l John 1:9
The greatest, most effective means of grace that God has given us is the ability to experience the confession of sin. It is through this means that God removes the effects of sin in a believer’s life, renews freshness that has decayed, and transforms a person into what His intent was.
One common problem with confession is that we tend to look at ourselves, confess our deeds, which is what we see, and then say, “Well, I am forgiven.” But often no change takes place.
The key to understanding confession is to study the Greek and Hebrew words, and see what the bible says confession is. The word comes from two main ideas—one is SHOW and the other is COMMUNICATE. Most of the time, we leave God out of the equation, look in our own power at what we see, and leave it at that. But these words bring God into the whole thing. Confession is what we do in response to what God shows and communicates.
The word means “to agree along with.” If we yield ourselves to God, and after seeing some symptom that doesn’t fit with what the Bible says our lives should be like, our responsibility is to ask God to search our hearts, SHOW us what HE sees, and communicate that to us so that we can ‘agree along with’ what He sees—this is confession. When we see what God sees, a holy hatred for that thing causes us to be horrified at ourselves, and we cry out for God to change us.
We continue to stay in that light that God provides, looking to see what He would show us, so that we can perceive what God is doing. When God gets involved in revealing sin, we will begin confessing causes, not just symptoms. When the cause is dealt with, the symptoms disappear as well.
Confession is not what a believer does only once in a lifetime in order to become a Christian. Confession is a lifestyle to be entered into for as long as we live on this earth. Continual confessing of what God shows us through His word and through His Spirit’s searching will bring about sanctification—the process of becoming holy.
We are commanded to walk in the light of God’s revelation throughout our entire Christian life. If we refuse, we are on very dangerous ground. How Christian we are will depend on the continual repentance brought about by continual confession. It is hard to understand why believers resist this process. It has to be pride. Invite God to show you how He feels about this, so that this block can be removed, and change can then freely take place.
Every believer should be instant in confession, instant in allowing the Spirit of God to show us our condition on every occasion and in any way possible. Sometimes our sins are so pleasant to us that we have no desire to give them up—that’s when we ask Jesus to make us willing to be willing. (Phil. 2:13)
I am not judged by the light I have, but by the light I have refused to accept.
Oswald Chambers
He fell like him, but didn’t get up again like him. It is not so much sin as impenitence in sin that ruins men; not so much that they offend as that they do not humble themselves for their offenses; not the disease but the neglect of the remedy .(2 Chronicles 3:3)
Matthew Henry
True repentance begins in a serious and impartial inquiry into ourselves, what we have done, arising from a conviction that we have done amiss. (Jeremiah 8)
Matthew Henry
Beware of having anything that makes your mind accept an excuse for yourself. I can step out of darkness into the light—when God is willing? No, when I am willing. “I do want to be in living communion with God,” we say. But we don’t—if I did, I could be there in one second. The reason I am not there is that I won’t confess. I won’t submit to God’s condemnation of sin. When confession is made, immediately the atonement of our Lord steps in with its supernatural efficacy.
Oswald Chambers
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