the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
"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.
Confession implies compunction. The mere statement of one’s fault is not confession. The fault may be aggravated by a heartless mention of it. Some men are very tenacious of their imaginary rectitude; but others think it a pretty accomplishment to be able to speak of themselves as graceless characters. Into the idea of true confession humiliation enters. Confession should be particular. Individual sins must be seen in their hatefulness before the word of forgiveness can come in between them and our conscience. And be not surprised If I add that forgiveness is particular. It is both ’general and particular. " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" does not relieve the conscience from the necessity of afterwards looking at particular sins forgiven, appreciating their special features of ugliness, and finding relief in the details of divine forgiveness.
This shows us how much occasion there is for commerce with God. Confession, prayer, gratitude, these three duties give the soul an amount of business at the throne of grace which it can never overtake. God in his overflowing graciousness does not make us wait for a pretext to come to him; he does not suffer us to find any pretext for ever absenting our selves from him.
There can be no true confession of sin without the contemplation of Christ crucified. For, an appreciation of sin is necessary to adequate confession, and this is not obtained save at the cross. If a man has taken from you a thousand pounds, and says, " Forgive me for having purloined a handful of silver from you;" or if he struck your child so that he died, and says, " Forgive me for the injury I did your child;" such confession will not suffice. He must first see his own deed aright. And it is utterly impossible that any sin should be seen in its proper flagrancy, until the Lamb of God is seen to have been slain for it.
Confession, forgiveness, purity, these three things stand in indubitable connection in the history of a saved soul.
It is a pity to quit this text, having only skimmed it. What does the apostle mean, dear reader, by the words "faithful and just?" Understand this, and you will be an Elijah, a Daniel, a Moses.
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