When I found myself in the U.S. Air Force’s Undergraduate Pilot Training program way back in 1982, I felt like I was drinking from a firehose in having to learn many things in a short period of time. Having never flown anything at all before starting my training, I had to learn the most basic flight instruments and the aviation doctrine and terms regarding how to use them. The “front-loaded” academic program rightly began with rudimentary navigation systems. I remember learning about something called a VOR, which is a Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range navigation aid. This is a piece of equipment that sits on the ground in strategic locations across the country and emits an electronic signal that instruments aboard an aircraft can receive in order to help a pilot know where he is. You might call it a homing signal of sorts. 

One of the most basic instruments on board my first trainer jet, the venerable T-37, received this continuously broadcast VOR signal and subsequently depicted my location and forward pathway using a Course Direction Indicator, or CDI. The CDI visually helps a pilot see how far their aircraft is “off course” from a designated flight path. It is typically indicated by a needle that moves left or right depending on the aircraft’s position relative to the planned course line. When the needle deflects to the left, the aircraft is to the left of the course, and vice versa.

In learning about this instrument, I also learned that there is something called the “cone of confusion,” which is a cone-shaped area of airspace directly above the VOR transmitter where bearing information is completely unreliable. When a jet is in the cone of confusion, the navigational needle spins because it can’t find a radial from the beacon. The CDI fluctuates because no signal is received. Well, a spinning navigation needle and unreliable CDI is not a good thing when airborne unless a pilot knows what is happening and why. If a person is trained in sound aviation doctrine and thus knows not to get flustered, and moreover, that there is a simple way out of the cone of confusion—driving forward right through it—the mission can easily go on. However, the inexperienced and overwhelmed pilot trainee can easily misinterpret the situation depicted by instruments and make bad decisions that could be unsafe. I made such bad decisions in my trainee naivety early on, but thankfully it was while learning in a simulator. You might say I had a poor understanding of doctrine and of myself that had to be trained out of me.

Seeing the “cone of confusion” as an analogy to the believer’s walk of sanctification came to mind recently as I went about my pastoral duties. I was thinking about how to help new believers grapple with the sin they still want to pursue even as they are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). I hoped to help them avoid confusion with sound doctrine about God and themselves.

First John tells us clearly in verses 8 and 10 that indeed believers will and do sin:

1 John 1:8 says, ^“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:10 comes stronger: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 

We also know that The New Covenant of grace—enacted in the world in God’s perfect timing by the person and finished work of Jesus Christ—means that the third member of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit, now indwells in every true believer in the New Testament church. With the salvific grace gifts of repentance and saving faith, the newly justified Christ follower can now recognize sin and choose not to pursue it, unlike the unregenerate person (John 14:26; Acts 1:8; 2:38; 1 Cor 6:19-20; Rom 8:26; Gal 5:22-23). Practically, this means believers have a heightened awareness of sin—we are illumined by the Spirit of God—and we thus feel the weight of conviction powerfully when we do sin. The tension created, on an all too regular basis as we walk in faith, can result in a Christian cone of confusion of sorts if our understanding of sound doctrine and ourselves is lacking! This is especially true when Satan pounces in the moment of tension and lies to us.

But God provides a power lesson in both doctrine and in how we’re to understand ourselves as new creations in the pithy verse sandwiched between 1 John 1:8 and 1 John 1:10. Look at 1 John 1:9. The Apostle John writes: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

There are three aspects to this verse that we should see and apply to help us navigate sinning as regenerate believers who are being sanctified daily and promised glory in Christ. They are what God does when we sin; what we must do when we are convicted of sin, and finally what the enemy tries to do.

Consider what the verse tells us about God when we sin. First, He knows us. If fact, He knows everything about us because He created us, chose us for redemption, is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, unchanging, and utterly sovereign. A right understanding of God demands a high view of Him and a correspondingly low view of ourselves. God is always right on track with His program for the universe and for each one of us. It is always a “Plan A” with God and never a “Plan B” that would have Him reacting to His creation in any way, which includes each one of us.

Next, He hears our prayers. Prayer is a mystery wherein believers can commune with the living triune God of the universe and be heard. He will hear a sincere confession of sin, so says 1 John 1:9, and He will respond with perfect faithfulness and justice. 

“He is faithful” means he is a covenant keeper and will never respond to the sin of His redeemed in an arbitrary or capricious way. “He is just” means there is no injustice in the transaction wherein we confess, and he forgives. This is because of Christ’s finished work on the cross that paid the penalty for our sins—past, present, and future. His substitutionary sacrifice wherein He died in our place was a wholly sufficient one to satisfy the righteous wrath of God the Father on our behalf. We are reconciled to God in this way and thus the victorious Savior forever defeated the power of sin, death, and Satan. 

From this place of accomplished atonement, God can justly forgive, which he promises to do when we confess that we have sinned against Him. He also promises to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is a sense of full restoration in this spiritual transaction! 

What then, as believers does this verse call us to do? We are to understand that while yet on this earth, even as we progress in becoming more like Christ each day, we will still sin (Rom 7:19-25). Our sin nature is yet in us even as we have the power to overcome it in our redemption. When we sin, then, we are to agree with God that indeed we have missed His righteous standard for behavior under the Law of Christ. So, we confess, and we run to Him and not away. We must humbly receive His forgiveness. As we do so, we accept whatever temporal consequences that may result from our sinful choices. Our spiritual status is guaranteed, yet we may suffer hard temporal consequences. Each time we go through this process we learn to see and stay on the narrow road while avoiding the ditches of license (antinomianism) or legalism. 

There is a third component to understanding how to avoid the cone of confusion when we sin as believers and that is the reality of living in a period of God’s program where Satan is roaming the earth seeking to provoke, discourage, disrupt and destroy believers. Hence, expect Satan to lie to you about sin. Expect him to lie to you about you and your very salvation. He will always lie about God and His attributes and character. 1 John 1:9 implies we aggressively reject lies! Resist the devil and he will flee (James 4:7-10)! Do not let him panic and confuse you!The walk of sanctification can be a hard journey as we cooperate with God who aims to conform us to the image of Christ. We will stumble and perhaps enter cones of confusion on our path. But His word hold the keys to all understanding of life and doctrine so we need to train in it just like I trained so many years ago as a fledgling pilot. Trust in Him and His perfect word!