The Naked Gospel: Truth You May Never Hear in Church (12 page)

B
UT WHAT ABOUT I JOHN
1:9—
“If we confess
OUR SINS
, [G
OD
] IS faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”? (italics added).

At first glance, this well-known verse appears to muddy the waters concerning once-for-all forgiveness. In many books and articles on the topic of forgiveness, this verse often serves as the foundation on which the author’s belief system is constructed.

Theologians and Christian authors will often agree with John that “your sins have been forgiven on account of [Jesus’] name” (1 John 2:12). But later you find them essentially saying that confession is needed to
cause
God to forgive you. The problem is that both statements can’t be true at the same time. Either we’ve been forgiven, or there’s a condition for us to be forgiven.

To resolve this dilemma, some have proposed the following: Christians are forgiven eternally in God’s heavenly record books. However, unless Christians keep short accounts with God through daily confession of sins, they can’t experience God’s cleansing during life on earth. Hence, they claim that 1 John 1:9 is the believer’s “bar of soap” to maintain daily fellowship with God.
And they use terms such as
judicial, patriarchal,
and
forensic
as they delicately dance around the reality of once-for-all forgiveness and push the idea of a two-tiered forgiveness system in which eternally God is satisfied, but right now we somehow maintain our own daily cleansing through a confession ritual.

I frequently come across this line of thinking in which 1 John 1:9 is the one and only hallmark verse. But we know we shouldn’t develop theologies based principally around one verse. It’s important to recognize that this verse stands as the only one of its kind. No other verse in the epistles appears to place a conditional “if” on forgiveness and cleansing.

So if there was a method for maintaining daily cleansing, the Romans were apparently unaware of it. If there was a prescription for keeping short accounts with God, the Galatians seemed to have had no exposure to it. If there was a need to ask God for forgiveness, the Ephesians were apparently not privy to it. Similarly, the Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians also seemed to have missed this teaching.

If there were a daily method to maintain good status (fellowship) with God through ongoing confession of sins or pleas for forgiveness, wouldn’t you think it’d be mentioned in at least one epistle? Did God accidentally leave it out? Certainly not!

So let’s take a closer look at 1 John 1:9 to understand John’s intended audience and the context of this peculiar verse.

From the beginning of John’s first chapter, we see him addressing prominent heresies in the early church. John begins his letter with words such as
heard, seen, looked at,
and
touched
to describe his
interactions with Jesus. He does this to emphasize the physicality of Jesus.

Today, we take for granted that Jesus was physical. Of course he was! No argument there. But two millennia ago early forms of Gnostic thought infiltrated the church and popularized the idea that Jesus was only spirit. Early Gnostics claimed that God would never stoop so low as to take on human flesh. So the apostle John purposely uses physical words in his opening statement to challenge this Gnostic heresy. Later, he says that anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus came in human flesh is
not from God
(1 John 4:3).

If that’s the case, then who was John’s audience in his first chapter? True believers don’t claim that Jesus lacked a physical body. So John is
not
correcting believers in his opening statement. He’s addressing Gnostics who had infiltrated the early church and were teaching false doctrines. After establishing the physicality of Jesus, John then writes,
“If we claim to be without sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8, italics added).

Why is John now concerned about those who claim they’re sinless? Do you know any true believers today who say they’ve never sinned? Of course not! What do you have to do to become a believer in Christ? Admit you’re a sinner! Someone who claims they have never sinned is
not
a Christian. So here John is concerned for
un
believers.

Interestingly, early Gnostic philosophers didn’t just deny the physicality of Jesus;
they also denied the reality of sin.
Gnostics claimed that sin wasn’t real or didn’t matter, since it took place in the physical world. So John opens his letter by attacking two Gnostic heresies: (1) Jesus as nonphysical, and (2) sin as a nonreality.

Understanding John’s purpose in opening his letter this way is crucial. A poor interpretation of verse 9 leads many Christians astray. Again, verse 9 declares, “If we confess our sins, [God] is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Some claim that this verse must refer to Christians, since John uses the word
we.
If that were true, one should hold that all preceding and following verses using
we
also refer to Christians. But this isn’t the case.

John uses
we
to politely combat Gnostic heresy. We see this technique in the following:

• If
  we
  claim to be without sin…(1 John 1:8)
  
• If
  we
  claim we have not sinned…(1 John 1:10)
  

Similarly, John uses the word
us
to draw conclusions such as these:

• the truth is not in
  us
  (1 John 1:8)
  
• [God’s] word is not in
  us
  (1 John 1:10 NASB)
  

Is John referring to believers here? When referring to people who don’t have the truth in them or God’s word in them, does he include himself and the church in that group? Certainly not! John is politely saying that if we
humans
claim we have no sin, we’re liars and don’t have Christ (the Word and the Truth) in us. Clearly, John is talking about
un
believers.

So if an unbeliever has bought into the heresy of sinless perfection, what’s the only sensible solution? Let’s reread verse 9 to see if we can get John’s intent: “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Verse 9 is a remedy for unbelievers who have been influenced by Gnostic peer pressure and are now claiming sinless perfection. John is essentially asking, “Instead of claiming that
you have no sin, will you consider changing your mind? Instead of claiming you’ve never sinned, how about agreeing with God?” He’s inviting Gnostics to rethink their point of view. If they’ll admit their sinfulness, then God can do a saving work in their lives.

So 1 John 1:9 is an invitation to become a Christian. And it certainly holds relevance today. If anyone claims to be without sin, they’re wrong. But there’s a solution to their misguided thinking. If they’re willing to change their mind and confess the opposite (that they
do
have sins), then there’s hope.

Did you notice that this verse declares they’d be purified from
all
unrighteousness? The phrase
all unrighteousness
is reminiscent of forgiveness passages elsewhere in the epistles. Here, John isn’t asking for a one-by-one tallying of our sins in order for Christians to stay forgiven and cleansed. That would be ludicrous, given the impossibility for any human to truly comply!

Think about it. You’ve already committed thousands of sins that you’ve forgotten about. You can’t possibly remember them in order to confess them and become forgiven for them. That’s why Christians have to be purified from
all
unrighteousness—once and for all!

This contextualized interpretation of verse 9 may be new to those of us who have viewed the passage as a prescription for Christians who just committed an individual sin. First John 1:9 has been a “bar of soap” routine to stay cleansed and in fellowship with God.

What a tragedy! In adopting this view, we fail to acknowledge that only blood (not words) brings forgiveness. We miss the fact that Jesus’ once-for-all blood sacrifice brought lifelong cleansing. So we dialogue with God
to feel
forgiven and cleansed. This
feeling serves as our confirmation that God just forgave us. But some aren’t able to conjure up this feeling. And as a result they end up doubting their forgiveness!

Let’s clarify an important point. The meaning of
confess
is “to say the same as” or “to agree.” Believers should agree with God on all counts—not just about sins but about everything. Although we don’t confess our sins
in order to receive
new portions of forgiveness and cleansing, we should still agree with God concerning the folly of sin. We’re his children, and it is only his ways that fulfill. We’re designed from the ground up to agree with him, depend on him, and live from him.

But it’s equally important to recognize that we don’t impel God or put him into motion through our confession. He’s not waiting to dole out forgiveness or cleansing. We don’t need to keep “short accounts” with God, since he has destroyed the record book!

God has taken away our sins. He remembers them no more. As believers, our forgiveness and cleansing aren’t dependent on our memory, our confession, or our asking. Our forgiveness and cleansing are solely because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

What about James 5:16? James talks about confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other. But he’s saying we should listen to each other’s struggles, offer counsel where appropriate, and pray for each other. The context of James’s exhortation to confess our sins to each other
has nothing to do with God’s forgiving or cleansing us.

Confession to trusted friends and to God is healthy. It’s normal
and natural to talk about your struggles with people who care about you. The indispensable truth to grasp, however, is that confession does
not
initiate cleansing in your life. We’ve already been cleansed “once for all” through the onetime blood sacrifice that needs no repeating.

Let’s be honest about our struggles, but let’s also be clear about what the cross accomplished. The Catholic goes to a priest, and the Protestant thinks he does better by appealing directly to God. But any system that doesn’t factor in once-for-all forgiveness is intrinsically flawed.

God doesn’t want us to think that human priests apportion forgiveness to us. Nor does he want us to envision his doling out forgiveness from heaven on a “first come, first serve” basis! Instead, he wants us to ascribe real meaning to Jesus’ declaration, “It is finished.”

Only then will we turn from sins for the right reason. Our motivation shouldn’t be to obtain forgiveness in return. We’re already forgiven and cleansed children of the living God. Our motivation should be the fulfillment that comes from truly being ourselves.

T
HE REALITY IS THAT CHRISTIANS ARE TOTALLY FORGIVEN PEOPLE
, whether we fully understand it or not. Realizing it simply allows us to cease our restless activity of trying to “get right” with God. Realizing it frees us to enjoy life free from guilt, as God intends—something that those under the Old could
never
do: “The worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins” (Hebrews 10:2).

Within the last century, the term
fellowship
has evolved into a construct that Christians use to talk about feelings of closeness to God at a given time. It’s a framework for relating to God that, unfortunately, we tend to develop from our interpersonal relationships. If we’ve sinned against a friend, family member, or coworker, we feel that our relationship with them is strained or broken until we apologize, are forgiven, and then restored to previous communication.

In the Scriptures, fellowship with God is
not
described in this way. Instead, a person is either in fellowship with God and therefore saved, or out of fellowship and therefore lost. In the ten instances of the word
fellowship
in the epistles, not once is there a moving “in and out of fellowship” with God based on recent performance.

Of course, we still mature spiritually. And when we sin,
consequences hit us. We can’t escape the laws of the land. We also can’t escape the reactions of others. If we sin against someone, we may experience difficult circumstances and our own disappointment with our choice. But we shouldn’t mistake these earthly consequences for moving out of fellowship with God.

Our fellowship is stable and certain. God’s face is always toward us. When we sin, he’s there every step of the way to help us learn from our mistake. How arrogant it is to assume that we could escape sin alone, while out of fellowship, in order to get back in!

If we buy the lie that God sits in a swivel chair, ready to rotate his face away from us when we sin, then we proclaim a God of conditional love and conditional fellowship. But this is to ignore the work of Jesus, who on the cross cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus was out of fellowship with his Father so we would never be.

However, sorrow over a wrongdoing is normal and expected in the Christian life. In fact, I’d be concerned about any person who was
not
sorry for their sins! There’s a godly sorrow or regret over sins that leads a person to desire change (2 Corinthians 7:10). This regret occurs because believers are designed for good works, not sins. When we sin, we’re not living out our destiny. When we sin, we won’t be content with our choice.

We’re meant for something greater.

We’re meant to display the life of Jesus Christ.

Nothing less.

Let’s talk about the Lord’s Prayer, in which Jesus taught his disciples to say, “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4). This is a request—an
asking for forgiveness. It is not a claiming of what one already has. So how does the Lord’s Prayer fit in with once-for-all forgiveness?

We can’t disregard the words of Jesus! But how do we
understand
his words, given that neither Paul nor Peter nor John—nor any other apostle—advocates asking for forgiveness as a daily routine for believers? The answer lies in examining the context of this prayer, its content, and its intended audience.

Jesus warns his followers to avoid meaningless repetition of lengthy prayers. He says babblers are not heard because of their many words (Matthew 6:7). So the disciples naturally want a model for “good” prayer. What we see today in many churches is the repetition of the same prayer Jesus offered the disciples. Yet do we even realize what we’re praying?

Most Christians know that the Lord’s Prayer contains an appeal for forgiveness. But Jesus tells his audience to ask God to forgive them
only to the same degree
that they’ve forgiven others.

The prayer isn’t merely, “Forgive us our debts.” It’s more specific than that. Jesus prays “Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven
our debtors” (Matthew 6:12, italics added). This prayer might be paraphrased like this: “God, take a survey of my life and my track record as a forgiver. Then give me the same type and amount of forgiveness I’ve given to others.”

What was the reaction of those who heard Jesus praying in this way? Did it excite them? Did it free them from guilt? Probably not. Jesus was deliberately showing his Jewish listeners the futility of seeking total forgiveness under the Old. If a person operates under a conditional religious system, they can only
receive what they earn
or give to others.

As with other harsh teachings of Jesus, some have tried to explain away the stringency of the Lord’s Prayer. Some suggest that we Christians
are
forgiving people and therefore we
tend
to forgive others just like God does. So some claim there’s no conflict between this prayer and passages in the epistles. But Jesus makes his intended meaning clear as he concludes the prayer, “For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins”
(Matthew 6:14-15, italics added).

Jesus is certainly not saying, “Since you are such a forgiving person…” On the contrary, he’s setting up a black-and-white condition for his listeners to be forgiven. They’ll be forgiven if they forgive others. They won’t be forgiven if they don’t forgive others. In fact, they’ll be forgiven
to the same degree
to which they forgive others.

Now compare these words with Paul’s statement in Colossians 3:13. The apostle writes, “Forgive as the Lord
forgave
you” (italics added). The Lord’s Prayer and Paul’s exhortation are incompatible. Jesus is calling us to forgive
so that
we can be forgiven, while Paul calls us to forgive
because
we’ve already been forgiven.

According to Jesus’ teaching, everything rests on our shoulders. We must forgive so that God will forgive us. According to Paul, God has already taken the initiative. We’ve already been forgiven, and we’re called to pass it on.

So how can Jesus’ teachings and Paul’s teachings be in opposition to each other? Weren’t they
both
teaching under the same New Covenant?

As we’ve already discussed, blood initiates a covenant. When Jesus taught Jews how to pray, his blood had not been shed yet. Therefore, the New had not begun. The Lord’s Prayer is an Old
Covenant prayer taught to Jews before once-for-all forgiveness was accomplished.

But why would Jesus prescribe a formula for earning forgiveness through forgiving others? Perhaps for the same reason he told the rich man to sell all his possessions (Mark 10:21). Maybe for the same reason he told his Jewish hearers to gouge out their eyes and cut off their hands in their fight against sin (Matthew 5:29-30). Possibly for the same reason he implored Jews to be perfect just as their heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

He said these things to bring despair, not hope.

What reaction would you have if you heard this teaching and sincerely wanted to follow it? Like the rich man, all who were honest about their chances at achieving
that
level of righteousness, dedication, and forgiveness went away disheartened. The rich man who earnestly sought truth confronted a painful reality. And the result was despondency.

Jesus spoke truth to every audience he encountered. Not all of Jesus’ statements were intended to show the hopelessness of the Old. Jesus also prophesied about the beauty of the New: the kingdom of God, the role of the Holy Spirit, and his return, to name a few. But this prayer was meant to prepare those under the Old for the New. He illuminated the futility of their efforts to get right with God. The best method to redeem those who think they’re on a good road is to bury them with standards that are just too great.

When people realize that the system they are under demands more than they can give, they’re ready for something New.