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
The history of man’s relationship with God is filled with examples of God’s faithfulness and forgiveness. Time and again, people have made choices that separated them from their Creator and time and again, when they cried out to God for forgiveness, God forgave them.
The examples of this are so numerous, you can open the Bible at random and almost surely see one of them on the pages in front of you; God being faithful and forgiving and His people being unfaithful to God and in need of forgiveness.
Adam and Eve got things started, but it definitely didn’t end with them. Every generation seems to repeat the same scene all over again. God was so faithful to His people, He sent Moses to deliver them from the evil dominion of Egypt and Pharaoh. They would never have made it to the Red Sea much less through to the other side, except for God’s forgiveness being poured out on them as well as His faithfulness.
There’s no way to even imagine the hurt our Father felt when hearing His people complain against Him and accuse Him of not caring for them and bringing them into the wilderness to die and on and on it went. God truly was (and is) forgiving. How many times the Lord put up with their lack of faithfulness and always remained faithful and forgiving.
The highlights would not be complete without mentioning David and his need for God’s forgiveness and then there’s Peter who denied even knowing Jesus, with a few choice words thrown in to make it even more hurtful, since, as Luke chapter twenty-two reveals, Jesus heard his denial and turned to look at Peter. But, God is so good, even through the pain of betrayal and denial and then the physical agony of hanging on that cross, Jesus still asks the Father to forgive His crucifiers.
Given these and so many other examples throughout the Bible, there is no doubt about God’s faithfulness and His forgiveness, but we find another word in our verse that does not seem to apply: “just”. With all that man has done to offend God from Adam to today, how could it possibly be just for God to forgive? The answer to that question is what gives us hope.
You cannot be righteous enough to receive God’s forgiveness but Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, has died in your place to pay the price for the forgiveness of your sins. Your righteousness has been bought by the blood of Jesus. Do not listen to the lies of the enemy trying to condemn you in your sin but rather take it to the cross of Christ where atonement has already been made. That’s why the Word of God says that God is both faithful and just when He forgives your confessed sins; He is faithful because He promised He would do it and God always keeps His word. And, He is just because Jesus took the sin of the world upon Himself on the cross at Calvary. God does not excuse sin for that would not be justice, but He does forgive and cleanse anyone who repents in Jesus’ name. He is faithful and just!
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