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1 John 1:9 and Its Context: A Call to Lost Gnostics, Not Believers

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What is the truth about 1 John 1:9? Unfortunately, this verse is frequently quoted by Christians as a directive to confess their sins in order to receive forgiveness. However, when understood in its proper context, it’s not a command for believers to seek forgiveness. Instead, it’s a message aimed at lost individuals—particularly Gnostic heretics—who are still outside the faith.

The context of 1 John is crucial. The Apostle John addresses a community influenced by Gnosticism, a belief system that denied the reality of sin and the need for salvation and forgiveness. Gnostics believed they had special knowledge, which made them exempt from the moral and spiritual realities of sin. They often claimed to have no sin or that they had not sinned at all, rejecting both the incarnation of Jesus and the necessity of forgiveness. In 1 John 1:8, John confronts this heresy, saying, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Similarly, in 1 John 1:10, he writes, “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

These verses are not directed at believers but at lost people who deny their sinfulness. In other words, John is telling these individuals that if they deny their sin, Jesus—who is the truth—is not in them. This is a clear indication that they are not saved but remain lost in their sin.

1 John 1:9, then, serves as a call to those lost in Gnostic beliefs (and others who deny their sin) to acknowledge their true condition and agree with God that they need Jesus. To “confess” in this context means to agree with God about the reality of one’s sinfulness and the need for salvation. Another way to phrase this is: “If you agree with God about your lost condition, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins, cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and give you new life in Jesus.”

Canning as a Picture of Salvation: Cleansed, Filled, and Sealed

This process can be illustrated with the steps of canning. First, you cleanse and sterilize the jar, then you fill it with fruit, and finally, you seal it. In the same way, Jesus took away the sins of the world and cleansed it from unrighteousness. By doing so, He makes it possible for us to be “filled” with His life when we put our faith in Him. And just as a jar is sealed to preserve what’s inside, God seals us with the Holy Spirit to guarantee our salvation and secure us in Christ.

For believers, continually asking for forgiveness is unnecessary because Jesus has already paid for all sin through His sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10). Rather than asking for forgiveness over and over like an Old Testament sacrifice, a better response is to thank God for the forgiveness already secured for us in Christ. Many Christians struggle with this because they do not fully understand what they have in Christ. They are not convinced they are completely forgiven, so they continue to ask for forgiveness when they should be resting in the assurance that their sins are already forgiven (Ephesians 1:7).

What About the Lord’s Prayer?

There’s another reason that 1 John 1:9 is often misunderstood. One of them is the frequent misuse of the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer recited in many churches weekly. The Lord’s Prayer is found in Matthew 6:9-13, and it was directed to Jesus’s disciples while they were still under the law. The law was conditional and given exclusively to the nation of Israel, which was still living under the Old Covenant system at the time.

It’s important to note that Jesus’s teaching to the disciples about how to pray occurred before the cross, before the New Covenant went into effect, and before Jesus took away the sins of the world. He was pointing to things that hadn’t yet occurred, as the ultimate act of forgiveness hadn’t been fulfilled yet. This becomes even clearer when you look at Matthew 6:14-15, which follows the Lord’s Prayer. It says, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” It’s interesting how these verses are often left out of discussion.

Additionally, in Matthew 6:7, Jesus tells His disciples not to keep on babbling the same prayer over and over as the pagans do. This is a reminder that prayer is meant to be a sincere conversation with God, not a repetitive ritual. Yet, many continue to recite the Lord’s Prayer as a ritual, missing the deeper point Jesus was making.

The purpose of the law was always to point the people to Christ, to show them their inability to fulfill it and their need for a Savior. Today, that is still the purpose of the law, as Galatians 3:24 explains: “Therefore the law was put in charge to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (NIV 1984).

The reality is that under the New Covenant, we are forgiven once and for all by the blood of Jesus, as 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 explains: “God is not counting our sins against us”. The Lord’s Prayer is a continuation of the Beatitudes, where Jesus was showing the Jews the weight and actual meaning of the law—evident in Matthew 5:48, where He says, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

The constant misuse of both the Lord’s Prayer and 1 John 1:9 has contributed to many Christians not understanding that they are completely forgiven. Scripture must be read in context to truly understand what Jesus was teaching in His earthly ministry, especially before the New Covenant was established.

So what is the truth about 1 John 1:9? In summary, 1 John 1:8, 1:9, and 1:10 are not instructions for Christians to confess every sin, but are addressed to those who are still lost—particularly those who deny the reality of sin. The message of 1 John is clear: those who agree with God about their lost condition and accept the truth of Jesus Christ are forgiven, cleansed, and prepared to accept the life of Jesus by faith, while those who deny their sin remain in darkness and are in desperate need of the Savior.

GraceCoach.org:

Is Once Saved Always Saved Supported in the Bible?

Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?

Do We Need to Confess Our Sins to be Forgiven?