“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."
“Sin” is a little three letter word that people do not like. In fact, some people hate it so badly that they will not even use the word and think that you are an old fashioned old fuddy duddy if you use it. However it is an inescapable word and must be dealt with. People deal with it in different ways. Let me show you what I mean: People deal with it by denying that there is any such thing as sin: “If we say we have no sin…” What this means is that literally anything goes. It can go to great extents. If there is no such thing as sin we can kill people for any reason and we will not be guilty before God. We may break man’s law and have to pay for it before the bar of man’s justice, but we will still have to deal with God. “Thou shalt not kill” is not a suggestion, but a commandment. If there is no such thing as sin, we can do anything that we want without guilt. This is postulated today as truth, and we are paying a big price for it. God is not blind to the breaking of His laws and He is not blind to our personal sins. He knows when we do not honor Him as we should. He knows when we have crossed the line of morality and flaunt His word. We cannot deny the reality of sin and get by with it. People deal with it by saying that sin is really no big deal: “If we say that we have not sinned…” This is not a denial of the reality of sin, it is just a confession that sin does not matter to the individual. “Okay, so I committed adultery, what’s the difference, everybody is doing it.” (Everybody is not doing it, but it is used as an excuse.) The severity of sin is not measured today by polls. If a majority of people think something is alright, then it is alright no matter what the Bible says. This is giving human beings a lot more credit than we deserve. History is fraught with the dangers of this philosophy. In Nazi Germany it became alright to murder Jews because that was the prevailing opinion in Germany at the time. People believed Hitler’s lies and were led to devastation. For a more modern example, do we really think that killing a baby and selling its body parts is alright? What biblical text would we base this on? Sin is a big deal – even my sins and your sins. None of us can judge others, but God has already judged sin and He will deal with it. It is a big deal to Him and should be to us. People need to deal with sin by confessing it: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We cannot deny the reality of sin, nor can we take away from the seriousness of it. What we can do is realize our own sins, repent and confess them before our Holy God. It is said that, “Honest confession is good for the soul.” This is literally true, particularly if that confession is made to God. We just need to come clean with our sins, and allow Jesus Christ to cleanse us from them. I am certainly not writing this to judge you or anyone else. I am painfully aware of my own shortcomings and sins, and I deal with them daily by confessing them. My salvation does not depend on this, but my effectiveness as a Christian witness does. I was saved when I gave my life to Jesus by faith, but that did not mean that I no longer needed to confess my sins. In fact, John used the little pronoun “we” in this text. Even the great apostle John had to confess his sins and be cleansed by Jesus. I do not know how you are dealing with sin, but I know how you need to do it. I base this, not on my opinion, but on the Bible. You need to get honest with yourself and with God, then repent and confess your sins and be cleansed. Right now would be a good time to do that. I just did! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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