It is easy to come to him

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

“What do you think of verse 9?” The bible study leader asked, as we discussed the first chapter of 1 John. “It is so easy,” one lady said with a smile on her face. “I just need to go to God, confess and ask for forgiveness.”

After a pause as the group digested what she said, people began to suggest why it is not as easy as it seems. You must repent, and repentance is not only remorse over your sin but to turn away from it, one said. If we sin again and again, are we really Christians in the first place, another wondered aloud. If we look at the text, it says that God will not only forgive our sin but also purify us from all unrighteousness, suggesting that there is a process of dealing with our sin involved, another chimed in.

I am glad that people take sin seriously and are quick to scotch any notion that we can tolerate (or even be at home with) sin in our lives while enjoying God’s fellowship and forgiveness by merely confessing and seeking forgiveness.

What grieves me is that in doing so we miss the fact that God indeed has made it utterly simple to approach him, what this lady in her simple faith had discovered. He made Jesus do all the heavy lifting in order to give us a clear path into his presence WHILE WE ARE SINFUL.

No, God does not require us to deal with our sin first before approaching him. Nor does he require us to sign an agreement that we will deal with our sin after approaching him.

OK, I’m dangerously close to the ideas that Paul dealt with in Romans 6. But note that he had to deal with those issues precisely because his Gospel was dangerously close to taking sin for granted, at least in some of his readers’ minds, even though in the first two chapters of that letter Paul went far beyond the Jew’s notion of sin to nail the truth that ALL have sinned, including the Jews who have the Law.

This matter that the Law is NOT God’s chosen instrument for our sanctification, but the twin forces of justification and grace through the sacrifice of Jesus, that frees us from the penalty and power of sin, and the new reality of the Holy Spirit, who empowers the development and growth of our new nature, one that reflects the righteousness of God and expresses the fruit of the Holy Spirit, is such a vital truth and so hard to establish because our minds naturally accepts the notion that it is our responsibility to deal with the sin in our lives if we are ever going to earn God’s forgiveness and love, which is the spirit of the Law.

God hates hypocrisy and we should never shed crocodile tears before him over our sin. But let HIM deal with us on this matter and not put any obstacle to our coming to him, because he did not.

God hates the sin in our lives and surely wants to rid us of it. And HE will, according to all the power he has unleashed through the cross. We will never be able to even remotely accomplish what he truly wants to achieve in our lives with regard to sin. He will do so IN HIS TIME, and not at the point when we need his love and forgiveness. God dwells in eternity. He is in no rush but he will, as the expert surgeon, do what needs to be done to rid our heart of sin. We may not be the easiest patients, but he is far, far, far ahead of us and knows how to deal with us.

But we MUST come to him and live in his presence.

I have a friend who is in his seventies. In many things he needs my help, especially in the area of technology. Whenever he seeks my help I make sure I speak with a smile on my face, and constantly assures him that it is completely OK to ask. I WANT him to ask and never to think that he is asking too much of me.

You see what I am getting at? God WANTS us to ask. And so he makes it simple. And his Word assures us that he listens to us with that smile on his face as his Word constantly assures us that it is completely OK to ask.

He loves us. But he is no fool and his love will not blind him to our sin and failure. But he will deal with us with love and mercy and grace. And we need to trust him on that. It is easy to come to him. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.