If We Confess Our Sins

R.C. Sproul says ... "According to God's Word, we feel guilty because we are guilty. Only when we experience God's grace and mercy ... by trusting in Christ as our Savior, confessing our sins, and asking for forgiveness ... do we deal effectively with guilt and experience real freedom."

1st John 1:4 ... "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."

"That your joy may be full" ... is the purpose for the Apostle John's letter; not written to unbelievers, but to believers, those who already have been pardoned from past sin. John, knowing that his fellow believers in Jesus would still be troubled with the guilt that sin leaves behind, set pin to parchment and wrote about the faithfulness of the Lord to forgive every blunder ... every careless, stupid or blatant mistake involving behavior or judgment.

He is giving instruction about what we should do ... not if we sin ... but when we sin. And if you haven't yet, you will.

John speaks about several things in this short letter, including the one thing all believers have in common ... occasional sin. I'm not speaking of habitual sin as a way of life, but the times when we just don't act like Jesus; times when we miss the mark and we fail; the times we make wrong choices or give in to whatever. It doesn't matter what it is ... sin is sin.

1st John 1:8-9 ... "If we say that 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 us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The point made, even to believers is this. In the Word of God, forgiveness of sin always supposes that there is confession ... and there is no promise that it will be imparted unless a full acknowledgment has been made. What's the promise again? "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive ..."

In spite of the fact that believers are cleansed from their sins by the blood of Christ, they still are not without sin; no man is without sin. This is not only true of all men conceived in sin so that all are in a fallen state, but it is even true of God's elect. Even though you are a born again believer and the flesh may no longer have control of your life ... these things do not take out the being of sin, or cause it to cease to act, nor do they make sins cease to be sins.

While it is true that we have been redeemed from the fallen state we were in through the blood of Jesus, there is a continual war going on between our flesh and God's spirit within us. So when we do sin by frequent slips and falls, and we confess that sin ... we have a fresh application of the blood of Jesus for cleansing.

Although our sins have been, not just pardoned, but done away with and we are now justified from that sin by the righteousness of Christ; and although we are free from any judgment on account of that sin ... yet we are not free from the doing of it or the guilt that newly committed sin brings.

So, through confession and repentance we are redeemed from them, and are acquitted, discharged, and pardoned, so that sin is no longer imputed to us, and even though God no longer sees the sin that was cleansed by the blood of His Son ... as to the guilt that remains of that sin ... that is another question.

When we do sin, it will help us deal with the guilt if we realize as the Apostle Paul once stated in Romans 7:14, 17 & 21 ... "I am carnal, sold under sin. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."

This is not an excuse or an attempt to lessen the blame; I'm not trying to defend or justify our acts of sin. All I am trying to do is to establish the obvious fact that we do sin because our carnal flesh never, ever gets saved. Confess that sin and move on with your life. Do not allow guilt from that sin to remain.

If the blood of Jesus removes the sin ... shouldn't the guilt of that sin ... also be removed?

Once our sin has been dealt with and taken out of our sight and God's; our conscience being cleared of them, our hearts sprinkled and purged by the blood of Jesus ... we should therefore be free of all condemnation from them.

Do we think we are somehow punishing ourselves for that sin by holding on to the guilt that remains from that sin? All we are doing is making ourself miserable. Once confessed, the sin is no longer there. Nor should the guilt according to ...

Romans 8:1 ... "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," ... period.

What a promise ... "If we confess our sins ..." What does it say? "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."



Comments welcome.