Forces – 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness,

There are some things that are givens here on Earth, and the effects of these truths can’t be evaded. They affect all of us, even when we don’t want them to affect us. Let me give you an example.

Gravity is one of those tings that we can’t escape, just ask anyone who has jumped off a roof as a kid, or jumped off a swing at the end of a full arch. Or ask someone who has dropped a bowl while cooking and made a mess on the floor. Things fall down! They don’t fall up. And this is true everywhere here on Earth, except when a science experiment is demonstrating a device that creates a force in the opposite direction from gravity.

My point is this: we can’t get away from the affects of gravity. So we have learned to adapt to them. We place chairs on the floor rather thy attempting to place them on the ceiling or wall. We expect gravity to be consistent in the way we interact with the world.

Of course there are carnival side shows that mess with our perceptions around gravity, but they don’t count. The floor drops out of the spinning ride. The furniture in the fun house is screwed to the ceiling. But this doesn’t change the reality of gravity.

Sin is a spiritual reality, just as much as gravity is a physical reality. Sin pulls us in certain directions, just a gravity does. And we must learn to adapt our actions to the reality of sin, just as we adapt our movements to the reality of gravity. Ask any infant who is learning to walk!

Sin can be ignored, and many people attempt to do just that. Take a look at the perception of reality that comes across in the new and social media. The finger is always being pointed outward at some external circumstance as the cause of the problem.

Personal responsibility has ceased to be discussed, unless of course you are of a certain level of melanin and gender. Then everything falls at their feet. (Gravity again.) And on the rare occasions when there is guilt assigned, it is not categorized as sin.

Our text posits the reality of sin and the remedy for it. If we claim we are not affected by sin, in the words of the text “to be without sin”, we are deceived and we don’t have the truth. All humans have sin in them, and attempt to deal with that sin in one way or another.

People might also claim that, although they have sin in them, they have not yielded to sin’s pull on them. They have resisted and come out triumphant. And the text says that if we make this claim to perfection we make the claim that God is a liar and that the message of God isn’t in us. But we have all yielded to sin at times in our lives.

But our verse for today tells us the solution to the sin problem. If we confess our sins, agree with God about the reality and presence of sin in our lives, then He jumps into action. He has a solution to the sin problem: acknowledge, own and say what He says about it. That is what confession is. Confession is agreeing with God’s definition of right and wrong.

When we confess in this way, then the LORD forgives and cleanses us. He removes the offense and the results of the offense that still lingers in us. The personal impact of sin gets removed over time as we are obedient to His way of living.

This does not mean that there won’t be consequences for that sin. Other people might have experienced some of the fallout of your sin, and therefore have to also be restored, if it is possible. But there is a solution to sin. Confess, be forgiven and cleansed.