1 John 1:6-10
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
John gives two interesting titles to Jesus Christ: Advocate and Pro-pitiation (1 John 2:1-2, 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. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. NKJV). It’s important that we understand these two titles because they stand for two ministries that only the Lord Himself performs.
Let’s begin with Propitiation. If you look this word up in the diction- ary, you may get the wrong idea of its meaning. The dictionary tells us that “to propitiate” means “to appease someone who is angry.” If you apply this to Christ, you get the horrible picture of an angry God, about to destroy the world, and a loving Savior giving Himself to appease the irate God – and this is not the Bible picture of salvation! Certainly, God is angry at sin; after all, He is infinitely holy. But the Bible reassures us that “God so loved [not hated] the world” (John 3:16, italics added).
No, the word “propitiation” does not mean the appeasing of an an- gry God. Rather, it means the satisfying of Gods holy law. “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and, therefore, He cannot close His eyes to sin. But “God is love” (1 John 4:8) too and wants to save sinners.
How, then, can a holy God uphold His own justice and still forgive sinners? The answer is in the sacrifice of Christ. At the cross, God in His holiness judged sin. God in His love offers Jesus Christ to the world as Savior. God was just in that He punished sin, but He is also loving in that He offers free forgiveness through what Jesus did at Calvary. (1 John 4:10-11, This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Read and also give some thought to Romans 3:23-26.)
Christ is the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but He is Ad- vocate only for believers. “We [Christians] have an Advocate with the Fa- ther.” The word “advocate” used to be applied to lawyers. The word John uses is the very same word Jesus used when He was talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,26; 15:26). It means, literally, “one called alongside.” When a man was summoned to court, he took an advocate (lawyer) with him to stand at his side and plead his case.
Jesus finished His work on earth (John 17:4) the work of giving His life as a sacrifice for sin. Today He has an “unfinished work” in heaven. He represents us before Gods throne. As our High Priest, He sympathizes with our weaknesses and temptations and gives us grace. (Hebrews 4:15 -16, 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympa- thize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.) As our Advocate, He helps us when we sin. When we confess our sins to God, because of Christ’s advocacy God forgives us.
This is what is in view when Jesus Christ is called our “Advocate.” He represents believers before God’s throne, and the merits of His sacrifice make possible the forgiveness of the believer’s sin. Because Christ died for His people, He satisfied the justice of God. (“The wages of sin is death.”) Because He lives for us at God’s right hand, He can apply His sacrifice to our needs day by day.
All He asks is that when we have failed we confess our sins. What does it mean to “confess”? Well, to confess sins means much more than simply to “admit” them. The word confess actually means “to say the same thing [about].” To confess sin, then, means to say the same thing about it that God says about it.
Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin – calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin. It means judging sin and facing it squarely.
When we confess our sins, God promises to forgive us (1 John 1:9). But this promise is not a “magic rabbit’s foot” that makes it easy for us to disobey God!
“I went out and sinned,” a student told his campus chaplain, “because I knew I could come back and ask God to forgive me. ”
“On what basis can God forgive you?” the chaplain asked, point- ing to 1 John 1:9.
“God is faithful and just,” the boy replied.
“Those two words should have kept you out of sin,” the chaplain said. “Do you know what it cost God to forgive your sins?”
The boy hung his head. “Jesus had to die for me.”
Then the chaplain zeroed in. “That’s right – forgiveness isn’t some cheap sideshow trick God performs. God is faithful to His promise, and God is just, because Christ died for your sins and paid the penalty for you. Now, the next time you plan to sin, remember that you are go- ing to sin against a faithful loving God!”
Of course, cleansing has two sides to it: the judicial and the per- sonal. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, delivers us from the guilt of sin and gives us right standing (“justification”) before God. God is able to forgive because Jesus’ death has satisfied His holy Law.
But God is also interested in cleansing a sinner inwardly. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalms 51:10). When our confession is sincere, God does a cleansing work (1 John 1:9) in our hearts by His Spirit and through His Word (John 15:3).
The great mistake King David made was in trying to cover his sins instead of confessing them. For perhaps a whole year he lived in deceit and defeat. No wonder he wrote (Psalms 32:6) that a man should pray “in a time of finding out” (lit.).
When should we con- fess our sin? Immediately when we discover it! “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever con- fesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). By walking in the light, we are able to see the “dirt” in our lives and deal with it immediately. 1 John 1:7, But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light…”
The Bible Exposition Commentary
