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. What does Paul mean by a
spiritual person? Because he is going to contrast them with “men of flesh”
– sarkinos, from the sarx, 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, talking about an infant, a new-born baby. But the word that is used here is nepios, 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.