Good morning. “If we should say ‘oh no!’ to our sin, we make Him a liar, and His truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:10This is a familiar verse of scripture, but it is not one that is well understood. Typically, when people read this verse it is translated: “If we should say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His truth is not in us.” I believe that a part of this translation is unfortunate because it is read in a way that can be misleading. The point of this verse is not that we are denying that we have sinned, for that would obviously be foolish. We know that we have sinned, and verses such as Romans 6:23 make it clear that the issue of sin is universal (all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God).
But that is not what this verse in 1 John 1:10 is saying to us. You will note that the translation of the verse first used is “If we should say ‘oh no!’ to our sin, we make Him a liar, and His truth is not in us.” You may think that this is an odd translation, but the Greek word that is here translated “oh no!” is oux – which we would spell “ouch”. “Ouch” is a word we use when we stub our toe or burn our finger. There is a bit of pain and an acknowledgement that we were a bit clumsy, but no further action is required for such an insignificant injury.
The word “ouch” was tranliterated (taken directly from a different language without translation) and originally referred to the idea, “oh no, I wish I hadn’t done that!”. As is typical, the single Greek word expresses a complete idea where in English we use a full sentence or even a paragraph to say the same thing.
What we are being told in 1 John 1:10 is not that someone believes they are without sin and therefore are calling Jesus a liar. Such a suggestion would be foolish for we all know that we are sinners. What is being said in 1 John 1:10 is that anyone who commits a sin and minimalizes it by having a moment of regret but doesn’t consider any further action to be needed, THAT is calling Jesus a liar.
Sin, every sin, no matter whether we consider it great or small, requires action. Jesus tells us that every sin needs to be forgiven. Jesus tells us that every sin needs to be cleansed by His blood. To say anything else is to call Jesus a liar and to deny His truth.
Yes, we sin, and saying “ouch!” (Oh no!) is not enough. We must take all our sins to Jesus and leave them at His cross. We must be fully forgiven to be fully whole. There is no sin too large and none too small, for in every case the loving forgiveness of Jesus is always ours.
Vern