1 John 1:9…The Christian, sin, forgiveness, the conscience…

“9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (NASB)

For the Christian; that is, those who have entered into covenant relationship with the Father by faith in Jesus as their Lord and have received the indwelling Holy Spirit as their Guarantor of covenant relationship (John 3; Ephesians 1:13-14), this person redeemed, forgiven, reconciled to the Father by faith in the Son has been forgiven of past-present-future sin by covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12); therefore, the Father chooses via His sovereign will to not see our sin but only sees the perfection, the righteousness, of His dear Son in us through faith in Jesus as Lord (2 Corinthians 5:21).

With that said, in John’s first-epistle (1 John 1:9) he is writing to the faithful in Jesus and assuring them that when they fall short of what the Spirit is guiding them to do via the conscience via sanctification, they can find solace and peace and restoration of intimacy with the Father by acknowledging their failure, their sin; in essence, they apologize to the Father for their failure and they do this NOT to reaffirm their salvation or covenant relationship that is secure forever by promise through the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14; John 10:28-30) but the Christian apologizes to the Father for their OWN conscience’ sake so that intimacy and peace with the Father can flow uninterrupted by a guilty conscience, a beleaguered spirit, absent the joy and peace our Lord desires we have (Romans 5:1).

1 John 1:9, provided by John through the Holy Spirit, is written for the faithful in Jesus as a method to clear our conscience and restore joy and intimacy much like we would our best friend if we offended them in some way; after all, a sincere apology goes a long way to reestablishing intimacy and trust and peace…so it is with our relationship with the Father. If the Father were to respond to us verbally, He would ask, “what sin?”