The Christian's Bar of Soap miss-interpretation of 1 John 1:9 is a heresy. Nowhere else in scripture do you find the result of confession anything other than salvation; forgiveness of sin and cleansing of all unrighteousness. John was telling the pretenders in those churches that if they wanted fellowship with God and the believers, then they had to do what the Believers had done...get saved. Romans 10:10 makes it so clear that we believe unto righteousness and confession is made unto salvation. To say that it is upon us that we must wash away our own sins through daily confession is works-righteousness and denies the simplicity of the Gospel; that Jesus has done it all.
The Confessionists have had to invent many new doctrines to support the miss-interpretation and miss-application of 1 John 1:9. (1) Since every Saint has a personal sin account upon which (2) our post-salvation sins accumulate, (3) and these post-salvation sins are forgiven differently (pre-salvation sins are given statutory forgiveness and post-salvation sins are given paternal forgiveness), and (4) that even though God told us that our sins are as far as east is from west and in the deepest sea, He still sees them so that He can break fellowship and chastize us for them, (5) and that He only forgives these post-salvation sins if we are 100% sincere that we are sorry and will really really try to not sin any more, and (6) if we partake in the Lord's Supper with unconfessed post-salvation sins on our account, then we eat and drink to our own damnation (KJV), and (7) that since we know we will commit these sins again, then we also know we are lying to God and He is smart enough to detect our prayed lie, and (8) the Catholics are correct in confesing their sins on Saturday to get them forgiven so that they can take communion on Sunday.
The truth is, if you're saved, you can always take communion. If you are lost, then every time you partake the elements "unworthily", you raise the cup to toast your own damnation.
I hope that you abandon this heresy and give Jesus Christ the credit for the full forgiveness of sin in your life. Anything short of that is to deny the sufficiency of His death and resurrection. |
