Through confession, God sends the legal guilt of your sins away, that feeling of rottenness, to a place of no remembrance that cannot be reached, from which it is not possible to return.

Study Guide

In this session we will be focusing on the phrase to forgive us our sins from the verse in 1 John 1:9. This is explored in chapter seven in the book, Spiritual Detox.

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (ESV)

Through confession, God sends the legal guilt of your sins away, that feeling of rottenness, to a place of no remembrance that cannot be reached, from which it is not possible to return.

It is extremely important you know what many Christians are yet to fully grasp – what actually happens to sins when God forgives them. In Scripture, God has graciously given all sorts of images to help us understand just how generous his forgiveness is, so you can live in joyful freedom.

Rather than rehearse them here now, we think it’s better for you to go over them, on your own, and if possible with your group. Their collective impact, one after another, we trust will bless you immensely.

Bible Passages and Discussion Questions

For each of the following passages think about what God is doing with our sin when we confess it?

• 1 John 1:9 (hint: ‘forgive’, aphiemi means to ‘leave or ‘send away’)
• Psalm 32:1a
• Psalm 32:1b and Romans 4:7-8
• Psalm 103:2 and John 1:29
• Isaiah 43:25 and 44:22
• Jeremiah 31:34 and Hebrews 8:12, 10:17
• Micah 7:19a
• Micah 7:19b

Questions for Reflection

• What image of forgiveness most impacts you? Do you believe it?
• Whom, and for what, do you need to forgive?

Application Video

We trust you found it really encouraging to hear right from God’s word that when you confess your sins God sends them away, he lifts them off, he covers them, he removes them, he blots them out, he un-remembers them, he tramples them underfoot and he casts them into the depths of the sea. Gone. Gone. Gone. So we mustn’t let them live on.

One of the ways we can experience the reality of this truth is through what is variously called the Lord’s Supper, Communion or the Eucharist. God in his kindness, knowing how weak and frail we can be, has given us a tangible, physical way we can sensorily appropriate, objectively taste the goodness of God’s forgiveness… in the bread of his broken body, and the wine of his shed blood.

Make time to celebrate communion as a group, reading and praying through the Scriptures you’ve studied together; and may you deeply know, through your faith in Christ, how forgiven and loved you are.