1 John 1:8-9

1 John 1:8-9. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Another ‘if we say,' strictly co-ordinate with the preceding; the phrases here being variations upon those contained in the former, but, after St. John's manner, with some additional points of force. What is falsely asserted by the anti-christian spirit is the absence of that which renders an atonement necessary in order to walking in the light. Sin has been for the first time introduced, as that within us which answers to darkness, its external sphere: it is wrong, therefore, to interpret it as meaning that we may no longer ‘walk in the darkness,' although we ‘have' remaining sin within us. The two are synonymous: they who say that they are without sin are by that very token in the darkness; for the light of God's holiness cannot be diffused through the soul until it has first revealed its evil. The rebuke runs parallel with the former, with appropriate change of phrase. Instead of lying simply, we are now self-deceivers, with strong emphasis on this: not without great violence could the perverters of the Christian system have brought themselves to deny the sinfulness of their nature. In fact, none who have ever been Christians could assert this; at least, the Christian revelation as truth cannot have remained in them, even if it had ever entered. ‘The truth is not in us,' nor we in it.

If we confess our sins: here we have the universal preamble of the Gospel. This confession is the consenting together of the soul and the law in the conviction and acknowledgment of sin. It is the antithesis of the ‘saying that we have no sin;' but, as the antitheses are never strictly coincident, this confession may include, and indeed must include, more than a mere internal sentiment. Two things are to be remembered here: first, that the confessing of ‘sins,' not ‘sin,' is the expression used in the New Testament for the true repentance that precedes the acceptance of the Gospel; and, secondly, that the word is used by St. John only in two senses, for the fundamental confession of sin and need, and for the fundamental confession of Jesus the Saviour from sin and need. He speaks of ‘confessing sin' and ‘confessing Christ:' he alone has this combination, and save to express these two he does not employ the word. Accordingly, St. John now introduces in the most full and solemn manner the whole economy of the Gospel as a remedy for sin: in an enlarged statement, and including now another idea, that of righteousness.

He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The two attributes of God, the Administrator in Christ through the Spirit of the redeeming economy, correspond to each other and to the blessings which they guarantee. He is ‘faithful' to His holy nature, as it is revealed in His Son, and to the covenant which in Him pledges forgiveness and renewal, and to the express promises of His word: the ‘covenant of peace' came to St. John from the Old Testament, and is as much his as St. Paul's, though he never introduces the idea. Hence its antithesis is the making Him a liar; and its counterpart in us is our faith, not here expressed but implied. He is ‘righteous' also: this term regards the holiness of God under a new aspect, that of a lawgiver; and declares that His universal faithfulness is pledged in a particular way, namely, as He imparts righteousness to the faith of those who trust in Him. St. John does not adopt the Pauline language, though he implies the Pauline teaching, when he says that God is righteous in order that He may forgive our sins. We receive this release from condemnation from His righteousness; for ‘He is just, and the justifier.' He also imparts righteousness, that point St. John keep stedfastly in view throughout the Epistle, but as to that he changes the phrase; and, blending the holiness and righteousness of God in one sentence, declares that He is faithful and righteous also ‘that He may cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' This is a remarkable combination: the ‘cleansing' is strictly from pollution; but here its meaning is enlarged beyond that of 1 John 1:7, and it is a cleansing from the very principle in us that gives birth to sin, our deviation from holy right or our ‘unrighteousness.'