We've Got a Confession to Make

09-01-2021

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

- James 5:16

If we say we have no sin, we decieve ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us. - I John 1:8-10

I (Steve) have a confession to make. I committed murder. It happened in the middle of the night. I even heard the victim trying to get away. The victim was not innocent by any stretch of the imagination. It had stolen our food - even the dogs were missing a few nuggets. It had even pooped in our house. Missy and I had finally had enough - we decided to put the proverbial nail in the perp’s coffin.

Now, trapping and killing a mouse (you weren’t thinking human were you?!) may not seem like actual murder to you. Yet, part of me felt a little pity for the poor fellow. Diseases and droppings aside, the mouse was just trying to find a little grub - on the house so to speak.  I ended up digging a small grave and burying it. (Don’t judge me)...

It reminds me of a text we received this week which asked the question: “Is it wrong or a sin to wish the bad person in a movie to get killed?” 

Some might have laughed at the question and said, “It’s just a movie! Nobody really died!” Maybe you were even thinking - “It’s stupid mouse! Kill it and move on!” However, may we suggest the question posed is a very deep and theological one?

How often have you actually wished someone to be dead? Come on - be honest. Pedophiles, terrorists, lobbyists, lawyers, rapists, serial killers, politicians, military dictators, abortionists...are probably just a few of the types of individuals that we have thought, “The world would be alot better without that person.”

To us, the question about whether or not it’s ok to wish a fake person to die reveals a much deeper truth. It reveals a person who knows how evil we can actually be ourselves AND it displays a growing heart that is tender to the Spirit of God.

Jesus himself actually brought this type of issue up when he declared, “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself don’t see the beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye,” Luke 6:41&42.   

Christians really don’t talk about confession of sin anymore. If we do, it’s simply  a general acknowledgement - “Forgive me of my sins, God” - rather than getting down in the dirt and muck and asking God to reveal where we have “fallen short of his glory.” We are quite adept at pointing out sin in others. Ourselves? Not so much.

The term sin in the New Testament means to “miss the mark.” God commands us to be holy as he is holy yet in the flesh we are so very weak - we miss the mark alot! In I John, referenced earlier, we find that John states: “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: ‘God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.’ So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth,” 1 John. 1:5-6 (NLT). Sin is spiritual darkness. Holiness is light. Confession of sin brings light into darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. 

Dr. John Oswalt, preeminent scholar of the Old Testament and biblical holiness in general, suggests there are three lies we all need to know about sin:

Lie # 1: Since you have been a good person from the time you were born you do not need forgiveness or for Christ to come into your life (1 John 1:10).

Lie # 2: You can be in a relationship with God who is light and go on sinning, which is darkness (1 John 1:6).

Lie # 3: You can come to the place where you cannot sin (1 John 1:8).

In response to Lie #3 Dr. Oswalt writes the following: “Clearly, John is trying to convince us, his readers, that a Christian cannot sin (1 John 3:9). We cannot bring the light into our lives and then expect a little darkness to coexist with it. Can you imagine a lighted room where there is a blob of darkness floating around?! But “cannot” is not talking about impossibility. It is talking about permission or expectation. Christian, you cannot expect to sin any more than I can expect to commit adultery against my wife. I cannot! Ah, but we never come to the place where sin is not a possibility. If we allow ourselves to drift away from the light, darkness is inevitable. We, like the moon, do not produce the light, we reflect it. So, stay in the light!”

So, does a Christian need to sin? Absolutely not. Can they sin? Absolutely. But the Good News brought to us through Jesus Christ is that if we sin (and we will) we can just as easily confess and repent to God that we have broken his law and immediately the light will come back into our lives and we will shine “like a city on a hill.”

We’ve got a confession to make. How about you?

Steve and Missy