But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:9 NLT)

Believers quote these words to celebrate God’s loving and forgiving nature. This verse conjures up images of God standing ready to erase our sinful past and let us start anew with a clean slate, only waiting for us to admit what we’ve done wrong.

But what this verse doesn’t mention is how the cleansing takes place—or, more specifically, what’s necessary for the cleansing to take place. God doesn’t simply dismiss the charges against us like a lenient judge. His perfect justice demands that our sins be punished. And the punishment is death.

We are helpless to save ourselves from that punishment. Only a perfect sacrifice, offered in our place, can satisfy God’s justice. The only perfect sacrifice is Jesus, God’s Son. God cleanses us from all wickedness. But the only cleansing agent that can remove sin is the blood of Jesus. The author of Hebrews wrote, “Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins” (9:14 NLT).

God’s plan of salvation and forgiveness of sins required an unimaginable sacrifice. The best way to prepare to confess our sins is to meditate on Jesus’ sacrifice, to fully absorb what was necessary for our sins to be forgiven. The more we appreciate the gravity of our sins, the less likely we’ll be to downplay our confession. Remember, confession isn’t a plea bargain with God where we cop to our wrongdoing and get our record expunged. Confession isn’t a begrudging “Sorry” or “My bad.”

Confession is agreeing with God. Let’s say you and I went out to eat together, and we both ordered burgers. If I said, “I think this burger is amazing,” and you said, “I do too,” we agree. If God says, “That’s sin, and I hate it,” and you say, “I agree with You, God; that’s sin, and I hate it too,” that’s confession.

Genuine confession is a soul-deep awareness that our sin is so serious, and so destructive to our relationship with God, that repairing it required the death of His only Son. Genuine confession is a longing to restore that relationship, even if it means revealing our ugliest truths—admitting that a sudden temptation was more attractive to us than God’s perfect will or that we tried to grab the controls of our life from God so that we could steer in a direction that seemed exciting.

A genuine confession comes from a humble heart. It doesn’t try to justify our behavior, offer excuses, shift the blame, or downplay the impact of our wrongdoing. Genuine confession sincerely regrets taking a path away from God and announces a 180-degree turn back to Him.

First John 1:9 gives us a glimpse at how God responds to genuine confession and a humble heart. He doesn’t offer a half-hearted show of forgiveness. He doesn’t berate us for our faithlessness. He doesn’t restrict our access to Him. God is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (NLT).

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