Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 1-3] Two Sorts of Confession (1 John 1:8-10)
(1 John 1:8-10)
“If
we say that 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. If we say that we have
not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Do you find it difficult to understand today’s Scripture passage?
If yes, that is because you do not understand the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
If yes, that is because you do not understand the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
All the Word of God is life and truth for those who believe. But for those who have not been born again, it may bring them confusion instead, as they misunderstand and misinterpret the Word of God. The passage from 1 John 1:8-10 that we just read can become the Word of amazing truth to those who believe in Jesus as their Savior and enrich their souls, but at the same time, if it is misapplied, it may bring confusion to people’s thoughts and faith.
This
is because the passage leads us to wonder whether it is applicable to
the people of God who have received the remission of their sins, or to
those who are yet to receive the remission of sin. If you have received
the remission of your sins by believing in the gospel Word of the water
and the Spirit, misunderstanding this passage may lead you to question
how it is possible that you would once again have sin in your hearts. So
to both the righteous who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit and sinners alike, this passage can potentially bring doubts and
confusion.
Applying This Passage to Sinners
First
of all, we need to apply this passage to those who still have sin in
their hearts by not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The question here is whether it is possible for those who do not
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to wash away the sins
that they have committed just by giving their prayers of confession.
Some people say that whenever they give their prayers of confession, or
prayers of repentance, God the Father forgives their sins.
But
the reality is that even as they give their prayers of confession and
repentance, all the sins that they have committed still remain unwashed
and intact in their hearts (Jeremiah 2:22). They’ve come up with such
completely groundless doctrines and believe in them only to comfort
themselves, just because they themselves, in their own thoughts, want to
believe that God the Father would somehow forgive them, as fathers
would usually forgive their children when they just confess their
wrongdoings.
The
fact of the matter, however, is that for those who give such prayers of
confession, their sins still remain in the tablet of their hearts,
testifying that they themselves still remain under the condemnation of
God. It is written in Jeremiah 17:1, “The sin of Judah is written with a
pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet
of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.” You may know that the
representative principle pervades all Scriptures. Therefore, this
passage should also be applied to all mankind, meaning that everyone’s
sin is written on the tablet of his heart with an iron pen. We see that
for those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
the sins that they have committed are engraved in the table of their
hearts.
Therefore,
it is not the case that one can wash away all his sins from the tablet
of his heart just by confessing them. Yet unfortunately, most people
today, referring to today’s passage from 1 John, think that even those
who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can still
wash away their sins just by confessing them. However, when people come
to know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can
also find answer to their questions about the prayers of confession of
sin.
Today,
many people claim to believe in Jesus. But most of them still have sin
in their hearts, and therefore are not qualified to call God as their
Father. This makes them give up their lives of faith down the road.
Because they still do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit, they have fallen into spiritual confusion and believe in Jesus
just like the religionists of this world, and this is why they
ultimately end up renouncing their faith. Since they do not know that
the baptism of Jesus took away the sins of the world, they simply cannot
escape from the mire of confusion no matter how hard they try.
Therefore, to escape from their confusion, they must first realize that
Jesus bore the sins of the world through the baptism He received from
John.
Everyone
must admit all the weaknesses of his flesh and come to have, through
the Word of Truth, the experience of faith that enables his soul to be
freed from all his sins. Ever since the Early Church Age, whoever
believed in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit could receive
God’s salvation, and this is how the saints came to praise the Lord. We
see that those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
like the Apostle John, can bring abundant joy to God.
Without
our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot have
true fellowship with God. So it is only in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit that true confession before God is feasible, and it is only
through God’s amazing gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that this
true confession can be made. We must all give thanks to our Lord for
enabling us to make such true confession of sin through our faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
From
now on, we must not look down on the faith that believes in the baptism
of Jesus. People must be freed from futile Christian doctrines claiming
that it is possible to be saved from sin just by believing in the blood
of the Cross. And they must return to the faith that believes in both
the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross as the way of salvation.
From now on, you must become the kind of Christians who yearn to learn
and believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. All of us
must understand how Jesus felt when He had to take upon the sins of the
world by being baptized by John the Baptist. We must understand and
believe in the amazing Truth of salvation, that it was because Jesus was
baptized by John the Baptist that He had to shed His precious blood on
the Cross.
You
must realize that it is when you know and believe in the gospel Truth
of the water and the Spirit that you can become proper Christians (1
John 5:3-7) and can also confess to God properly from then on (Matthew
3:15, 1 Peter 3:21, Romans 6:2-5). I praise the Lord for giving us the
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. I praise the Lord for
delivering us from all the sins of the world through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, and for moving us to the everlasting Kingdom of
Heaven. By believing in this true gospel, all of us must forever walk
with Jesus Christ.
What
is the valid conclusion to draw when we examine 1 John 1:8-9 from the
perspective of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit?
It is revealed that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the definitive gospel and the clear Truth.
It is revealed that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the definitive gospel and the clear Truth.
I will explain today’s Scripture passage from 1 John 1:8-10 from two different perspectives: one that is applicable to those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and one that is applicable to those who do not believe in this gospel. I take this approach because the Bible itself is speaking to two different kinds of people.
One
of them is those who still have sin in their hearts from their failure
to know the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and the other
is those whose hearts have become sinless by believing in this gospel of
the water and the Spirit. The Lord is speaking to each of these two
kinds of people about the need for prayers of confession. All of us have
the duty to preach the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and the
truth of real confession to everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.
This is why the Lord spoke this passage from 1 John 1:8-10 to each of
these two kinds of people.
What is the result when we apply 1 John 1:8-10 to the sinners who still have their sins intact in their hearts?
We realize that their faith is flawed.
We realize that their faith is flawed.
First of all, when we apply today’s Scripture passage from 1 John 1:8-10 to those who are ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we discover an amazing fact. Most Christians believe themselves to have been saved from their sins by merely professing Jesus as their Savior, even though their sins still remain in their hearts. But because there still remains sin in their hearts, there is no way for them to escape from God’s judgment. In fact, they have no choice but to live under the wrath of God, for they have not been saved from their sins.
They
cannot boldly claim before the Lord that they are sinless because they
don’t have the Truth that gives them conviction. However, the born-again
can profess boldly that they have no sin in their hearts, because the
true gospel did not come to them in word only, but also in power, and in
the Holy Spirit and in much assurance (1 Thessalonians 1:5). So the
Apostle John is now warning those who still have sin in their hearts
even as they believe in Jesus. He is saying, in other words, that no one
can say that he has received the remission of sin into his heart,
unless he has first become sinless by believing in the gospel Word of
the water and the Spirit.
The
Apostle John declared, “God is light” (1 John 1:5). By this passage, he
wanted to reveal that God had cleansed all sinners from their sins with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit and made them His holy people.
So you need to first examine your hearts closely and see if you really
have the knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you
never had a chance to learn about the God-given gospel Word of the water
and the Spirit, and this is why you are ignorant of this gospel, all
that you have to do is read the first volume of my Christian book
series, entitled “Have You Truly Been Born Again of Water and the
Spirit?” (Hephzibah Publishing House, 1998).
On
the other hand, if you do not believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit even as you heard and understood it, rather than because you
do not know it, I ask that you examine your hearts to see whether they
are upright or not, and believe in this gospel Truth of the water and
the Spirit. If you know and believe in the gospel Truth of the water and
the Spirit, you can truly say that your hearts are sinless. But if you
do not believe in this gospel even as you know it, and if you say, even
as you remain sinful, “I am sinless because I believe in Jesus and in
the doctrine of predestination,” you will eventually come to realize
that you have actually ended up as liars before God.
The
Apostle John eagerly sought to preach the gospel Word of the water and
the Spirit to a certain group of people who profess to believe in Jesus.
We can see this clearly from the passage where John declared God to be
light. He implied in this declaration that in the Early Church, there
were people who had not received the remission of sin because they had
refused to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that
as a result, they became the liars who were deceiving themselves and
God.
The
Apostle John was one who truly believed in the gospel Word of the water
and the Spirit (1 John 5:5-7). He knew and believed as well that Jesus,
by being baptized by John the Baptist, fulfilled all the righteousness
of God, and by doing so Jesus took upon the sins of the world and washed
away, all at once, the iniquities of those who believe. This is why the
Apostle John described Jesus Christ in 1 John 5:6 as He who came “not
only by water, but by water and blood.” This means that John believed
both the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross to be the
essentials of our salvation.
From
his point of view, those who profess to believe in Jesus without
knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit will unintentionally end
up as liars before God. In other words, those who believe only in Jesus’
bloodshed on the Cross are inadvertently turning themselves into liars.
Although they say with their lips that they believe in Jesus as their
Savior, because their sins remain in their hearts, they are unable to
grasp the power of the true prayers of confession. All their prayers of
confession are futile. For them to truly give their prayers of
confession, they must first believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. As the Apostle John believed in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, he provided a reinterpretation of true confession through the
Word of truth found in 1 John 1:8-10 to those who neither know nor
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
He
is telling them, in other words, that if they now claim to have no sin
before Jesus Christ without even having any faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, they are actually sinning against Him. Therefore,
they must first learn the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the
Apostle John believed in, and then also learn how to give the true
prayers of confession by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
Many
Christians in this world still think that they believe in Jesus even as
they remain ignorant of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
They are unintentionally deceiving themselves and trying to deceive even
God, because they are under autohypnosis. Such people believe only in
the blood of the Cross, and cannot but live their lives with the faith
of deception.
Therefore,
all those who have sin in their hearts, regardless of whether they
confess Jesus as their Savior or not, must first believe in the gospel
Truth of the water and the Spirit. Only then can they give thanks to
God. As such, to give the proper prayers of confession to God, you must
first believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
What
should you believe? Should you believe only in the sacrifice of the
Cross that you had already believed and known? Or should you believe in
both the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood of
the Cross? Which gospel, in other words, do you think is the right one?
In
John 3:1-10, Jesus said that to enter Heave, one must be born again of
water and the Spirit. All of us must therefore receive the remission of
our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those
who have not received the remission of sin must first confess, “God,
though I believe in Jesus as my Savior, my heart still has sin. I admit
that I cannot avoid but be condemned by You for my sins. Please deliver
me from all my sins and all my punishment of sin.” This is how they must
pray. God will then give them the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit, the Truth of salvation that He has prepared for such people, and
save them. You must pray to the Lord. Sinners must first pray to the
Lord to save them from all their sins, so that they may become the ones
who can make true confession of the born-again to God.
You
must first have the knowledge of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, thereby washing away all your sins by faith and becoming the
ones who dwell in God’s light. If you have this true gospel and believe
in this with your hearts, you can be washed from all the sins that had
been in your hearts till now. In this gospel of the water and the Spirit
is found the Truth that enables everyone to be washed from all his
sins. It is when we truly believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that our heart can truly become sinless.
What
we must realize here is that anyone who says to God that he has no sin
without even having this faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
is simply lying to his own conscience. Such people are no more than
liars, and they are the kind of people who, frankly speaking, don’t even
intend to believe in Him.
Are all humans the kind of being that cannot but sin?
Yes. This is why we all need the gospel of the water and the Spirit with which our Lord has washed away our sins.
Yes. This is why we all need the gospel of the water and the Spirit with which our Lord has washed away our sins.
That everyone was fundamentally born with many sins into this world is an undeniable truth and fact. There is no one who was born without sin. This is why all have come to sin against God as they live their lives, and this is why all must confess that they are grave sinners.
Therefore,
all those who claim to have no sin even as they have sin in their
hearts, as well as those who claim not to have sinned, are arrogant and
insolent ones before God. You must be conscious of the Omniscient God.
With His Law, God is clearly pointing out that we have committed all our
sins, thus telling us that everyone is a sinner who sin against God at
all times. If, despite this, there still are those who say to God that
they have never sinned (1 John 1:10), do they not realize that this in
itself makes them liars before God?
Anyone
who says that he has not sinned is someone who rejects the love of God
and makes a mockery of Him. God said to all of us that we are of those
who always commit sin (Mark 7:21-23). He is telling us that we were
therefore born with all the ingredients of sin. Even so, if anyone still
says to God that he does not sin, he is someone who does not take God
seriously, who rejects His Truth, and who is therefore asking to fall
into the mire of destruction. No one must do this.
Therefore,
when we apply the passage from 1 John 1:8-10 to the hearts of today’s
Christians who still remain as sinners, we can see that all their faith
runs counter to the Word of God, and that they are lying to Him and
committing a great sin against Him. The key point of this passage
demonstrates to us that if anyone who has not received the remission of
sin claims to have no sin in his heart, he is deceiving not only himself
but also God, and that such people cannot but reveal that they are
lying, for the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is still not
found in their hearts.
One
thing that we must clearly realize before God is that even if we were
to confess our sins, unless we have the knowledge of and faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, our sins do not disappear. Put
differently, the only way that you can become aware all your sins and be
washed from them before God is to have the knowledge of the gospel
Truth of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has permitted to you and
me, and to have faith in this Truth. It is when you have this very
knowledge and keep this Truth in your hearts by faith that you can wash
away all your sins and become God’s children.
All
of us must remember what the Lord said in John 8:32, “You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” We need to realize that
though all of us have sinned before God, because we believe in Jesus as
our true Savior and have the knowledge of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, we have been saved from all our sins. God never regards
those who have sin in their hearts as sinless. Therefore, we must all
keep in our hearts the knowledge of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit given by the Lord, and we must all believe in it. And then,
through the knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all of
us must realize the meaning of the true prayers of confession of the
born-again.
Is God truly faithful?
Yes. The Lord is so faithful that He has blotted out all our sins committed throughout our entire lifetime with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Yes. The Lord is so faithful that He has blotted out all our sins committed throughout our entire lifetime with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Applying This Passage to the Righteous
Let
us then now apply 1 John 1:9 to the righteous who believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. It is written in 1 John 1:9-10, “If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Those
who believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit know that
the Lord has already and at once washed away all the sins that they
commit out of their insufficiencies as they live in this world, and that
He has thereby saved them. Because they firmly believe in this Truth,
their hearts can be kept by the powerful gospel Word of the water and
the Spirit, when they confess all their sins by their faith in the true
gospel. Even though we sin everyday, whenever we confess our sins by
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Jesus Christ, our
Advocate, declares to us that He had already blotted out even these very
sins over 2,000 years ago with His baptism and bloodshed on the Cross.
As such, those who are born again of the water and the Spirit can take
the gospel Truth, by faith, as the evidence of the fact that their
hearts have been remitted from their sins, as white as snow.
By
applying 1 John 1:9 to themselves, the righteous can confirm the grace
of salvation that all these sins were already washed away by the Lord,
whenever they confess their daily sins on the basis of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. The phrase in verse 9, “He is faithful and just,”
means that the Lord has already blotted out all the future
transgressions of the righteous with the power of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that He has given us. This phrase also implies that
the Lord has saved us, who could not but sin out of our
insufficiencies, from all our sins, through the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
The
righteous also sin everyday, but they cannot become sinners once again
by being swept by their personal sins, because they can edify their
knowledge of the Truth more concretely by confessing their sins within
the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Like this, the
passage of I John 1:9 provides the power of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit to the born-again whenever they confess their sins in the
Truth.
God
had promised in the Old Testament that He would save us from all the
sins of the world, and when the time came, He wanted to fulfill this
promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Lord came to
this earth, took upon all the sins of this world by being baptized by
John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross while carrying all the
iniquities of sinners, rose from the dead again, and has thereby washed
away all our sins once for all—thus fulfilling His promise once for all.
What does 1 John 1:9 reveal to us?
It reveals that with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has remitted away even all our personal sins.
It reveals that with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has remitted away even all our personal sins.
1 John 1:9 manifests the Truth that the Lord has blotted out all our personal sins with the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord has already blotted out all the sins of this world with the power of this true gospel. This means, therefore, that all the sins committed by those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have already been washed away by the power of the Word. For the righteous also sin at all times while living in this world, they must always look toward the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, and trust in the Word of Truth that has washed away all these sins by frankly confessing all the sins that they commit.
Although
we are righteous, before God, we are no more than such weak beings who
cannot but sin against Him everyday. This is why placing our faith in
the power of the water and the Spirit, we must look toward the Lord who
has sanctified us. Unless we do so, we will turn into foolish
religionists. Though we are righteous, we also need to confess our sins
within the faith based on the Word. By doing so, we can keep our hearts
clean consistently.
It
is written, “There is not a just man on earth who does good and does
not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). This means that even the righteous sin
against God all the time. Therefore, for all of us also, it is only
right to make the proper confession of our sins whenever we commit them
by placing our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
What we must all realize before God is that no one can have his sins
blotted out just by confessing them, but it is only when his confession
is based on his faith placed in the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit that his sins are washed away.
Since
we the righteous have the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we must get our daily sins resolved by our faith in this gospel. The
righteous whom I am speaking of here refer to those who have faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our faith is one that believes
in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and this faith is like
depositing a huge amount of money in a bank, to be drawn for our use
from time to time. When you and I have faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit before God, and when we show this faith to Him and come
before Him by this faith, we can continue to have true fellowship with
this holy God regardless of our insufficiencies.
Even
if we are the born-again Christians, unless we confess our daily sins
and confirm once again that the Lord has blotted out all our sins with
the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, there can be no true
fellowship with God. Because we sin at all times, for us to have true
fellowship with God, it is absolutely necessary to make daily
confessions of our sins.
Let Us Then Once again Apply This Word of Truth to Those Who Still Remain as Sinners
For
those who still have not come into the light of God from their
ignorance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, with what
disposition of faith should they confess their sins to God? They have
sin in their hearts because do not believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. People like them, who do not have the true Word of
salvation in their hearts, try to wash away their daily sins by giving
their prayers of repentance to God, but this is such a flawed faith. For
all sinners, without faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
it is completely futile to confess their sins everyday, nor can they be
washed from their sins by doing so. We must all realize this truth.
In
the Old Testament’s time, the people of Israel could not become whole
through the sacrifices offered in the Tabernacle (Hebrews 10:1-3). But
to fulfill His promise faithfully, Jesus took upon the sins of the world
by being baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and
has thereby saved His believers, turning them all sinless and perfect.
So sinners cannot be washed from their sins merely through their prayers
of confessions, unless they first have faith in the true gospel. But
unfortunately, most Christians today are trying to wash away their sins
by offering their modern equivalence of imperfect sacrifices, that is,
their daily prayers of repentance. Today, those who profess to believe
in Jesus without knowing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit
mistakenly think that just because they believe in Jesus Christ, their
sins are somehow washed away when they confess them to the Lord, but no
sin is washed away by just confessing it.
What
I am trying to tell you is this: The belief that one can wash away his
sins through his prayers of confessions without having faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit is not the true faith, but it is no
more than an empty faith. Yet despite this, many people, having
misunderstood the message of 1 John 1:9 on confession, are still trying
to received the remission of their sins through such prayers of
repentance.
The
Lord does not wash away your sins just because you confess them. It is
only when you believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit
that you can wash away even all your daily sins. This is because our
Lord, by taking upon the sins of the world through His baptism and
shedding His blood, has already washed them away. The washing of your
sins is therefore possible only when you know this Word and believe in
this Truth.
As
such, unless you believe in the true Word of the water and the Spirit
with your hearts, you cannot wash away all the sins that you are
committing. As you now know, by placing your faith in only the blood of
the Cross, all your sins cannot be cleansed away. You may think to
yourselves that your sins were washed away by believing only in the
blood, but in fact you cannot deny that all your sins still remain in
your heart. This is beyond any doubt.
One
may, then, wonder if the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a new
gospel that has emerged only in this age. But this is not true. I will
now show you through the Scriptures that the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that I am preaching has existed ever since the Apostolic Age,
and that this was the very gospel the Apostles believed in from the
beginning.
First
of all, the Apostle John received the remission of his sins by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preached this
same gospel (1 John 5:3-10). Second, the Apostle Peter also believed in
the baptism that Jesus Christ received as the Truth of the remission of
sin (1 Peter 3:21). Third, Paul also believed in the baptism of Jesus
Christ and His blood as the remission of the washing of sin (Romans
6:2-5). There just is not enough time to list all the scriptural
evidences from both the Old and New Testaments that prove this Truth,
that Jesus has washed away our sins with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
Do
you now know and believe in the gospel power of the water and the
Spirit? If you do believe in your hearts, you would then have now
realized that all your sins were cleansed away once for all by the power
of this true gospel. With the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the
Lord has washed away even all your personal sins that you commit
everyday. So you, too, must believe in this gospel of the water and the
Spirit with your hearts.
But
what about those who still have sin in their hearts? How and with what
kind of faith should they confess their sins? They should stop offering
such groundless confession. They must confess their sins by placing
their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They must first
of all confess that they are sinners bound to continue to commit sin
until the very day they die, and they must believe and admit that with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has saved even such
sinners like them.
Of
course, we who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit should
also confess our daily sins through our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit: If we do not confess our daily sins to God, we
will end up drifting away from our fellowship with God.
This
is why the righteous need to confess their sins in even more detail, so
that they may have a closer fellowship with the Lord. Such fellowship
in the light of Truth will last forever as long as we are confessing our
sins honestly in our faith in the Truth. But, if we neglect to confess
our daily sins to the Lord, our fellowship with Him cannot last forever.
Those who do not bother to acknowledge and confess their sins will
gradually be cut off from God.
With
what kind of faith, then, should we the righteous confess our sins? We
must remember that our Lord, who is faithful and just (1 John 1:9), has
already blotted out all our sins by accepting them through His baptism
and was condemned on the Cross for these sins, and we must confess our
sins by placing our faith in this Truth. By thus confessing our sins
with our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must escape
from all darkness.
We,
the born-again, must confess to God that we are actually bound to sin
until the day we die. And we must believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, and abide in the power of this gospel. The true confession
of faith is more than sufficient to enable us to dwell in the faith that
believes in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, and to
cleanse our hearts. This is how we have come to preach the gospel of the
water and the Spirit to others as well, and how we have been enabled to
run toward God in cleanness and with good conscience. This made us
God’s good soldiers who can call upon God, and win the spiritual battles
by faith. It is because the righteous believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that they come to do the work of God, to praise
this God who has blotted out all their sins, and to dwell and live in
His light forever. Believe in this truth and take it to your hearts.
We
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit also sin
everyday, for we are insufficient in our flesh. How, then, should we
confess these sins? Is it sufficient to confess in detail such as,
“Lord, I have committed this sin and that sin”? No. The right confession
for us the righteous is to admit our true nature to God—that is, to
confess to God that we are bound to sin until the day we die—and abide
in the faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit.
We
can make the most proper confession to the Lord by admitting the nature
of our weak flesh. Whether the righteous or sinners, when it comes to
confessing one’s sins, all must confess that the fundamental nature of
their flesh is such that they cannot avoid but sin, and they must
acknowledge that they commit sin all the time not only with their flesh,
but with their thoughts as well. In this way, they must confess
properly to God. And then they must have the faith that always holds
onto and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—that is, we
must never forget that the Lord has blotted out our sins once for all
through His baptism and bloodshed, and that He has shown us the true
power of salvation.
Those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before the Lord
come to realize just how effectively the power of this gospel of
salvation is applied to the hearts of believers to wash away all their
sins. It is by believing in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit
with our hearts that we can wash away all the sins of our consciences,
and it is because of this that we can come to thank the Lord. Moreover,
because this faith in the true gospel has cleansed our consciences as
well, it enables us to go to God in good conscience (1 Peter 3:21).
When
we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our good
consciences of faith lead us to praise the righteousness of God forever.
It also enables us to dwell in the light, and to do God’s work forever
in this light. Like this, faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is absolutely necessary for the righteous and sinners alike.
How did David confess when he committed sin?
He confessed all his fundamental nature before God.
He confessed all his fundamental nature before God.
David’s faith that reflects the proper confession of faith before God is revealed in Psalm 51:5-7:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Because
the Lord desires truth in our inward parts, David confessed to God, “I
was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”
“Lord, this is who I really am. I am bound to sin until the day I die.
Such is my fundamental nature.” David confessed to God, in other words,
in this way. Through the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement offered in
the Tabernacle, David had already been cleansed from all his sins by
believing in the Savior to come, who would receive baptism and shed His
blood for David’s sins.
When
David confessed his sins, he confessed his fundament sinful nature to
God and looked toward the Lord’s mercy. He confessed to the Lord
fundamentally that he could not avoid but sin, and that when he was made
in the womb of his mother, it was in sin that he was made. His
confession admits, “Lord, I am a grave sinner from my birth. Lord,
because I am such a pile of sin, I slept with Bathsheba, and I murdered
Your faithful solider. I lied to my people and even to You. So I
blasphemed You, and I broke all the Ten Commandments.” This is how he
confessed. In other words, David confessed to the Lord that this was
what his fundamental seed was.
When
you and I confess our sins to God, we must confess by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. And when we confess our sins, it is
not enough to confess just our daily sins one by one; rather, we must
confess that we are fundamentally the seeds of sin that cannot avoid but
sin until the day we die. This is why we must believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. It is by believing that the Lord has delivered
us from our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we
can cleanse our hearts perfectly.
When
we make proper confessions before God, and have concrete faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can thank Him for this salvation
of grace and do God’s work consistently without being bound by our
weaknesses. Only when you admit your fundamental weaknesses can you come
to thank the Lord for this gospel of the remission of sin that He has
given you. And only when you dwell in the Lord’s light by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit can you become the workers who
spread the light of salvation to all those who still remain ignorant of
this original gospel.
In
Psalm 51, David prayed to God to restore this joy of salvation. And he
prayed that God would enable him to preach the way of His righteousness
to those who did not know this way. We, too, are just like David. We
have also been saved from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Jesus has faithfully made us, who believe in this
perfect gospel, righteous before God.
With
the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has given us the
salvation of the remission of sin that is more than sufficient to turn
us into God’s own children.
Our
Lord fundamentally knew our weaknesses. Because we are basically
creations and human beings, we sin all the time as we carry on with our
lives. So we are prone to look at our own weaknesses, and we are always
bound by our sins and weaknesses. All the while, we lament over
ourselves, wondering how come we are so insufficient, and having no way
to remedy such sinful weaknesses, we resigned ourselves to live in sin.
But by trusting and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
that our Lord has given us, we can wash away all our sins. This is why
He blotted out our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
Therefore,
if someone has clearly received the remission of his sins from God by
faith, and yet in spite of this he has little joy of receiving this
salvation in his heart, then he is someone who has not confessed his
sins to God by placing his trust in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. The proper confession that is based on correct faith strengthens
our weak spirits.
Now
we must realize what the true confession of faith is, and we must know
the power of this proper confession. Our Lord has spoken to all of us
about the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we
confess to God like David, that we are fundamentally bound to sin until
the day we die, Jesus then fills our hearts with His grace of the
remission of sin that has washed away our sins through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. And this beautiful gospel stimulates us to preach
this powerful gospel to every sinner by refreshing our hearts. It makes
us praise the Lord all the time. In short, the power of this gospel
enables us not to be bound by our own weaknesses, to declare the
righteousness of God to this world, and to have grateful hearts that
gives thanks to God.
I thank God for restoring us by faith. Hallelujah! I give my thanks and praise to God, who has saved us from all our sins.
What is it that God wants from all of us, the born-again?
It is for us not to be bound by our own weaknesses, but to vigorously work for God’s gospel by faith.
It is for us not to be bound by our own weaknesses, but to vigorously work for God’s gospel by faith.
Once we receive the remission of our sins, God wants us not to be bound by our own weaknesses, but to do His work by trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even though we may have shortcomings, God wants us to have the right faith, to confess all our blemishes, to thank Him for saving such people like us, to praise the Lord, and to live our lives to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all sinners. God desires His believers to preach the way of His righteousness, the gospel of the water and the Spirit even amid their weaknesses.
God
wants us to free ourselves from our weaknesses by confessing our true
nature to Him, and He is pleased when we offer the true sacrifice of
praise by faith. My dear fellow believers, when it comes to confessing
your sins, you must realize that to claim to God that you have not
sinned is to make Him a liar. There is no one among us who has not
sinned against God. Everyone sins. But even so, the gospel of the water
and the Spirit can wash away all our sins completely.
As
such, by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we must move even closer to God and glorify Him. Though we believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must also admit that we are
all too human, that we are bound to sin until the day we die. Now, we
must admit our insufficiencies, and we must always confess our
shortcomings and our faith in the God-given gospel of the water and the
Spirit to Him. Only then can we be clothed in the power that frees us
from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
We
must indeed be freed from all our sins that bind us in bondage by
believing in this gospel power of the water and the Spirit. As Samson
had cut off the ropes on his arms that had bound him (Judges 15:14), we,
too must sever our weaknesses by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. By our faith in this powerful gospel, we must cut off
all our weaknesses, stand up on our ground, and live the kind of life
that glorifies God.
All
of us are bound to sin until the day we die. But by confessing that we
are indeed destined to sin to our last breath, by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and by abiding in this faith, we
must exalt the righteousness of God. God has restored us as sinless
spirits, and He has blessed us to become the kind of people who praise
Him and spread the gospel to sinners. It was to clothe us in such
blessings that He used the word “confession” here in today’s Scripture
passage. Do you now realize what is true confession?
The
Apostle John spoke to both the sinners and the righteous alike.
Therefore, if there is any sinner sitting in God’s Church who does not
know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must first preach this
true gospel to him, so that he would first believe in this beautiful
gospel and receive the remission of sin into his heart. Only then can he
first receive the remission of his sins by the power of the gospel and
have true, heart-felt fellowship with the righteous.
How Do Sinners Confess?
They
are quite apt at praying to confess their daily sins, but they do not
believe in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. On the
contrary, they keep telling themselves that they can somehow not sin
anymore. But because they have not received the remission of their sins
from their failure to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
they are still under sin. So even as they profess to believe in Jesus,
their lives of faith end up mired in contradictions, for there is sin in
their hearts. In other words, though they believe in Jesus, they are
always insufficient, and as they are bound by such insufficiencies, they
turn into hypocrites before both God and other people.
Some
pastors say that they, too, have sin, and teach their congregations to
confess their sins everyday. To them, ‘confession’ is simply a synonym
for ‘prayer of repentance.’ They even give their prayers of repentance
publicly in every meeting. But even if one were to make such confessions
everyday, wouldn’t he still always lack faith? The reason for this is
because unless one has faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
given by the Lord, his sins cannot be washed away no matter how frankly
he confesses them. Do you really believe that you can be washed from all
your sins just by giving your prayers of confession? No one can receive
the true washing of his sins unless he has faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
In
the Old Testament, the people of Israel gave sin offerings for their
daily sins. But was there anyone who offered this kind of sacrifice
perfectly? No, there was no one! In any given day, an Israelite would
sin in the morning and give his sin offering; he would then sin again in
the afternoon and offer another sacrifice; he would yet again sin in
the evening and give yet another offering; and before going to bed, he
would find himself sinning again, and once again, another offering would
be required—there could be, in other words, no end to such offerings.
So, the priests were always busy. But could you offer the sacrifice of
the remission of sin perfectly? None of you would be able to achieve
this. I am sure that even the most godly person could hardly offer 30%
of his sin offerings to atone his sins.
Once,
I heard a weird testimony from a pastor who founded a mission
organization in Korea. He testified how he had been born again like
this: “When I was a leader of a Christian circle in my university, I was
arranged to talk personally with the President Jeong-hee Park by a
pastor who was acquainted with the President. While I was waiting for
the pastor in front of his office to accompany him to the Presidential
residence, I made up my mind to rebuke the President for his
dictatorship. My heart was full of something like prophetic inspiration
then. The secretary of the pastor said me that I had to wait for him for
hours because he was praying now. Two hours had passed, and at last he
came out. He then pointed me saying, ‘Brother Kim, don’t you have any
sin then?’ I was struck speechless by his assertion for a while. It was
like a thunderbolt from a blue sky. I fell down on the very spot, and
started to confess all my sins while crying. All the sins I had
committed flitted through my mind. I confessed, and confessed, and
confessed with crying. And when I rose up again after two hours of
confession, I couldn’t find any sin in my heart. I really was born again
like this. Halleluiah!”
Can
one receive the remission of sin just by confessing his sins honestly?
No sinner can ever receive the remission of his sins even as he
confesses all his sins in a row. Though God has faithfully and justly
blotted out everyone’s sins, the problem is that people do not believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the gospel of Truth that
has saved them from all their sins.
Sinners
must first have a heart of David, and confess, “I was born in iniquity
and conceived in sin. I am fundamentally a pile of sin. I am bound to
sin until I die of old age. I am bound to hell. God, please save me.”
Only those who thus admit their true selves can receive the remission of
their sins by accepting the gospel of the water and the blood. It is
impossible for a sinner to receive the remission of sin unless he admits
himself as a grave sinner destined to hell.
We
must believe in the Word that declares, “The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans
6:23). This passage means that if one has any sin at all, no matter how
small, then death is inevitable for him. As such, we must acknowledge
even our smallest sins before God. Moreover, we must also admit that
even for such sins, we cannot avoid but be subjected to the condemnation
of sin.
If
we have admitted our fundamental selves to God, let us then now have
fellowship in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Though we had been
fundamentally sinful, the Lord came to this earth to save us, and
fulfilled all the righteousness of God when He was baptized by John the
Baptist.
Our
Lord accepted all our sins through His baptism. And He carried them to
the Cross. He shed his blood and died on the Cross to pay off all our
sins. He rose from the dead again in three days, and now sits at the
right hand of the throne of God. He has thus saved us perfectly. He has
fulfilled all his righteousness through His baptism and bloodshed.
Though we could not avoid but be bound to hell for our sins, by our
faith in this salvation from sin that Jesus has given us, we have been
delivered from all our sins.
Therefore,
now, all that remains for us is the question of whether or not we
believe that the Lord has indeed blotted out all our sins in this way.
Put differently, the question is whether or not we believe that all our
sins were passed onto Jesus through His baptism, and that there is
therefore no longer any sin in our hearts. Now then, are you, who
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, righteous, or do you
still remain as sinners? You are now righteous.
The
Bible tells us that God is “faithful and just.” He is so faithful and
just that he has blotted out all our sins once for all with His baptism
and bloodshed. By believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we have received the remission of all our sins once for all. Now, with
this faith must we, the righteous, confess our daily sins we commit
everyday? The most important thing here is that we must confess our sins
by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
After
receiving the remission of our sins, how should we confess? We must
confess, “God, once again I committed such and such sins today,” and we
must also believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We
must confess like this: “Lord God, I am bound to commit such sins until
the day I die. But You have blotted out all my sins by the power of the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.” It is then that we become of those
whose hearts are always clean, thus thanking God and serving Him.
This
is the right prayer of confession that the righteous give by faith.
Such is the proper confession of those who believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. We must make this true confession not by just
confessing only our sins that are revealed now, but by admitting that we
are fundamentally such weak beings who cannot but sin until we die. We
must then thank and praise God for blotting out all these sins by
confirming our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit once
again. Therefore, it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that we can always praise God’s righteousness.
We
must always live by our faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. By believing in this gospel Truth, we must confess our sins
everyday. By doing so, we must dwell in the righteousness of God, and
abide in the brilliant light of Truth as well. Also, we must spread the
light of salvation to all those who still remain in darkness. All of us
must clearly believe in the fact that we are indeed abiding in the
light, and by our faith in the righteousness of God, we must follow the
Word of life and do His work.
This
is the true confession of us the righteous. As we live on, we will sin
again. But when we confess to God not only our very sins, but that we
are the weak beings who cannot help but commit such sins until the day
we die, and when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we can then be freed from all our sins. We must have this kind of faith.
It
is written in Hebrews 9:27-28, “And as it is appointed for men to die
once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear
the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a
second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” The Lord has made us clean.
We are now apart from sin. Therefore, when we the righteous look toward
our Lord, we can serve Him, become the workers of righteousness, dwell
in God’s righteousness, and receive His blessings, all apart from sin.
So the confession that the righteous make is clearly different from that of sinners.
When
we the righteous confess to God the sins that we have committed, we
must confess by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. As well, placing our faith in this perfect gospel, we must admit
that we cannot but sin in the future also. We can then all reach God’s
holiness and come before God with good conscience, for we believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. By believing in this true gospel,
our good conscience can answer toward God, and do His work. This is the
blessing of confession that God has bestowed on the righteous. Do you
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?
You
must have confessed the sins that you committed before God. It is when
we first recognize our insufficiencies that it is possible for us to
confess our sins. Placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, we must confess to the Lord that we are of such evil seeds. In
this faith that believes in the baptism and blood of Jesus, you can be
freed from your sins. Though you are insufficient, only by believing in
the gospel that the Lord has given you, you can still be delivered from
your sins and come to dwell in the righteousness of God. This is how the
righteous can illuminate sinners with the light.
We
must abide in the light of Truth by our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Those who do not know the gospel of the water and
the Spirit cannot properly understand and grasp the true meaning of this
passage in 1 John 1:9 that speaks about confession, which says, “If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Even
the righteous actually continue to sin, and so their consciences can
also become tarnished. What must we do, then, to be cleansed from all
our filthiness and to get our faith approved by God? We must confess our
sins to Him by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
Could
we possibly confess all our sins even if we tried? We all know very
well that this is simply beyond our ability. But because we believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has freed us from all
our sins. Our Lord has cleansed us, who believe in this true gospel,
from all unrighteousness. This gospel of the water and the Spirit that
the Lord has given us has enabled us to make the true confession.
I give all my thanks to God. Hallelujah!!!
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