Another argument brought up against 1 John 1:9 is the notion that it is impossible to remember every sin you have ever committed. Therefore forgiveness of sins cannot be based on confessing our sins to God. But if the Scripture indeed tells us to confess our sins to receive forgiveness, then we are indeed deceived to think that we can receive it in any other way apart from how we are instructed to receive it.
For every Christian, the Bible says that God’s Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and He guides us into all truth (John 16:13). He also reminds us of the things Jesus taught (John 14:26). Even if we attempt to conceal and ignore our sins, God’s Holy Spirit does not condone our sins. He lets us know of the truth that we have stepped into error and reminds us of our need to confess our sins in order to receive God’s forgiveness according to the Scriptures (Luke 11:4, Matthew 6:12, 1 John 1:9). At the moment we are aware that we have missed it, wisdom dictates that we confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness rather than disobey God’s Word and continue in sin by refusing to confess them. Even so, in the model prayer Jesus taught us to pray, He did not make forgiveness of sins contingent on our ability to remember and perfectly itemize every single sin we may have committed. Neither, does 1 John 1:9 teach this. Rather, Jesus, in His teaching on prayer found it sufficient that if we come to God and tell Him to forgive our sins, He will do so (Mathew 6:12, Mathew 7:7). The word “sins’ is plural, and covers every thing in our lives that qualify as sin, including those we may not even remember. Therefore when we come to God in sincerity and in truth (for this is how God expects us to relate to Him- cf. John 4:23-24), and confess what we remember to Him, and also follow Jesus example and tell Him to forgive us all our sins, we can rest assured that every one of them has been forgiven (Matthew 6:12, 1 John 1:9). For “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14-15). When we pray according to the Scriptures, we know that we pray according to the will of God.
The Christian life is not one full of innumerable sins that cannot be accurately remembered. This is contrary to Scripture. For the grace God gives us does not give us a license to wallow in innumerable sins. Rather. “…the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14). The true grace of God empowers us to deny sin and makes us zealous for good works. Even so, if we are growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, sin will not be the norm in our lives. We may sin, but thank God He has made provision for us to receive His forgiveness (1 John 1:9). When our Christian life is full of sins, it is possibly because we are not spending time with God in His Word and in prayer, and are thereby carnal and immature (1 Corinthians 3:1-3) and in serious need of God’s word by which we will be sanctified and grow (John 17:17, Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Peter 2:2). If we can comfortably sin and get away with it, without seeing the need to confess our sins and repent, it may be that we have never been born again, and must get saved.
Kwadwo Omari, PhD
August 13, 2019