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The action of confession of sins is quite varied in today’s Christianity. In John’s first epistle he focuses on confession as the central ingredient for a discipleship that has eternal life.
Preliminaries:
- The mission of John’s epistle is to give Christians assurance of eternal life as evidenced by their fellowship in the church
- Question: How do I know if I’m actually a Christian?
Conclusions:
- True Confession of sin is essential to eternal life
Definition: To acknowledge a fact without reservation, in agreement to authoritative truth - If you have no true confession of sins, you do not have eternal life
Observations:
- True confession of sin requires the light of God’s truth
- True confession of sin restores fellowship with others
- True confession of sin rests upon Jesus’ atonement
- True confession of sin resists self-deception
- True confession of sin results in forgiveness
- True confession of sin reorders our lives around God’s authority
- True confession of sin is a requirement for sinners
Application:
- Say about your sins what God says about your sins
- Don’t aim to be sinless, but aim to sin less
- Anchor your hope to the ascended Advocate – Lord Jesus Christ
1 John 5:13
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
1 John 1:1-2
“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us.”
1 John 1:3
“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
John 1:19-20
“Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
Philippians 2:10-11
“So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow —in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
Acts 19:17-19
“When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.”
Psalm 32:1-5
“Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Romans 6:1-2
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”