You won’t find this in the Bible, but one day the Lord Jesus and His disciples were eating a meal together. It wasn’t much, just a few fish and some barley cakes. As usual, as they were dining, the Lord was sharing some instruction on how to live the Christian life. For some reason, Disciple Thaddaeus had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. He had been grumpy all day, and when Jesus said something which grated him, he jumped up, threw his napkin down, said some awful words, and stomped away. The rest of the disciples were flabbergasted, staring after him. But of course, the Lord knew all about it; He knew what was coming and how it would end.
As one of the brethren, Thaddaeus had been walking in the light with Christ and the others in their little ecclesia. But when he got angry with the Lord, or with what the Lord was saying, stomping out, he went out into the darkness, so to speak. His sin broke the fellowship he had with the Son of God. But, before long he realized it, resolving to return in time to have some dessert – cherry cobbler. At that point, did he have any right to simply walk up and join the others without any explanation or apology? Wasn’t there the need of an invitation to rejoin the group? Choosing to leave the light and enter the darkness requires and creates the need for an invitation from the Lord to reenter the light.
If we say that we have no sin, and if we say that we have not sinned, we call God a liar. In just about any man’s book, that is offensive, particularly when there is no lie involved. Thaddaeus, if you want to return to the table, you’re going to have to apologize. You must confess your sin in order to be forgiven and cleansed of this defilement.
Verse 9 contains a wonderful revelation from God to Christians. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Does “if we confess our sins” require omniscience on our part? Are we required to remember and confess everything? When that twenty-five year old man, who wants to be saved, is told that he has to confess his sins, he may go out looking for another evangelist. Maybe he should go out and look for a better evangelist. Where is that man going to begin in confessing his sins? How can he go back two decades and remember every sin? He probably doesn’t even know what acts were sins and which were not. Certainly, he should acknowledge and confess that he is a sinner, but every specific sin? Impossible.
But remember, this wasn’t written to that lost man; this was directed toward the Christian. The saint of God who is constantly watching his life, looking for things to avoid. When he is looking for things which have offended God, he shouldn’t have much problem confessing the sins of the last few hours. He will undoubtedly miss some, but he should be able to find most of them.
Let’s consider this important statement – “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
Let’s begin with the word “CONFESS”
I will give you the Greek word, because I think it is interesting – “homologeo” (hom-ol-og-eh’-o). It is a compound, coupling together “logos” and “homo.” Together they refer to saying the same thing; AGREEING to something. In addition to “confess,” the word is also translated “profess” and even “promise.” The word is found across the page in 2:23: “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; but he that ACKNOWLEDGETH the Son hath the Father also.” What is it to confess sin? It is to acknowledge that we have transgressed. It is to agree with God about what we have done.
And even though there is a sense we can confess the sins of a group of which we are a part – it must be our sins. The people of Israel were taught to confess the sins of their nation, because they were a nation of sinners. And there are situations when entire churches need to repent and confess its sins. The Lord Jesus said to the church in Ephesus: “Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” In order to repent, there must be a “homologeo” (hom-ol-og-eh’-o) of those sins. But despite the appropriateness of confessing group sins, generally speaking we can confess our own sins.
And in this case, notice the plurality of the word “sins.” John is not exhorting a confession of our general unworthiness or even our wickedness – our sinfulness. He is demanding a confession of those specific acts we have committed. In 3:4, John tells us that “sin is the transgression of God’s law.” Admit and acknowledge that you have trampled on the law of God. In 5:17 he adds, “All unrighteousness is sin.” James says, “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Are there any responsibilities which you have shirked or avoided? Confess and repent of these Solomon tells us that “the thought of foolishness is sin.” There is a lot of sin committed in our imaginations and wishes. Here in our text, John doesn’t specifically describe or define any sins; he leaves that to the Holy Spirit. Those particular things of which He convicts, we must confess in order to enjoy forgiveness.
To help us, the Bible provides some notable examples of confession – both good and not so good.
Those that are simple confessions of sinfulness, don’t really relate to our text, so I’ll skip them. Again, this is not about our sinfulness but about specific acts of sin. A notable example of confession is that of Achan, the man who stole the Lord’s property from Jericho. He didn’t voluntarily confess. The Lord by the process of elimination pointed him out. “Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned again the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done.” Achan is not a good illustration of I John 1:9 because his confession wasn’t truly voluntary He wasn’t yearning for another opportunity to walk in the light as Christ is in the light. And, he wasn’t restored to fellowship with the Lord. “Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.”
Another notable example is that of King Saul after he stole God’s property when he defeated the Amalekites. “But Saul… spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them (as God had commanded), but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.” When Samuel confronted Saul, the king confessed and said, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words… I pray thee pardon my sin…” Despite the confession, he was not pardoned, because it was nothing but empty, heartless, words. In that way it was like the “confession” of Judas Iscariot.
In contrast to these, and others, there is the confession of King David in II Samuel 12:13. You know the story, so I won’t go into detail. But keep in mind that David was ordinarily a man after God’s own heart; he was usually walking in the light. But David committed a heinous transgression of the law by committing adultery with his neighbor’s wife. He compounded that sin by murdering the woman’s husband. And he further complicated it by involving his general, Joab, in the cover up. I won’t try to say that David justified it by saying it was only a little sin; Uriah after all was only a Hittite. I don’t think he ever tried to justify his crime. And this is one reason is why is confession is worthwhile. David’s was a specific sin, and II Samuel 11:27 understatedly says that “God was displeased.” But admittedly it took a prophet of God to step into the face of the king and confront him with his sin.
In Samuel 12:13 David simply said unto Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” But in his psalms, most notably Psalm 32 and 51 David expresses his complete brokenness and confession. Please turn to Psalm 51 and let’s read it together. David knew that his fellowship with God had been severed; it has not existed for months. Eventually, he longed for the light once again – “make me to hear joy and gladness…” He knew he was unworthy of communion with the Lord – “cast me not away from thy presence..” He wanted once again to be of service – “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” He knew that the blood sacrifices of lambs and bullocks were pointless without genuine repentance – “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
And do you know what? “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In David’s case – can we say “in every case” – there will be no restored fellowship until there is confession of transgression? In Leviticus 26, the Lord told Israel and essentially He tells us, “If you sin you will have no fellowship with me.” But, verse 40 – “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant …” Proverbs 28:13: “He that covereth his sins shall no prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” God knows each and everyone of our sins. We have no viable option but to be honest with the Lord.
Once again, do we really want to have fellowship with the holy God and with His saints? Then we must live in personal sanctification. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” and “if we say that we have not sinner, we make Him a liar.” But, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”