"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."
- 1 John 1:8-9
Do you understand what forgiveness is? I mean, if you are a Christian and you consider yourself a member of the body of Christ, do you really understand what it means to be forgiven? We often come before God as a sinner and a failure and pour out our hearts of shame before him and yet still feel guilty. We repent, and then repent and often repent for the same sin over and over again thinking that we need to repent numerous times in order to be forgiven. But the bible says in 1 John that though no man is without sin (for if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us), that God removes the stains of sin from our corrupted souls (but if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness)
It's interesting to me that he doesn't stop with forgiveness in this passage, as if when God forgives it is something less than a full cleansing. But to make it sure, and fully sure, that we understand the scope of His forgiveness, the writer goes back to the Psalm where King David repents after committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah. Where he uses the word clean to describe the way God deals with the repentant sinner's heart: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!" (Ps. 51:2) "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Ps. 51:7) and "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps. 51:10)
What the psalmist desires is not merely forgiveness from God, His prayer is for righteousness. David knows the true heart of God: that God is so Holy that David cannot stand in God's presence with his sin. So his repentance becomes one of asking for cleansing, even if it is a painful cleansing (purge me with hyssop), so that he will no longer be removed from the presence of the Lord.
And so this is the promise being fulfilled in the new testament by a new covenant where now we are cleansed and made righteous by the blood of Christ. For Jesus did not merely endure the scouring of hyssop, but rather the torture and sentence of death on the cross. And so do we get this? Do we really understand what it means to be called righteous? Can it be somehow understood that all our sins were nailed to that tree so that we are not just forgiven, but completely clean? It's not just that God looks at our sinful state and says, "It's ok, I'll accept you anyways." But rather, through our repentance -- which only comes by faith, which only comes by grace from God, through the cross of Christ, not by any of our works, or of the law (for if righteousness could be gained through the law then Christ died in vain) -- God says to the miserable, broken and weary sinner: "YOU ARE RIGHTEOUS."
To say that God says any less would be to deny the power of Christ's sacrifice. In fact if you're repenting more than once for any one sin, then that is not faith, that's a lack of faith and you need to repent of that. But even if you failed to repent of every missed deed, you would still be counted righteous, for it is not the action of repentance that chooses God, but it is the action of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection that provides you with faith. And so even the very sinful shall pass through the fires of death unscathed, though purged to glory, and by faith unto resurrection, as long as they abide in Christ. And such an action of abiding requires no work at all, for God foreknew before the beginning of time who He would predestine to repentance. That the elect of God would be called Saints, set apart for the purposes of God. Forgiven, and eternally cleansed so that we share no longer in the shame of our former ways, but in the promise of eternal glory in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
- Romans 5:1-11
