Text: 1 John 1:5-10
5 ¶ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 ¶ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
While growing up, I was taught that a believer had to confess his or her sins for God to forgive them, this was termed “keeping short accounts with God.” Is this teaching accurate? Is God so bound that He needs our daily confession of sins inorder to forgive us? It is rather strange to perpetually ask for what you already have — all your sins have ALREADY been forgiven in Christ. No sins are being held against you because of what Christ has done. Hence, this teaching is quite odd.
People take 1 John 1:9 and build whole doctrines on it but they forget that 1 John 1 was not referring to believers but to the Gnostic Jews — a religious sect in the Early Church who believed that Jesus did not come in the flesh and who also believed that they had no sin. John NEVER addressed them as “My little children” but in the VERY next chapter, when he is talking to believers, he says “My little children…if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with God, Jesus Christ the Righteous” (1 John 2:1) As a matter of fact, you only confess your sins ONCE in your entire life — the day you admitted that you were a sinner in need of God’s Grace and forgiveness, you confessed ALL your sins ONCE FOR ALL. As believers, we do not live from confession to confession but from faith to faith in the finished work of our Redeemer.
Beloved, your Heavenly Father has forgiven you of ALL your sins, keep confessing what He has done anytime you fail instead of mourning and continuous asking for forgiveness.
Grace be unto you.
