Why do we need to confess our sins in they have already been forgiven (1 John 1:9)?

Of course, when a soul is first awakened by the Holy Spirit, it could only be past sins that are brought to his knowledge, and that he knows are forgiven; but then, when we get the knowledge of forgiveness, we see that the work that put our sins away was accomplished when they were all future, and the value of that one sacrifice was not only up to the day of our conversion. Now we see the One that did the work "for ever sat down on the right hand of God," because He has perfected us for ever by that one offering; and God says, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (Heb. 10:17.) Forgiveness of sins is the common portion of all Christians, as we read in 1 John 2:12, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." There would be no sense in saying our future sins are forgiven, for we have not committed them, and we ought not to contemplate sinning in the future; but we can always say, as Christians, as in Colossians 1:14, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

But many have thought, "If we have the 'forgiveness of sins,' why do we read, in 1 John 1:9, 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins'?" There is another sense in which Scripture speaks of forgiveness; when a child of God has sinned, and his communion has been interrupted, and he confesses his sin, he gets forgiveness, not in the sense of non-imputation, as in Rom. 4:7-8, but of communion and joy being restored, which had been interrupted by the sin. The above verse (1 John 1:9) is a general statement, and would apply either to a sinner first coming to God and confessing his sins, and so getting forgiveness once for all on the ground of the death of Christ, or to a child of God who has sinned and confesses, and gets forgiveness as a child by the Father. The one might be called justifying forgiveness in the case of the sinner; and the other, Fatherly, or governmental, forgiveness in the case of a saint; and it is very important to distinguish between the two.

It is very difficult to imagine true believers deceiving themselves in this way, save for a very brief time. The only true and honest attitude for us is that of confessing our sins, and doing so at once. It is true of course that the only honest thing for the unbeliever, when conviction reaches him, is to confess his sins; then forgiveness, full and eternal will be his. The believer is in question here however. It is, "If we confess …" The sin of a believer does not compromise or upset the eternal forgiveness which reached him, when as a sinner he turned to God in repentance. It does nevertheless compromise his communion with God, of which we have just been reading. That communion will be suspended until he confesses the sin that has broken in upon it.

Reader, if your experience is that depicted in Romans 7 bear in mind that it is the experience of a soul in bondage and undelivered; and do not try and comfort yourself with the thought that it is only what must be expected. Alas that so many should rest satisfied with such a state and be full of self, instead of being full of Christ. The proper attitude of the Christian is to be occupied with Christ in glory, and to be changed into the same image from glory to glory, by gazing at Him. (2 Cor. 3:18.) If, however, the Christian does sin, does he lose his sonship or his eternal life? Has he ceased to be what the word of God calls a forgiven soul? Not so; for as we have seen before, all these blessings are given to him unconditionally and eternally. What, then, has he lost? Well, he has lost his joy, and his communion, or his fellowship with the Father and the Son is broken. The Father will not give the joy of His company to a naughty child, and therefore directly sin takes place, the joy is gone until the sin is judged and confessed, but the relationship abides eternally. The only place where forgiveness is spoken of in the Epistles, as necessary for the Christian, is in 1 John 1:9, where it is not a question of salvation at all, but of fellowship, and we are told that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is, the joy of fellowship cannot be restored without self-judgment and confession. And bear in mind, confession of sin is a much deeper thing than praying for forgiveness, which latter is generally done without exercise of soul at all; and when God tells us to confess our sins He means it, and does not mean that we should merely ask forgiveness. The Christian's relationship as a son of God is eternal; his eternal life is eternal; his forgiveness as to the eternal judgment of God is also eternal. But he does, as we have seen, need daily forgiveness for the maintenance of fellowship with the Father, and the way to get this is by confession of the sin or sins committed. All sin must be confessed to God. If committed individually, then confession must be individual. If committed corporately, then confession should be, if possible, corporate as well as individual. If man, as well as God, be wronged, then confession (and restitution when necessary) to man, as well as to God, should be made. (Matt. 5:24.) But beware of asking in a general way for forgiveness of sins, and of general confessions of sin than which there is no more certain way of deadening the conscience and hardening the heart. The devil dearly loves to hear people calling themselves miserable sinners, and making general confessions, knowing how well it serves his purpose. The publican said, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and went down to his house justified; but thousands weekly call themselves miserable sinners over and over again, but do not go to their houses justified; and thus Satan soothes souls, and carries them down the cleaner side of the broad road to hell, telling them all the time that they are not like the proud Pharisee, but humble like the publican.

This is another object of the book, that we sin not, but if we do sin we have someone greater than ourselves who takes up our cause, we have a Patron with the Father. The Gospel of John was "written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in His name" (20:31). It was written to reach out to unbelievers, but the First Epistle was written to children. It is written to the family of God and so when it deals with sin it does not say, 'You need to be saved'. It says, 'You have to confess your sin, and you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous'. This sin which has temporarily interrupted or broken or marred our communion needs to be dealt with. It is not that we need to be saved over again. We have not lost our salvation, but we simply have to confess our sin. It does not even say that we need to have it forgiven, no, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. and if any one sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous".

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)

He is also "the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:2); that is, God is satisfied about our sins when Christ "bore them in His own body on the tree." Thus, when a child of God sins, and communion has been interrupted, He is there in the presence of God our Father, and prays about us, and the consequence is, that the word of God is brought home to our conscience by the power of the Spirit, and we are made to feel our sin and confess it to God our Father; and we have the word 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." Mark the expression, "Faithful and just;" not "loving and merciful," and why? Suppose a child of God has sinned, Christ is before the Father, and says, so to speak, "I bore that sin in my own body on the cross, and I am here in righteousness to represent that child of God." So God is faithful and just to the work and person of Christ to forgive us our sins, because the work of Christ put them all away, and He Himself is our righteousness before God. But if when we sinned Christ had not been to the Father about us, we should never have confessed at all, but have got further and further away from the Lord. How blessed it is to think of the Lord's unchanging love and service to us! "He loved us, and gave Himself for us," and put away all our sins; and though now He is away, and we are left in this evil world, His love is still the same, and when we sin and get away from Him in our souls, He restores us to the communion we had lost.

Fellowship with the Father and the Son is the great privilege taught us by John. It results for us in fulness of joy. One significant consequence of our sins is that a barrier comes in to hinder the practical enjoyment of this fellowship. When we confess our sins, God faithfully and righteously removes this consequence, this barrier, opening the way for our joy to be restored.

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.

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.

Notice the verse says that God "is faithful and just to forgive." Faithful and just towards whom? Towards Christ! Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). When you confess your sins to God, believing that Christ bore them on the cross, God would be unfaithful and unjust towards Christ if He didn't forgive you. It would be the same as if God said, "I am not satisfied with what Christ did when He died for your sins so I still have to hold them against you." Can you imagine God being so unjust toward Christ, after Christ paid the debt, as to still hold you accountable for it? Perish the thought! Christ's work is perfect and God's Word is sure.