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.”
The compilers of the Holy Bible Recovery Version take 1 John 1:9 very seriously. They have written lengthy footnotes from which I extracted the following:
“Confess denotes the confessing of our sins, our failures, after regeneration, not the confessing of our sins before regeneration.”
“God is faithful in His word and righteous in the blood of Jesus His Son. His word is the word of the truth of His gospel, which tells us that He will forgive us our sins because of Christ; and the blood of Christ has fulfilled His righteous requirements that He might forgive us our sins.”
“To forgive us is to release us from the offense of our sins, whereas to cleanse us is to wash us from the stain of our unrighteousness.”
“Unrighteousness and sins are synonyms. All unrighteousness is sin. Both refer to our wrongdoings. Sins indicates the offense of our wrongdoings against God and men; unrighteousness indicates the stain of our wrongdoings, which causes us not to be right with either God or men.”
[Living Stream Ministry (2012-09-18). Holy Bible Recovery Version]
On the surface, the Christian bar of soap appears to be straightforward. We confess our sins and we are cleansed and forgiven. However, just when I think I'm beginning to understand the Bible I dig a little deeper into it and the many readily available resources.
That said and In my opinion, the above footnotes draw a parallel to the following passages from Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:7-9, "7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast." [KJV]
We are justified before God through the blood of Jesus and not by our own effort. Indeed as believers we are given "the exceeding riches of his grace." So do we apply the Christian bar of soap once or is it an ongoing activity?
1 John 1:10 carries a warning, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
"In this word God exposes our true condition, which is sinful both before and after regeneration. If we say that after regeneration we have not sinned, we make God a liar and deny the word of His revelation."
[Living Stream Ministry (2012-09-18). Holy Bible Recovery Version]
As for me, I’m convicted to confess my sins numerous times a day. I miss the mark every time I’m judgmental of others and when I so often forget to say thanks for my food and dive in. Seemingly little sins, however, there are no little sins; sin is sin.
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