Christians Confess Sin
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
I've written before how I have hesitated in writing about God and my love for Him because I've felt that so many of my life's actions have been profane; my actions did not reflect loving God and loving my neighbor. I know all too clearly what it is to fall to 1 John 2:16.
When others might see my expressions of love for Him, I always feared it would dishonor His name. And yes, while today I recognize how ridiculous this mindset is, it's just another attack against our joy, keeping us from living our lives fully (John 10:10).
The thing is, if a man could be perfect, he would fulfill the Law of Moses; he would have eternal life on his own merit. And yet, there has only been one man who fulfilled the Law. As we are not Jesus, why would we ever even think about putting that sort of benchmark on ourselves?
Confession is fundamental to the Christian faith, not out of some place of legalistic burden, rather, our hearts desire organically to restore our relationship with God so that our joy may be made complete (John 15:11, 1 John 1:4).
In fact, to be a Christian is to confess sin!
And that confession does not come from a checkmark of additional forgiveness. It's not a check against losing our salvation for He chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Rather, when we sin, we lose joy; we CANNOT lose our relationship with God for when we became a Christian, the sacrifice of Jesus covered all of our sins, past, present and future.
Yes, I should have been on that cross for the Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and if I am guilty of one sin, I am guilty of it all (James 2:10). Why did He reach down to save me as I was dead, bound for Hell? It was for His own name (Psalm 25:11, Psalm 79:9, Psalm 106:8, Psalm 109:21, Jeremiah 14:7, Isaiah 48:9). Why me specifically? I do not know...other than He is my Father. How an infinitely holy God can tolerate those who do evil and hate Him, I cannot understand—how profane it is when we tell the perfect judge that Hell is not fair! R.C. Sproul makes this point in a far better crafted thought:
No, we don't want things to be fair.
Oh how wonderful is to have Jesus as our advocate (1 John 2:1) while Satan rails against us as our accuser (Revelation 12:10) before the Judge. When God looks at me, He sees His Son. AND EVER SO CLEARLY with all of this, it is for NOTHING I have done—good or bad. I have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to earn it, how can I think I can do something to lose it? TRULY, my salvation is by His grace alone!
And when I do what I do not want to do (Romans 7:15-20), confession wells up from inside of me so that I may restore the joy of my relationship with my Heavenly Dad (Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).