Confession of Sins and Forgiveness

As we have noted, the Scriptures teach that the sinner receives the forgiveness of all their sins-past, present and future the moment they were declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

They are now permanently members of God’s children and members of His family.

However, the Scriptures also teach that when God’s children sin prior to becoming perfected in a resurrection body, they must confess their sins to Him.

The Father restores them to fellowship and this fellowship is maintained by obedience to the Word of God.

The Old Testament teaches the importance of confessing one’s sins to God (cf. Lev. 16:21-22; Prov. 28:13; Ps. 28:9; 51).

Psalm 32:1 How blessed is the one whose rebellious acts are forgiven, whose sin is pardoned! 32:2 How blessed is the one whose wrongdoing the Lorddoes not punish, in whose spirit there is no deceit. 32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, my whole body wasted away, while I groaned in pain all day long. 32:4 For day and night you tormented me; you tried to destroy me in the intense heat of summer. (Selah) 32:5 Then I confessed my sin; I no longer covered up my wrongdoing. I said, “I will confess my rebellious acts to the Lord.” And then you forgave my sins. (Selah) (NET)

There are many examples in the Old Testament of a believer being restored to fellowship with God as a result of the believer confessing their sin to Him.

There is the example of David (Ps. 32:5; 51; 2 Sam. 12:13), Hezekiah (2 Chron. 32:26), Job (Job 42:6), Ezra (Ezra 9:6-15), Nehemiah (Neh. 1:6), and Daniel (Dan. 9:4, 20).

1 John 1:9 If any of us does, at any time confess our sins, He is characterized as being faithful as well as just to forgive these sins for the benefit of each one of us, in other words, to purify each one of us from each and every unrighteous thought, word or action. (My translation)

1 John 1:9 contains a fifth class conditional statement which communicates a spiritual principle pertaining to experiencing fellowship with the Father which is in addition to the fifth class conditional statements presented in 1 John 1:6-8.

The recipients of this epistle were located in the Roman province of Asia.

The occasion of the epistle itself and the context of the entire book clearly indicates that they were already believers in Jesus Christ who were experiencing fellowship with God and each other.

However, they were now being exposed to Docetic and Cerinthian Gnostic teaching that denied the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John emphatically refutes this teaching in the prologue of the epistle.

If they believed this false teaching, it would prevent them from continuing to have fellowship with God since fellowship with God is based upon the Person, Work and Life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This false teaching the apostle John was seeking to protect the recipients of this epistle from, were propagating an “incipient” form of Gnosticism since it was not a full blown threat to orthodox Christianity in the mid to late part of the first century as it did become in the middle of the second century.

That John’s readers were already experiencing fellowship with the Father and the Son and that this letter is a protection from the false teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ is indicated in 1 John 2:13-15, 21, 26-29, 3:7-9, 4:1-3, 5:9-11, 13.

Therefore, John’s teaching in 1 John 1:6-2:2 is designed to protect the Christian community from these false teachers.

Therefore, in 1 John 1:9, the apostle John solemnly issues another fifth class conditional statement.

Its purpose is to persuade the Christian community reading this letter to continue making personal application of this fifth class conditional statement.

Doing so would ensure that they will continue to experience fellowship with the Trinity and is a reminder to them of something they were already doing.

It is designed to encourage them to continue practicing this principle presented in verse 9.

This fifth class conditional statement contains a protasis and an apodosis as well as a result clause.

The relationship between the protasis and apodosis is “cause-effect.”

The cause: “If any of us does, at any time confess our sins.”

The effect: “He is characterized as being faithful as well as just to forgive these sins for the benefit of each one of us, in other words, to purify each one of us from each and every unrighteous thought, word or action.”

This fifth class conditional in 1 John 1:9 asserts that if any believer does, at any time confess their sins, He (God the Father) is characterized as being faithful as well as just to forgive these sins for the benefit of the believer.

He then describes this forgiveness as purifying the believer from each and every unrighteous thought, word or action.

Thus, 1 John 1:9 stands in contrast to 1 John 1:8 in that confessing one’s sins to the Father is the complete opposite of a believer entering into the claim that they have never experienced the guilt of sin.

It is the very opposite of deceiving oneself into thinking that you have not committed a sin.

It is absolutely essential to apply this principle and confess their sins to the Father in order to experience fellowship with the Father since He is holy and does not tolerate sin or evil.

The Lord Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross is the basis for the forgiveness of the believer’s sins both in the positional, experiential and perfective sense.

It is extremely important for the believer to understand that this verb homologeō in 1 John 1:9 has no emotional connotation attached to it and was used in classical Greek for confessing one’s guilt in court.

The Bible does not teach that the believer is to feel sorry for their sins but rather they are to confess their sins to the Father.

God is not concerned with the believer emoting, but rather God is interested in what His Son did at that cross of Calvary 2000 years ago when every sin in human history, past, present and future was imputed to His Son and was judged by His justice.

This is why the Scriptures state in Hebrews 8:11 that God remembers the believer’s sins no more.

His Son paid the penalty for those sins, which was His death.

However, we must keep in mind that as the believer grows up spiritually committing sin will become more and more repulsive.

Eventually, God wants the believer to adopt His view of sin and not take joy in committing sin.

In 1 John 1:9, the apostle John asserts that the Father is characterized as being faithful and just.

By “faithful,” he means that the Father firmly adheres to His promises to forgive sin when the believer confesses any sin to Him.

The Father forgives the believer their sins when they confess these sins to Him because: (1) He is true to His promise in His Word to forgive the sins of those who express faith in His Son. (2) He is steady in allegiance to His promise of the forgiveness of sins.

The Father is pistos, “faithful” to forgive the believer their sins when they confess these sins to Him because the Father always fulfills His promise and His agreement in the New Covenant with Israel to forgive sins based upon the merits of the death of His Jesus Christ on the cross.

Those Jews who have expressed faith alone in Christ alone enter into that New Covenant promise and agreement that provides the forgiveness of sins (cf. Jer. 31:34).

Those Gentiles who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior are engrafted into regenerate Jews according to Romans 11:17.

Consequently, these regenerate Gentiles benefit from the New Covenant promise stipulating the forgiveness of sins to those who trust in the Messiah.

The believer’s confession of sins to the Father points the Father’s attention to His New covenant agreement and promise to forgive sin.

The believer’s confession of their personal sins to the Father obligates the Father to execute His promise of the forgiveness of sins because the believer has met the requirements of this agreement at the moment of justification when they expressed faith alone in Christ alone.

The verb aphiemi, “forgive” in 1 John 1:9 pertains to removing the guilt resulting from wrongdoing and speaks of the Father removing the guilt from the believer as a result of the believer sinning against Him.

It expresses the idea that the Father lets go of the obligation that the believer owes Him as a result of sinning against Him and means to release someone from the guilt or penalty of sin as one would a financial debt.

To forgive means to give someone a release from the wrong that he has done to you and means to give up any right of retaliation.

1 John 1:9 ends with John asserting that the Father purifies the believer from all unrighteousness or each and every unrighteous thought, word and action.

This is an explanatory statement which expresses the idea that the Father forgiving the believer their sins when they confess these sins to Him can also be described as purifying them from all unrighteousness.