There is nothing impure or imperfect in heaven, which is why everyone needs Jesus in order to enter heaven. We will never confess every sin we commit. We will never be fully right with God until we dwell with him in heaven. So the Lord provided a way for us to live on earth with as much freedom from our sins as possible.

The Lord gave us the opportunity to bring our sins to him and lay them at his feet. We don’t have to pay the full price of our sins because only Jesus could do that. Yet John wrote, “if we confess our sins” God will forgive them. Why do we need to confess what God already knows? Why do we need God’s daily forgiveness if we have been made eternally righteous by our salvation?

God didn’t want us to wait for heaven to live a righteous life. God wants us to live as his children now, even as we live on earth. God wants us to understand and help others understand that our sins have consequences to our lives now and to our lives eternal. He wants us to live high and holy lives and help others do the same.

God calls us to “confess our sins” so that he can cleanse us from those sins now. He wants us to live righteous lives and model the character of Christ to those around us. We can’t model the perfection of Christ, but we can model the “perfecting” nature of Christ’s presence in our lives.

We confess our sins so that we acknowledge those things in our life that cause us to be less than godly. Confession isn’t for God’s sake, it is for ours. When we acknowledge our sins we are less likely to repeat them. God wants to clean up our sins so we can live righteous lives now. So, he gave us the ability to confess so he could cleanse our lives and teach us to live rightly.

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus never had to model confession because he didn’t sin. Jesus did model the powerful life of a person who is fully right with God. He modeled the best way for us to live as we walk our pathway to heaven. 

We don’t have to walk our pathway carrying the burden of our sins. Spend some time laying your burdens at the feet of Jesus.