Many times in the Bible, God invites His people to confess their sins, after they have drifted away from His commands. My brother, my sister, as believers in Christ, all our sins are forgiven, because His death cleaned us from all sin: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So, why do we still need to confess our sins?
You see, we are stubborn, selfish children who always tend to put our will before God’s. Nobody who is born of a woman and man is perfect. So, we do need to confess our shortcomings and we thank God for such a merciful gift. The fact is that, confession enables us to appropriate Christ’s forgiveness for what we have done wrong. It is in fact agreeing with God that our thoughts, words and deeds are wrong and contrary to His will. It is recommitting ourselves to do His will and renouncing any acts of disobedience. That is the reason why it makes no sense to confess sins that you have previously confessed… and if the memory of that sin is still bothering you, actually it is you yourself you need to forgive, because God forgives and forgets: “You have bought Me not sweet cane with money, Nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices; Rather you have burdened Me with your sins, You have wearied Me with your iniquities. “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:24-25)… My friend, the next verse is excellent. Listen to what the Lord says: “Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together;state the case for your innocence” (Isaiah 43:26). Oh, our God is good… blessed is His Word! This verse reminds us of this: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). How many people always try to justify their own sins? A sin remains a sin before no matter what caused you to sin! It is before God that we must speak and find arguments to justify ourselves, not before men! Yes, He is asking us to speak to Him and try to justify our sins in front of His Word…
Yes, when we are asking God to forgive us of something we have done, said or thought, we need to review the situation with Him as we present our case to Him. This can be the hardest part of confession, because as we review our sin with Him, in the Light of His Word, He can show us our true heart or even tell us to go and say ‘sorry’ to someone who has hurt us (well, Jesus asked God to forgive those who crucified Him, isn’t it?). The sad reality about confession is that many believers think that just saying ‘Lord forgive me for doing/saying/thinking this or that’ is enough. That’s the reason why they keep falling in the traps of the devil with the same sins. My friend, do you really think that the blood of Jesus was shed on the cross for us to just keep singing ‘forgive me Lord’ with our lips to God? No… Confession is a time when we seriously and deeply think about what we have done, said or thought that is evil before God, because it involves turning away from all our known sins and asking God for the strength to live for Him. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.