse which could be paraphrased as follows: God will forgive you only for the sins that you confess. This is a terrifying prospect! I am not even aware of all of my sins, so if I must confess each sin in order to be forgiven, i will most certainly be in hell. Praise God that this is not the case! We see one indication of what John is really saying in the phrase “all unrighteousness.” It does not say that God forgives the unrighteousnesses that we remember to confess; it says all.
What John is saying is that we are only forgiven if we confess that we are sinners. This is not a checklist confession, which brings fear, anxiety, and legalism (all of which are sin)—this is a comprehensive confession: “Lord, forgive me, for I confess that I have sins.”
So, how would writing these things to us make it so we may not sin? It brings us not only to a place of honesty but also to a place of humble dependence on God. We know that we can never do any good thing by our own flesh, but we also know that God can do every good thing. If we say that we have no sin, we are stuck in our own impotence. If we know that we are sinners, we depend on God not only for forgiveness of sin committed in the past but for a continued life of righteousness.
