For the past few days, we have been considering 1 John 1:5-7 which reads, " 5 Here is the message we have heard from Christ and now announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 So if we say we have fellowship with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars and do not follow the truth. 7 But
if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share
fellowship with each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses
us from every sin."
There are three main themes throughout 1 John: Relationship, Fellowship and Joy. Fellowship is not automatic, and the key is to walk in the light. "If we walk in the light we have fellowship, one with another" (1 John 1:7). Walking in the light, as we have already seen, means to see and treat things as the light reveals them to be. Walking in the light involves honesty, and obedience. This is the key to fellowship, and fellowship is the key to enjoying His joy.
Having considered the first thing that keeps us from walking in the light in v.6-7, let us now consider the second.
8 If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. (1 John 1:8-9)
In v.8 we read, "If we say we have no sin”. In v.9 we read, "If we confess our sins."
Now, there is a very important distinction to point out here, the distinction between the root which is sin, singular, and the fruit, which are sins, plural. Sin is that wicked lure in us which makes us want to play God in any given situation.
There are many kinds of sins, but all from one root, sin. John says if we say we have no sin, that is, no capacity to commit sins, if we deny the very possibility of sins, then we deceive ourselves. The man who ignores the light deceives others, but seldom himself.
There is nothing more pathetic than the person who denies the reality of sin. Sanctification is viewed by them as an uprooting of the root of sin.
The problem with this is that the scriptures never make a claim to sinless perfection. The only one who could say, and did say, that he was without sin was the Lord Jesus himself.
As Paul warns his readers, "He who thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall," 1 Corinthians 10:12). This is why the Christian is often encouraged to walk in fear and trembling. As Paul writes again, "If any man thinks he knows something, he knows nothing as he ought to know it," 1 Corinthians 8:2). When we think we have come to the place where we have mastered the processes of walking in the Spirit, then we need to think again. We have not yet learned it all.
We read in Matthew 15:19, "Out of the heart of man proceed murders, adulteries, fornications, evil thoughts.”
The root is still planted deep within the human nature and we shall not escape it until the body is redeemed. Of course, we do not need to yield to it, that is the point of redemption. As we learn to walk in the Spirit there can be great periods of time when we walk free from the enslavement of sin. But when we do sin, we must not try to hide it or cover it up. We must be diligent to confess sins when we commit them.
Now the word confess does not mean to ask for forgiveness. Christ’s work for us upon the cross has already done all that is necessary to forgive us. What God wants us to do is to look at the sin before us and call it what he calls it. That means to agree with His definition of it. Fess means "to say," and con means "with." "To say with" God what he says about this thing, that is confessing sin.
The promised cleansing in v.9 is necessary for the Believer to grow in fellowship with the One who procured the gift of relationship to the one who believes.
