If the Spirit of God detects anything in your life that is wrong … He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says—Oh, I can explain that away.
Oswald Chambers, from My Utmost for His Highest
Introduction
As we begin this week of a focus on confession, it is important that we take a few moments to understand what confession is, why it matters, and how confession operates in the life of a believer.
The primary Greek word for “confession” literally means “to say the same thing.” Thus the idea of “confession” in our prayers is to agree with God; to admit and acknowledge. It is to agree with God that He is great and almighty, and we are not; to admit that He is in control and we are not; to acknowledge that He is without sin, but we are not.
1 John 1:9-10
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
John is writing to believers in this passage. He is addressing the Christian’s fellowship with God, not their secure standing with God wherein one is justified by the work of Christ, forever a son or daughter.
When a person puts their trust in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, all of their sins and the just penalty due are forgiven—past, present and future. The Christian is in a relationship with God that can never change: We become sons and daughters by means of the new birth in Christ! However, while our relationship with God as His sons and daughters is unchangeable, our moment by moment experience of intimacy, affection and communion will be disrupted by sin.
J. Hampton Keathely gives us some helpful insight on 1 John 1:9:
“Confess” is in the present continuous tense in the Greek text. This is what is called the iterative present. It refers to continuous repeated action like that of a hacking cough. The idea is, repeatedly, whenever we recognize sin, we are at that very moment to confess it and to look to the ministry of the Spirit of God and the principles of the Word for power to overcome that sin while resting in God’s forgiveness.
The promise is that God is faithful and righteous (just) to forgive us and cleanse us. If we will honestly and ruthlessly confess our sins, God is faithful every single time to forgive us. He restores us to fellowship. Known sin grieves the person of the Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and quenches His power (1Thess. 5:19). Known sin…breaks fellowship, and hinders our walk with the Lord.
J. Hampton Keathely, from ABCs for Christian Growth – Laying the Foundation
Confession restores our fellowship with God, and puts us in a position for the Holy Spirit’s power to continue His work of transforming us into the image of Christ from the inside out.
Begin with Adoration
Let Paul’s words in Ephesians 1 regarding all we have in Jesus guide our adoration today:
Ephesians 1:3-10
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
Now, praise God for what He has done for us in Christ as described in these verses. For example, “I praise you, God, for adopting me through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.”
Continue with Confession
Ask God to bring to your mind any known sin that is disrupting your fellowship with Him. Be specific about your sin and its consequences, knowing that God knows before the words ever cross your lips. He wants us to confess our sin for us, for our own hearts.
For example, my confession may sound something like this:
—Lord, I confess thoughts of lust, and dwelling on those thoughts…
—I confess that what I said to that person was out of anger, and I wanted to hurt them for hurting me…
—I confess, Lord, that I am avoiding you because I am mad at you…
Confession is not about “beating yourself up,” it is about bringing yourself before God—your true self, true motivations, thoughts, attitudes and actions.
Keathley continues in ABCs for Christian Growth – Laying the Foundation:
The only sins we can confess are our known sins, but as John 1:8 and 10 suggest, as long as we are in this life, we will never be perfect or without sin. There will always be areas that need change. In other words, there will always be unknown sins. The promise is that as long as we are confessing our known sins and seeking earnestly to walk with the Lord, He not only forgives the sins we confess but He cleanses us from all sin (our unknown sins) and fellowship is maintained.
Cleansing us may also refer to the transformation process that confession is designed to bring about as it causes us to deal with sin and seek the fellowship and strength of God. Confession is not just to avoid divine discipline.
J. Hampton Keathely, from ABCs for Christian Growth – Laying the Foundation
Remember…
In confession we repent, turn from our sin, and turn toward God in faith. Our repentance is not just a change of mind, but a change of affections and will, such that our repentance shows up in how we live.
Conclude your time of confession by acknowledging and accepting that God—through faith in Christ—indeed forgives and cleanses you from all sin and unrighteousness. Thank Him for fellowship restored and deepened.
