CONFESSION

CONFESSion….

 

Thinking about confession and the incredible offer John wrote about in his first letter:

"If we confess our sins He is faithful land just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The huge good news is…

He is "faithful" – ie every time we confess He forgives us

He is "just" – that is not because he should forgive us on our merit or performance or because of His great love He just sloshes it over….but He forgives us as we deeply and fervently invoke the name of Jesus over our mess and ask for His grace to be granted to us.

Jesus, in his atoning death – the death that made way for us to be at-one with God – presented himself to the process, having lived without sin (the only created thing ever to do so) and His death for us, in substitution for what should have happened to each of us, became in God's economy, sufficient for each of us, for a lifetime and for eternity. Squeaky clean is what we can be in God's eyes and in ours as well.

And what wonder there is in the little word "all." There is no sin too great for His grace and Christ's work to cover.

Some sins leave a mark in us….an emotional jag that seems to always be just below the surface….but with God, He hugs us and welcomes us home and talks of the future and forever with us, and not the past. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions (another word for sins) from us."

Being forgiven of sin, however, does not mean we have as well, gained instant maturity, or legacy character. That is a process of walking out obedience to His Spirit and word. It takes a lifetime…an each-day walking with Jesus.

But forgiveness happens immediately – at least it does before God.

And it does hinge on one factor in us….the "if" factor.

"If we confess"

Do you….do I?

Or do we mumble inside of ourselves and make a vague excuse and never get visceral or depth in the act of confession.

So….are you forgiven? Clean? Confident? Joyful?

Forgiveness does all that.

So confess. Do it deeply.

And know you are forgiven.

Selah.

David