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

     1 John 1:9 can become a chief obstacle to growth for sincere believers.  It is easy to assume by reading the verse, as usually translated,  that our relationship with God is dependent upon describing to Him our every misstep.  This misunderstanding can make life intolerably legalistic, for no one could even realize their every sin, much less ask forgiveness for each one.

     This misinterpretation begins with a faulty understanding of the Gospel.  To see this verse correctly, we must first get a grasp of what really has been done for us by Jesus. 

     The way God relates to humanity, and the way a person can relate to God, completely and forever changed at Jesus' death and resurrection.  Before His sacrifice, only the High Priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement, could go into God's presence in the Holy of Holies.  He had to bring the atoning blood of dead animals, and only by perfectly performing every little detail prescribed in the Law could he enter without being struck dead.  Worse still, all of it had to be done again and again, over and over, because animal blood could never take away sin.  When Jesus died, rose again, and ascended, however, that sacrificial system ended.  Jesus went into the real Holy of Holies (the one in the Temple was just a copy of the one in Heaven) with His own Blood.  The arrival of that Blood, eternally effective in cleansing every believer from all sin, ended the Law, the Levitical priesthood, and erased the whole list of laws and rules we had never been able to keep.  There is no longer a list of laws that we can transgress.  That list was nailed to the Cross and buried with Jesus once and for all.  Now, ever since the time of the Holy Spirit's first infilling at Pentecost, when anyone wholeheartedly speaks out their faith in the resurrection of Jesus, he or she is made forever righteous and holy in their spirit by the Holy Spirit.  That is what the new birth is.  You are not infected with a little fragile, easily lost holiness-- you are made eternally righteous and holy.  Further, the believer is not only "born of God" but is born into Jesus-- into His Body.  God made a New Covenant, not with us, but with Jesus, the One Who is eternally Faithful and True, and we are now eternally in Him.  It doesn't depend on us!  We are no longer servants, as under the Law, but sons* and Friends of God.  We have been given new hearts that desire to live in God's ways and instinctively know what they are.  Our choice, moment by moment, is whether to yield to the flesh (the sinful nature still resident in our bodies) or to the spirit that has been made alive and righteous in us.  Sin is no longer an issue.  Jesus took the judgment and punishment for all our sin once and for all-- 2,000 years ago!  Someone will ask, "Why not sin excessively, then?"  The answer is simple.  Everyone who has truly been born of God desires to live in His ways.  Only someone who never knew Him would see His forgiveness as license to sin. We long to please our Father, because love for Him is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  When we fail to yield to the spirit, we reap the earthly consequences (e.g., rob a bank, go to prison), but we remain the beloved sons and friends of God.  He never "breaks fellowship" with His children, as some have taught. 

     Evidence indicates that 1 John was written about A.D. 90-- long enough after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple for it not to be an issue, and before the persecutions began under the Roman emperor Trajan.  'John' is most likely the Apostle John at about age 75-80.  As the Gospel spread all over the Roman world, the main problem became its corruption by Gentile religions, specifically Gnosticism.  Gnosticism basically taught that Christ had come to redeem only the very wise from the world of matter, not all men from sin.  When John reiterates, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves...." (v. 8) and "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar...." (v. 10), he is very likely dealing with these and similar issues. If someone believes that there is no sin in mankind, as the Gnostics believed, then that person is deceived and not in a position to realize the need for salvation. John was writing to believers to reassure them of the truth of the Gospel and to keep them from being drawn away by the many cults of the time.

     The translation of the phrase "If we confess our sins" begins the modern-day problem.  The Greek word hamartia (used both times in v. 9) really means "sin as a total condition, missing the true goal and scope of life" **.  It does not mean a number of individual sins.  The word is also used in verses 7 and 8, and is translated there as "sin"; it should be so here as well. "If we confess our sin" has a completely different meaning than "If we confess our sins".  It also makes sense when aligned with the rest of the Gospel.  Further, the word "confess" would be better translated as "agree with" or "acknowledge" in this context.  In other words, we agree with God in heart and speech that sin continues to dwell in us, that is, in our flesh.  As we live and walk in Jesus, however, His Blood continually cleanses us from all sin.  God is always faithful and just to continually and eternally forgive and cleanse us because Jesus' pure Blood and, indeed, Jesus Himself, is there with Him as a continual reminder that the price has been paid.  The corrected translation:

Blessings,
Don Francisco