PROVISION FOR FORGIVENESS OF SINS
Saying What God Says
(1 John 1:9)
It’s a hot summer day, and several of the neighborhood kids are playing in your backyard. But you glance out the window, just in time to see your six-year-old son angrily whack his buddy with the nozzle end of the garden hose.
You race outside to find both boys angrily shouting, but only one bleeding. With a bandage applied to the youngster’s head, you walk the friend home and apologetically explain to his mom what happened. Back at home, although you know your son was at fault, you realize that there’s something he needs to learn—how to confess.
It takes a while, but once Billy realizes that you saw everything that happened, he is finally willing to confess: “I got mad and hit Sam with the hose.”
Up until that moment, Billy had not confessed. Only when his words matched what you saw did confession occur. Only after he had confessed was he ready to seek and receive forgiveness.
Many adult Christians lack the skill of confession mentioned in 1 John 1:9. An easy way to understand confession is to realize two facts: First, God sees everything. Second, we have to confess the same thing He sees and says. The Greek word for confess means “to say the same as.” When John says, “If we confess our sins,” he means, “If we say the same thing about our sin that God says about it.” When we agree with God’s assessment of our sin, God is “faithful and righteous to forgive us . . . and to cleanse us.”