Daily Devotions
1 John
"If we say that we have not sinned..."
Text: 1 John 1:10
THE LAST CONDITIONAL SENTENCE
John now deals with the last category of people in the first chapter. We have another group of people with a different opinion about sin.
“If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
1 John 1:10
1. “If we say that we have not sinned”
a) This is another second class conditional sentence.
b) There were some who insisted that they had not sinned.
c) John has doubts about the truth of this statement.
2. Remembering an encounter the Lord Jesus had with the Jews (John 9)
a) The Lord Jesus had spoken about the freedom that He could give.
b) Jesus promised that He would help the repentant sinner be free from the power of sin.
c) The Jews retorted that they were never in bondage.
i) They were saying that they were not in bondage.
ii) Thus they did not need the freedom Jesus promised.
d) Jesus made an important statement.
i) He who sins is a slave to sin.
ii) All have sinned and under bondage.
iii) Thus all need to come to Him for cleansing from the power of sin.
3. Ramifications of denial of sin
a) This makes God a liar.
i) He had declared that all have sinned (Psalm 14).
ii) To deny having sinned is a serious problem.
b) His word is not in us.
i) To deny sin is to deny what God has said in His word.
ii) To deny sin also means that His word is not in our hearts.
4. Confession of sin
The confession of sin must come from a genuine heart of repentance! As the Apostle John evaluated the efforts made by some concerning the problem of sin, he raises serious doubts. We come to this understanding because of his use of the second class conditional sentence!