How does God cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)?

The priesthood of Christ comes in to maintain me practically where the blood of Christ has set me. As in the expression in the Epistle of John, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous [Jesus Christ is at God's right hand on all principles of righteousness], and He is the propitiation [the mercy-seat] for our sins." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." It is a much easier thing for a child to ask for pardon for some fault than to confess it. We may be asking for pardon for any special sin, and we have no Scripture warrant to know that it is put away; but when we confess it, it is a matter of faith to know that it is put away. I am speaking now of a believer: were it the question of an unconverted person, the blood of Christ meets that. God is "faithful and just (not gracious and merciful merely), to forgive us our sins," etc. The moment I have judged myself about it, I am entitled to know that it is gone.

The dreadful character of sin is not felt in the soul until God works there, nor is its working realised unless there is truth in the inward parts. Therefore he who claims to be without sin exposes himself to be ignorant of God, ignorant of what sin is, insensible to what is so abhorrent to God and self-deceived.

1 John 1:9. Having a sinful nature, the fruits of it manifest themselves, even in the Christian, when he is not walking in communion with God. But our sins are not to be covered up; they are to be confessed. Coming in confession to God, we learn that He is faithful and righteous to forgive. We can have the fullest confidence in God: His faithfulness is known in the forgiveness we receive. With each other, we may be very slow to forgive, and very grudgingly pardon those who confess to us their wrongdoings. But God is faithful in His forgiving; we can come to Him perfectly assured that He will forgive, if we confess our sins. Without the confession, the guilt lies upon the conscience, and the defilement on the spirit. Forgiveness on God's part is also a righteous thing, and this because of the work of the cross. God could not pardon the sinner in righteousness apart from the work of Christ; therefore His forgiving of sins magnifies the great work of propitiation accomplished by the Lord Jesus. Then there is the cleansing from all unrighteousness. Unrighteousness in the Christian calls for confession, not only that we might have the sense of Gods pardon, but also that the defilement produced on the spirit might be removed. This is not cleansing by a fresh application of the blood to the believer, but is produced through the action of the word of God on the defiled spirit. Our first coming to God as guilty sinners could not rightly be excluded from this verse; its abstract nature leaves room for this; but it is good for us as failing Christians at all times.

When we confess, God is faithful and just to all that Christ is, and has done, and the sin is forgiven so that fellowship may be restored. This is what we may call paternal forgiveness, to distinguish it from the eternal forgiveness which reached us as sinners.

Not only does He forgive, but He also cleanses from all unrighteousness. The honest confession of sin by the saint not only ensures forgiveness but it also has a cleansing effect. Confession of sin means the judgment in our own hearts and minds of what we confess. And that means cleansing from its influence and deliverance from its power.

All this is most dreadful. It is Satan's way of hardening and deceiving the heart. Oh that we may watch against it, and ever keep a tender conscience! We may rest assured that when a true-hearted child of God is betrayed into sin the Holy Ghost will produce in him such a sense of it &mddash; will lead him into such intense self-loathing, such an abhorrence of the evil, such thorough self-judgement in the presence of God — as that he cannot lightly go and commit the sin again. This we may learn from the words of the apostle when he says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and" — mark this weighty clause — "to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Here we have the precious fruit of the double advocacy. It is all presented in its fullness in this part of the First Epistle of John. If any man sin, the blessed Paraclete on high intercedes with the Father, pleads the full merits of His atoning work, prays for the erring one on the ground of His having borne the judgement of that very sin. Then the other Paraclete acts in the conscience, produces repentance and confession, and brings the soul back into the light in the sweet sense that the sin is forgiven, the unrighteousness cleansed, and the communion perfectly restored. "He restores my soul: He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." (Ps. 23:3)

But, then, "if any man sin," what is to be done? The inspired apostle furnishes a full and most blessed answer: "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) Confession is the mode in which the conscience is to be kept free. The apostle does not say, "If we pray for pardon, he is gracious and merciful to forgive us." No doubt, it is ever happy for a child to breathe the sense of need into his father's ear — to tell him of feebleness, to confess folly, infirmity, and failure. All this is most true; and, moreover, it is equally true that our Father is most gracious and merciful to meet His children in all their weakness and ignorance; but, while all this is true, the Holy Ghost declares, by the apostle, that, "if we confess," God is "faithful and just to forgive." confession, therefore, is the divine mode. A Christian, having erred, in thought, word, or deed, might pray for pardon, for days and months together, and not have any assurance, from 1 John 1:9, that he was forgiven; whereas the moment he truly confesses his sin, before God, it is a simple matter of faith to know that he is perfectly forgiven and perfectly cleansed.

Moral cleansing is also required when sin has been allowed in our lives. God's provision for this is found in 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". No fresh application of the blood is required for this, but the washing of water by the word.

The ashes were the remembrance of the sacrifice. They were the evidence that the victim had been consumed by fire. They are typical of the fact that Christ died for us. "Christ suffered for our sins." The running water would speak to us of the power of the Holy Ghost. The two together speak of the fact of Christ's sufferings for us being brought home to our consciences and souls in the power of the Holy Ghost. That produces pain of heart for having tampered with the things of this present evil world, to deliver us from which He gave Himself. It brings us to confession before God, and He is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9); thus we are restored to communion. It is not that God requires a fresh sacrifice to meet the fresh sin. He has found all that He required in the One Sacrifice for ever. But we need to be afresh reminded that our sin cost our Lord Jesus the sufferings of Calvary, and thus we are brought to a right sense of what sin is. Only thus are we cleansed from all unrighteousness.

On the other hand, the conscious sins and failures of a Christian, are, when confessed, forgiven things. The faithfulness of God secures this (1 John 1:9). Confession of sin, or of shortcoming, casts the matter confessed, with the person who confesses it, on the righteous advocacy of Jesus. The blessed Lord acts thus for the instantaneous removal of all that can defile or darken the conscience, or afflict the soul with a sense of guilty deficiency. Confession of deficiency and shortcoming is at once met, in the fulness of that grace which flows evermore towards the once purged worshipper, by the intercession of our great High Priest. Peace thus is again restored to the conscience, while the heart yet retains its humbling sense of personal vileness. For it is the true discernment of the gracious action of restoring mercy that effectually humbles, and keeps low the soul.

We need the warning word therefore: "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Herein lies our responsibility: "If we confess our sins." Is there a day passes without some sin? Shall we not own it with shame? I do not say that we should always be thinking of our sins, or our liability to sin, but on the other hand, there is no portion of Scripture to tell us that we should never think of our sins.

But we are also to think of the personal interest of the One against whom we have sinned. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What is there that shows more beautifully the gracious and loving care of the Father and Son? Jesus Christ the righteous is faithful and just not only to forgive our sins, but to clear them away. We have therefore His work of blood-shedding, which is the basis of cleansing, and we have all the personal activities which rest on that basis for our cleansing wherein we have erred.

But observe He is just or righteous as well as faithful in forgiving and cleansing. The reason that He is just in doing so appears in the second chapter. Jesus Christ the righteous is in the presence of the Father. Not only is the blood of Jesus Christ in the light, but Jesus Christ Himself, Who shed that blood is with the Father. Hence when we confess our sins we are cleansed from all unrighteousness.