I fell into a trap recently. Ha! Ha! Not a real trap. But I have a friend who is a counselor and somehow just being around her makes you want to spill your guts. And I did.

Without any plans to do so whatsoever, I confessed to her my sins.

Because of this, as I was praying this morning, I was thinking of this verse:

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 first thing I did was thank the Lord for His cleansing. I have already sked for forgiveness for my sins, but what I have desired most is the washing of sins from my soul. It says right here in these verses. that he does just that. He cleanses the repentant from all unrighteousness.

Amazing.

But then I stopped.

Because there is another part of this verse that I hadn’t much reflected upon.

Justice.

“he is faithful and just to forgive us“

What does justice have to do with forgiveness and cleansing of sin? Because if anything, if there is justice, there is punishment for sin. Not forgiveness.

Justice MUST punish sin for there to be justice at all. That’s what justice is–righteous punishment for a crime.

Then as I turned over to today’s Scripture in Luke, what did I see?

While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”  

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.  And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”  

But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.  But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

Granted, the leper hadn’t sinned in a specific way that we read about. He was just overcome by the most dreaded disease of the time–leprosy. But there was an Old Testament practice here.

When someone was healed or restored from some ailment, a person always went to the priest at the temple. The priest would examine the person making sure there were no more signs of the disease, then the person would offer an animal sacrifice for cleansing.

It wasn’t just enough that the person was healed of their disease. They also needed cleansing. This was a spiritual cleansing, and an act of gratitude to God for that healing.

It makes me think of when I was in one of the nations in West Africa. It was so hard to bring “Western” medicine to help the peoples’ sicknesses because the belief at the time was that disease was spiritual, not physical. At the same time, I can acknowledge that there’s a real weakness in the Western world to believe that all sickness is only physical, and not spiritual at all. Or even emotional and relational.

They are extremes of each other. Yet the Bible teaches both are real.

When it comes to the leper, he was sent by Jesus to go the priest to confirm he was healed. But also… to be cleansed.

Part of the reason for this was not just for the leper to follow protocol. But it was to be a witness to the priest of the power of God, that there actually could be healing even from something so awful as leprosy.

We can assume that the man did as Jesus commanded and went to the priests. Although he disobeyed Jesus by telling people about his healing. This made it so much harder for Jesus to do more personal ministry as he was now thronged by the crowds.

Then there’s my sin. The ones I need cleansing from. When I read in 1 John, I see I definitely need a few things.

First and foremost there is the needed humility to admit we are sinners. If we do not admit this, “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

I need to confess my sin. Not just to the Lord but also to others.

Somehow it is easy to confess our sins to the Lord. It is harder to confess our sins to each other. When we confess to others, we have to face the reality that the people we crave respect from look at us differently with that knowledge.

Secondly I need cleansing. And this is where justice comes in.

If we look at the verses before 1 John 1:9 as we read above, we get how cleansing and justice go together (1 John 1:5-7).

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

For those of us in Christ, the sacrifice for our sins happened at the cross. It is through the blood of Jesus at the cross that there is forgiveness of sins and furthermore, cleansing from sins.

This is how justice is possible. Because our sins have been paid for at the cross of Christ. Jesus is the sacrifice that not only atones for our sin, but cleanses us from the uncleanness of our souls.

I am forgiven of my sins. But his blood also cleanses me from them. He makes me clean again. Fresh. New.

It’s His faithfulness. His justice. His cleansing.

In Christ and through his shed blood at the cross…

I am clean.