Confession, Questions, Answers; 1 John 1:9-2:2

What is carnality? 1 Corinthians 3:1 ^NASB “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.” The Corinthians weren’t listening and Paul had to chastise them in this letter. The word “brethren” tells us right away that he is addressing them as believers. At salvation we are saved from the penalty of sin which is eternal condemnation in the lake of fire, but it is only through the process of spiritual growth, advancing to maturity by learning the Word of God under the teaching ministry of the Spirit of God, walking in dependence upon the Spirit of God that the Spirit of God gradually frees us from the power of sin. It is broken positionally at salvation and we are no longer a slave to sin. What we do when we wilfully sin is put ourselves back into that slavery to the sin nature, and that is what has happened to these believers at Corinth.

Spirituality today has come to mean just about anything to anybody. Whatever you want it to mean, that is what it means to you. But the Bible doesn’t use spirituality in that sort of abstract, nebulous way, it is very precise. It is the word here, pneumatikos [pneumatikoj]. What does Paul mean by a spiritual person? Because he is going to contrast them with “men of flesh” – sarkinos [sarkinoj], from the sarx [sarc] which means flesh and it a technical term used by Paul to refer to our sin nature. 1 Corinthians 2:15 ^NASB “But he who is spiritual appraises [investigates] all things…” That is, the person who now possesses a human spirit is able to investigate all things. What are the “all things”? Refer back to verse 9: “things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,” i.e. doctrine; verse 12: “…that we may know the things freely given to us by God. [13] which things we also speak…” That is, doctrine. So verse 15 is talking about the person who possesses a human spirit and in now able to investigate the things of God. He is now able to understand the Word of God, “yet he himself [the believer] is appraised by no one [man].” Unbelievers can’t understand us. We are set apart, we are distinct, we think differently; we possess a human spirit now and the unbeliever doesn’t. But the Corinthians aren’t living like there is a difference between the believer and the unbeliever. The crowd in Corinth are living just like unbelievers are. That is why Paul makes the comment in chapter three, verse 1. He has to speak to them as infants.

A believer can either be spiritual or carnal [fleshly]. Being spiritual has to do first with possessing a human spirit, being saved. The second meaning of spiritual is walking by means of the Spirit as discussed in Galatians 5:16ff. There are several different words in Greek for babies. One is brephos [brefoj], talking about an infant, a new-born baby. But the word that is used here is nepios [nhpioj], a word that was also commonly used as an insult. It is a pejorative term here, Paul is being very sarcastic. They can’t even take in milk. When a believer is operating on the sin nature he is out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and it is the Holy Spirit who is the one who reaches us. It is the Holy Spirit who is the one who stores doctrine in our soul and who brings it back to our memory in recall, so that when we need to apply He reminds us of it and helps us see how to apply it. The whole spiritual life is on the basis of walking by means of God the Holy Spirit.

What happens when we sin? What is the solution? 1 John 1:9 ^NASB “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What gets us carnal is living under the sin nature—mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, overt sins.

Questions that come up about confession

1 John 1:9 is the only place in the New Testament that uses the word “confession.” So how can it be said that confession is such a vital part of the believer’s life? Principle: Confession has always been a vital part of the believer’s life in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Second principle: The statement that if you say you have to confess, it is legalism. Legalism was never the basis for either salvation or the spiritual life in the Old Testament. The observance of sacrifices and ritual in the Old Testament was grace. God’s basis for salvation in the Old Testament was based on the grace promise that he would provide a saviour who would pay the penalty for their sins in the future. Following the procedures of the sacrifices were procedures they followed that pictured the future provision of God’s grace solution at the cross. They weren’t saved because of the sacrifice, they were saved because of their faith in the provision of the saviour. They weren’t sanctified by obeying the Law; the Law was to show them they were sinners. Furthermore, the Law was the code of conduct, the legal code for the whole nation which included believers and unbelievers alike. So to say that confession in the New Testament is legalistic then to be logical it would have to be said that sanctification and salvation in the Old Testament was based on legalism and works and not grace. The word “confession” is used only once in the New Testament, but God only needs to say it once, it doesn’t gain validity and infallibility because God repeats it twice. But God has repeated the principle throughout the Old and New Testaments.

Exodus 12:15, we are told about the feast of unleavened bread ^NASB “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.” Leaven represented sin. In order to qualify the house for the worship of God at Passover and during the feast of unleavened bread they had to remove all the leaven. This was a symbol that sin had been removed from the house. That was a picture representation of confession in order to prepare the house for the worship of God.

Exodus 30:20 ^NASB “when they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire {sacrifice} to the LORD.”

Leviticus 16:20 ^NASB “When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. [21] Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send {it} away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who {stands} in readiness. [22] The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” That is a picture of the fact that when we confess our sins then God removes them for us.

1 Samuel 15:24 ^NASB “Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice’.”

David confessed after his sin with Bathsheba. The sin was against God. He also had to confess his sin after he took a second census of the people in 2 Samuel 24:10 ^NASB “Now David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly’.”

2 Chronicles 29:5, an example of Hezekiah’s prayer of confession. ^NASB “Then he said to them, ‘Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. [6] For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and have turned {their} backs.”

Again there is confession under Ezra because of the intermarriage of the people with the Canaanites when the first wave of Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity.

Psalm 32:5 ^NASB “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.”

Psalm 41:4 ^NASB “As for me, I said, ‘O LORD, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You’.”

Psalm 51:2 ^NASB “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. [3] For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. [4] Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.”

Daniel 9:20 ^NASB “Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God.”

Luke 5:8 ^NASB “But when Simon Peter saw {that,} he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, ‘Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!’”

John 13:6 ^NASB “So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, ‘Lord, do You wash my feet?’ [7] Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.’ [8] Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me’.”

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 ^NASB “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump {of dough?} [7] Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are {in fact} unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. [8] Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

1 Corinthians 11:28 ^NASB “But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup …. [31] But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.” The point there is self-judgment and confession of sin.