Jesus Paid it All
1 John 1:9 seems to reflect a truth we hear in Isaiah 6:7 which says, “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.” That sounds repetitive and redundant in a way, and there is a connection between these two things. The way John puts it is, “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Isaiah confesses what he knows: “I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah had other sins that he was ignorant of. We all do. We only see so much of what is wrong with us. Our hearts are evil and wicked. (That’s the Bible’s critique, not mine). “Who can know it (the heart)?” Only God knows it fully. And it isn’t a pretty picture.
God’s grace extends past our knowledge and into our ignorance. God not only forgives what we know we have done wrong, but He also cleanses us from what He knows we have done wrong. In Christ, our guilt is taken away (the sin we are aware of), and even our sin is atoned for (the sin we are ignorant of).
Christ’s mercy and grace are vast beyond our greatest hope.