Our Sin in the Light of Christ (1 John 1:1-10)

 

(Lightly revised and re-titled, May 19, 2025.)

The apostolic writers always have to contend with the propensity of the believers to be encumbered by sins, and even to lose heart about fighting their own sins, or even to fall into negligence about them.  But, pay attention to how the Apostle John draws the attention of  sin-troubled believers toward the eternal, spiritual and righteous beauty of Christ.  He does not give sin-troubled believers an exposition of the Law which condemns them, but he strikes hope into their hearts by preaching the living and saving glory of the Son of God:

The Incarnation of the Word of Life  (1 John 1, NIV)

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete.

 Then John writes to show that the most beautiful and living One is the most righteous One who can communicate his righteousness to our souls and bodies.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  

⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness [not in the Light of Christ, uncaring of our spiritual state] , we lie and do not live out the truth.  

⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, [continually] purifies us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth [of the gospel] is not in us. 

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  

¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

The way of life is preached to those who believe in Jesus and who, by his light, see not only his righteousness, but also their own sins, and they are built up in him through faith, confession and love of Christ and God the Father, to become in the end of all things full of the righteousness of Christ in eternal life.

On the other hand, those who reject the light and walk in darkness have no cleansing and prove that the saving and regenerating word of God is not active within them.

A Word of Testimony

In the days of my early Christianity, I was taught that 1 John 1:9 was truly a key text for building our fellowship with God the Father and God the Son.  So important was this text to me and so great was the evidence to myself of my own sin that I became disheartened and thought I would be a 2nd class Christian for life.  The sinning would never stop, and I could not see the Christian growth of a measure of Christ's righteousness within me.

But, read the text quoted from 1 John again:  It is those to whom the brightness of Christ is the greatest light, and therefore is continually the greatest exposer of their own sins -- it is those who are the ones who are continually being forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness.  But those professing Christians who are untroubled by their sins are living in the most desperate circumstances, unable and unwilling to see their own depravity, and are therefore doomed until they repent and turn to Christ.

So, all who are sin-confessors of their own sins -- ones who are tempted to think often upon how we have failed our Savior -- are ones being by his grace made fit for his fellowship in glory, and are not 2nd class Christians at all!