1 John 1.9-The Basis for the Forgiveness of Sins
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday April 27, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:9-The Basis for the Forgiveness of Sins
Lesson # 37
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)
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)
The confession of sin to be restored to fellowship with God is made possible through the unique theanthropic Person of history, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man.
It is made possible because of His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross, which reconciled all of sinful humanity to a holy God, propitiated the holy demands of the Father that sin and sinners be judged and redeemed every member of the human race out of the slave market of sin.
The Father accepted these deaths as the propitiation for our sins and sin nature problem because Jesus Christ is His Son.
In other words, these deaths on the cross have merit with the Father because Jesus of Nazareth is His Son and therefore, the perfect sacrifice for sin which the Father requires.
We have access to God in fellowship because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s merits and finished work on the Cross.
Ephesians 2:18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (NASB95)
Let’s first take a look at the person of Jesus Christ.
The preexistence of Jesus of Nazareth who is called the Christ testifies to the fact that He is infinite, eternal Son of God (John 1:1-2; John 8:58; 10:30a; Col. 2:9a; Rev. 1:8).
There are several titles ascribed to Jesus Christ that signify His deity.
He is called “the Son of God” (Luke 1:35), “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32), “mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6), “eternal Father” (Isaiah 9:6), “His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2) “Lord” (Rom. 15:30; Eph. 1:22; Phil. 2:11) and “God” (Titus 2:13).
The resurrection is fundamental to the gospel because it demonstrates that Jesus of Nazareth is in fact God (Rom. 1:1-4) and demonstrated the substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of our Lord were acceptable to the Father as the atonement for sin.
In the context of Christian theology, the “incarnation” is the act whereby the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, without ceasing to be what He is, namely God the Son, permanently clothed His deity with a sinless human nature, which He did not possess before the act.
Thus, thus He is the unique theanthropic person of the cosmos (cf. John 1:14).
The Scriptures use the following titles when stressing our Lord’s humanity: (1) “The Son of Man” (Matt. 24:30; Mark 26:64; Luke 5:24; 6:5; John 1:51; 3:14; 8:28). (2) “The Son of David” (Matt. 1:1; Mark 10:47; Luke 1:32; 18:39; Rev. 22:16). (3) “The Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). (4) “Jesus” (Acts 2:32; 8:35; Rom. 3:26; 1 Thess. 4:14; Heb. 2:9; 6:20).
The Scriptures teach that the Lord Jesus Christ has a human body like ours but without a sin nature (John 1:14; Heb. 10:5; 1 John 1:1; 1 John 4:2-3), that He has a human soul (Matt. 26:38a; Isa. 53:11a) and a human spirit (Luke 23:46; John 13:21; 19:30).
He did not have an old sin nature like every human being born in Adam because of the virgin birth (Luke 1:35).
The term “hypostatic union” is used by theologians to describe the teaching of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true sinless humanity in one person forever (cf. John 1:14; Rom. 8:1-4; Phil. 2:6-8; 1 John 1:1-4).
The Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus Christ never committed an act of sin and neither did He possess a sin nature (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 1:19, 22; 1 John 3:5).
Let’s now take a look at the work of Jesus Christ on the cross
The Lord Jesus Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross provided the forgiveness of sins for sinful mankind.
Faith in Him appropriates what our Lord’s deaths accomplished on the cross.
This faith appropriates therefore, the forgiveness of sins.
There are many reasons why Jesus Christ had to suffer crucifixion and spiritual and physical death on the cross.
He had to suffer because the entire human race was in desperate need of deliverance from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death, the sin nature, personal sins and enslavement to Satan and his cosmic system.
The Lord Jesus Christ, through His human nature, suffered a spiritual and physical death on the cross, as a substitute for each and every member of the human race-past, present and future.
These substitutionary deaths dealt with all these problems facing sinful humanity.
Sinners appropriate this deliverance by exercising faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
Often in the New Testament, when the word “death” is used for Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, the word contains the figure of speech called “heterosis of number,” which means that the singular form of a word is put for the plural form of the word.
The New Testament writers use this figure many times when referring to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross indicating that when they are speaking of this death, they are referring to both His spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.
This is indicated by the fact that the first Adam died first spiritually as a result of his disobedience in the Garden of Eden and then physically.
Therefore, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ had to die spiritually first and then physically to negate the fall of Adam and to reconcile the first Adam and his progeny, i.e. the human race to a holy God.
His spiritual death was “unique” in that He suffered spiritual death as a “sinless” human being whereas every member of the human race suffers spiritual death the moment they are born into the world.
His physical death was “unique” in that He died physically of His own volition.
The Lord Jesus Christ did “not” die from suffocation or exhaustion, nor did He bleed to death, or die of a broken heart but rather He died unlike any person in history, namely by His own volition according to John 10:18.
Our Lord’s spiritual death is recorded in Matthew 27:46.
Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” (NASB95)
When the Lord Jesus Christ cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He was experiencing spiritual death meaning that in His human nature he was separated from His Father.
In John 19:30, the Lord triumphantly said “It is finished” while He was still alive and which statement refers to the payment of our sins.
Therefore, it was His spiritual death that was the payment for our sins and not His physical death since the consequences of the human race possessing a sin nature and committing personal sins is spiritual death.
In His sinless human nature, our Lord suffered the loss of fellowship with the Father during those last three hours of darkness on the Cross so that we might never suffer the second death in the eternal lake of fire, which is eternal loss of fellowship with God.
Therefore, God the Father considers Christ’s spiritual death to be the believer’s since this death dealt with the believer’s problem of spiritual death.
The fact that our Lord’s spiritual death was the payment for our sins and not His literal blood is illustrated in Isaiah 53:10-11.
The physical death of our Lord is recorded in the Gospels (Matthew 27:47-50; Mark 15:22-40; Luke 23:33-49; John 19:16-30).
The Lord Jesus Christ did “not” die from suffocation or exhaustion, nor did He bleed to death, or die of a broken heart but rather He died unlike any person in history, namely by His own volition.
Remember what our Lord said in John 10:18.
Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. (NASB95)
The Lord Jesus Christ died physically in order to deal with the problem of the sin nature in the human race, which is located in the physical body of a person as a result of God imputing Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden to every person at the moment of physical birth.
Therefore, the Christian’s problem with their indwelling Adamic sin nature is resolved when they are identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior (Romans 6:1-10).