All People Sin

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:8-10

In verses 8-10, John calls out a group of people we can refer to as the “secessionists.” We don’t know exactly who they were, but we do know that they seceded from (or left) the group of Christians to whom John wrote because they started to disagree with some very important factors of the gospel message.
The secessionists didn’t believe that all men sin. Some of them truly believed that they had never sinned before. But as we talked about a couple of days ago, the bible says differently. All men have sinned. All men are deserving of darkness and can only come to the light through Jesus.
It’s kind of like a man who is so sick that his illness is killing him. If a doctor brings him medicine and says, “Take this; this is the only thing that can heal you,” yet the man refuses to believe that he is sick and needs the medicine, he will never find the healing that he needs.
It is important to admit that we have all sinned and that our punishment for sinning is death. But the best news of all is that if we admit our need for help, then all we have to do is receive the medicine—which is the cleansing blood of Jesus. If we accept Jesus’ blood as our medicine, it will cleanse us completely from our sinful nature and lead us to eternal life instead of death. What a beautiful free gift Jesus is! We have only to receive the gift.

Questions for reflection and discussion
1. Are you a sinner?
2. Have you accepted God’s gift of life?

Dear God, we thank You that even though we constantly miss the mark of perfection and holiness that we need to be in a relationship with You who are perfect and holy, You still gave us the free gift of grace. Thank You that You sent Your Son to die in our place so that all we have to do is accept His holiness through faith. God, we pray that we can learn to keep accepting this truth—that though we will continue to sin and mess up from time to time, Your love makes us new every morning!