Love Is Never Having To Say You're Sorry

 When most people think of the Biblical word confession they think of confession of sin to a Priest or to God with regret, remorse and guilt.  In our world confession is admitting to something we've done wrong, like a criminal confessing to a crime. In our world confession leads to punishment, and unfortunately in Christ's Church confession is often linked to punishment, whether it is saying 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers or being left in the state of having unforgiven sin.

It is a rare believer who doesn't worry that unconfessed sin will bring punishment and possibly exclusion from forgiveness by God. Some fear that unconfessed, and therefore unforgiven sin, will doom them to hell itself because I John 1:9 says, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". This verse has been understood and taught in the negative-that we are not cleansed from unrighteousness unless all of our sin is confessed. No wonder we are worried and confused.

However, the Greek word confess (homologeo) means to agree with what another says; to say the same thing they say (agreeing with them) in the presence of others. However, we must remember Jesus is not the accuser and while The Holy Spirit works in our heart to expose wrong believing and what it produces in our lives, He does not accuse us in public. Our sanctification is an intimate and private process of relationship.

There is no need to preface every prayer with a list of our sins or to cover our spiritual butt by asking for forgiveness of all sin, known and unknown in each and every prayer we pray. Jesus very specifically teaches us in Matt 6:5-8 not to pray aloud in public places but in private, and not to repeat the same phrases over and over in our prayers as if that will make God more likely to hear us.

John is dealing with a group of believers and the accusations and denials of sin they were making as they fellowshiped and worshiped together, specifically, believers who went about saying they were sinless and acting better than those they thought were sinners. It implies there was also verbal accusation by some of the sin they percieved in others.

The Bible does not teach us to confront another believer's sin. The Bible teaches us to gently restore that person remembering that we too fall short, but sometimes our human failures hurt or vex others and we may find ourselves confronted about a spiritual failure. Confession is the Godly response to accusations from other believers when The Spirit confirms the truth of their accusation within us.

But, as Paul Harvey used to say, now for the rest of the story.

God's forgiveness and spiritual cleansing are not conditional upon our confession to Him or acknowledgement of our sin to others. That was not John The Apostle's point! 

His point is that none of us are without sin and when we have sinned (or in this specific Letter-if we are convicted by the accusation of a brother in Christ and confess our failure) we also have, before during and after our sin, Jesus as our advocate-our lawyer before God, who has taken our punishment and never fails to forgive and cleanse us! 

Human forgiveness is often conditional, but conditional forgiveness by God is not Biblical!!!  Jesus provided everything God required for our forgiveness and our righteousness before Him. 

Confession that is of God will never result in condemnation because it will not take us out of Christ where there is no condemnation for those who believe. However it is a part of sustained fellowship with other believers, but when it is called for, it must  also include joyful agreement with Jesus Christ's faithfulness to forgive and cleanse, as well as God's acceptance of His atonement for our sin! Confession like this is a faith building experience! 

Confession is agreeing with who Jesus is for and in us. It is about fearlessly agreeing that we are imperfect, because Jesus is continually working in us His power to transform us so that we live as the righteousness of God in Him. 

The Love of God in Christ is truly never having to say you are sorry to God. God does not require our sorrow or our suffering. God requires we step boldly forward to say, Yes,I failed to live like who I am, BUT I am who Jesus says I am and because of His faithfulness, forgiveness and cleansing power I will become what He says I will become.

We can't agree with God in part! We must agree with God in whole. We can't agree with God's Truth that we have walked in darkness without also agreeing that with God's Truth Jesus will empower us to walk in The Light!