1 John 1:9 - The Benefits of Confession
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Confessing our sins is a necessary and godly practice that helps us to reorient our life to God, and live in fellowship with other believers.
In 1 John 1:9, the Apostle John teaches the early church the importance of confession. He addresses his letter to people who claim to have fellowship with God, yet are living in sin, “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth” (1 John 1:6). Throughout his writing the Apostle John calls the church to walk in the light, as God is in the light, by aligning faith and practice through confession and repentance.
John writes the letter of 1 John to help new believers experience the spiritual fellowship that comes when one’s faith and actions are in harmony with God’s will. Similar to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, John teaches new believers how to repent when sin creeps into the church, pointing the people back to faith in Jesus, the Son of God, who purifies us from all sin. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
John grounds his teaching about confession, in the character of God when he says, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). John uses the metaphor of light and darkness to contrast the character of God with character of sinful humanity.
By describing God as light, John highlights God’s perfection, God’s truth, and God’s power to drive out spiritual darkness. Light and darkness cannot occupy the same space. When light appears, darkness vanishes.
Jesus is the light of God who entered into the spiritual darkness of the world to reveal man’s sin, “the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Because of their sin, people rejected Jesus as their savior. They loved the darkness of their sin more than the light of God’s salvation. To love Jesus is to hate sin.
God is true. His way is trustworthy. His promises are sure. His word can be trusted. Jesus came to reveal the truth of God in order to dispel the deception of sin. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true” (1 John 5:20).
The light of God shines on the darkness of the human heart, revealing its sin and corruption. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
As the light of the world, Jesus illuminates our understanding of right and wrong, revealing God’s standard for human conduct. Jesus prays that his followers would be sanctified, or set apart from the world for service to God, by receiving the truth of God’s word, “Sanctify them in truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
A life that is properly oriented to God, will reflect the truth of God’s word by fulfilling God’s plan to love God and others. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10). “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
We abide in God’s love when we forsake the ways of the world to follow God’s commandments, when we repent from a self-directed life that pursues sinful delights to a God directed life that delights in honoring Him.
The Bible teaches us that it is impossible to manufacture such a change on our own. Our heart is so desperately wicked, that we need a heart transplant (Ezekiel 36:26). We are so completely consumed by sin, that we are spiritually dead inside (Ephesians 2:1).
We need a new heart that is supple and malleable to God’s direction. We need a new life that is guided and directed by the Spirit of God. And we need mediator to restore our relationship with God.
Thankfully God provides for us what we are unable to provide for ourselves (John 6:44; Ephesians 3:2). Jesus is our mediator. Jesus tells the Apostle Thomas that he is the way to the Father, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
When we place our faith in Jesus we receive eternal life, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
God provides us with a new life through the Holy Spirit, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6). The Holy Spirit serves as our guide, directing us into God’s truth, helping us to live according to God’s will as we learn to submit to His leading, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
John writes his gospel to encourage people to place their faith in Jesus, and to receive eternal life, “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
In his letters, John calls the church to repentance, to turn from sin and darkness, to abandon the desires of the world, to forsake the sinful desires of the flesh, and to live in harmony with God’s will. Repeatedly, John reminds the church to forsake the world and to live in accordance with God’s will.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
John again turns to the language of light and darkness to call the church to turn away from hatred propagated by the world, to the love of God that promotes mutual love. “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:9-11).
Throughout history, the church has forsaken its love of God and acquiesced to temptations of the world. Confession is a means of fighting this sinful tendency in ourselves. Those who live according to Godly standards live in the light as God is in the light. Those who live according to worldly standards share in the darkness of the world. John is calling the church to remain faithful to their calling, to glorify God with their lives and to forsake the ethos of the world.
When we notice that our lives are not reflecting the love of God, we should turn to confession and repentance. Asking for the Spirit of God to fight on our behalf, to help us resist the temptation of sin, and to forgive us when we give in to the desires of our flesh.
When the people of God live in accordance with worldly standards - seeking personal pleasure through the pursuit of sexual desire, or live in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction because we are discontent with our job, our family, our church, or our material possessions, or when we attempt to find personal security through the accumulation of wealth instead of in Christ alone - we are living according to worldly standards. We are living in darkness and need God to shine his light upon the condition of our heart revealing the depth of our sin, so we might remember the breath of God’s redeeming grace and forsake, once again the trappings of the world.
Confession of sin is not a singular act in the Christian life. It is true that we come to saving faith by hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17), whereby we receive spiritual illumination of God’s standard for our lives and conviction that we have not met it (Romans 3:23). Through the conviction of our sin, the Holy Spirit leads us to repent and receive the grace that God makes available to us through the atonement of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:4-9). This is God’s saving grace, whereby we confess our sins to God and Jesus imputes his righteousness upon us (Romans 4:22).
It is also true that by regularly confessing our sin to God, we grow in sanctifying grace. We grow in our understanding of the depth of sin and the breath of Jesus’ atonement. We grow in our appreciation of God’s glory and his standards. We grow in dependence upon God’s grace and the life of His Spirit in us. By regularly confessing our sins to God, we remember that the blood Christ shed for us covers a multitude of sins - past, present, and future.
Regular confession is not a repudiation of Jesus’ work on the cross, it is a demonstration of our faith in God’s sanctifying grace.
By making a regular confession of our sins to God, we remember the grace we have received through Jesus’s atonement. We treasure in our hearts the truth of God’s promise about Jesus, our Messiah, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed. And we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).
We need to make a habit of confession and repentance, not as a precondition for righteousness, but as a means of thwarting spiritual darkness, reorienting ourselves to God and communion with the church.
John calls the people of the church to reflect on God’s righteousness (light) and their sinfulness (darkness). John calls the spiritual children under his care to recognize the sin inherent in being human. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). God’s truth reveals our sin.
When I memorize God’s word, I hide God’s truth in my heart and provide the Spirit of God ammunition with which to wage war against the temptations of my heart. When my heart begins to deceive me, lusting after the things of this world, God’s word moves into action reminding me of God’s standards and reminding me that I have an advocate in the Spirit of God, working on my behalf, helping me to resist temptation. I cooperate with the Spirit of God when I listen to God’s word, submit to the Spirit’s leading and resisting my sinful desires. I fight against God’s Spirit when indulge in the desires of my flesh.
James describes temptation in this way, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15).
When we give into desire, we sin against God. We walk in darkness. In such a state, God invites us to confession, welcoming us by his grace.
There is hope in our confession. When we confess our sins we break our allegiance with the world and its broken standards. We realign ourselves with Christ. We “walk in the light as He is in the light.” John calls the church to confess its sins, knowing that forgiveness is available through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. Jesus reminds us that Satan intends our destruction but Jesus intends our life. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
There is no use trying to hide our sin by covering own mistakes. “He that hides his sin shall not prosper” (Proverbs 28:13). “Covering” by the way, is the meaning of atonement. Jesus covers our sins fully by his blood. We can never fully right our wrongs. We need God’s grace, so God invites us to confession reminding us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
God is faithful to forgive. He does not share our fickleness. We don’t have to wonder if God will be gracious to us when we come to Him in confession. There is no need to despair over our wickedness or to wonder if we will be crushed under punishment for our indulgences. God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
The just penalty for our sins has already been met in Jesus. His blood will atone for us. There is nothing that we can do to meet the justice of God for our sin, but Jesus can and has, once and for all upon the cross. Jesus has met the due penalty for our unrighteousness, therefore let us fly to confession knowing that our request for absolution has already been met in Jesus.
God is faithful and just to forgive. He will not require penance. Our penance has been met in Christ. He will not require another life for sin, Jesus is our lamb, our sacrifice, our atonement. God’s justice has been met and we are forgiven, therefore let us confess our sins to God, receiving his peace and absolution. Let your heart be unburdened, for God is faithful to forgive.
When we confess our sins to God, he cleanses us from all unrighteousness through the blood of the lamb. God reminds us that we have the imputed righteousness of Christ. Confession is a time to remember that we stand before God in the grace of Jesus Christ. Though in our weakness we have forgotten Him, He has neither forgotten nor forsaken us. We can trust that will keep His promise to cleans us of all unrighteousness.
