If We Say That We Have No Sin (1 John 1:8)

2024-04-20

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

When we walk with the Lord and in victory over sin, there may come a subtle tendency to think that we will never fall. There is a danger, that as we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in the Lord Jesus, that somehow, we may think that we have “arrived” or that by our own righteousness we stand.

However, the moment we do this, a surreptitious force is already at work. Our trust in Christ has departed and been exchanged for something so sinister yet disguised as an angel of light. This verse in 1 John 1:8 is here as an alarm to show us that we do have sin, and there is never a time where we cease to need the blood of Jesus which “cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Now if we do sin, the great consolation is that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Let my faith always be in the crucified and risen Lord, and if I stumble, let me be quick to confess that I may be restored.