1 John 1:7-9 "I Fell In A Hole"

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, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:7-9


When we choose to trust (believe in our hearts vs. believing with our minds) that Jesus died for our sin and rose again from the dead, and trust that His blood has spiritually purified us and that as a result we are forgiven and made right with God, something begins to happen on the inside.  We become spiritually alive and spiritually sensitive.  We actually become more aware of our sinful condition. 

Unfortunately, having our sin forgiven, does not translate into immediate perfection -we still struggle with sin.  The difference is that before knowing Jesus we did not care much about sin or understand the harm of sin.  Sin has always caused us harm, but before knowing Jesus and being made spiritually aware, we had no understanding of the connection between our wrong thinking and wrong choices (sin) and the hurt we were experiencing -the sadness, lack of peace, lack of contentment, and lack of intimacy, etc..  Sin was killing us, but we didn't even know it.

Now that we are spiritually alive, we still sin and sin still harms us, but since we are aware of this, we can deal with it.  And as we walk with Jesus and grow in grace and knowledge and wisdom, we are gradually become more and more like Jesus.  The Bible assures us that we are actually being transformed into His likeness.  We are increasingly able to make better choices and sin less.  But always, until we are home with Jesus, sin is an issue.  So we need to understand what to do with our sin issues in the meantime.

There are two ways for us to deal with our ongoing sin and failures.  The first is spiritual and the second is pragmatic.  Spiritually, if we confess (admit rather than hide) our sins, He continues to forgive our sin and cleanse us from unrighteousness and the defiling, corrupting spiritual consequences of sin.  That is God's promise.  Second, we seek wisdom and increased understanding and work with God to make better choices.  We actually choose to make better choices.  There is an old story that illustrates this.

There are several versions of this little story -I don't know where it originated, certainly not with me -but I like this particular telling of it:

I was walking down the street, and I fell into a hole. It was dark, and uncomfortable –I didn’t like being in the hole, but I wasn’t sure what to do, so for a long time, I didn’t do anything –I just sat in the hole and felt sorry for myself. But eventually, I decided to try to get out of the hole. I couldn’t see any way out, so I began to yell. I began calling for help. And after a while, a man passing by heard my cries and reached a hand down into the hole and helped me out –and I was grateful –I didn’t like being in the hole.

The next day, I was walking down the same street, and I fell into a hole –the same hole –and I didn’t like it. I remembered the day before, and this time, I didn’t wait so long –I started yelling and calling for help. And after a while a man passing by heard me and reached a hand down into the hole and helped me out and then he pointed out something you could see from above that you couldn’t see from inside the hole. There were a few rocks and crevices in the side of hole, that if used, might provide handholds and footholds –and maybe a person could actually climb out of the hole–and I was grateful because I didn’t like being in the hole.

The next day, I was walking down the same street and, you guessed it, I fell in the hole. But then I remembered about the rocks and crevices that might be used as handholds and footholds –and I began feeling around in the dark, and found one –then another –then another. It was a slow painful process, but I eventually climbed out of the hole –and I was grateful because I didn’t like being in that hole.

The next day I was walking down the same street–and I remembered the hole, and I remembered how much I didn’t like being in the hole, so I very carefully began to kind of skirt the edge of the hole –maybe just peeking over the edge –and my foot slipped, and there I was in the same old hole. I didn’t like it. But now I knew where the handholds and footholds were, and it didn’t take me nearly as long to climb out of the hole. And I was grateful because I didn’t like being in that hole.

The next day –I remembered the hole –and I walked down a different street.

That actually kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? While we are still in this process, and our minds are not yet fully transformed, and we so easily fall –sometimes it’s best to simply avoid the streets that cause us to fall into the hole.