| This is not a verse telling people how to be saved, for it is in a letter “written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” So “if we [believers] confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What a blessed promise, needed by all of us who know the Lord, for “if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” But many times, especially when we are cast down because we have sinned and failed the Lord, Satan causes us to think that the Lord has not really forgiven us and that we must continue to confess the same sin over and over. Such doubt dishonors God, for “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If He instructs us to forgive each other “until seventy times seven,” will He do less for His own? So when we truly repent of and confess our sins, let us remember, thankfully, that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” |
