If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—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 1:8 — 2:2)
Archie Bunker was complaining to Edith, something he commonly did. This time he was irritated at her goodness. He said to her, "That’s you alright. Edith, the Good. You’ll stoop to anything to be good. You never make nobody mad. You think it’s easy living with a saint? Even when you cheat, you don’t cheat to win. You cheat to lose. Edith, you ain’t human." Edith, in an effort to defend herself, says, "That’s a terrible thing to say, Archie Bunker. I am just as human as you are." Archie retorts, "Oh, yeah? Then prove you’re just as human as me. Do something rotten."
Archie sounds like he would agree with the child, who, when his Sunday school teacher asked her class: "What are sins of omission?" thought for a moment and said, "They're the sins we should have committed but didn’t get around to."
Well, we may not be like Archie Bunker, but we may share his sentiment that it is difficult to live with a saint. Of course, the reason why it is difficult is that living with a saint reminds us that we are sinners. And we do like to think about sin. In fact, sin is not a very popular word these days. It never has been. Several years ago the noted psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger, wrote a book about how we fail to deal with sin, entitled Whatever Became Of Sin? What has become of sin is that people like to ignore it. No, they don’t neglect it, they just simply don’t admit it.
It has been said that "to err is human, and to cover it up is too." And to cover it up is to deny that sin is even a problem. Sin, in the eyes of some, is an outmoded concept. It is not fashionable to talk about sin these days. After all, we live in an age that claims there is no absolute right and wrong. Our society today thinks that all truth is relative. As a result, we are a society that has lost its moral compass. It should be obvious to any thinking person, just from media reports alone, that we are struggling with human depravity on a global scale.
Television specials are aired with commentators asking questions like "What would make a teenager take a gun to school and shoot his teachers and classmates?" We explore countless answers to this question, except the one we don’t like to mention – sin. Human depravity. The evil that lurks in the human heart. We don’t like to admit to that. Thomas Carlyle once said, "The deadliest sin is the consciousness of no sin."
Why is it that we don’t want to be honest about sin? Well, one reason could be that we are so committed to do it. We human beings like to sin! In fact, sin is even encouraged in our society. This is, in fact, a Satanic strategy. Satan has sold the half-truth that sin is fun and brings us fulfillment. I say it is a half-truth because sin is fun, but it does not bring fulfillment. But we have bought the lie, and rather than deal with sin we chose to deny sin. It is the choice of self-deception. You see, otherwise we would have to face the fact that there are some very real consequences to sin. In fact, there are eternal consequences, and we don’t like to think about that.
Let me ask you a question. What do you do with sin? John, in our text, tells us that there are really only two options available to us. We can either deny it or deal with it.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1:10)
Denial is a popular choice. We like to deny the existence of sin, or the impact of sin, or the degree of sin, or the consequences of sin. We don’t like to admit, like Archie Bunker, that we are capable of doing something totally rotten. And we especially do not like to admit that we do bad things because it is our nature to do them. We would rather claim to be without sin. This is the claim of the person that doesn’t believe he has a sinful nature. It reminds me of the story of the scorpion and the turtle.
A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on its back across the river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You’ll sting me while I am swimming and I’ll drown." "My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "If I were to sting you, you would drown and I’d go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?" "You’re right," cried the turtle. "Hop on." The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle, resigned, said, "Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there is no logic in your stinging me. Why did you do it?" "It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning scorpion replied. "It’s just my nature."
While we do not like to admit it, it is our nature to sin. The Bible, in fact, teaches that all of us were born with a sinful nature. And because of our sinful nature, we then commit sins. But we do not like to think that we are really affected. So, we deny our sinful natures, and deny even the sins themselves. By that I mean that we deny that sins are really sins. We call them mistakes. Abortion is a women’s right to chose. Adultery is an affair. A lie is bending the truth. Sexual perversion is sexual orientation. Prejudices are convictions. Others are lazy, we are just busy. Others have pride, we have self-respect. These things may be character flaws, but they are certainly not sins, are they?
The irony is that this is all so obvious and we don’t even see it. Sometime ago the Associated Press reported that President Clifford Kurt of the Better Business Bureau in South Carolina was preparing to make a speech on ethics in the marketplace. He went to the library to research the subject of ethics, but the librarian explained that their only book on business ethics had been stolen. I’m sure the person just "borrowed" it.
The result of denying sin is self-deception and falsehood. This is what our text tells us – we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Another result is that we insult God. Our text says that we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. When we reject God’s word, we reject Him. And finally, the result of denying sin is eventual judgment and condemnation.
You see, when we deny sin we reject Jesus. Jesus came to save us from our sins. He is the great physician. If you never admit that there is something wrong with you, you will never go to the one who has the cure. If you are not sick, why do you need a physician? If you have no sin, why do you need a savior? You don’t need forgiveness if you’ve never done anything wrong. The problem is, when we deny the sickness, we die from it. When we deny our sin, we will eventually be judged for it.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – 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)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
The alternative to denying sin is to deal with it. This is really a continuation of John’s discussion of walking in the light. In our last message we talked about how walking in the light is the key to fellowship with God. It is also the key to a perpetual cleansing from sin. Walking in the light does not hide our sin, it exposes it. Once exposed, we can then deal with it honestly.
John tells us that his desire is that we avoid sin altogether. He tells us that the reason he has written these things is so that you will not sin. John wants us to walk in the light and to avoid the darkness. He knows the impact of sin on our lives. He knows the consequences of sin. And he wants us to avoid it altogether.
But he also knows that we will not be perfect. He knows the stuff we are made of, and he knows that even if we aspire to perfection we will not attain it. So he reminds us that if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
Here is the secret of dealing with your sins. God has made a way out. Through Jesus Christ our sins can be dealt with. He is the one who speaks to the Father in our defense. And he can defend us because he has done something to take care of our sins.
We are told that he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. In other words, through His sacrifice on the Cross He paid the penalty for our sins. When Jesus was hung on the Cross, He took our sins upon Himself there. If fact, He bore the sins of the whole world. All sin was charged to His account. His death paid the penalty for every sin.
It is on that basis that all sins can be forgiven when people come to Christ. It is on that basis that He can become our advocate. He can plead our case on the basis of His work on the Cross. He has dealt with our sin and the sin of the whole world. This is what makes it possible for a person to be saved and forgiven.
Because of Christ’s death, God has made a way for us to deal with our sin. It is not to deny it, or redefine it, or hide it, but it is to face it. It is to confess it. It has been said that confession is good for the soul. In fact, many people feel the need to make deathbed confessions in order to clear their consciences.
Joe sat at his dying wife’s bedside. Her voice was little more than a whisper. "Joe, darling," she breathed, "I’ve got a confession to make before I go. I’m the one who took the ten-thousand dollars from your safe and spent it on a fling with your best friend, Charles. And it was I who forced your mistress to leave the city. And I am the one who reported your income tax evasion to the government." Joe answered, "That’s alright, don’t give it a second thought, I’m the one who poisoned you." Well, maybe you shouldn’t wait until your deathbed to start making confessions.
God calls us to deal with our sin now by confessing it. Confession simply means to agree with God. The word comes from words that literally mean to "agree with." In other words, we are to quit denying our sins and admit the truth. And when we do, an amazing thing happens. God can forgive and purify us from the sins that we confess.
In 1 John 1:9 we read, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." He is faithful and just. He is faithful to His own word and His own nature. His nature is love and compassion and His word has given us the promise of forgiveness through Christ. He is just. Christ’s atoning sacrifice has satisfied perfect justice. The penalty has been paid and we can go free. But we have to be honest about our sin in order to receive the pardon. We can’t deny it. We must deal with it.
What do you do with sin? Do you cover it up? Do you pretend that it is not there? It sounds strange, but it is true – the way to be right is to admit you’re wrong.
Copyright © 1998 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.
This data file may not be copied in part (except for small quotations used with citation of source), edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products offered for sale, without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be made in writing and e-mailed to J. David Hoke, at David@JDavidHoke.com.