To Encourage You

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Have you ever heard someone say, “That’s not right!” either to you or to someone else?  What does someone mean when they say such a thing?  It means that there’s something “off” in some way. For example, if we see the equation “2+2=5” we say it’s not right.  It’s incorrect. If someone is building a house and we see that the floor isn’t level we would say that it’s not right. It’s not supposed to be that way. Another way we might use this term is when we see a little child being mistreated in some way. Our immediate reaction is “that’s not right!”  No matter what the context in which we might say that things aren’t “right” we always mean that they aren’t as they should be. We have in mind a standard that what we see or experience doesn’t match up to it, and so we say it’s “not right.”  

In the verse above from 1 John 1 we see the word “unrighteousness.”  Perhaps its simplest definition is that it means “not right.”  As we look around us, we see so much that’s just not right. We live in a world that is filled with unrighteousness in a sense.  The Bible tells us that things aren’t right in this world for one reason only – that reason is called “sin.”  When God created the universe, He called it all “good.” You see, God is the epitome of good. Therefore, everything that comes from Him is righteous and good. In Psalm 119:137 the psalmist says of Him, “Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments.” Psalm 97:2 says “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” And in Psalm 145:17 we are told that “The Lord is righteous in all His ways.”  But when sin entered the world, things were no longer as they should be. There were flaws. There were failings. Everything that was previously “right” was now “off” in some way. And that includes the human heart.  In fact, our hearts are so full of unrighteousness that we can think that we are “right” when we are anything but.  

So many see themselves as naturally “good.” They will tell you, “I’m a good person,” but their standard for making such a statement is their own, and like everything else in this fallen world, that standard is flawed. In fact, it is so flawed that we are told in Isaiah 64:6 that “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Isaiah knew this for He was given a vision of the glory of God in the temple and when he considered himself in comparison, he said this: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).  Israel’s greatest king, King David, put it like this, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).  Then there’s the apostle Paul.  Before he saw the risen Christ, Paul viewed himself, “as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6).  But then he was struck physically blind as he saw the brilliant righteousness of Christ on the road to Damascus, and he instantly had his inner eyes opened to the reality of his own heart, so that now he would say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, OF WHOM I AM THE FOREMOST” (1 Timothy 1:15). 

So what about you? How do you see yourself?  Is everything right in your world?  Do you see yourself as righteous and good?  If you do, God would have you to know that your vision is flawed, just like everything else in this world that is no longer right because of sin.  Again, God has told all of us that “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6).  

But you know what? Wonderfully, it doesn’t have to stay that way.  Rather, if we will just confess our sins (which means to say the same thing about our sins that God says), the verse above from 1 John says “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  ALL unrighteousness – every hint of it.  He takes away the filthy rags of our own unrighteousness and in its place He clothes us with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ!  

So, how is this possible? It’s all because of the cross. It was there that “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That’s the message of the gospel. That’s the way God has made a way for the wrong to be made right.  So, have you been to the cross of the Lord Jesus?  It’s only there that anyone has ever been rid of all their unrighteousness and given the very righteousness of Christ.