What Does It Mean That God Is Just To Forgive? By Mike Leake for Church Leaders
“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
“God, I screwed up….”
Do you realize what wonderful glory you are accessing when you utter those words from a penitent heart? Your confession is connected to the character of God and it leads to action from God.
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He is faithful…He never fails. He never lets down. He never fails to respond consistently to our confession. He always applies His great and wonderful promises of grace and mercy to our humble confession. Always.
This is where we typically put an emphasis on this verse. We rightly note how God’s loving and merciful character leads to his action of forgiving us and cleansing us of unrighteousness. God is faithful to respond to your confession with His cleansing grace.
But John wants us to connect these actions to another aspect of God’s character; namely, He is just. This means that God is righteous in forgiving a penitent sinner. It is consistent with His character and it is the right thing to do. It is right for God to cleanse the one who asks for cleansing.
He will forgive you, and it’s right for him to do it.
He will cleanse you, and it’s right for him to do it.
Consider the implications of this, though. This means that it would be unjust for God to withhold forgiveness from you when you confess. It also means that the righteous character of God also works to remove the stain which accompanies that which we are confessing.
If you have confessed your sin, live as if it’s been cast into the ocean to be seen no more. If you have confessed your sin, don’t be surprised by the scrubbing that’s coming. God doesn’t just forgive, he also cleanses. He un-dragons us.
But this also means—and you can see the connection here with verse 8—that it would be unjust for God to forgive and cleanse you apart from confession. It would be unrighteous for God to grant forgiveness to someone who desires to continue in rebellion.
