This season we will sing one of Charles Wesley\u2019s great hymns:<\/p>\n
Hark! The herald angels sing,
\n\u201cGlory to the newborn King;
\nPeace on earth, and mercy mild:
\nGod and sinners reconciled!\u201d<\/p>\n
How does the birth of the King lead to the reconciliation of God with sinners?<\/p>\n
As 1 John 1:7 tells us: \u201cThe blood of Jesus [God\u2019s] Son cleanses us from all sin.\u201d That is, Jesus took on Himself the punishment that we deserve for our rebellion against God. On the cross, God \u201claid on Him the iniquity of us all\u201d (Isaiah 53:6). These benefits of His death accrue to all who trust in Him as the payment for their sins, who see Him as their true King, who treasure Him above all the world has to offer. Then, reconciled to God through Jesus, we live our lives to His glory \u2013 not sinlessly, but continually forgiven because of the redemption we have in Jesus.<\/p>\n
Thus, John continues in his first epistle:<\/p>\n
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)<\/p>\n
1 John 1:9 leads to a question: Is our forgiveness contingent on our confession? John has just said that believers can\u2019t say they have no sin. We all sin every day. We confess those sins that we are aware of. But what about the sins we\u2019re not<\/em> aware of? Can I be lost \u2013 not reconciled to God \u2013 because I never confess the sins I\u2019ve failed to recognize?<\/p>\n The question arises from a misunderstanding of the verse. John is not talking about a one-for-one relationship between a sin confessed and a sin forgiven: “I lusted after this woman; now I confessed it; only then does God forgive me.” Rather I confess my general sinfulness and any known sins upon coming to faith; I confess my sinfulness and any known sins daily to my loving, merciful Father; I regularly ask Him to search my heart and see if there is any grievous way in me (Psalm 139:23-24); I rightly agree with His Word in calling sin sin and not belittling or making excuses for any of my sins; I hate my remaining known and unknown sins and actively “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11). That’s the idea behind “if we confess our sins.” Having done that, I trust that God is faithful and just to forgive all known and unknown sins and present me as perfectly clean before Himself because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.<\/p>\n Understood this way, confession is not something over and above \u201cbelieve in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved\u201d (Acts 16:31). Confession is the daily manifestation<\/em> of faith in Jesus, a daily living out<\/em> of recognizing Him as Savior, Master, and Treasure, a consistent exhibit<\/em> of the Gospel of God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n The baby in the manger we celebrate this season is God in the flesh, come to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), so that all of us sinners who believe in Him can be reconciled to God the Father, and then live as His beloved children every day.<\/p>\n So joyfully confess your sins before Him \u2013 and, forgiven in Christ, live out the true meaning of Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This season we will sing one of Charles Wesley\u2019s great hymns: Hark! The herald angels sing, \u201cGlory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild: God and sinners…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[2446,296,331,509,558,2449,2448,1284,1294,2447],"class_list":["post-3111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-1-john-19","tag-christmas","tag-confession","tag-faith","tag-forgiveness","tag-god-and-sinners-reconciled","tag-hark-the-herald-angels-sing","tag-ransom","tag-reconciliation","tag-unknown-sins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3112,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions\/3112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}