44: 1 John 1:9

Many Christians have the idea that we are to confess our sins to God on a daily or even hourly basis. The reasoning is that we want to stay “in fellowship” with God. 1 John 1:9 is a verse that many people have taken out of context and used to support the idea that believers need to confess their sins in order to be forgiven and stay right with God. Did you know that the phrase, “keep short accounts with God” is not in the Bible? Why? Because God is not keeping an account of our sins!1 If God is not counting our sins against us, why are we counting them?

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)2

Is this verse directed to the Christian who needs to confess his sins in order to be forgiven? But I thought that we only needed to believe in Jesus to be forgiven? What happens if I miss a sin and don’t confess it? Dear reader, to believe this verse is written to believers would go directly against all of the scriptures that tell us that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus! This scripture was written to the unbeliever, and we can see that clearly if we read it in context in 1 John 1.

Paul, the apostle of grace, who wrote most of the New Testament, never mentioned confession of sins one time! If confession of sins for the believer is so important as some say, then Paul short-changed us! You’d think he would have mentioned it at least once! In fact, 1 John 1:9, written by John, is the ONLY verse in ALL of the epistles that mentions the confession of sins to God, and it was not written to the believer. The unbeliever is convicted by the Holy Spirit that he is a sinner in need of a Savior, but once he accepts Jesus, he becomes a righteous saint in the light!

To clarify, I am not saying that we shouldn’t talk to the Holy Spirit about our challenges with the flesh. I am not saying that we should deny that we have sinned. I am not saying that sin is ok. I’m not saying that we don’t have godly sorrow over sin. All you have to do is look at the horror of the cross and the sufferings of Jesus on our behalf to see the evil of sin. We want to live lives that honor and exalt Jesus. We don’t want to give a bad testimony to His name. But this murky gray area that says, “No, as believers we don’t have to confess each sin in order to make it to heaven, but we should so that we’ll be in fellowship with God, and if we don’t, we won’t be right with God” perpetuates a conscience in the body of Christ ridden with guilt and creates insecurity and fear in the relationship with the Lord that was intended for our enjoyment and pleasure.

If you feel guilty around someone, you will not have a good relationship with that person. If you fear someone, it’s only a matter of time before you will hate them. Perfect love — the kind of love that God has for us — drives out fear. Fear involves punishment, but that was dealt with at the cross.

(from pages 89-91 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹Romans 4:8, 2 Corinthians 5:19, John 1:29
2Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.  Used by permission.”