Let’s read from first John chapter one; we’re familiar with verse nine, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (NKJV).

Does this verse mean that every day when we sin, we just say “sorry God” and then He forgives us and cleanses us, and we go on with our lives. Yay! Jesus died so that we could be sinners and go to heaven. Does that sound right? I hope not.

We were made to be in fellowship with God. In the garden, they walked and talked with God. That’s supposed to be our life. That’s supposed to be our every day, every moment life. What messed it up? Sin. Sin separates us from God. Sin means we have to die. He’s life. We can’t have life. We have to die. We’re condemned. We need to go to hell. We can’t be with Him in heaven. We can’t be with Him. He can’t be with sin. He is a holy God.

If the priest didn’t do the right washing ceremony before they went into the holy place, they would die. They tied a string onto them so that if they did the wrong thing, or thought the wrong thing, while they were in the holy place, they would be dead, and they could pull them out because if someone else went in there, they would die. Someone dies because they touch the Ark of the Covenant. The cart looked like it was going to tip, so they put their hand out to steady it, and they die.

God is holy. Sin leads to death. You have to die. Sin means death. If you want to have not just abundant life in the Spirit (which we all should be living in), but life at all. If you want life, if you want eternal life, if you want to be with God forever, you need to be with Him now.

So, what do those verses say?

If we say we have fellowship with God, but we’re walking in darkness (this is verse 6), we’ve lied. You’re not in fellowship with God if you are sinning or living in sin. But if we walk in the light, we fellowship with one another, and His blood cleanses us from all sin. As we’re walking in the light, we’re being cleansed from all sin. It’s all being removed from us.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us… [He cleanses us from] unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10, BSB). Jesus came to save us from sin, not to just forgive our sin to save us from it.

The Bible says we are slaves of righteousness. You were a slave to sin, now you are a slave to righteousness. If you are a slave to sin, you have not experienced salvation. If you are a slave of righteousness, you are walking in the light, and He is cleansing you from unrighteousness. We’ll talk more about that in a minute.

How do I know that’s what He’s talking about here? Not just us sinning all the time every day? The very next verse puts the context; he says, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin” (1 John 2:1a, ESV).

We’re not supposed to sin. But if anyone does sin, don’t come say you’re sorry (not that you shouldn’t throw yourself on God’s mercy). “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1b, ESV). He’s still being our atonement for our sin. It’s not that you sin once, and that’s it. God loves you. He wants you to be with Him. He wants you to be saved.

So, what is this? We have no sin, and we do not sin, and we’re slaves of righteousness, and we do what is right, but He’s still cleansing us from all unrighteousness. We come to Christ, confess our sins, and He forgives us. He cleanses us from our unrighteousness. It’s all removed from us. It’s removed from His sight.

But then what? We don’t necessarily see all of our sin at that moment. He reveals stuff to us over time. When He shows you something, maybe how you’ve been complaining, maybe how you’ve been trying to control things, when you see those things in yourself, then you immediately throw yourself on His mercy and you ask for forgiveness. And you hate it. You never want to do it again, and you just ask Him to take it from you. To cleanse you from all unrighteousness and put His life in you instead. His righteousness in that place instead. You never want to have anything to do with it ever again.

It’s His work. It’s His righteousness. He will do it in you. You cannot be good enough. You don’t earn your salvation. You can’t get yourself good and cleanse yourself from unrighteousness. It’s His job to put His righteousness in you, to live out that righteousness through you. You just have to hate the sin and love God. Please know you are free from sin.