“If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Should we persist with the idea that we are perfect or at least excusable, this verse in the letter of John is very clear. We pit ourselves against the Word of God and as we continue to justify our behaviour, we contradict the Scripture and go up against the Lord. The language here could not be stronger. We actually assign dishonesty to the Lord rather than facing our own guilt. This is an unhealthy state to be in and will keep us from the joy of forgiveness and reconciliation to God.

Even if we are Christians and seek to keep the holy Word, we fail daily and often do not see our wrong doing and think we are living rightly. God works in our conscience to convict us of the sins we do and facing up to them straight away is the wise thing to do. It is too easy to excuse ourselves and allow our consciences to atrophy and become less and less sensitive to sin and we become cold towards the Lord.

It is best to believe what God says about us, rather than our boastful ideas.

“…for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..”

Romans 3:23-24

If we believe God’s judgment of our state before Him then we are in a position to seek the forgiveness we need. The forgiveness is there for all who will come and will believe. Our Saviour will forgive us freely by His great grace, though we are undeserving. He has bought a great salvation through His sacrifice and it is sufficient to forgive all our sin.

Beloved, let us believe God rather than our self-justifying minds and give our hearts over to Him in true repentance for all our wrongs. We confess our sin and trust Him to forgive us and keep us close to Him.