"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
“If we confess our sins,”
To confess means “to say the same thing.” Confession of sin is “to say the same thing about my sin” that God says about it. Or, I could say that I agree with God’s opinion of my sin. Clarke says, it is “to admit the truth of an accusation.”1 It’s an acknowledgment that God is right, and I am wrong, and what He says is so. It’s the idea that David spoke of in Psalm 51.
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest,” (Psalm 51:4).
There is a humbling that is inherent with the confession of sin. To “confess — with the lips, speaking from a contrite heart; involving also confession to our fellow men of offenses committed against them.”2 Dealing with our sin means we confess to whomever we have wronged, always to the Lord, and very often to others as well. “Confession of sin to God and to one another (James 5:16) is urged throughout the [New Testament] from John the Baptist (Mark 1:5) on.”3
Confession of sin is not something to be done if we feel like it, but as the Greek translation says, “if we keep on confessing.”4 Whenever we sin we need to confess it, we keep on confessing as we have a need (for most of us pretty regularly, like a daily shower). By the way, do we “confess our sin” because God doesn’t know about it? Of course not! He knows all. Our confession of sin isn’t for God’s benefit, it’s for ours. We need the humbling, the acknowledging, the honesty from our hearts to the Lord.
“He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,”
Ever faithful and true to His nature, when we confess He gives us mercy. This is God’s promise, “if you will confess, I will forgive.”
“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah,” (Psalm 32:5).
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy,” (Proverbs 28:13).
“And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We must have His help! He will cleanse us, we cannot cleanse ourselves.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,” (1 John 1:7).
Because we are not perfect, this side of heaven, we need to deal with our sin daily, to not let it build up undealt with. What a blessing that we can keep short sin accounts with God. What a Savior!
1. Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
2. Jamison, Fausset, and Brown. Jamison-Fausset-Brown’s Commentary, the electronic version in eSword.
3. A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, the electronic version in eSword.
4. A.T. Robertson, Ibid.