May 7

May 7 Confession

This post is part of my Steps to Christ series.

He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
- Proverbs 28:13NKJV

God does not require painful and difficult tasks to be performed before we may be forgiven of our sins. He does no require long pilgrimages, painful penances to make amends for our transgressions. God does ask us, however, to confess and forsake our sins.

Recently I was asked about the first part of James 5:16 where we are told to confess our faults to one another. In preparing this post I read an approach that made a lot of sense to me.

Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another. If you have given offense to your friend or neighbor, you are to acknowledge your wrong, and it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness of God, because the brother you have wounded is the property of God, and in injuring him you sinned against his Creator and Redeemer.
- Steps to Christ p37

And the good news is that we do not worship a distant and indifferent God, but someone who can sympathize with our struggles.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
- Hebrews 4:15 NKJV

What we need to experience is true humiliation in our soul and a recognition of our brokenness of spirit as we confess our sins. We must abhor our iniquity, and then we will find the peace of God. If you ever wonder whether or not you have been forgiven you need not question God’s willingness to forgive you. What we need to reflect on is our willingness to humble our hearts before God and accept His guidance, that is, our heart’s willingness to follow God’s will as expressed in the Bible.

Confession must be heartfelt and freely expressed.

Whether we are making a public or private confession it must be sincere and it can never be coerced. Our confession also should not be made carelessly. If you are not truly sorry, and your confession is not heartfelt, simply going through the motions will bring you no benefit. Our confession must be an outpouring of our soul of our innermost feelings, it must be a deep realization of our need of God and a desire to follow Him.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
- Psalm 34:18 NKJV

Avoid General Confessions

True, heartfelt confession is always specific, acknowledging particular sins. I often hear it said in prayers “forgive us any sins we might have committed.” This is not a true confession, there is no repentance (discussed in greater detail here and here) in that statement. No sins are mentioned, this is only a blanket statement intended to protect us from any bad consequences stemming not from sorrow for sin but out of fear for its consequences.

We have an example of a specific confession in 1 Samuel 12:19. The children of Israel had been convicted of their sin and they felt that it had to be confessed. Their sin oppressed their souls and separated them from God, they felt the need to repent and confess.

And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.”
- 1 Samuel 12:19 NKJV

When we confess a sin it must be accompanied by sincere repentance and there must be a change in our behavior. When we confess our sin we must be willing to put away whatever is offensive to God. If we feel like we must confess, then we also need to be willing to surrender to God and turn away from it. Confession and turning away from sin are the result of genuine sorrow for sin.

Read what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 1:16-17.

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
- Isaiah 1:16-17 NKJV

Now compare this with what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:11

For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
- 2 Corinthians 7:11 NKJV

Blindness to our sin

I believe that our biggest challenge when it comes to repentance and confession is that we are oftentimes blind to our defects of character. We fail to fully grasp the enormity of the evil we commit. Unless the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins we will never fully realize its presence and prevalence in our lives. It is vital for us to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit into our hearts and welcome His work in our being lest we remain partially blind to the sin in our lives.

Without the help of God, we make only partial confessions. We confess our sins and add a “but.”

“Lord, forgive me for losing my temper, but that person really pushed me over the edge. “

Lord, forgive me for cheating, but that exam was impossible!”

Lord, forgive me for stealing, but I need it more than the other person did.”

The problem with these “confessions” is that we ultimately blame God for the circumstances that caused us to sin.

Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
- Genesis 3:12-13 NKJV

God asked Adam if he ate the fruit and Adam blames the woman God gave him. In other words, if God had not given him that woman he would not have sinned. Eve similarly blames the serpent that deceived her. In other words, if God had not created the serpent, she would not have sinned.

How can we be forgiven if it was not our fault?

Key to the confession is our admission that we messed up, we rebelled, we disobeyed. We have to own our guilt, and come to God, guilty, and receive from Him our forgiveness. There must be no excuses mixed with our confession, no attempt at self-justification.

Let’s take a look at how Paul confessed his sins.

This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
- Acts 26:10-11 NKJV

Paul makes no excuse for sin, he does not blame his parents, his teachers, his environment, he simply states what he did and accepts his blame.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
- 1 Timothy 1:15 NKJV

When we confess our sins, without making excuses, we realize our need for God’s love, and forgiveness and mercy. We appreciate the cross and Jesus’ sacrifice for us. And then we have a proper appreciation for the forgiveness and eternal life that God makes available to us.