1 John 1:8-9

CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS

‘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.’

1 John 1:8

The world which is around you hides from your eyes the world which is within—and when you think of sin at all, you do but remember some wrong thing which you have done, and you forget this dark and deadly poison which is hidden deep within. You remember that you have committed certain sins, but you forget that deep within your heart is the dwelling-place of sin. And so it is that the awfulness of eternity passes out of sight. Men do not know their deep disease, and not knowing this they cannot feel the might of God’s forgiveness. This deadly sin is in you all. They are the words of the Beloved Disciple, the Friend of Jesus. He dared not dream that even he could be an exception. ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.’ And then he goes on to add words of a different kind: ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive.’ He had said just before that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Now he gives you one of the links in the chain—if we confess our sin, then we are cleansed, then we are forgiven.

I. How can we confess our sin?—What is confession? Is it to allow honestly that we have done wrong? Is it to take shame and confusion to ourselves because we have committed sin? Is it to say in sorrow and bitterness of heart, ‘I have left undone the things which I ought to have done, and done the things which I ought not to have done, and there is no health in me’? We may utter our confession in words like these, just as that royal penitent poured out his whole soul in still fewer words, when he only said in his misery, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’

(a) True confession is deeper than all words. That pit of darkness in the heart must be opened, that the Light of God may shine into it. You must show Him not what you have done, but what you are. You must tear away every veil by which you hide yourself from the eyes of your fellow-men, and be content to kneel in all your shame before Him to Whom all hearts are open, and feel the eye which is as a flame of fire searching your heart—showing up in that bright light all your confusion, all your folly, all your sin—dragging into sight the selfishness, the vanity, the falsehood, which lay so close to the root of the actions which you had thought so fair and good. All things, even the dark heart of man, are naked and open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do—and in true confession, face to face with God, the secrets of the heart are made manifest. When a man has stood before the Holy One and unbosomed himself to God, when he has torn away the mask from his guilty soul in the presence of his Maker, and owned that his burden is too heavy for him to bear, his disease too deep for him to cure, he has taken the first step in that true confession which leads to salvation. The first step, not the last.

(b) It remains not merely to own your weakness, but to lay hold on Strength—to lay down that burden at the foot of the Cross—to put away that shame and sin that it may be blotted out and destroyed for ever—to gaze on, in hope and humble trust, upon the Lamb of God Which taketh away the sin of the world, until your sin has melted away before His atoning love; until that which was as scarlet has become white as snow, that which was red like crimson has become as wool.

II. ‘He is faithful and just to forgive.’—The Son of Righteousness will scatter the darkness of the heart which will but open itself to receive His light. He will turn that hidden seat of sin into a throne of righteousness. The dark fountain, from which all your misery flowed, shall become a well of water springing up into Everlasting Life. Only kneel on and let that deep confession be without ceasing. Never be content that a ray of His Light should once penetrate your heart, but let it shine more and more unto the perfect day. When we say ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins,’ we speak not of a momentary forgiveness, but of a perpetual mercy. And as His forgiveness is without ceasing, so must be your confession. The heart which has once been opened must never be closed, or else the darkness will return and the Light which is in you be quenched. Let the way between your heart and God be always clear and free. Oh! never go out of His presence, never turn your eyes away from His bright Light.

Illustration

‘Faithful and just to forgive—if we confess. Yes, this the true meaning, accordant with reason and revelation, that there is pardon only for the penitent. The great World-Atonement only cancels the guilt of the world provisionally; it still remains for each one, by the way which Christ has opened, humbly to approach his God. And then? Then God’s whole nature is pledged to pardon us! This is what we want: a coming to ourselves; a loving acknowledgment of the claims of the God of our life. And He? a Father Who stoops to raise us, and so tenderly, from our fall! And shall He not raise us? Shall He not lift us into purity and health and blessedness? Man cannot do this for us; God can do all. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, and He shall lift you up” (1 Peter 5:6; James 4:10).’