As we considered 1 John 1:5-7 in the previous article, the author was not saying that our flesh is good on its own. When we let our sinful nature, our pride, and our selfishness guide our decisions (which we’ve all done, I’m afraid), then we are sinful – the very opposite of being righteous. And, as John continues in this letter, he confirms that suggesting otherwise just makes us wrong. However, he doesn’t stop there.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:8-10 NIV
So, those who said that flesh was evil (like the false teachers of the Gnostic and Docetist beliefs) may have gotten the symptoms of human behavior correct, just not the root cause. And, that makes sense. After all, it’s not uncommon for even false human ideas to have kernels of truth in them.
One of the places where the false teachers’ philosophy broke down, though, was when the Gnostics’ belief didn’t accept that God the Son could overcome temptation and live a righteous life as a human being. We might say that this group believed that the inherent evil of the corporeal, material world was stronger than God’s ability to bring perfection and righteousness to the world He created. In reality, though, it wasn’t the physical world that was evil, or even the human body. Instead, it was our inability to choose God over temptations to sin, which left us in need of a Savior who was stronger than ourselves. God created the world good, and Jesus could live a perfectly good life as a human being, while still being God.
Now, we might wonder who was saying that they didn’t sin. I’m pretty confident that Romans 3:23 (see also Romans 3:21-26) had already been written. Writings like this make it it clear that we all sin. Perhaps some of the false teachers were saying that their spirit was sinless, and it was only their flesh that sinned, as if different parts of themselves somehow lived in the same place without all being part of themselves. Claiming that we are sinless, though, is simply a lie, no matter what twisted logic we may use to explain away what we’ve done.
Since God has said – truthfully – that we are sinners, then for us to suggest otherwise is to call Him a liar and to reject His truth. For those – even purveyors of a false gospel – who believed that God was perfect and good, even if they only believed that because they saw Him as spirit, it didn’t make sense for them to claim to be sinless when God said otherwise.
However, God loved us too much to leave us in our sinful and lost condition. When we confess our sins, God has already provided a way for our sins to be forgiven. Remember, He can’t let sin go unpunished, but that punishment was taken by Jesus on the cross.
This is illustrated in verse 9, where God is described as “faithful and just” [NIV] or “faithful and righteous” [NASB] to forgive us. He is faithful because He always tells the truth and always keeps His promises. That is at the core of His nature. He is just or righteous because He did not break the universal principles of justice. He didn’t let us get away with unpunished sin. Instead, our sins were paid for and justice was served at the cross. God is just and righteous – in the same way that He is faithful – because that is who He is.
To further build out this concept, just as Romans 3:23 (mentioned earlier) confirms that we’ve all sinned, Romans 3:25-26 (a few verses later) explains how God made the way for us to be pronounced righteous, without ignoring the reality of our sins.
So, let’s not hide, ignore, or try to cover up the fact that we broke God’s law and we have sinned. However, let’s not stop there, either. Just because we didn’t have a good solution to save ourselves doesn’t mean that was the end of the line. God planned, prepared, and sacrificed so that we could be considered righteous again, out of His great love for us. When we begin to understand the truth about that (as God has revealed it to us), I think that we’ll start to see the whole picture and not just human beings’ limited concepts of right, wrong, and redemption.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for February 16, 2025
References:
- 1717 Bible Studies, 1, 2, and 3 John, © 2025 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1, 2 & 3 John, by Morris M. Womack. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 