“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
“ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10
In a recent bible study we looked at what is an “acceptable” confession. We realized that through the years of our Christian walk, there are things in our lives that are difficult to overcome. We prayed and asked God to forgive and promised in our heart that we would not do these things again. Then it seems in an unguarded moment, the same thing that we prayed about and felt that we had given up, raised its ugly head again and we do it again. We feel that we have failed God and ourselves. Didn’t we pray and ask God to take it away? Some of us settle into the belief that God will understand because this must be our nature, we are just sinners and it cannot be helped. Once we are saved, we will always be saved, because His grace covers us.
Paul mentioned this experience in Romans 7:14, 15. “14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
However, Paul also admitted in verses 16 and 17, that this experience occurred because sin stilled dwelled within. “16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
Matthew 1:21 states, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
We are saved from our sins, not in our sins. So then, why this struggle? God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse as mentioned in 1 John 1:9. The issue then must be with our confession of our sins. Have we made an “acceptable” confession?
Please follow the following study from an excerpt from the booklet, Acceptable Confession by F.T. Wright:
Every time you as a professing Christian, kneel in prayer, it should be safe enough to say that in that prayer you make a confession of sin and plead forgiveness for that sin, or those sins. Then you arise from your knees taking it fully for granted that God has heard that prayer and your sin is forgiven.
There can be nothing more certain than that He has heard your prayer and forgiven you of your sins, provided you have fully met the simple conditions required for acceptable confession. It is equally certain than that He has not forgiven you if you have failed to fulfill all the conditions, even though you may be completely satisfied that you have been fully pardoned. That may come as a startling statement, but it is simple, solid, Bible truth. Although very few realize it, thousands of professing Christians happily believe their sins are all forgiven, when in fact they are not, and while they think they have been relieved of the full responsibility, they are actually still carrying the whole load themselves. Anybody living in this situation is in fearful peril, because, although he thinks he is safe and secure in the salvation of God, he does not in reality have that security at all. We are warned in the Word of God: Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In this promise, God plainly offers us two essential blessings: the blessing of pardon and the blessing of cleansing, for the text expressly says: 9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Is He reluctant to perform this work? Oh, no! On the contrary, He is most anxious to do it. He longs to do it. His whole great heart of love is drawn out with the most inexpressible desire that His people will come to freely and fully receive the gift in overflowing abundance as we read: 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.”
His hands are full of the great blessings that He longs and desires to bestow upon you. But He is bound to act only in righteousness and therefore He can give to us absolutely nothing of what He so much yearns to give if we do not fulfill the simple conditions. The one and only barrier to receiving all that heaven is waiting to bestow is our failure to understand and to comply with the simple conditions laid down in His Word.
The condition required to receive pardon and cleansing is that we confess the sin. The promise is that if we will do that, God will both pardon and cleanse. But there are two types of confession. There is a true confession which fulfills the requirements of righteousness, and there is a so-called confession which is in nowise acceptable to God, and therefore does not open the door for Him to give the blessings He so much desires to give.
How may I know that my confession has been of a character which is acceptable to God and will bring the promised blessings? The answer is right here in the verse itself. We have only to read the verse to see the answer. “If we confess” we will have fulfilled the one condition whereby the way will be open for God to do two wonderful works for us: pardon us and cleanse us. The fulfillment of the one condition is all that is necessary for the fulfillment of both promises because the text does not say:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and then if we do something more, He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
It says that if we will confess, He will forgive and cleanse. When God makes a promise, He means what He says and is faithful and just to do all that He has promised to do. He will never fulfill only a part of His promise, but will always fulfill the whole.
Once the conditions of acceptable confession have been fulfilled, He will do all that He has promised, which is to both pardon and to cleanse from all the unrighteousness which has been confessed. He will do all or nothing.
It is not only the sin that we should ask for forgiveness, but also Our Sinful Nature. The evil spirit that we possess within us must also be confessed. We must confess the known sin and the unknown sin. We must ask the Lord to take this evil nature that is within us and usher it out of us that we may not even entertain the thought of doing it again. We must hate sin just as we hate vomit. Most people ask for forgiveness of the sins that they do, while they fail to realize that what they do is only the result of what they are. We must confess our sinful nature. One makes the mistake in not seeing that to ask forgiveness of what he has done without giving up what he is, is useless and will bring him no cleansing from that sin.
It is important that we understand what is meant by “SIN”, because remission or putting away of sin is the work to be accomplished (sanctification). Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20.
Did he really mean that he had died? Yes, he really meant that he actually died. Did he hang on the cross with Christ? Did his human life cease to exist and did he go down to the grave? No, he did not mean that, because he was not referring to his flesh and blood body, but to sinful life, the carnal nature, the evil propensity, the character of Satan in him. That is what had been crucified and taken out of the way.
If you have not experienced cleansing of soul from the sin itself and yet calmly believe that your confession has been such as to have brought you pardon and the hope of eternal life, you are “leaning upon a false hope.” Unless you are awakened out of this deadly complacency to know what real Christian experience is, you will join with those, who having taught the truth with energy, will weep and wail when they come up to the plagues and then see that they are lost.
How desperately few know what a real Christian experience is. Every single one of us knows how perfectly natural it is for human beings by very nature to do the wrong thing, even after we have become professing children of God and members of the Church.
But do we realize that to become a Christian means to become so cleansed from sin that it is unnatural to do the evil that we once did, and natural to do the right which was so unnatural before? This is the experience which truly acceptable confession will bring.
Beloved, much human effort is required to overcome sin. Too many people we fear are looking forward to some great work to be done in the future which will free them from the power of sin in this life. This is a most dangerous position to take for no such great work will be done in the future when the fullness of the cleansing power of the spirit is available Right Now. We have a work to do for ourselves that no one can do for us. Jesus died for us back on Calvary, but that death will do us no good unless we enter into it ourselves.
Summary:
The Holy Spirit reveals to us that real problem, the really unknown sin, is what we are, and not what we do. It is essential that this be seen and understood. We must have faith to believe that the Lord will take away the actual spirit within us and give us a new spirit altogether. We must give up that sin. If we hang on to it, the Lord cannot and will not take it. Now, if you find it hard to surrender that sin, then ask the Lord to give you a willing heart, to make you hate that sin.
After this study, you can imagine how we felt. Probably the same as you after reading this. We were all very pensive and with much introspection. The truth of making an acceptable confession came home to us. What an experience will be ours in this Christian walk when we make confessions that are acceptable unto the Lord. Amen.
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