Tests of Salvation—Part 2: Belief in the Forgiveness of Sins and Confession  (1 John 1:7, 9; 2:1a)

But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin…. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. (1:7, 9; 2:1a)

The glorious promise of the gospel is the free and gracious forgiveness of sin given to everyone who truly repents and believes in the person and work of the Son of God. That divine pardon is so comprehensive that God removes all believing sinners’ defilement, guilt, and punishment and replaces those things with righteousness, sanctification, and heavenly reward. Moreover, God’s forgiveness is eternal and unchangeable (cf. John 5:24; Heb. 10:17-18). The apostle Paul summarized that all-surpassing blessing in his epistle to the Romans:

The fact that forgiveness is complete and irrevocable, however, has led some to wrongly conclude that those who have received salvation need never again confess their sins before God and request forgiveness. The proponents of this view contend that, in order for Christians to accept genuinely their full pardon and fully enjoy their liberty in Christ, they must ignore sin and focus solely on God’s grace. But historically, such teaching has consistently led to the error of antinomianism—a practical disregard for the law of God and a callous lack of concern for violating it. If such people are truly saved, they are indifferent toward the disciplines that produce holiness in their lives. The effects of such faulty thinking are disastrous. (For further discussion of this issue, see John MacArthur, The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1998], chapter 3.)

In order to justify their indifference toward God’s moral law, many who hold such a position relegate Christ’s teaching on forgiveness to another dispensation (contending that Jesus’ instruction applies to Old Testament Israel only, and not to the New Testament church). Thus, they argue, when Jesus commanded the apostles to pray for the Father’s forgiveness (cf. Luke 11:4), His words reflected the era of law, not grace. They further suggest that the reason Christ gave such stipulations to His disciples was because He understood salvation in the Old Testament to be conditional—based on confessing sin, offering sacrifices, and keeping the law. But their claims are ultimately unfounded, for salvation never functioned that way during any part of the Old Testament era (and, obviously, that was not how Jesus understood it). God saved people then on the same basis that He saves them now—by the substitutionary, atoning death of Jesus Christ, which the sacrificial system pictured. Sinners then as now were saved by faith only, demonstrated when, overwhelmed by their sin and inability to keep God’s holy law, they cried out to God for mercy and received His pardon (cf. Ps. 32:1–2a; Isa. 55:6-7; Mic. 7:18-19; Luke 18:13-14). Those whom He saved before the cross, God in eternity past chose, and looking ahead to the death of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” [Rev. 13:8, NKJV]) applied Christ’s coming death to their account, even as He now looks back to Calvary and extends the same electing grace to all who have believed the gospel. The just have always lived by faith (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17), so no sacrifice, confession, or law keeping in any era could earn a right standing before God or satisfy His just judgment against sinners (cf. Rom. 4:1-24; Heb. 9:11-15). Only the perfect, substitutionary death of the Lamb of God could satisfy justice and save believing sinners from God’s wrath. And only the righteous life of Christ credited to their accounts could make them acceptable to God (John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

So how can one reconcile the comprehensiveness and permanence of God’s forgiveness and the imputing of perfect righteousness to believers at salvation with the continual need for Christian penitence (e.g., Pss. 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143; Matt. 6:14-15)? It is necessary to recognize that divine forgiveness consists of two interrelated aspects: the judicial (or legally forensic) and the sanctifying (or personal, paternal). The Lord illustrated those two aspects of forgiveness when He washed the apostles’ feet in the upper room:

Modeling humility and servanthood, the Lord performed one of the most frequent menial acts of courtesy found in the ancient Middle East—a task normally done by the lowest-level slave. Instead of asking one of His disciples to do the dirty work, Jesus Himself removed the sandals of His followers and washed their grimy feet in preparation for the Passover meal.

When Jesus told Peter, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean,” the Lord made a distinction between the two aspects of forgiveness. The all-cleansing bath represents God’s forensic application of Christ’s death to repentant sinners, completely and forever justifying them (Acts 13:39; Rom. 3:22, 24; 4:6-8; 5:1; Gal. 2:16), and freeing them forever from eternal hell. Washing feet, on the other hand, represents the paternal forgiveness of sanctification. Although repentant sinners have already been justified once-for-all, they have not yet been delivered from the presence and power of sin in their daily lives (Rom. 7:15-20; Gal. 5:17). Therefore believers need to confess and forsake sin regularly, thereby washing the metaphorical dirt of sin off their feet (cf. Pss. 38:18; 97:10; 139:23-24; Prov. 28:13; Rom. 8:13; 12:9; Col. 3:5; Heb. 12:1). But in so doing, since they have already been fully cleansed, they come to confess, not to a condemning Judge (cf. Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:11-15), but rather to their loving Father (1 John 2:5; 4:16; cf. Ps. 36:7; Rom. 5:5; 8:39; Eph. 2:4), endeavoring to avoid His displeasure and discipline (cf. Heb. 13:17). It is this kind of forgiveness that confessing Christians seek, and why they forgive others so that God does not withhold the relational forgiveness that blesses (Matt. 6:14-15).

Repentance is not only God’s work in the heart leading to salvation (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 2 Cor. 7:10; 2 Tim. 2:25), but also an essential element of every believer’s sanctification (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1). John concludes the opening section by applying two tests of genuine salvation that are related to repentance: a belief in God’s forgiveness of sin and a regular practice of confessing sins. This instruction suggests three terms that describe true believers in contrast to those who falsely profess to be in the fellowship of faith (cf. 1:6, 8, 10). True believers are cleansed from sin; yet, confessing sin; and even conquering sin.

CLEANSED

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1:7)

Walk is used throughout the New Testament, especially in Paul’s letters, to describe the effect, not of justification, but of sanctification. Salvation is not only a change in one’s legal status as divine righteousness is credited to one’s account, but a change in behavior as actual righteousness is given to believers by the very indwelling presence of God’s Spirit. Daily living of the Christian life is a Spirit-enabled walk (John 8:12; 12:35; Rom. 6:4; 8:4; 1 Cor. 7:17; 2 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 5:16, 25; Eph. 2:10; 4:1; 5:8; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 4:1). The verb is a present subjunctive, expressing continuous action that is nevertheless hypothetical because it applies only to some people.

Those who walk in the Light do so because the power of God has regenerated them. As “new creature[s]” for whom “new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17), they will behave in a way that reflects the power of God’s righteous life in them, just as God Himself is in the Light (see the discussion of 1:5 in the previous chapter of this volume). The general pattern of their day-to-day actions and attitudes will be godlike. Such walkers will experience fellowship with one another (1:3, 7; Acts 2:42; cf. Col. 1:12; Phil. 2:17-18), which derives from their union with the triune God (1:6; 1 Cor. 1:9; 6:17; 12:6, 13). All true Christians live and walk in the Light (i.e., the life of God) and the communion of the saints.

To all who walk in the Light, God grants His grace so that throughout their lives the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses them from all sin. This is not to say that Christians no longer struggle with sin, for no one will ever be totally free in this life from the unredeemed humanness of their flesh (Matt. 26:41; Rom. 7:18-24; Gal. 5:17; cf. Rom. 13:14). However, because the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses away every impurity, sin can never change a believer’s standing before God (cf. Rom. 8:33-39). The term blood is often used in the New Testament as a dramatic and graphic way to represent Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross (cf. Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:12; 10:19), by which He “released us from our sins by His blood” (Rev. 1:5; cf. Col. 1:20-22; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:17; Rev. 5:9).

The salvation cleansing John described encompasses all the sinner’s transgressions, past and future, and depends on no condition but God’s sovereign grace in response to saving faith. John is unmistakably in agreement with the Spirit-inspired teaching of Paul that the redeemed enjoy complete, unalterable, and unrepeatable forgiveness (cf. 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 10:10).

CONFESSING

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1:9)

Confession of sin is absolutely crucial to entering the Light (justification) (cf. Mark 1:15; Luke 18:13-14) and walking in it (sanctification). Though this is obvious in Scripture, there are many who even claim that one needs only to accept the facts about Jesus for salvation, arguing that the confession and repentance of sin are unnecessary—or optional at best—for justification. Out of the soil of that errant soteriology comes the antinomian indifference toward a Christian life of repentance and confession for the sake of holiness. (For an in-depth discussion of this erroneous viewpoint and an exposition of the biblical doctrine of salvation, see John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988, 1994], and The Gospel According to the Apostles [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993, 2000].)

Such views exist in spite of biblical calls to repentance and examples of people who openly acknowledged their sins to God. “So Judah said, ‘What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants’” (Gen. 44:16; cf. 41:9; Jon. 3:5-10). Overwhelmed by a vision of God’s majestic holiness, the prophet Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5; cf. 1 Chron. 21:17; Dan. 9:20). The Psalms are filled with confessions, most notably David’s in Psalm 51:

The New Testament includes similar expressions. No less than John the Baptist preached repentance with manifest evidence as necessary for entering into God’s salvation kingdom (Matt. 2:4-12; Luke 3:4-14). Jesus demanded recognition of sin and a response of repentance for all who desired salvation (Matt. 4:17), even saying that sinners had to repent or perish (Luke 13:3, 5). The repentance and confession of sin He demanded was so strong it required total self-denial (Luke 9:23-26) and hatred of self (Luke 14:25-27), which made coming to salvation too demanding for some (Luke 13:23-24). Peter and Paul each confessed their sinfulness (Luke 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:12-16), and two of Jesus’ parables concerned men who recognized their own sinful conditions (Luke 15:18; 18:13). Moreover, as the apostles proclaimed the gospel, they made it clear that God calls upon sinners everywhere to admit their sin and repent (Acts 17:30; cf. Isa. 45:22; Acts 2:38).

First John 1:9 fits this pattern with perfect consistency, when rightly interpreted. Because John is writing to believers (“my little children,” 2:1), to those who are antinomian it appears to make forgiveness conditional (i.e., if believers confess, God will forgive; if they do not confess, He will not forgive). This confusion is easily cleared away, first of all by noting that the verse is actually a reiteration of God’s faithfulness to His New Covenant promise of salvation in the Old Covenant: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34; cf. Luke 1:77-78; Heb. 9:13-14). The reminder that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness reemphasizes the truth John had just stated in verse 7, that God will, because of His character, secure their eternal glory by continuing to cleanse believers from all future sin. He is faithful to His promise and always does what is righteous. (The aorist tense of the verb aphiēmi [forgive] carries a past connotation and further demonstrates that God’s forgiveness derives from a historical event, the atonement, which has lasting benefits for all who believe.) In chapter 2 John writes, “your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake” (v. 12). Forgiveness is consistent with who Jesus Christ is and with what the Father promised, according to His perfectly faithful (Isa. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; Heb. 2:17; Rev. 19:11), righteous (Ps. 7:11; Isa. 53:11), just (Gen. 18:25; Col. 3:25), holy (Ex. 15:11; Rev. 4:8), and loving (Jer. 31:3; 1 John 4:8) nature. Forgiveness is not incomplete or dependent in the saving sense on believers’ confessing.

With that established, it is possible to understand the place of ongoing confession. The word translated confess (homologeō) means “to say the same thing.” Thus believers are those who confess their sins, agreeing with God about their sin—they acknowledge its reality and affirm that it is a transgression of His law and a violation of His will, the presence of which the truly penitent seek to eliminate from their lives (3:4; James 2:10-11; 4:17; cf. Rom. 7:24). What John is actually saying here about confession is that since believers are forgiven, they will regularly confess their sins. Stated another way, their forgiveness is not because of their ongoing confession, but their ongoing pattern of penitence and confession is because of their forgiveness and transformation. As the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, He continually produces within them a hatred for sin (Ps. 97:10; Prov. 8:13; Rom. 7:15-25; Phil. 3:8-9; cf. Ps. 1:1-2), which results in penitent hearts and a sincere acknowledgment of their sins. The more believers grow in Christ, the greater their hatred of sin becomes and the deeper is their penitence. Paul, the most devout and dedicated Christian, at the end of his earthly sanctification, saw himself as the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

If confession is genuine, it will always stem from proper sorrow over sin and a real longing to turn from sin. In 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 Paul wrote:

The apostle was not referring to feeling bad about the consequences of one’s sinful conduct, which is the worldly sorrow characterized by despair, depression, and sometimes suicide (Matt. 27:3-5). Rather, he was describing the kind of godly sorrow that produces real repentance that leads to salvation. Biblical repentance will result in “earnestness,” “vindication,” “indignation,” “fear,” “longing,” “zeal,” and “avenging.” (For more on these results, see comments on 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 in John MacArthur, 2 Corinthians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 2003], 264-67.) When repentance is present, believers will have a strong desire for God to deal with sin at any cost (cf. Matt. 5:29-30), even when that cost may be high for them personally (cf. Luke 19:8-10). True believers are therefore habitual confessors who demonstrate that God has not only pardoned their sin and is faithfully cleansing them daily from it, but has truly regenerated them, making them new creatures with holy desires that dominate their will. (Later in this epistle, John shows how true believers do not go on sinning [3:4-10], but strive to obey God [3:19-24].)

In spite of this straightforward meaning, many throughout history have misinterpreted and misapplied the concept of confession. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, sees confession as the anonymous divulging of sins to a human priest in a confessional booth. Catholics believe such confession to be a meritorious act, one that earns the confessor forgiveness, if followed by the performance of some penitential ritual (such as repeating a prayer or saying the rosary a certain number of times). Under that system, one essentially receives forgiveness based on the good works of confession and penance.

Others view confession as psychologically and emotionally therapeutic—an act that helps people feel good about feeling bad, ensuring that they “feel” forgiven and experience healing. Still others teach that the confession in this verse refers only to the moment of salvation, with no regard for subsequent times of acknowledging sin. But if one truly trusts in Christ as Lord and Savior (Luke 9:23; Acts 2:38-39; 16:31; Rom. 10:9-10; cf. Mark 10:21-27; John 15:4-8), he will regularly admit his sins before God, as the present, active form of the verb confess indicates.

Perhaps the most popular but erroneous view of confession in this context is that believers are forgiven of only those sins they confess. If that were correct, it would mean that unconfessed sins remain with believers until the judgment seat of Christ, at which time they will have to give an account for those iniquities. But such is simply not the case. No one will enter heaven with a list of unconfessed sins still hanging over his head (cf. 1 Cor. 15:50; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Rev. 22:15), because the finished work of Jesus Christ completely covers all of the sins of those who believe, including those that remain unconfessed (see commentary on 2:12 in chapter 7 of this volume). As the apostle Paul wrote:

CONQUERING

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. (2:1a)

The New Testament makes it clear that Christians, no longer slaves to sin, are given the spiritual means to have victory over sin. Paul’s strong command to believers assumes their resources to conquer the sin that still remains in the unglorified body:

The law made demands but provided no power or equipping to fulfill them. As a result, it only condemns and does not save.

John’s strong love for his readers and his desire for them to heed his words and not sin comes across in his tender designation, my little children, an expression that occurs six other times in this letter (2:12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21; cf. 2:13, 18). Being faithful, diligent confessors of sin, as an expression of their new creation, made it contrary to their own disposition to abuse God’s grace by indulging in further sin (cf. Rom. 6:1-2; Gal. 5:13; 1 Peter 2:16). John was writing these things to encourage them in consistent holiness, because they were regenerate people indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who had been delivered from habitual sin (cf. Rom. 8:12-13; Titus 2:11-12; 1 Peter 1:13-16). Again John echoes, in a concise way, Paul’s following exhortation from Romans 6,

So, at the close of 1 John 1, the aging apostle presents further tests of salvation and a clear picture of who passes those tests. Those who pass are true Christians who embrace God’s forgiveness but are nonetheless constant confessors of their sin. That characteristic is a reality in their lives due to God’s regenerating and sanctifying work in their hearts, by means of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; Rom. 8:15) and the Word of truth (John 17:17). Genuine believers are thus people who have been cleansed from all sin, yet feel its presence powerfully and are eager to confess their remaining sins and, by the power of new life in the Spirit, conquer temptation.