Whether you confess your sins or not, God through Christ has already forgiven all your sins. Your forgiveness was purchased before you existed, so there is no way confession of sins can determine what He did years ago.
(I know this leaves many questions unanswered, but keep reading—you will discover more radical scriptural truth.)
In the entire Bible, there is no other verse that says we should confess our sins to be forgiven; I dare you to find one. God does not forgive our sins because we confess them. It’s through the shedding of blood.
I want you to think for a moment—God forgave our sins through Christ before we were born. He forgave us before we sinned, even before we confessed them.
Now how can we ignorantly say He forgives our sins after us confessing them? It does not make total sense.
The verse below justifies this:
“He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.”
— Ephesians 1:7 (NLT)
Do you notice the tense? – It’s past tense, and it happened the moment Jesus Christ died on the cross. Please remember, in those days, we were not born yet.
The forgiveness for our sins was established many years before us, and our part is to put faith in what God did through Christ. Understanding this will change your thinking and how you talk to God.
Forgiveness was established based on what Christ did—not on our confessing.
You may ask, what about 1 John 1:9?
“But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
— 1 John 1:9 (NLT)
This is the only verse in the New Testament that attaches forgiveness of sins to confession. There is no other scripture that witnesses the same as 1 John 1:9. Again, I dare you to find one.
Yet we have amplified a doctrine so strong from one verse that doesn’t even have two or three other scriptures to witness it.
Jesus says in:
“But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses.”
— Matthew 18:16 (NLT)
This verse says the same—that we should not take one single scripture to be a base without two or three other scriptures to witness the same thing.
Scriptures interpret scriptures.
Before we go further, let me ask you:
If forgiveness of sins is only by confession of sins, how about those believers who lived before John wrote 1 John 1:9?
Because we know writing the New Testament epistles started in AD 44–50, and 1 John was written A.D. 85–95, therefore before AD 85–95, people didn’t know about 1 John 1:9 because it was not written yet.
Therefore, does that mean those believers were not forgiven? Because I believe they didn’t know about that verse.
Therefore, we are dealing with a verse that did not apply to believers who lived around 50 years before 1 John 1:9 was written.
1 John 1:9 is the only scripture that some of us stand on to confess our sins so that we can be forgiven.
Which is not true, because we are already forgiven.
Many interpret it saying:
“If we do not confess all our sins, God will not forgive us.”
And if that person happens to die before confessing, he goes to hell.
This is extremely wrong—and how can anyone even live like that?
Matter of fact, no one can confess all their sins. It is impossible to live by 1 John 1:9.
Every second, people are sinning.
I know you are quietly saying, “I do not sin, because I do not kill or fornicate or I don’t do those big sins.”
You are right—if you choose to have your own definition of sin.
Let me show you how the Bible defines sin:
“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
— James 4:17 (NLT)
“All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.”
— 1 John 5:17 (NLT)
“If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.”
— Romans 14:23 (NLT)
Do these three scriptures above apply to you? Definitely yes!
You keep on sinning, my friend.
Now after understanding the biblical definition of sin, let me ask you (who was quietly saying you do not sin):
Can you manage to confess all your sins? Can you really remember every sin you do?
Honestly, no one can do that.
And if forgiveness is based on confession of sins—which it isn’t—then all of us are not forgiven, and hell would be our destiny, because no one can confess all of them.
Many of you don’t even know that overeating (gluttony) is sin.
No one thinks of over-speeding as sin. We categorize sin because we are good at it. We choose what is sin and what is not.
I know you may say:
“I confess all at once, even those I do not remember.”
There is no such thing as “I confess even what I don’t remember.”
True confession is to confess all sins you did—one by one—no shortcut.
“But if we confess our sins to him…” — 1 John 1:9
Notice the word “sins” – it’s plural, not singular, meaning you have to confess all of them, one by one, not just what you remember.
Actually, you must be remembering all your sins if you’re to confess.
And yet the Bible says we should not be conscious of our sins:
“…once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.”
— Hebrews 10:2 (NKJV)
Aren’t you glad that even God Himself doesn’t remember our sins?
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
— Hebrews 8:12 (NKJV)
Confessing sins to be forgiven makes Jesus’ death be in vain, and this is a great insult to Him if we dare think that way.
Did you know that people in the Old Covenant never confessed their sins to be forgiven?
They sacrificed animals every year, and because blood was shed, their sins were forgiven.
Sins are only forgiven by shedding blood—not by confessing them.
Does that mean 1 John 1:9 is wrong?
Of course not.
But I want us to break it down in its original language (Greek) and see what John meant.
The first part of 1 John 1:9 is:
“εαν ομολογωμεν τας αμαρτιας ημων”
Which means: “If we confess our sins…”
It was also transliterated:
ean homologomen tas hamartias hemon
Let us break it down for easier understanding:
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εαν = if
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ομολογωμεν = homologomen
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homo = same
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logos = saying
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omen = a verb meaning “we should”
So, the word confess (ομολογωμεν) would mean:
“To say the same word as” or “to agree with.”
So, confessing our sins is to say the same things about the sins we have committed as God says about them.
It literally means coming into agreement with what God says.
Now, what does God say about our sins?
1. He has forgiven all our sins
“He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.”
— Ephesians 1:7 (NLT)
(Also see 1 John 2:2)
2. He doesn’t remember our sins
— Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:17, Isaiah 43:25–26, Psalm 103:10
3. We should not be sin-conscious
— Hebrews 10:2, Hebrews 9:14
So, confession of sins is to say what God says about sin. It’s to agree with what God says about sin.
This is how it applies to Christians—because they are already forgiven.
To whom was 1 John 1:9 written?
Chapter one of 1 John was written to Gnostics who were in the church.
We believers can learn something from 1 John 1:9, but it’s not for us, as I will explain further in this teaching.
Gnostics were people who:
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Never believed that Christ came in the physical — 1 John 4:3
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Believed He was only in the spirit
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Believed you are free to sin as much as you want because they didn’t believe it was sin
That’s why John emphasizes in chapter one:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”
— 1 John 1:1 (NIV)
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
— 1 John 1:8
I know you may say:
“But John said ‘if we confess…’ meaning he included himself.”
Yes, he used “we” because these Gnostics were in the church. They were among believers and among John’s gatherings.
Not everyone in the church is born again. That’s why sometimes, when preaching, you can address non-believers and believers at the same time.
Let me show you proof that John was addressing non-believers here:
“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”
— 1 John 1:3
Why is John saying, “…so that you also may have fellowship with us”?
Who are those people John was trying to call into fellowship?
They were non-believers.
He was calling upon them to have faith, just like John and other believers.
If John was addressing believers…
His introduction would be like that of chapter 2 of 1 John.
Notice how John introduced it:
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
— 1 John 2:1–2 (NIV)
Here, John is writing to believers who believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ—meaning they believed that the shedding of His blood cleansed all of their sins.
That’s why he starts by saying “My dear children…”
He didn’t do that in chapter 1.
Again, let’s think here: if he was addressing the same group, what would he say after, “…But if anybody does sin…”?
The perfect wording would be something like:
“…But if anybody does sin, confess your sins to be forgiven.”
However, John instead says:
“But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
Do you see the difference in approach applied in the two chapters?
The audiences were different.
Joel, are you saying a believer does not need to confess their sins?
Well, we are going to find that out in Part 2 of this teaching.
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