Transcript

ANNOUNCER: What did Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 11 when he talked about partaking in an unworthy manner? Is this just about confessing sins before communion? Let’s talk about it today here on Grace In Focus and thank you for joining us. We come to you weekdays from the Grace Evangelical Society and our website is faithalone.org. There you can research and find many of hundreds of articles which we’ve written for free. And we also have an online seminary and a conference ministry that you may be interested in. See all the details at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion here are Bob Wilkin and David Renfro. 

BOB: Welcome to Grace In Focus. David, I believe you’ve got a question from Roger.

DAVID: Did you say Roger Wilco now? Do you know what Wilco means, by the way.

BOB: What does it mean? 

DAVID: Will comply. 

BOB: So will you comply and read the question? 

DAVID: Oh, if you insist. 

BOB: All right come on. 

DAVID: He says just before taking of the communion elements, our pastor has us bow our heads and confess all known and unknown sins. I don’t know how you confess an unknown sin. But then he says my question is this how did the Corinthians get their sins forgiven before the apostle Paul told them about 1 John 1:9. 

BOB: Okay. Well a couple of things are going on here. So let me break them all down. He assumes that the apostle Paul told him about 1 John 1:9. 

DAVID: That assumes 1 John was actually written at that time. 

BOB: Right. And that Paul was aware of it. On the other hand it also assumes Paul didn’t understand this before 1 John 1:9, or that Old Testament saints didn’t understand that they were to confess their sins, and that all the apostles didn’t understand. But what he’s talking about, or at least his pastor, when they take the Lord’s Supper is 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 27 and he says, “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep.” 

DAVID: Physical death.

BOB: It means as we say in Georgia, dead as a door nail. So in Corinth they were having the Lord’s Supper and back in that day—and there are some churches that do this even today—the Lord’s Supper was not just a little wafer and a little cup of juice. What it was was a full meal like the Last Supper and so what they would do is they would start the meeting with the bread—and notice he says earlier they took—in verse 25, “In the same manner He also took the cup” after supper, after the deipnon, the supper. 

So it wasn’t just a three minute little ceremony, where we had the bread and then we had prayer and then we had the cup and we had prayer. Instead, they’d have prayer and the bread and then they would eat an entire meal. And during the eating of the meal the Lord would be teaching, or in the case of the local church an apostle, if the apostle was there, or one of the elders would be teaching. And then after supper they would have prayer and then take of the cup. 

So he talks about the fact that some of them were not discerning the Lord’s body. Well you see there’s the issue. The issue is not that they didn’t discern their own sinfulness. The issue is they didn’t discern the Lord’s body. 

I remember we discussed this when I was a teaching assistant or one of the graders at Dallas Seminary in the New Testament department, and a bunch of us were sitting around and one of them, a guy named Gary, brought up this verse and he said we need to confess our sins before we take the Lord’s Supper. And my response was I don’t think that’s what Paul is talking about at all. Aren’t we supposed to confess our sins as soon as we’re aware of them? Isn’t that what 1John 1:9 says? Or are we supposed to wait once a week or in the case of some churches once a month? 

DAVID: Write them all down.

BOB: Yeah, and then at the end of three months or one month or one week we’re to confess them? No, we confess them spontaneously as soon as we know them, so that when we come to the Lord’s Supper we come clean. We don’t come as a person who’s doing this and I agree with you. We don’t confess unknown sins because we don’t know our unknown sins. 

DAVID: How do you know unknown sins? 

BOB: Well in fact 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins,” that is the ones we confess, “and cleanses us from all unrighteous.” And what does all mean there? 

DAVID: All means all. 

BOB: Actually there is a figure speech in the New Testament where sometimes all means the greater part where it says like all the city came out to hear John the Baptist. Well it doesn’t mean every single baby was brought and every single—but it means the greater part. But in this case 1 John 1:9, all does mean all. It means a hundred percent and includes all of the unknown sins that we were not aware of. 

So here’s my point, the people in Corinth, their problem was not that they had unconfessed sins, it is they were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper.They were eating too much food, they were leaving the poor in their church.Some of the people in the church were actually slaves, they didn’t have anything to eat or drink. And so as a result, some of of them were sick and some had died. They were sleeping. 

DAVID: That’s what the word sleep means in this context. 

BOB: Right, it’s the special word, whenever this word is used it refers specifically to the death of believers. Like remember He says Lazarus is asleep or Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians 4 he talks about those who are asleep those who are asleep. in 1 Thessalonians 5 he uses a different word for sleep to refer to moral lethargy. 

But anyway my point here is their issue was not that they had unconfessed sin. So I would encourage Roger to tell his pastor that we don’t need at the Lord’s Supper to be trying to confess our known and unknown sins. What we need to do is to get our minds right, recognize this is a special meal, and even if it’s just unleavened bread or leavened bread and grape juice or real wine, either way, even if that’s all it is, it’s a special ceremony to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should be very thankful and also reverent.

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DAVID: Don’t you think it’s a tremendous act of grace on the Lord’s part that we don’t have to remember all of our sins, but yet if we do confess the ones that we do know He forgives all. I mean we’re talking an incredible act of grace just for that and that’s one of unlimited acts of grace that He does for us. 

BOB: Absolutely because grace means God’s favor, the favor He pours upon us and one of those is—you remember in the foot washing in John 13. He didn’t require that the apostles needed their entire bodies washed just their feet, and He’s illustrating the fact you were clean, but not all of you. So that we as believers have what Paul called in Titus 3:5 the washing of regeneration. So at the moment we’re born again, we’re washed but we need ongoing cleansing and that’s the point of John 13 or 1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin,” and then 1 John 1:9 separates out, we confess the sins we’re aware and He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. 

DAVID: And that restores our fellowship with Him. 

BOB: Well ,or I would argue even maintains it in other words. I remember Hodges used to say he thought a person could be in ongoing fellowship with the Lord for decades as long as they continued to walk in the light and confess their sins. Hodges argued that repentance for the believer was only like Luke 15 when we went to the far country, but as long as we’re walking in fellowship we can continue to be in fellowship. 

But let’s hit the second half of Roger’s question. How did the Corinthians learn about confessing their sins, even though I don’t think that’s what 1 Corinthians 11:27 is about unless Paul had told them 1 John 1:9? 

DAVID: Well the way he words the question is kind of troubling to me. How did the Corinthians get their sins forgiven before 1 John 1:9?

BOB: And I would say the same way.

DAVID: They were already forgiven. 

BOB: Well right, our sins are forgiven the moment we believe, but in my estimation—and of course this is a big controversy in Free Grace circles today—is there such a thing as positional forgiveness, and I really don’t want to go there on this question, but what I want to say is we begin the Christian life in fellowship with God with our sins forgiven. For example Acts 10:43, “Whoever believes in Him receives the forgiveness of sins.” But then 1 John 1:9, as we walk in the light and become aware of sins we confess them and we get ongoing forgiveness and what people call fellowship forgiveness and ongoing cleansing.

And so what I would suggest is that was not a new teaching that the apostle John gave us. In a word, nobody knew it before 1 John was written. I think first John was probably written in the mid 60s maybe early 60s. Most people think it was written in the mid 90s or early 90s. But in any case it was known to David. King David knew he was to confess his sins. Abraham knew about confessing his sins. Adam and Eve knew about confessing their sins, right? Every Old Testament believer knew about confessing their sins and of course, the apostles knew about confessing their sins. 

So the idea that confession is some new-fangled thing that came about in 1 John 1:9 is wrong. The Corinthians knew they were to confess their sins. All believers know we are to confess sins. In fact, I would argue even before you’re taught 1 John 1:9 it’s something within us, because the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. 

And as a result I think it’s fairly common for unbelievers to confess their sins. I confessed my sins before I was a believer—I repented of my sins. In fact, I thought I had to do that to be saved until I finally got that it’s a free gift and it’s by faith apart from works. 

DAVID: Right, isn’t that interesting. We can take those things right out of context, apply them in a way that they were never meant to be applied.

BOB: Right. Roger I very, very much appreciate your question because I think it illustrates several things. Whenever you take communion, have a very reverent attitude. This is the Lord Jesus we’re remembering, right, it’s not just drink some grape juice and eat some bread or if it’s a full meal to eat a meal. It’s much more than that—it’s the Lord’s Supper—the love feast for believers and we’re expressing our love for Jesus when we do this.

On top of that, confession of sins is not just found in 1 John 1:9, it’s found throughout the Scriptures. It’s not something we wait until the Lord’s Supper to do, but we do it every time we’re aware of our sins. We acknowledge them to God and then we move on in fellowship with Him. So great question and again it was a short question. I love those short questions, keep them coming and remember—keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: Do Free Grace proponents misuse John 20:31? Please join us in in the meantime let’s keep grace in focus.