Is First John 1:9 For Believers?

Many believers are taught they are forgiven of their sins positionally in Christ, but they are not personally forgiven of their sins for daily life.

They are taught they are judicially forgiven by God but not relationally forgiven by God.

Additionally, they are taught they are forgiven by God for salvation, but they are not forgiven by God for fellowship.

These dual, categorized teachings about forgiveness find their origins in the misunderstanding of 1 John 1:9, which reads,

"If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness."

This verse is not referring to believers who are in need of confessing and asking God for forgiveness daily so they can stay personally forgiven and in fellowship with God.

Rather, the context of 1 John 1:9 is about the false teachers who denied Jesus was the Christ and were leading the believers away from Jesus (1 John 2:18-27).

These false teachers were deceived because they denied they were sinners, the truth was not in them, they were making God out to be a liar, and the word of God was not in them (1 John 1:8, 10).

Jesus used these exact references to identify the Pharisees in the Book of John.

The believers, on the other hand, were forgiven (1 John 2:12), the word of God was in them (1 John 2:14), and they knew the truth concerning Jesus being the Christ (1 John 2:8, 20-21; 5:8).

Understanding the first-century narrative and audience of 1 John protects us from being mistaught by well-meaning teachers, and also protects us from misapplying 1 John 1:9.

The truth of the new covenant of grace is that Jesus shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:26-28; Luke 22:20).

God is not counting our sins against us because they were all counted against Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

We are forgiven of all sins through the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:6-8; Colossians 1:13-14; 2:13; Hebrews 9:12; 10:17-18).

There are no categories.

If this blog was helpful for you, Brad’s book on 1 John 1:9 may be helpful as well:
Forgiven and Cleansed: 1 John 1:9 In Context

Also, check out Brad’s Books.