Theologians and Christian authors will often agree with John that "your sins have been forgiven on account of Jesus' name" (1 John 2:12). But later you find them essentially saying that confession is needed to "cause" God to forgive you. The problem is that both statements can't be true at the same time. EITHER WE'VE BEEN FORGIVEN, OR THERE'S A CONDITION FOR US TO BE FORGIVEN.
To resolve this dilemma, some have proposed the following: Christians are forgiven eternally in God's heavenly record books. However, unless Christians keep short accounts with God through daily confession of sins, they can't experience God's cleansing during life on earth. Hence, they claim that 1 John 1:9 is the believer's "bar of soap" to maintain daily fellowship with God. And they use terms such as judicial, patriarchal, and forensic as they delicately dance around the reality of once-for-all forgiveness and push the idea of a two-tiered forgiveness system in which eternally God is satisfied, but right now we somehow maintain our own daily cleansing through a confession ritual.
I frequently come across this line of thinking in which 1 John 1:9 is the one and only hallmark verse. But we know we shouldn't develop theologies based principally around one verse. It's important to recognize that this verse stands as the ONLY one of its kind. No other verse in the epistles appears to place a conditional "if" on forgiveness and cleansing.
So if there was a method for maintaining daily cleansing, the Romans were apparently unaware of it. If there was a prescription for keeping short accounts with God, the Galatians seemed to have had no exposure to it. If there was a need to ask God for forgiveness, the Ephesians were apparently not privy to it. Similarly, the Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians also seemed to have missed this teaching.
If there were a DAILY method to maintain good status (fellowship) with God through ongoing confession of sins or pleas for forgiveness, wouldn't you think it'd be mentioned in at least ONE epistle? Did God accidentally leave it out? Certainly NOT!
CONFESSION CLARIFIED: Let's clarify an important point. The meaning of confess is "to say the same as" or "to agree". Christians should agree with God on ALL accounts... not just about sins but about everything. We're his children, and it is only His ways that fulfill. We're designed from the ground up to agree with Him, depend on Him, and live from Him.
But it's equally important to recognize that we don't impel God or put him into motion through our confession. He's NOT waiting to dole out forgiveness or cleansing. We don't need to keep "short accounts" with God, since he has destroyed the record book!
God has taken away our sins. He remembers them no more. As Christians, our forgiveness and cleansing aren't dependent on our memory, our confession, or our asking. Our forgiveness and cleansing are solely because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.
THE "OTHER" CONFESSION:
What about James 5:16? James talks about confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other. But he's saying we should listen to each other's struggles, offer counsel where appropriate, and pray for each other. The context of James's exhortation to confess our sins to each other has nothing to do with God's forgiving or cleansing us.
Confession to trusted friends and to God is healthy. It's normal and natural to talk about your struggles with people who care about you. The indispensable truth to grasp, however, is that confession does NOT initiate cleansing in your life. We've already been cleansed "once for all" through the onetime blood sacrifice that needs no repenting.
Let's be honest about our struggles, but let's also be clear about what the cross accomplished. The Catholic goes to a priest and the Protestant thinks he does better by appealing directly to God. But any system that doesn't factor in once-for-all forgiveness is intrinsically flawed.
God doesn't want us to think that human priests apportion forgiveness to us. Nor does he want us to envision his doling out forgiveness from heaven on a "first come, first serve" basis. Instead, he wants us to ascribe real meaning to Jesus' declaration, "It is finished!"
We're ALREADY forgiven and cleansed children of the living God! Our motivation should be the fulfillment that comes from truly being ourselves. AMEN!
Excerpted from The Naked Gospel by Andrew Farley
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