July 28, 2022
The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
For as long as I can remember, I have absolutely hated wearing necklaces—especially ones that touch my skin directly. It is really an unfortunate sensory quirk of mine. After a particularly difficult few months of life, I began to search for something that I could wear daily to remind me of the hope that I have in Christ, and a cross necklace was just not going to work for me. After a lot of looking around, I bought a very thin gold bracelet. Instead of being smooth, this particular bangle has been dented and hammered by the jeweler. There is no part of the bracelet that has not been changed by the blows that were inflicted upon it.
Like my bracelet, there is no part of my being that has not been shaped by the Fall. I often forget that all of my emotional, psychological, and behavioral limitations are tethered together by the Garden of Eden. Here, in 1 John, the call to confession is not only a clear call to confess my wrong behavior and hurtful actions, but it is also a call to acknowledge again that sin is indeed a condition that I was born with, not simply a set of behaviors that I engage in. When we confess our sins, we concede that sin is a pervasive malady of unrighteousness and that our only hope is a radical treatment that does not just relieve symptoms, but provides a complete cure of the disease.
This is why we need a God who is both faithful and just. God’s faithfulness will always ring hollow when we consider it apart from the violence of the cross. There, justice was satisfied once and for all, while God remained faithful to his promises. Unrighteousness was an immovable obstruction between us and any possibility of existence with the tenderness and attentiveness of our perfect heavenly Father. By the merits of his blood, Jesus imputes to us righteousness that scours the sin from our lives and the life to come.
[Ginger Mayfield, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]
