May 25 – Living In Truth, Not Denial.

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” – 1 John 1:8-10 (NASB)

Now here is a little word that none of us consider a favorite word. In fact we don’t even want to think about the sinful acts that we do. Yet, the truth is this, we cannot escape from sin being a part of our lives. We do sin. Everyone sins. There is no one who does not sin. (Romans 3:10-12) If we refuse to acknowledge the sin that assails us and pretend to claim that we have no sin, as our verse tells us, we are deceiving ourselves. As the verse says, we can’t profess to live in truth if we're not addressing the sinful actions and thoughts we do and have. In fact, if we deny having sinned, we make God a liar. When we sin, we must confess our sins. What is confessing? It is being honest and saying the same thing about our actions that God says. Our promise is: We agree with God that we have sinned and God faithfully and lovingly promises to forgive and clean us up. The bad thoughts and actions are washed away. We’re done with them. It is an ongoing process in our lives until we get to heaven.

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February 6 – Honest Before God

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” – 1 John 1:8-10 (NASB)

We do not much care for the parts of the bible that reveal our weaknesses and our sinful nature do we? Yet these truths are there for us to learn the grace and love of God. John wrote this short letter to those who were living under some serious persecution from Rome and the non-believing population. The reminder in these three verses is our promise. We still sin and we cannot claim to be sinless. If we claim to have no sin or have not sinned we deceive ourselves of any truth in us and we make God a liar. In that state we need forgiveness for we can’t claim we hold the Word of God in us. But we can confess our sins each time and our faithful God, who is righteous promises to forgive us our sins. He washes the unrighteousness out of us. Those who suffer difficulty might be tempted to sin in many ways. John writes for us. If we live according to the flesh we will transgress God’s law. But He gives us grace to confess and be forgiven each time. We are restored by His promise to live according the His Spirit.

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May 29 – Faithful to Forgive

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  - 1 John 1:9 (ESV)

Today we have a promise that is simple in structure and deep in truth.  All who have, by faith, believed in God through Jesus Christ, our Savior are born again (John 3:3).  Just as Jesus taught Nicodemus, that this new birth was a spiritual birth.  And in like manner that each person has no role in their physical birth except being there at the event, we who have been born of the of the Spirit have no part in the working of that to happen (John 3:6). Even our faith is a gift from God. In the New Testament, the basis of all forgiveness of sins is revealed more clearly than it was in the Old Testament, but the basis, namely, God’s commitment to his name, does not change. Jesus died in such a way that our promised forgiveness is “for the sake of God’s name.”  It is the faithfulness and justice of Jesus that brought him to the God-honoring sacrifice on the cross for us. His justice is vindicated in this very act so that He might be both just and the justifier of those who by faith trust in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

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January 21 – A Continual Process

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  -  1 John 1:9 (ESV)

With yesterday’s promise we focused on the truth that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because He is one with God the Father. He has authority to do His perfect will.  Today, we are find a promise in the first letter by the Apostle John, who walked and talked and was taught by Jesus Christ, that as believers we still commit sinful acts and when we do, that sin causes a separation in our relationship with God.  If we want to resolve that separation with our Lord we need to confess our sins.  This is a continual process that can be done wherever we are whenever we need to.  And our promise is that if we confess, God will forgive us our sins and completely wash all unrighteousness from us.  Continual confession of sin indicates genuine salvation. Our forgiveness and cleansing is immediate and we do not have to do any acts of penitence. Our confession must be a genuine desire to seek forgiveness and be in a right relationship with our savior Jesus.  Let’s not let what we need to confess fester in our lives until it becomes a larger problem.  God is always there and ready for us to see and agree with him on this.

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March 31 – Drawing Near

“and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:21-22a (NIV)

These words are part of a letter to Christians of the Hebrew race, who we might call Jewish Christians. They knew well and were very familiar with the function of the high priest in representing people in the temple before God.  For Christians who first received this letter, and for us today our representative before almighty God is Jesus Christ. Our verse today encourages us then to draw near to God trusting in Jesus as our representative in God’s presence. Yes, it is possible for us to draw near to God through prayer, meditation, reading and studying the God's word the Bible. Let’s take advantage of this possibility today for it is one way to see how the ministry of Jesus affects our lives each day.