Leave it Behind

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

When I began my journey of faith, these verses were part of the foundation my parents and teachers laid under my spiritual feet at the very beginning. Many evangelicals understand clearly the path to salvation, but there is a lack of understanding of what exactly that means in terms of how we should then live once we are saved. This letter of John is written to believers for believers and about believers. Some have come along saying that John was speaking to unbelievers. This is a textual absurdity. The word “we” is used 5 times in these three brief verses. Who is “we”? That’s easy to answer. We is us. It is believers. This is teaching us how to deal with the practical (think 'practiced') reality that, when we are saved, we are not perfect. We still sin. Oh, we might indeed sin less, but we still sin. To deny that is a sin. I have argued for hours with a small group of believers who insist that this is somehow counter to our becoming the righteousness of Christ. In their minds, there is no room for apology or coming to God with any remorse about our subsequent failures. Theologically, it is true that Jesus paid the price for your sins and my sins on the cross, and in doing so, He provides a righteous covering for all believers. When the Father looks on us, He sees the righteousness of Jesus.

That is sometimes called positional righteousness by theologians. The group that insists this letter isn’t addressed to believers argues that the word “positional righteousness” isn’t in the Bible. Well, the words Bible, Trinity, Christianity, Penal Substitution, Omnipotence, Ominscience, Omnipresence, Rapture, and original sin are also not in the Bible. I believe that John understands the human condition, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he is telling us how to “get back in the game” when we “throw a foul ball.” When we sin, we often create a distance between ourselves and God. This is why people will perhaps fall into a carnal lifestyle and stop going to church out of guilt. They don’t feel “good enough” to keep coming to church. That’s exactly when we most need to stay connected to the Body of Christ and to restore the fellowship we ourselves have broken. 

As human beings, John tells us that when we do sin and we will, we merely have to acknowledge to God that our thoughts, words, or deeds are sin and they are not what God desires. The sin was paid for on the cross and forgiven long ago, but we can rest assured and be confident that He is just and that He does indeed forgive that sin (and will keep on doing so forever), and that He “cleanses us from all unrighteousness.” We do this for our good, not for God’s benefit. It gives frail humans a means to “reboot the computer,” so to speak. It gives us a chance to humbly admit to a loving God that we’ve moved away from Him, and we don’t want to be away from Him. It gives us a fresh, clean start on our road to total Christlikeness. That road will never reach sinless perfection while we’re here on the earth, but we’ll be further down the road. Perhaps this is the means God uses to remind us of what He did for us, to be grateful for it, and to be sorry for the distance we’ve put between ourselves and His sweet fellowship. It is a way for us to consciously admit our mistakes and leave them behind once again as we move forward with Him.