Thank God for 1 John 1:9
“Thank God, there is 1 John 1:9.” Have you ever uttered that phrase? I had many times! But I am careful not to say it to imply that it is okay to sin because God is going to forgive me anyway. I am sure John the Beloved wrote this so we have a reason to praise and thank God for giving us the only solution to the power, curse, effects, and the consequences of sins.
Sin brought death into this world and to all humanity, beginning with Adam and Eve. It resulted to physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death in the Lake of fire. Sin affected the perfect creation of God. It was sin that made life difficult and challenging for all humanity, even for the animals and vegetation. Its power is still in this world today.
Praise God, through Christ the eternal consequence of sin was defeated. The Bible says that all those who are saved have been totally forgiven of all sins: past, present, and future. It means that sin has no more ability, whatsoever, to condemn to hell and to the lake of fire any one who has put his trust on Jesus Christ. “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.”
Because of Christ’s death on the cross, those of us who are saved are assured, secured, and guaranteed of eternal life forevermore.
Lesson/Application
The fact that we are saved does not mean we are now perfect and sinless. The author, John the beloved, made sure in his epistle that while Jesus already paid the full price and we are sure of heaven, we are still living in this sinful world and still imprisoned in this vile and mortal body of flesh. This body of flesh maintains the desire to sin. We are now dealing with 2 natures in us: the spiritual and the carnal. We have the choice to listen to the spirit or give in to the flesh.
When we fall into temptation, cause by the devil, we can and should only blame ourselves. God has given us everything to avoid sinning and the power to say NO! He left us His Word, the Bible; gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us forever; empowered us with the Faith of the Son of God; placed us in a local Church, our spiritual home to feed, nurture, and use as; and gave us a mandate to make us busy and faithful in the works that He commanded us to fulfill. What more do we need?
When a child of God falls into temptation, it is because he chooses sin rather than righteousness. Let us stop blaming Satan for he is certainly pleased every time we say it is his fault. On the other hand, when we begin to take responsibility and confess to God our transgressions, Satan hates it, for he knows we take responsibility of our mistakes and make ourselves accountable only to God.
Confession is the owning of our wrong choices and taking responsibility of our sins. It is also agreeing with God that we are guilty and declaring to Him how careless and proud we are to still be affected by temptations and the sins that Jesus already paid in full.
Thank God that His forgiveness is complete and it is also constant. It is always applied, which means that the precious blood of Christ continuous to covers our sin at the mercy seat and that His blood still has power.
When we sin, our relationship remains unaffected. It is still intact and permanent and nothing or no one can ever change that. What is affected or changed is our fellowship with the Triune God. That’s why when we sin and do not live right, we feel weak and have no desire to be in a place where God wants us. Our prayer life, quiet time, church attendance, giving, and services are affected. We are miserable and lost.
The one thing that will restore that broken fellowship is forgiveness from God. However, this forgiveness will not take away the consequences. Yes, there is no more eternal death or eternal condemnation as a consequence for those who are born-again. It has already been defeated at the resurrection of Christ with the assurance that we will also rise from the grave.
Right after we confession, forgiven is given, and restoration result. The sweet fellowship with God and the brethren is back. We again feel closeness to God and He begins to use us again. But this time, it is not as easy as before for we still suffer the effects and consequences of our sins. We can now take that as a “thorn in the flesh” that God allows to remind us stay true, faithful, and hopefully not to pass that road again.
Conclusion:
This passage is one of the empowering, enriching, and inspiring blessings and promises we all have to praise God for! Yes! “Thank God for 1 John 1:9!!”