If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I love this. In the previous verse we are confronted with the reality of our sin state. But we are not left there. John gives us the practical key for dealing with any sin issue that will arise.
One thing I have always loved about this verse is that God doesn't just forgive us our sins, but we are still left with the unrighteous pull to that sin, He will also cleanse us from that unrighteousness. PRAISE GOD! He is a faithful God but as the verse says He is also just. He doesn't just "sweep our sin under the carpet" , we have to acknowledge and take responsibility for our sin. Then forgiveness and cleansing comes. This should make us want to walk more and more in the light! Sin "swept under the carpet" in our lives robs us in the end.
David Guzik's commentary is a fantastic explanation of this verse, I encourage you to read it:
If we confess our sins: Though sin is present, it need not remain a hindrance to our relationship with God - we may find complete cleansing (from all unrighteousness) as we confess our sins.
i. To confess means, "to say the same as." When we confess our sin, we are willing to say (and believe) the same thing about our sin that God says about it. Jesus' story about the religious man and the sinner who prayed before God illustrated this; the Pharisee bragged about how righteous he was, while the sinner just said God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luke 18:10-14) The one who confessed his sin was the one who agreed with God about how bad he was.
ii. Confess is a verb in the present tense; the meaning is that we should keep on confessing our sin - instead of referring to a "once-for-all" confession of sin at our conversion.
iii. You don't have to go to a confessional to confess your sin. When you are baptized, you are confessing your sin by saying you needed to be cleansed and reborn. When you receive communion, you confess your sin by saying you need the work of Jesus on the cross to take your sin away. But of course, we need to confess our sin in the most straightforward way: by admitting to God that we have done is sin, and asking for His divine forgiveness, based on what Jesus has done on the cross for us.
iv. Our sins are not forgiven because we confess; if this were the case - if forgiveness for a sin could only come where there was confession - then we would all be damned, because it would be impossible for us to confess every sin we ever commit. We are forgiven because our punishment was put upon Jesus, we are cleansed by His blood.
v. However, confession is still vital to maintain relationship with God, and this is the context John speaks from. As God convicts us of sin that is hindering our fellowship with Him, we must confess it and receive forgiveness and cleansing for our relationship with God to continue without hindrance.
vi. Confession must be personal; saying "God, if we have made any mistakes, forgive us" isn't confession, because it isn't convinced (saying "if we made"), it isn't personal (saying "if wespecific (saying "if we made any"), and it isn't honest (saying "mistakes"). made"), it isn't
c. He is faithful and just to forgive us: Because of Jesus' work, the righteousness of God is our friend - insuring that we will be forgiven, because Jesus paid the penalty of our sin. God is being faithful and just to forgive us in light of Jesus.
i. "He would be unrighteous if He broke His promise ratified by the blood of Jesus." (D. Smith)
d. The promise of 1 John 1:9 shouldn't lead us into sin, saying "Hey, I'll go ahead and sin because God will forgive me." It should lead us out of sin, knowing that God could only be faithful and just to forgive us our sins because the wrath we deserved was poured out on the sin. Since each sin carries with it its own measure of wrath, so there is a sense in which each sin we commit added to the agony of Jesus on the cross.
e. If we say that we have not sinned: If we deny the presence of sin, we are self-deceived and denying God's word. Yet, though sin is always present, so is its remedy - so sin need never be a hindrance to our relationship with God.
i. The idea that His word is not in us is related to the idea that Jesus is the Word of life (1 John 1:1); if we refuse to see sin in us, we show that Jesus is not in us.
Adam Clarkes summary of this verse relating to the cleansing of our sin is worth reading too:
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Not only to forgive the sin, but to purify the heart.
Not only to forgive the sin, but to purify the heart.
OBSERVE here, 1. Sin exists in the soul after two modes or forms: (1.) In guilt, which requires forgiveness or pardon. (2.) In pollution, which requires cleansing.
2. Guilt, to be forgiven, must be confessed; and pollution, to be cleansed, must be also confessed. In order to find mercy, a man must know and feel himself to be a sinner, that he may fervently apply to God for pardon; in order to get a clean heart, a man must know and feel its depravity, acknowledge and deplore it before God, in order to be fully sanctified.
3. Few are pardoned, because they do not feel and confess their sins; and few are sanctified or cleansed from all sin, because they do not feel and confess their own sore, and the plague of their hearts.
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