Do believers need to confess their sins to get them forgiven?
It is widely known that Catholics believe in the need to “go to confession.” But did you know that many Protestants also live under the burden of thinking they have to confess their sins to get them forgiven? Are you one of them?
Well, let’s look at the verse that many pastors use as their “proof text” for this false doctrine—1 John 1:9, which reads, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When interpreting any Bible verse, the FIRST thing to always do is to examine its context. To whom was the book of 1 John written? To the Body of Christ, the Church today? Or to the kingdom church? It was written to kingdom saints, not the Body of Christ. So, just by using the first rule of interpretation we know that this verse is NOT written to the Church that exists today in the dispensation of grace. But even if it were, it would still not mean what these pastors say it means because this passage is addressed not to the saved, but to the unsaved.
To get the full context of 1 John 1:9, let us go back to verses 1-5. In these verses, John wrote about the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and what he said here is very similar to what he wrote in his earlier gospel account (compare 1 Jn. 1:1-5 with Jn. 1:1-13). Then in verse 6, John changed from writing about Jesus’ advent to the Jews’ response to Him, saying that if the Jews said they had fellowship with Jesus but “walk[ed] in darkness,” they were liars—in other words, their works (which Jews had to do under the kingdom program) proved they really did not believe. But in verse 7, John said that if they truly believed, they would “walk in the light”—their works would prove that they really did believe.
When we get to verse 8, John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This is talking about unbelieving Jews, not believing or saved Jews. An integral part of the kingdom gospel was the requirement to “repent” or to admit that one was a sinner (Matt. 3:2; Mk. 1:15; Lk. 13:3). For a Jew to say that he had no sin meant that he was unrepentant. By saying he had no sin, he denied his need for Jesus as Messiah—the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29).
Now we get to verse 9. In verse 8, John wrote about unrepentant Jews—they said they had “no sin.” But in verse 9, he wrote about repentant Jews who admitted that they had sin (“confess our sins”). If these repentant Jews confessed their sins, God was faithful to forgive them their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness—i.e., if they repented, God would save them.
So, we see that 1 John 1:9 was written to kingdom Jews regarding how they could be saved—by admitting they were sinners (repenting) in need of a Savior (Jesus their Messiah). This verse has nothing to do with forgiveness of sins after salvation.
We often hear the saying, “Three strikes and you’re out!” Well, we have seen two strikes against the false teaching that 1 John 1:9 means believers today need to confess their sins to be forgiven: (1) This verse is written to kingdom (lower) Jews not the Body of Christ, (comma) and (2) Even for (change from “to”) them, (comma) it referred to salvation, (comma) not to forgiveness of sins after salvation.
The third strike is this: In Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, written to the Body of Christ in this dispensation of grace, he wrote, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:13). At the very instant we believe the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4), ALL of our sins are forgiven! The language is very specific here—“having forgiven” speaks of a past completed action. So to repeat, at the moment we believe the gospel, ALL of our sins—past, present, and future—are forgiven!
It is impossible to understand how pastors who teach that we are saved by grace though faith by believing in the finished work of Christ can then go on to also teach that after salvation we need to confess our sins to get them forgiven.
So, do believers need to confess their sins to get them forgiven? The answer is a resounding “NO!”
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