If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1 John 1:8-10
In sixty-five words, the Apostle John conveys a great deal of essential truth. He’s not just talking, and he’s not old, senile, and repetitive. There is a difference between “we have no sin” and “we have not sinned” that goes beyond grammatical constructions.
We have been talking about light as the nature of God, and of us as His children. As Walt said yesterday, blindness to our own faults makes it more difficult to love one another. The demonic sin is pride, but the foundation of sin, or perhaps the foundational sin is a lack of love, first for God and then for our brothers and sisters. We have to turn the light of God’s truth upon our lives and acknowledge what we see. Everything exposed by the light is made clear (Ephesians 5:13). That is the purpose of light, to expose and make clear that we might address it and confess it.
I need only open to one of the Gospel accounts and meditate upon some of the more difficult sayings of Jesus, like the Sermon on the Mount, or upon His acts of compassion, or His Passion to see divine love, and to see that I come up short. Even if I have not acted upon evil and “sinned”, it is clear that the “sin” is present in my impulse and motivation.
I am one of those who believe that the entire human race was separated from the Creator and unable to have any communion with Him whatsoever. I also believe that Jesus, by His death on the cross, reconciled to God the entire human race – past, present, and future, as well as the rest of creation through us. The only thing keeping any person separated from the Father is the refusal to acknowledge that we are separated and need to be reconciled. It is the refusal to recognize that my ‘I am’ is not enough. Once we confess to our Father that He is right, that we need to be connected to Him, just that instant we find ourselves reconciled, going the right direction, and connected. The Cross makes it all possible for everyone.
That’s John’s first sentence. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves, get the revelation, and be reconciled.
But then there is everyday stuff, the conflicts, the failures, the insensitivity, the selfishness, bitterness, vengefulness, etc. It does no good to deny it and try to cover it up. It won’t go away. In fact, if we deny it, we are in effect calling the Lord a liar.
Some of us have had experiences in childhood that were hard to deal with – rejection, neglect, abuse. Maybe our parents were simply less than perfect. We get strange ideas. We get twisted. We go to government schools. We end up with flaky friends. We get involved in cults or near-cults. We repeatedly do stupid things that keep us in bondage.
How do we break free and live in liberty? We confess our sins, and, just as important, we accept God forgiveness. He is faithful and righteous [or just] to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us…. Our Father obligates Himself. The forgiveness and cleansing are ready and waiting for us if we will simply admit that we’re doing wrong and can’t seem to stop. And it is not limited. Jesus told Peter to forgive seventy times seven. Will God do less? In Lamentations Jeremiah assured us that God’s mercies are new every morning.
I don’t care how many times I have to go back and confess the same stupid thing, I know the Lord will not reject me, nor will He refuse to set me free. I’m not saying it won’t be painful in some cases. Some chains Father broke and I hardly knew it happened. Others, well, He is just about going to have to take my hand off in the process.
Mediate on Scripture and address those things the Holy Spirit brings to mind. Do not be distracted by symptoms, but look for root causes. My bondage is often rooted in my own lack of forgiveness. I cannot receive the Father’s forgiveness while I am holding something against a brother, or even against God Himself.
