If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God promises reconciliation to the faithful who acknowledge their sins, and we must receive this with our whole heart, else we carry hell within us. He is faithful and just both, faithful to His word, and just because He has bound Himself by promise to forgive; the penitent has both His attributes to support his faith.
AI summary
To deny our sin is to deceive ourselves and exclude the truth from us entirely. The Christian religion is the religion of sinners; Christian life is continued repentance and mortification of sin. Denying sin does not merely deceive us, it calls God a liar and dishonors His testimony against the world's sin.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 John 1:8-10
Confession is not the cause of pardon but describes the person to whom God grants remission, one whom the Spirit has convicted of sin's exceeding sinfulness and filled with godly sorrow. God is faithful to His word of promise and just in being true to it; confession points to the sinner whom He will certainly forgive.
AI summary