Does forgiveness enable sin?
Probably the most frequent go-to verse for assurance of pardon in a worship service is 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This assurance is honey to our flagging spirits when they are weighed down by the guilt of sin. It bathes the guilty conscience with the refreshing waters of God’s grace.
We were reminded in our recent analysis (see here) that this verse points us to Jesus and His redeeming work on our behalf. God forgives us our transgressions not simply because we confess them but because we confess Christ as God’s provision for forgiveness of that sin (and every sin).
As John goes on to say: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). By His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus satisfied the wrath of God due us as lawbreakers. The cleansing from all unrighteousness we receive points us to the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7) once shed at Calvary’s cross (Heb. 9:26).
In the thick of this discourse of deliverance about sin and its solution, John issues a statement that seems out of place. In the bridge between the first two chapters of his first epistle the apostle is explaining that though we are born-again children of God, we continue to sin. In fact, our increasingly painful awareness of that sin is an indication that we indeed possess eternal life (1 John 5:13).
He then explains God’s solution for our sin through the work of His Son who became our sin-bearer, paying our debt of guilt and suffering the penalty we deserve. John also highlights Jesus as the Righteous One of God. In Christ we are cleansed by His blood and clothed in His righteousness, and so made acceptable to the holy God.
But in the midst of this ledger of grace, John writes this non sequitur: “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
Hearing that the debt of our sin—past, present, and future—is paid in full seems to issue us a license to sin. After all, if Christ has borne all the consequence and covered all the debt why not sin with abandon or at least without concern?
Yet, John says that he is explaining this divine transaction to us to keep us from sin. How does that logic work? It works because our salvation is more than a legal ledger. It involves more than justification. It involves the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to unite us to Christ.
That’s why John begins his statement by addressing us as “little children.” We are children of the living God (1 John 3:1), born again of the Spirit. He is at work forming Christ in us, orienting our hearts to God as our Father, cultivating the fruit of repentance, faith, and new obedience.
Rather than giving us a license to sin, our position in Christ gives us a license to not sin. While we were spiritually dead in sin and incapable of not sinning, the Spirit gives us life and inclination to obedience.
He stirs in us distress of soul when we turn our backs on our loving Father in heaven to follow after sin, and He seeks us and restores us to fellowship with Him. Sin does not affect our relationship with God. He remains our adoptive Father, but it does affect our fellowship with Him.
John stresses that Jesus is our Advocate with the Father. He our surety stands. As the writer of Hebrews notes: “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). If we embrace this glorious truth, our love will not be for sin but for our Savior (1 John 2:3-5).
In what way does John hold up for us a license to love?
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For more on love, see Greater Love: A Devotional Journey through 1 John (Stanley D. Gale, Waxed Tablet Publications, 2025).
