He Will Forgive and Cleanse You
As believers in Jesus Christ that are still battling against sin, we can many times become distraught and discouraged by the remaining sin in our lives. Our experience can be much like that of Paul as he described the struggle he faced with sin in Romans 7:15-20. The good things that I know I should do, go undone, and the evil things that I want to avoid, I find that I do. Do you ever feel like this? You can almost feel the frustration and disappointment in the words as Paul describes this ongoing battle with sin. Living in the reality of this constant warfare with sin, there is a danger for the Christian of falling into overwhelming guilt and despair because of our sin. We can temporarily lose sight of the joy of our new life in Christ and our hope in His finished work. On the other hand, we must never become complacent about the sin in our lives. Perhaps we are deceived into thinking that our sins are inconsequential and meaningless because Jesus has redeemed us and paid the price in full for all our sins past, present, and future. Both of these dangerous concepts about how to deal with sin in our lives can hinder our service to God, rob us of hope, and suppress the joy of our fellowship with Him. Instead of despair and guilt or indifference and apathy, we must turn to the pattern of scripture in dealing with sin. In 1 John 1:9 we find instruction for dealing with sin and the comforting promise of forgiveness and cleansing. It says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confess your sins and trust the faithfulness and justice of God. He knows the weakness of our flesh, and has promised to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness because of our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Guilt and Despair
The first danger we identified in the ongoing war with sin in the life of believers is the threat of guilt, fear, and despair over current sin overwhelming us and affecting the hope and joy we have in Christ. It is certainly true that we are sinners, and to say otherwise would be deceiving ourselves and calling God a liar according to the context surrounding 1 John 1:9. But our enemy is cunning and will use this truth about our sin to sow doubt, overwhelming guilt, and despair in an effort to hinder our walk with the Lord. He is the accuser of the brethren, and attempts to use the reality of sin in our lives to turn our focus away from Christ and all He has done for us. Instead, his aim is to turn our focus back to ourselves and all the ways we fall short. As Paul considered his own battle with sin in Romans 7, he concluded with the following summary in verses 21-24: “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
If our focus is turned inward to our own strength and a dependence on ourselves for righteousness, then we would also echo the cry, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Paul gives the short answer in verse 25: through Christ we are delivered. However, the more detailed answer comes in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” What a declaration! This is good news to the believer that is in the midst of a difficult battle with sin. Elder Bobby Poe said this about the good news of Romans 8:1: “As we experience the conflict between the old and the new man, it is wonderful to be reminded that there is therefore NOW no condemnation.” He also urged Christians to remember that this text is not saying that no one will condemn us. This text is telling us that the Judge of all the earth, the Creator of the universe, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, does not condemn us because of Jesus Christ!
Satan will accuse and others may see your failings and the remaining sin and corruption of the old man. However, the Judge of all the earth declares there is therefore now no condemnation, because He sees His people through the blood of Jesus Christ and adorned with His righteousness. The promise of 1 John 1:9 is that God is faithful and just to forgive. He is faithful and will never renege on His promises. He knows all the ways we fail and will not grow weary of our many failings and turn away from us. God is also just, and because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, justice leads to our forgiveness! God is just in forgiving us for the sins we confess because Jesus bore our sins on the cross, taking our place under the wrath of God, and clothed us in His own righteousness. God is not merely overlooking our sins, but has justified us through the blood of His Son.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we know these things about the nature of God and our redemption to be true, and yet many times we still revert back to a different mindset. When we are convicted of sin, we feel as though we have re-entered a state of condemnation. So we may try to do a little better by going to church, reading our Bibles, singing extra loud during worship, and looking for other opportunities to serve the Lord as a means of balancing the scales. To be clear, all of those things are good, but the problem is that we are attempting to ease our minds of guilt by trying to balance out the sins in our life with good works. However, this is not how the scriptures teach us to deal with sin. The scales would never be balanced by your efforts! Instead of making attempts to balance the scales, we must confess our sins to the one who has redeemed us. The scriptures teach us to confess, repent, and trust in God. If you are currently struggling with a lack of assurance because of sins in your life; if feelings of guilt and despair fill your thoughts, confess your sins to God, turn from them, and trust in His faithfulness and justice. Remind yourself that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Repent of known sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you!
Complacent to Sin
The second danger we identified is an aloofness to sin. A hypothetical question was posed by Paul in Romans 6:1 that addresses this same concept: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” His answer is a warning to any that would think of sin as something inconsequential. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:2). For the believer, the bondage of sin has been broken. We are no longer slaves to sin, and have instead become the servants of righteousness. If you are a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit has given you spiritual life and you are a new creature in Christ Jesus. Paul says in that same chapter, that if we are buried with Christ by baptism into death, that just as Jesus was raised from death unto life, so we also should walk in newness of life. We must not become complacent about sin in our lives, but instead be vigilant to fight against it and never yield our members to it.
Confession of known sin will help us fight against complacency by bringing our sin into the open. Just after our text in 1 John 2:1, John writes “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” We must not turn a blind eye to the sin in our life, but instead confess, repent, and trust in the one who will not only forgive us, but also will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you recognize that you have a complacent spirit over the sin in your life, begin by acknowledging and confessing the known sin in your life to God. Ask God to reveal the sins you don’t see or are refusing to see. Pray for the guidance and conviction of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.”
Dear Christian, rest in this precious promise of God concerning our sin. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Even though we fail again and again, our God is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is alive and is interceding on our behalf before the throne. The continuing work of sanctification will not be complete until we are glorified and made to be like Christ. We long for the day when our struggle with sin will be over, and we will be with Christ forever in the body, yet without sin!
Andy Carter is a pastor at Providence Primitive Baptist Church, Falkner, MS.