1 John 1.9c-The Forgiveness of Sins
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday April 25, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:9c-The Forgiveness of Sins
Lesson # 35
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (NASB95)
“To forgive us our sins” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction hina (ἵνα), “to” (2) third person singular aorist active subjunctive form of the verb aphiēmi (ἀφίημι), “forgive” (3) dative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “us” (4) articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία), “sins.”
This is a purpose-result clause which presents both the purpose and the result for the believer confessing their sins to the Father.
In other words, the Father forgiving the believer their sins, i.e. purifying them from all unrighteousness is not only the direct result of the believer confessing these sins to Him but also His purpose for having the believer confess their sins to Him.
It is not only communicating God’s purpose for the believer confessing their sins but also the action He takes as a result of the believer confessing their sins.
Therefore, John not only wants the Christian to know God’s desire to forgive them their sins and purify them from all unrighteousness when they confess these sins to Him but he also wants them to know the Father will forgive them and purify them from all unrighteousness as the direct result of confessing their sins to Him.
In other words, John wants his readers to know there is a definite purpose for wanting them to confess their sins to the Father.
He also wants to reassure them that God will in fact forgive and purify them from all their sins when they confess their sins to Him.
Thus, the purpose-result clause expresses John’s desire to instruct or remind his readers of the purpose of confessing their sins and his desire to reassure them that when they do, they are forgiven and purified from each of these sins.
The verb aphiēmi means, “to grant a full pardon from crimes committed” against a holy God.
Therefore, this verb expresses the idea that the Father forgives the believer their sins as a result of the believer confessing these sins to Him.
The word 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 and expresses the idea that the Father lets go of the obligation that the believer owes Him as a result of sinning against Him.
This verb aphiēmi 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 they have done to you and means to give up any right of retaliation.
The noun hamartia which is used again with reference to mental, verbal and overt acts of sin from the perspective that these mental, verbal and overt acts of sin miss the mark of the absolute perfection of God’s character, i.e. His holiness.
This word speaks of any thought, word or action on the part of the Christian which is in disobedience to God’s laws.
The plural form of the personal pronoun ego refers of course to the Christian community as a corporate unit and also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
The word is in the dative case and functions as a dative of advantage indicating that the believer benefits from the Father forgiving them their sins when they confess these sins to Him.
1 John 1:9 If any of us does, at any time confess our sins, He is, as an eternal spiritual truth 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)
At the moment of justification or conversion, the believer received the forgiveness of their sins in a positional sense.
Ephesians 1:7 In Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood (metaphor for our Lord’s spiritual death), the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. (NASB95)
Colossians 1:14 In union with whom, we, as an eternal spiritual truth, are experiencing the redemption, specifically the forgiveness of our sins. (Author’s translation)
At the moment of justification, when a person makes the non-meritorious decision to believe in Christ for salvation, they appropriate the forgiveness of their sins-past, present and future in a positional sense, experiential and perfective sense.
By “positional,” I mean that God views the believer as being forgiven by Him the moment He declared them justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.
It means that all their sins-past, present and future have been forgiven by Him.
It means that God the Father has accepted them forever and that there is no sin during their lifetime which will keep them from spending all of eternity with Him.
God forgiving the believer in a “positional” sense means: (1) This is what God has done for the church age believer as a result of their faith in His Son Jesus Christ. (2) This is God’s viewpoint of the church age believer. (3) It sets up the potential to experience the forgiveness of these sins in time. (4) It provides the believer with the guarantee of experiencing the forgiveness of their sins for all of eternity.
By “experiential,” I mean that the believer can experience the forgiveness sins after their justification by confessing their sins to the Father.
They will not experience the forgiveness of their sins if they refuse to confess their sins to the Father.
Therefore, this stage is only a potential.
By “perfective,” I mean that the believer will experience the forgiveness of sins throughout all of eternity in a resurrection body.
Every believer is guaranteed this and will be experienced by every believer regardless of their response in time to what God has done for them through their union and identification with His Son Jesus Christ.
The unbeliever does not appropriate the forgiveness of sins because they have not placed their trust in Christ for salvation.
The unbeliever’s sins will never be brought up at the Great White Throne Judgment of unbelievers since Christ paid the penalty for their sins with His death on the cross.
They will be judged according to their relative human self-righteous deeds, which do not measure up to the absolute perfect righteousness of Christ (Rev. 20:11-15).
In the same way that the unbeliever’s sins are not brought up at the Great White Throne so the believer’s sins will never be brought up at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church since the believer’s personal sins were also paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.
The believer’s confession of their sins after justification demonstrates that they “agree” with God about their sin.
This confession demonstrates that the believer is in “agreement” with God in that they are thinking, speaking or acting in accordance with the will of the Father and thus His holy standards, which rejects all sin.
Fellowship with God is a moment-by-moment experience, thus the moment the believer commits any mental, verbal or overt act of sin, they have lost their fellowship with God, who is holy, i.e. perfect in character and integrity.
However, the moment they confess these sins, they are at that moment restored to fellowship with God because of the merits of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
This purifies the believer’s conscience, which is defiled by committing personal sin against God (cf. Heb. 9:13-14; James 4:8).
To maintain this fellowship once it has been restored through the confession of sin demands that the believer obey the Holy Spirit who speaks to the believer through the communication of the Word of God.
When they are doing this, they are obeying the commands of Ephesians 5:18 and Colossians 3:16.
Therefore, once the confession of sin has taken place the believer needs to maintain and sustain their fellowship with God by obeying the Father’s will, which the Holy Spirit reveals to the believer through the communication of the Word of God.
Obeying the Word of Truth, which is inspired by the Spirit and reveals the Father’s will, is the means by which the believer maintains and sustains their fellowship with God.