Dealing with our Sins (1 John 1:8-10)

One of the common problems of life is deception. It occurs at all levels. Advertisements continually lead us up many roads of deception. The goal of many of them is not to convince us that the item is good and working – the government has rules in place to prevent that if the item is a con. Rather the deception is designed to convince us that we really need that product, and that once we have it, it will do wonders for us in our own sight and in the sight of others. We can convince ourselves that we have changed when in fact we haven’t. Everyone else can see that we have not changed.

 

Something similar can occur with distortions of the Christian message. John mentions such a deception in verse 8. Some people were claiming not to have any sin. This problem is not confined to ancient times. Spurgeon mentions an incident when he met a man who claimed not to have sinned for months. We may not recommend Spurgeon’s response, but it was effective in letting the man know he was a sinner. Spurgeon merely poured a jug of water over him. Not only did the man discover that he was still a sinner, but so did everyone in the room. And Spurgeon suggested that the old man could not really have died since it took only a little water to revive him!

 

We can even listen to talks by people who claim to have found a way of defeating sin in their lives, that they can walk on a higher level. Inevitably, such claims can be very attractive to Christians burdened with their sins, although all those claims do is add to their burdens when they discover, as with the adverts, that they have been conned.

 

Of course, we may be confused by how all this is connected to the process of sanctification. Does the Holy Spirit not make sinners into new creatures? Do they not have desires after holiness of heart as well as life? Yes, they do. But they never become sinless in this life. And they don’t eradicate the roots of possible sins. A Christian never gets to the stage when he or she can say that they will never commit a particular heart sin again, although physical constraints may bring physical sins to an end.

 

In this set of verses from 1 John 1:8-10, we have (1) the denial of present sins, (2) the deliverance from sin and (3) the deduction from the denial. We can imagine a person reacting to John by saying, ‘Why are you going over this material again? I know all about this.’ Such a response does not realise the importance of testing the basics frequently. After all, those who now were denying the existence of sin would have affirmed its existence at one time. But something changed in their outlook. Maybe the change was gradual, occurring over a few years. Maybe it was sudden, based on what they regarded as new insights. Whatever the time period, they had moved, and they had moved away from a basic doctrine of the Christian life, which is that we are sinners.

 

The denial does not only indicate that they had moved away from a basic doctrine. In addition, the denial indicates that they had lost a sense of wonder at the way God deals with sinners, which John describes in verse 9. Moreover, the denial had led them away from respecting the awesome name and character of God, described by John in verse 10. A wrong doctrine always says something negative about God’s perfect character, which is a very important reason for us making sure that we do not allow ourselves to be deceived. Those who claimed to be sinless questioned the truth of God himself.

 

The denial of sin

John indicates that the number making this wrong assertion was plural. He does not say how many, but we can see from his inclusion of the warning that he regarded the decline as serious and dangerous. The reason we have warning signs on motorways is not for entertainment of travellers. In a far higher sense, the reason why we have warnings in the Bible is because spiritual dangers abound.

 

There is always a danger in judging things by numbers. Jesus warned his disciples that there would be many false prophets. There was no security in identifying with them. Instead, those who followed them would be on the road to ruin. Some people like to run with the majority, no matter what the majority are doing. In the church in Corinth, the majority had turned away from Paul, but that did not make them right.

 

There is also a danger in judging things by assertion, by the strength with which a statement is made. We know that politicians can do this in order to win a verbal conflict, but they often lose the argument. The people making this denial were not embarrassed to make it. Instead they were affirming it, they were insisting that their ideas should be accepted by the church. But John was not influenced by their energetic words.

 

It is likely that the persons making this claim did so through the influence of ideas current in society. One of those ideas was that physical actions had no real significance. It did not matter if one’s action was right or wrong, because the body was inferior. So you could overeat if you wished because it did not matter as a physical action. You could tell lies because it did not matter as a physical action. Maybe we think that outlook is a long way from us. But is it? Do we think it matters in God’s sight when we break the speed limit? It is quite a simple test really. Our neighbours might say that it does not matter because no harm was done. We might say the same. But in the process we have changed the instruction of God when he commands us to obey civil government. We have said something is not a sin which God says is a sin.

 

After all, what is sin? The word itself merely means to fall short of a standard. What is the standard of which we have fallen short? The standard is the law of God summarised for us in the ten commandments but also stated in numerous other ways and examples in the Bible. It is quite an interesting method to take each of the ten commandments and search the Bible for examples of people who broke it. Paul tells us that he was severely affected by the tenth commandment, ‘You shall not covet,’ but we can easily see how he broke some of the others. David is another example. So is Peter. They are all recorded for our learning.

 

What did this denial indicate about the people mentioned in verse 8, those who had deceived themselves? They did not have the truth indwelling them. The truth here could be a divine person, or it could refer to the gospel. It could even refer to both. After all, one of the consequences of coming into a new relationship with God is that his law is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He causes us to love the Lord’s commandments and to be sensitive to the occasions when we fall short in our obedience, which is often. Those people were claiming to be Christians, but they were not. They were not even backsliders. Instead they had gone beyond that state and were denying as sinful what God stated was sinful. This was obviously very serious.

 

On the other hand, it reminds us how reassuring and helpful for a living Christian faith is the realisation that we are sinners. Paul, several decades after his conversion, regarded himself as the chief of sinners. But he makes that comment in a statement that is marked by great confidence in a spiritual sense: ‘The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen’ (1 Tim. 1:15-17). There is no reason why a person aware of his sinfulness cannot be a confident believer.

 

The deliverance from sin (v. 9)

The proper response, says John, is to confess our sins to God the Father. We can tell that John has the Father in mind from the actions mentioned in the rest of the verse. There are basically two things in this verse that we need. One is a proper view of our sins and the other is a proper view of God the Father.

 

With regard to our sins, a proper view of them will lead us to confess them. Confession is more than admitting our sins, it also includes a right appreciation of their heinousness. There are degrees of heinousness, not only between sins, but also depending on who they are committed against. Confession means recognising that sin is more than a minor fault; instead it is acknowledged as an expression of rebellion against the Lord. Sin is a failure to recognise that God is king, that he is the sovereign with the right to require total obedience from his creatures. Moreover, when a Christian commits sin, he is aware that he has also sinned against the God of grace who has given to him numerous spiritual blessings.

 

Confession of sin is an isolating experience because it is very personal. While there are times when confession of sin could be congregational, normally it is an individual experience. The person finds himself face to face with the God of heaven, the omniscient God who knows much more about the sins than the person confessing them does. Such a person feels like Hagar when she said, ‘O God, you see me.’ There is no point attempting to hide one’s sin from God. His eye is like a scanner on a printer – he sees everything simultaneously. 

 

Such an experience could be very scary if we were ignorant of the response of God. If we had not been told what his response will be, at best we would be uncertain, and we would be concerned of possible punishments. Yet the amazing news is that the Lord is pleased when people confess their sins to him. He has been working in their lives to bring them to that point, and he is always pleased with the results of his working. The Bible tells us in different places about the heavenly Father’s response to such confession and one of those places is this verse from 1 John. What does it tell us? It informs that ‘he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ We can see three details here in this summary of the divine response to the confession of sin. First, we are reminded of God’s character; second, we are reminded of God’s pronouncement; and third, we are reminded of God’s activity. We can think of each of them briefly.

 

John refers to two divine attributes here – God’s faithfulness and God’s justice. His is faithful to his promises and he is faithful to the gospel invitation to sinners to come to him with their sins. Jesus said on one occasion that whoever comes to him will never be cast out. God is faithful to that promise when a sinner comes to him confessing their sins. Through Isaiah, God invited sinners to come to him and reason with him about their sins; if they reason in the right way, their sins even if they be red like crimson will become white as snow. God will be faithful to that promise when a sinner comes to him confessing his sin.

 

God is also just in forgiving the sinner who comes to him in this way. We should be surprised at this because it is astonishing, and it is constantly astonishing. Some might assume that in order to forgive us God would have to lower his standards, but if he did that, he would be unjust. His justice demands full payment for those sins. The fact is that there has never been a confessing sinner who could pay a fraction of the penalty, never mind the full penalty. But the gospel tells us that Jesus has paid the penalty when he suffered on the cross. When a sinner confesses his sins and asks the Father for forgiveness, the Father knows that the penalty has been paid and therefore forgives that sinner.

 

We can point out in passing that thinking about the cross is the most effective way for God and man to deal with sin. God the Father deals with sin by forgiving the sinner because Jesus paid the penalty. Sinners find real power against sin when they think about the cross of Jesus. In various ways, the cross affects their outlook. They see what their sins brought about for Jesus, and therefore they turn away from situations that are temptations to sin.

 

John reminds his readers of the response of the Father which is to forgive the people who confess their sins. Because Jesus has paid the penalty, the Father is able to forgive them fully and freely, and rapidly, indeed immediately. Of course, the awareness of this forgiveness is recognised by faith, but not by a vague notion of faith. Instead, it is faith based on the promises of God in which he says that he will forgive those who ask him for pardon.

 

Another benefit comes to confessing believers and that is cleansing. This is not the cleansing that takes place when they first become believers. On that occasion, when they first come to Jesus, they are pardoned all their past and future sins. The cleansing here mentioned by John is required in an ongoing manner because contact with sin, which cannot be avoided since they are sinners living with sinners, defiles them in many ways. But the wonderful reality of the situation is that the blood of Jesus is always effective as a means of cleansing.

 

The deduction

We know that every believer is meant to give a good witness about God. What does the false claim that a person is not a sinner say about the Father? When John says that ‘we make him a liar’, he does not mean that we change God’s character. Rather he means that those people were indicating that God’s message was not true. The gospel stated that God’s intention is to forgive sinners who confess their sins. But the impression given by those who claimed not to be sinning was that they did not need the gospel, that they were followers and advocates of another message. The obvious implication is that we are not to hide the fact that the Lord continually rejoices in forgiving sinners. Those who claim to not sin reveal that the gospel is not in their hearts.

 

Applications

First, we need to take personal sin seriously. Why? If we are not Christians, we are continuing to sin against him, piling up judgement against ourselves. If we are Christians, but don’t take sin seriously, we will grieve the Holy Spirit and lose out on many blessings. We cannot regard personal sin as trivial and respond to it as if it did not matter. John here says that it does matter. We need to regard sin in the way that God regards it.

 

Second, we need to practice confession of sin frequently. You may ask, How often? Perhaps every minute, but more frequently is better. If we think that is too often, we have not grasped the influence that personal sin has on us. We need to remember that ongoing forgiveness is conditional on confession of sin. It is not a wise practice to ignore this requirement

 

Third, we need to value the reality of divine forgiveness. How often have we gone to the throne of grace to ask for forgiveness? No doubt, more times that we can remember. Those innumerable expressions of divine forgiveness should encourage us to keep on coming to God for more. Go as often as you can and ask for forgiveness and cleansing.

 

Fourth, we need to be aware of what our behaviour says about God. It is inevitable that our behaviour will say something. We can give the impression that God is boring, that serving him is futile, that answers to prayer are non-existent. Or we can give the impression that we are enjoying his gospel, finding our souls satisfied by his presence, and discovering how he reveals himself in his Word. Our lives should say to everyone that they are welcome at that moment to go to God and ask for his forgiveness. After all, if our lives don’t speak in this way, then in what ways are they speaking?