The truth about "If we confess our sins,..." in 1 John 1:9. Long post alert🤗🤗🤗

Believers, our High Priest, Jesus Christ pronounces righteousness on all who come to Him for salvation when such see themselves as sinners through and through. This means seeing ourselves as sinners way beyond confessing select sins that we are conscious of. It is His gift of righteousness that makes us righteous, not ours. Whether we confess remembered sins or not, WITHOUT His gift of righteousness, we are just as guilty as the vilest offender. Whether we confess these select sins or not, WITH His gift of righteousness, "as He is, so are we in this world." He sees us as righteous through and through.

When you say "Lord Jesus, of myself, I am a sinner through and through. There is no good in me. You Lord are my Righteousness. I have none of my own," you are confessing your sins. You are saying what Paul said of himself in Romans 7:18- "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that: is, in my flesh;" When you come to Him in this manner, Christ forgives you and cleanses you of all of your unrighteousness as it is written in 1 John 1:8-9:

"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The word "confess" here is from the Greek word "omologōmen" which means "to speak the same, to agree." Please check it out on your own because many are using this verse to, intentionally or otherwise, keep people under condemnation by making them feel that unless they confess each sin one by one, those sins will remain unforgiven. To "confess our sins" in the context of 1 John 1:9 is to be in agreement with God that you are a sinner and to believe His word: "There is none righteous, no not one." It is confessing a state of being, the same way we confess Jesus as Lord.

Many people misinterpret the word "confess" above to mean "catch every sin that you commit and tell God how sorry you are about it, or else God will not forgive you and you will fall out of fellowship with Him." But this way, your salvation is still contingent on what you must do and not what Christ has done. This speaks of salvation by merit and not by grace, contradicts Ephesians 2:8-9 and thus, is not salvation. This teaching is not of Christ. 

Hebrews 10:12 says Christ's sacrifice for our sins was a one time sacrifice, "good for all time." In Christ, you are not righteous only until your next sin as those who try to twist this word "confess" out of its context say. His gift of righteousness is everlasting and apart from works. It is by His obedience that we are made righteous (Romans 5:19) and not what we do or don't do after we got saved. Remember He leads us on the path of righteousness....not you nor I.

Saying that one has to confess each sin in order to remain righteous and in fellowship with Christ is like believing that when we were sinners, our confession of the good things we did could change our old sinner status. By all means tell our Abba Father about your sins (I do this too,) but not in order to be forgiven. Christ finished this work already according to 1 John 2:12-

"I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake."

Notice "have been forgiven" and not "will be forgiven when you confess particular sins?" See the Amplified version:

"I am writing to you, little children (believers, dear ones), because your sins have been forgiven for His name’s sake [you have been pardoned and released from spiritual debt through His name because you have confessed His name, believing in Him as Savior]."

Believers, our sins are forgiven not because we religiously catch and confess each sin but because we confess (say the same thing as His word) and believe in Jesus as Saviour.

In Christ, we are children of God. My kids flout my rules sometimes, deliberately or otherwise. Thank God that otherwise is often the case. Presently, I feel like I'm always cleaning up after them. I often catch them playing video games when they should be studying or doing whatever else. What a sad, fear-filled life they would be living if their fellowship with me depended on their ability to catch all of their faults and their reporting same to me for forgiveness without which I will cast them out!

Many times they're not even aware of their errors. I have to draw their attention to these errors and do my best to train them up in the way that they should go; how much more our Father in heaven! If our fellowship with our Heavenly Father and even being caught up with Christ at the Rapture was dependent on our catching and confessing each sin, no one will make it.

When I do wrong (which we all do from time to time, be it in the form of snapping angrily at our spouses, angrily yelling invectives at "those crazy yellow bus drivers," or whatever it is that Christ died to save us from, even fear and worry are sins,) by His grace alone, I do so with thanksgiving that my sins HAVE BEEN forgiven and that His love is transforming me to perfection; without Him, my default mode is wickedness, as is everyone else's. To "confess our sins" in the context of 1 John 1:9 is to confess our state of being without God's gift of righteousness; the same way we confess Jesus as Lord because we believe that He is our righteousness: Romans 10:9-10:

"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

To "confess" in both 1 John 1:9 and Romans 10 above is to speak the same thing as God is speaking; to "omologōmen." There is something about the arm of flesh (e.g. human effort at confessing each sin in order to be forgiven) that always wants to be relevant in the story of our salvation. We are mere recipients in this story. Christ does it all.

In Christ, there is no condemnation whether you remember to confess every sin or not. This is why Paul said in Romans 8:1 "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." If we had to confess each sin in order to get back in fellowship with our Heavenly Father, what then is the purpose of this verse? To say that there is condemnation for a believer in Christ for whatever reason, even for those who do not confess each sin, is to say that there remains condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's take our blessed brains to church. By all means tell our Lord God about your sins but not in order to be forgiven. In Christ, we have already been forgiven. You think He doesn't know them all and love you still? Christ took care of ALL OF OUR SINS when He sacrificed Himself for us.

Were it not for the gift of righteousness that we have in Christ, we would be no less unclean than the vilest offender, no matter how "good" we try to be and no matter how much we do confession as the world knows it.

Before our High Priest, the status of the one who feels that he is still 99% good and just 1% not-okay because he is confessing each sin in order to be forgiven, doing his best to keep the law and not committing particular sins is no different from that of a leper with just a spot of leprosy on his skin: UNCLEAN, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..." Romans 3:20. Also see v.27-28:

"Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

Our acquittal is not based on catching every sin and confessing it in order to be forgiven and accepted by God or anything at all that we do. Only the guilty- those who still have condemnation in them when there is no condemnation for us in Christ- need to confess each sin in order to be acquitted of their sins before God. This is to reject the finished work of Christ in making us righteous. This is not of Christ.

Even with us humans, only in an unhealthy relationship will a son have to confess each fault to his dad in order to continue to have fellowship with him and enjoy his benefits. In a healthy and loving relationship, the son's natural inclination is to please his father. If he fails, which he will sometimes, he has the assurance that his failure can never make his father "un-son" him. He remains his father's heir. How much more our Father in heaven?

Believers, believe right. This is how we are made righteous in the sight of God: "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous." Romans 5:19. Nothing to do with our good works, law-keeping prowess or confessing select sins in order to be "re-righteous." All to do with our Abba Father who "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

But does this mean that we can go on sinning anyhow and without care? Certainly not! With the abundance of God's grace and His gift of righteousness in Christ, you cannot but live in triumph over sin and death (all the stages of death that we were condemned to die as a result of Adam's sin: guilt-condemnation-fear-stress- ageing-sickness-physical death and finally the second death.) See how we have this victory in Romans 5:17-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."