Verse of the Day 1/9

1 John 1:9-10   If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  English Standard Version (ESV)

Once more, we'll return to 1 John 1 for today's verses.  In today's society, confession is probably something that is becoming less and less common, whether it be to a priest, a friend, or to God, both in the church and in our individual lives.  

A couple of days after hearing the message on this passage I read a devotional from David Jeremiah that touch on the same topic of confessing sins.  He writes, " The Greek translation for "confess" is made of two words: homos means "same," and lego means "say or speak." So, to confess means "to say the same thing as." As who? As God! We don't inform God of our sins by confessing them. He already knows what we have done. Our greatest need is to humbly agree with Him: "Father, You call what I did 'sin' and I agree with You." ....We aren't hiding our sins or hiding from God. We enter God's presence ready to acknowledge (agree with) what God already knows. Such acknowledgement means we humbly accept God's definition of our actions. We don't try to call our sins "mistakes."

The next time we realize that we have sinned before God, perhaps that is the way that  we should approach it, realizing that He already knows, talking to Him and with the conviction in our hearts tell God, "what I did is sin, I agree with you".  He will be faithful to forgive, to cleanse us on the inside and give us the grace, the pardon with power to overcome that sin in our lives.

In reading these verses and writing these thoughts another old hymn came to mind, telling of God's marvelous grace.

 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured,
there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Refrain:
Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
freely bestowed on all who believe;
you that are longing to see his face,
will you this moment his grace receive?

If you haven't done so in a while, or in a day, tell God, "what I did is sin and I agree with you", be ready to receive His grace "this moment".     If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. (The Message)    --   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

1 John 1:8-10The Message (MSG)

^8-10 If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.