Faithful AND Just

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

Reading this familiar passage today, like I have hundreds of times before, but I was struck by two words I'd always just passed over. Of course the focus of the verse is on the grace of God in forgiveness of our sin if we confess and agree with him that we indeed have sinned. That's the point of this whole section of 1st John. We're reminded of the gracious and merciful nature of God in this verse. But we're also reminded of two other attributes that make this forgiveness possible.

First, God is faithful. He's faithful and true to his promises that he's made to us in his covenant of grace. He's so faithful to these promises that he confirmed them by the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of his Son, Jesus Christ. We can trust that God will be eternally faithful to his promises of redemption, because he can't be otherwise.

Second, God is just. Again, justice is one of his attributes. He is perfectly and absolutely just in all he is and all he does. It's this justice that requires him to judge and punish sin. To do otherwise would mean God would have to violate his own character, something he cannot do. So how then can John say God is just to forgive us our sins? Because the demands of God's justice have been fully and perfectly fulfilled and satisfied by the same incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of his Son Jesus Christ that confirmed his faithfulness. This is expressed well in Romans 3:26 where God is referred to as being "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." He doesn't set aside or violate his perfect justice to forgive us in Christ. Instead he has perfectly fulfilled it for those who are in Christ.

A reminder of who our great and merciful God truly is, and how he has acted on our behalf in Jesus. And a reminder that every word of his Scriptures is there for a reason and a purpose.