1 John 1:9

I’m going to begin with a shocking claim. 1 John is – shocking – a Hebrew epistle written to the twelve tribes scattered abroad (Gal. 2:9). This is not our mail. This was not written to the Body of Christ, although there are many timeless principles here, especially all the verses about the love of God, but this entire topic of confession of sins has nothing to do with us today. That is key and foundational to understanding this verse.

One needs to recognize the distinctive apostleship of Paul, and Paul gives the Body of Christ zero commands about confessing sins to obtain or maintain forgiveness.

Paul teaches:

1. God has forgiven you ALL trespasses (Col. 2:13)
2. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7)
3. God is not imputing our trespasses (2 Cor. 5:19)
4. We are complete in Him (Col. 2:10)
5. We have a perfect standing in His grace (Rom. 5:2)
6. Nothing can separate us from God (Rom. 8:33–39)

Paul never once tells the believer to confess sins to stay forgiven, confess sins to restore fellowship, confess sins to “get back in God’s good graces,” or confess sins daily. When Paul wants the believer to deal with sin, he tells them to: reckon themselves dead to sin (Rom. 6:11), put off sinful behavior (Eph. 4:22), renew the mind (Rom. 12:1–2), put on the new man (Col. 3:10), walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), and to forget those things behind you and keep reaching forth unto those things before you (Phil. 3:13).

But my question is – what did 1 John 1:9 mean for the little flock at the time? This epistle is post-Calvary, post Pentecost, & the law is dead.

1Jn 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1Jn 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Notice first the most obvious and important point to be made about 1 John 1:9 – the believers are already forgiven. Did you see what he wrote in verse 7? “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from ALL sin.”

There is no escaping the fact here that for the believing remnant, as it is for us today, anyone who got saved – during the gospels or early part of Acts- ALL of their sins were cleansed by the blood. John says, “cleanseth us from ALL sin.”

So before we even get to verse 9 about confession, John states that the believers already have ALL their sins cleansed. So if pastors in Christiantiy are going to argue that you have to confess your sins every day, then you have a real problem on your hands because vs 7 says that believers are already cleansed from ALL sin.

There’s another key verse.

1 John 2:12 – “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.”

He’s writing to the believing remnant and their sins are forgiven. This is in the perfect tense. This is a permanent completed action.

So, contextually, we have verses before and after 1 John 1:9 stating with absolute clarity that the believing remnant have ALL their sins cleansed by the blood and forgiven for his name’s sake.

How are Christian pastors going to explain away these contradictions in 1 John? The best answer I could find online was, “Well, these other passages are about your position but 1 John 1:9 is about practice. It’s about restoring your relationship to God after you sin.”

No. You cannot be anymore restored to God than by having ALL your sins cleansed by the blood. The function of 1 John 1:9, therefore, cannot be for the believing remnant to re-secure a forgiveness they already possessed. You cannot argue that its function is relational— to restore the fellowship that sin breaks when John says clearly that ALL of their sins cleansed by the blood and ALL of their sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

If 1:9 meant “you have to confess daily to keep your sins forgiven,” then 1:7 & 2:12 are meaningless lies.

Therefore, 1 John 1:9 cannot be about daily judicial forgiveness for the believing remnant in Israel. Why? Because the cleansing and the forgiveness of ALL their sins has already been completed. That issue of forgiveness is forever settled.

Notice also the grammar. Look at that entire section. From vs 6 all the way down to vs 10, this is a collection of if/then statements. All these verses begin with the word “If,” except for vs 7, which starts with “But if.”

I used to think of these as hypothetical statements, but no, it might be better to describe them as conditional truisms. These are not commands. These are conditional truisms. “If this is happens, then it must mean this truth.” This structure sets up a general condition (“If at any time, or whenever, we confess…”) rather than some continuous, non-stop process they had to do every day.

If John intended a daily, continuous, ritualistic confession of your sins, he would have never written the verse this way. He would write, “You must confess your sins every day.”

But instead he wrote “IF.” This is a hypothetical, conditional scenario to illuminate a truism about God’s faithfulness to forgive when confession happens, not what believers are commanded to do as a discipline every single day of their lives.

Notice the immediate context. 1 John 1:8 – “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” I’d suggest that, first of all, verse 9 exists as a second argument to counter this heresy about having no sin. It is a second argument to make against someone saying we have no sin. They’re wrong. We have sin, but that’s okay. We already know God has always been faithful to forgive us if we confess. And confession was an integral part of the Jews’ religion.

Notice the contextual point of this entire section. John isaddressing false claims, not commanding daily rituals. The primary purpose of 1 John 1:5–10 is to counter the claims of those who denied their sinfulness (in v. 8 and v. 10) or claimed fellowship with God while living in moral darkness (v. 6). These are hypothetical sayings made by those claiming fellowship but denying sin.

Some would say John was dealing with proto-Gnostics and sin-denying teachers at the time and that may be true. However, this kind of subject makes this a valuable tribulation epistle, because this all of this will be totally relevant in the tribulation.

I would argue that all the Hebrew epistles are also Tribulation epistles – designed for believers going through the Tribulation, and this section here in 1 John 1 is a prime example why this will be important for Tribulation saints because these very types of false claims that John is highlighting will be rampant in the Tribulation. All this talk about the love of God will also be incredibly important for people seeing His judgment being poured out in the Tribulation.

The purpose of this section is to expose false teachers, especially during the Tribulation, not prescribe some daily practice of confession for believers. This is a kinda fellowship test (verse 6-7) not a lifestyle instruction. This is all criteria to determine who is an authentic and sincere believer in the Tribulation.

John’s entire argument is: True believers walk in the light and acknowledge sin. False believers deny sin. Therefore, stay away from these false believers and teachers. It is not a lesson on “how often believers must confess sins.” It is a truism about the faithfulness of God to forgive to help determine who they should or should not be fellowshipping with in the Tribulation. This section was written to address that problem and verse 9 is not about a daily ritual but about acknowledging the fidelity of God to consistently forgive, which will then help them to rule out fellowship with the deceivers they’ll come across. Verse 7 tells them they only have fellowship with others who also walk in the light.

So the first major point I’d make about 1 John 1:9 is that Christians in other denominations need to recognize what this entire section is about and how vs 9 fits into that whole context. This section is about addressing false claims from false teachers and unbelievers. This section is a criteria for recognizing heresy from truth. This section is about helping the believing remnant determine those with whom they should or should not have fellowship, especially in the Tribulation. It is not a statement commanding confession of sins. It’s an acknowledgment of God’s faithfulness to forgive sins as an argument against the claims by unbelievers in the previous verses that they have no sin.

Confession was an integral part of the Jews’ religion, and John is speaking about the fidelity of God to forgive if the Jews confess. Israel in their long history have seen firsthand the truth that God is faithful to forgive if they confess.

Thus, another big point to be made here is that John is acknowledging God’s character based on Israel’s long history of seeing God faithfully forgive them following confession. There was in Israel in the Old Testament and during the time of the Gospels a clear and established culture of confessing their sins. The practice of verbal confession was deeply integrated into their religious life, both individual and corporate Israel.

But when John said confess, I’d argue he wasn’t talking about anything specific. He wasn’t talking about the sacrificial system. He wasn’t talking about the day of atonement, or John’s baptism. John was talking about Christ’s faithfulness generally – the character and nature of Christ. The fidelity of Christ to consistently show mercy when they acknowledged sin to Him. This was nothing more than a general broad statement acknowledging what the Jews always knew experientially – they had a long history of seeing Christ be faithful and just in His forgiveness of their sins when sin was acknowledged.

That sin still had to be paid for, but the Lord would forgive their sin only in the sense that He would stay His judgment until that sin was paid for. That’s it – nothing more than that.

Here’s the real point of this whole section: John isn’t commanding a daily ritual. He’s exposing false believers. He’s countering people who denied their sin (vv. 8, 10) or they claimed fellowship while living in darkness (v. 6). These are hypothetical “if we say…” statements aimed at false teachers, not sincere believers.

Yes, John may have been dealing with proto-Gnostics back then, but this section will be a valuable resource in the Tribulation, because these exact denials and deceptions will be widespread in the Tribulation. John’s point is simple: true believers walk in the light and admit sin – false teachers hide in darkness and deny sin. This isn’t a manual on how often they should confess. It’s a fellowship test for discerning who’s a true believer and who isn’t. Verse 9 isn’t a command for daily confession. It’s simply a reminder of God’s faithfulness to forgive sin to counter the lie in the previous verse about people saying they have no sin. This is to guide Tribulation saints in recognizing who they should or shouldn’t be fellowshipping with.

I also suspect that for believing Jews going through the Tribulation, they may have to acknowledge their mistakes to God to avoid judgment. His judgment would have nothing to do with their justification by faith but that under the if/then principle, they may still reap what they sow but can stay God’s judgment upon them if they acknowledge their mistakes.

[This article was based on a message I gave last Sunday, which included a big section on Israel’s culture of confession.]