1 John 1:5-10
5 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
John is separating the light from the darkness and consequently the difference between the saved, who are of God, and the unsaved who are not. There were people in the church who were not actually saved even if they appeared to be so. The Gnostics, for example, were Christian heretics, meaning they subscribed to some of the same language present within Christianity but deviated by rejecting the physicality of Jesus as well as the problem of sin.
If we walk in the light: Those who walk in the light are true believers. John is not talking about Christians being constantly in and out of fellowship with God. He is addressing people who are either permanently in fellowship with God through a reception of the true Gospel, or people who were perpetually rejecting Jesus and therefore in the darkness. Those who are in Christ are perfectly cleaned by the blood of Christ. However, those who deny the physicality of Jesus necessarily reject the blood of Christ which comes from a physical body.
If we say that we have no sin: True Christians will never be in denial of the reality of sin. John is, therefore, addressing Gnostics who do deny the reality of sin. These Gnostics needed to confess their sins in order to be cleansed and forgiven.
If we confess our sins: While 1 John 1:9 is often used as a reassurance for believers who confess their sins, this is not the best way to interpret the verse. Furthermore, it’s actually not very reassuring to state that the believer’s ongoing forgiveness is based on the ability to remember sin and confess it. Another problem is it creates a two-tiered view of forgiveness. We believe that we are forgiven positionally in Christ but not relationally. That’s why we need 1 John 1:9. But the reality is God has a blood-based economy (see Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 7:27), and John was thinking about the blood of Christ while he was addressing the topic (1 John 5:7). John was not speaking of confession as a means of becoming more forgiven. He was inviting Gnostics to recognize their sinfulness so that they could be saved. Gnostics were in denial of the reality of sin. Those who denied the reality of sin (verse 8 and 10) did not contain the truth of God or the word of God within them. They were not Christians. However, all who confess their sins are cleansed from all unrighteousness, not just some, and forgiven perfectly for all sin. Confession, therefore, is not a tool prescribed by John for Christians to somehow become more forgiven. Confession is how one enters into the true faith. In order to be saved, we must recognize our sins. After all, this is step 1 to becoming a Christian. We need to recognize that we need salvation from sin. Once we believe in Jesus we are perfectly cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7). All who believe in Jesus have the truth of God and the word of God living within them (see also 2 John 1:2). This does not mean that John is forbidding Christian confession. We ought to confess, or agree with God about, all things including sin. But John absolutely forbids the idea that we are confessing for further forgiveness.
