If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 1:8-2:2)

“God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God by intrinsic nature is completely free of the taint of sin. He cannot even be tempted to sin (James 1:13). He is too holy to tolerate sin in His presence (Habakkuk 1:13).

If we are to have fellowship with Him, to share the life that is in His Son, we must live the way He is (1 John 1:6-7). Our lives must be as free from the taint of sin as is His character.

But how can this be?! “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20, NASB). No honest person can look at his own life without recoiling in horror from his own evil thoughts, foul words, unrighteous deeds, and failures to obey and do good. The humble believer must bow his head in shame and agony and plead, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13) Those who honestly strive to please God through righteous living alone must cry in despair, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)

This is the great paradox we all must face and the gospel solves. We all sin. To have fellowship with God, our lives must be free from sin.

How does the gospel solve the problem of sin in the life of the Christian?

Recognize Sin

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

The first step to the solution of any difficulty is to recognize the problem. Before an alcoholic will turn from his drunkenness, he must realize and freely admit he is addicted. Before we can solve the problem of sin, we must realize we have sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

Ancient gnostics thought that the evil deeds of a fleshly body had no effect on the condition of their spirits. They denied the reality of sin for the enlightened ones.

Disciples of Eastern religions (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age) with their pantheistic concepts of God, have no concept of sinning against a righteous God. The anguished cry of King David has no meaning to them:

“Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight” (Psalm 51:4).

Catholics minimize sin in the life of the believer by denying that “little” sins of ignorance are even sin, by distinguishing between “mortal” and “venial” sins, and by offering forgiveness devoid of repentance through auricular confession (confession to the priest), penance, and purgatory (Instructions. 35-37).

Many of our Protestant friends, while actually overstating the problem of sin by teaching we are born with and even retain as Christians sinful natures, then explain it away in the life of the Christian by teaching that our sins are hidden from divine view by the mantle of the righteous life of Christ imputed to us. Even some of our brethren minimize sin by contending that honest, devoted Christians are constantly and continuously cleansed of sins of ignorance and weakness by the continual cleansing of the blood of Christ.

But, if we are to maintain the life we have in Christ, we must recognize the problem sin poses. “For all have sinned and fall short of the gory of God” (Romans 3:23). Everyone old enough, sane enough, and intelligent enough to be responsible to God has at some time in his past life sinned. Once we have committed even one sin, from that point on, for all eternity, on the basis of our own, earned righteousness, we “fall short of the glory of God.”

“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Wages” is earned pay for work done. We have all served sin, and sin will pay its wages, and that pay is death, eternal separation from God. Once a person has committed a crime punishable by death, no amount of compensation or good deeds can earn him life. If I committed a cold blooded, premeditated murder, I could never do enough “community service” not to deserve to be executed. Once we have sinned, we can never earn God’s forgiveness. We will always deserve death. When you stand before the Lord in judgment, don’t demand your rights!

Until we face the fact that sin, all sin, any sin, every sin, separates us from God, the problem remains. To deny the problem is to practice deception on ourselves and to lie with both our lips and our lives.

Confess Our Sins

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

What we must do is “confess our sins.” To confess is literally “to speak the same thing” but denotes “to confess by way of admitting oneself guilty of what one is accused of” (Vine. 1:224). When we sin, the Scriptures do and our own consciences should accuse us of our guilt (2 Timothy 3:16; Romans 2:15). This is how the Christian must handle sins in his life. He must confess them.

The verb “confess” is the same tense, both in English and Greek, as the verb “cleanses’ in verse seven. The confessing must be as regular as the cleansing for the cleansing to take place. If the cleansing is constant and continuous, so is the confessing. We must confess our sins each time we sin, and then the blood of Christ will cleanse us.

This is the part of walking in the light that keeps sin from characterizing our lives. It is not a matter of how often we sin. It is what we do if we sin. Sin in the Christian’s life is like an intruder in his house. We don’t let it dwell there; we expel it.

The apostle doesn’t say “confess our sinfulness.” He says, “confess our sins.” We must freely admit to God the way in which we have turned from His law. This implies we must know what we have done that is wrong. Ignorance is not a free pass.

“Confess” is used by the figure synecdoche, the part for the whole, for all the erring child of God must do to obtain forgiveness. We must also repent and pray for forgiveness (Acts 8:22).

If we do this, we can rely on the faithfulness and justice of God. He has promised to forgive, if we repent, confess, and pray, and He is reliable. He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). His forgiveness does not violate His justice, for His Son has already paid the penalty for sin (Romans 3:21-26).

When we confess, both the penalty for and stain of sin are removed. He forgives, covers, sends away the sin, so that we are no longer guilty and do not have to die. He cleanses the unrighteousness, so that we are no longer defiled but are pure. We become both justified and sanctified.

Don't Deny Sin

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." (1 John 1:10)

To deny that we have sin (verse 8) is the same as denying we have sinned (verse 10). God charges all men with sin (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20; John 16:8; Romans 3:10,20,23; 5:12; Galatians 3:22; James 3:2). To deny we have sinned is to charge God with slander, the very crime that characterizes the devil (John 8:44; Revelation 12:10) and the source of his name, “devil,” i.e. slanderer, accuser. God cannot lie, so we have indeed sinned.

The gospel is based on the fact of the universal sinfulness of men (Romans 3:19-26). The one who would be so brazenly self-righteous as to deny he has sinned denies the application of the gospel to himself. How could he claim to have the word of God in himself? He doesn’t even comprehend the basis of the word.

Sin Not Inevitable

"My little children, these things I wrote to you, so that you may not sin." (1 John 2:1a)

Aged John borrows the language of the Master and addresses his readers with the tender expression, “My little children” (cf. John 13:33).

The fact we have sinned doesn’t mean we can’t keep from sinning. In fact, if we keep on sinning, we belong to Satan rather than God (1 John 3:7-8).

The Solution to the Problem

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2;1-2)

John doesn’t say, “when we sin.” He doesn’t teach that we have to sin. He says, “if anyone sins.” It is stated as a possibility, not a certainty. We choose to sin (James 1:13-15), and we can choose not to sin (Psalm 119:11). A purpose for First John is to give us the knowledge and incentive to avoid sin.

The basis of forgiveness of the sins of Christians is the advocacy of Christ. John is the only New Testament writer to employ the term here translated “Advocate.” He records the promise of Christ to send the Holy Spirit to His apostles as a “Comforter” (KJV, “Helper,” NKJV, NASB, ESV) to them (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7) and here employs the same Greek word to designate the work of Christ toward God in behalf of all Christians. The term literally means “called to one’s side” (Vine. 1:208). It is a form of the verb translated “exhortation, or consolation, comfort” (Ibid.207). The word

suggests the capability or adaptability for giving aid. It was used in a court of justice to denote a legal assistant, counsel for the defence, an advocate; then, generally, one who pleads another’s cause, an intercessor, advocate... (Ibid. 208).

When we confess our sins to God, we admit that we are guilty and deserve to die. But we have a “Counsel for the Defense” through Whom we pray Who pleads for us (Colossians 3:17). Since He is on an equality with the Father, He can plead with Him directly (John 5:18). Since he is a man also, He can act in our behalf (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the only one who can lay His hand on the shoulder of God as His equal and lay His hand on the shoulder of man as his equal and mediate between God and man (Job 9:33). Since He is righteous, having lived His life as a man without sin, He is able to stand before God on behalf of sinners (Hebrews 4:15). Since He was tempted as a man in all the ways common to us, we can be assured of His sympathy for us (Ibid).

If I sin, I can pray to the Father through the Son as my Advocate. He can make the case for me. He can plead, “Yes, Father, he is guilty and deserves to die. But the penalty has already been paid. I have already died for him.” And the Father in grace, mercy, love, faithfulness, and justice will forgive my sin, thus justifying me, and cleanse my unrighteousness, sanctifying me.

You see, the Son is also the “propitiation” for our sins. The Greek word rendered “propitiation” in this verse is also used only by John and only here and in 1 John 4:10. A very similar Greek word is translated “propitiation” in Romans 3:25. The word here means “an expiation, a means whereby sin is covered and remitted” (Vine. 3:224). The death of the Son of God satisfied the just demand of God for the punishment of sin.

In fact, the value of the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God is so great, that it is not only for us but for the whole world. This wonderful declaration is the Waterloo of the Calvinistic doctrine of limited atonement, the belief Christ died only for those whom God unconditionally chose to save. This heartless doctrine cannot be reconciled with John’s statement that, Christ died not only for “our sins’ (the sins of the elect), but He also died “for the whole world.” I can tell every lost sinner with the conviction of certainty what no Calvinist can - “Christ died for you.”

Conclusion

Praise be to God for such a great salvation! We have all sinned. We all deserve to spend eternity in hell. But the Son of God gave Himself as our Propitiation and is now the Christian’s Advocate. Christian, do not deny your sins or dismiss their seriousness. Confess them to God. Your Advocate ever waits to plead your case to the Father.

Works Cited

Bible,
.....English Standard Version
.....King James Version
.....New American Standard Bible
Instructions in the Catholic Church
Vine, W.E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.