A Confession Lesson
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”—James 5:16 (ESV)
Confession is the act whereby we admit we are guilty of sin. Confession has two parts. The first part involves our relationship to God. We have sinned in the face of Almighty God and our confession is first to Him. As 1 John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He is the one to whom we confess, because He is the one whom we have sinned against, and He is the only one who is able to forgive our sins.
But there is a second part to confession. After we confess our sins to God, we are then to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). Why? Shouldn’t we only have to confess to God? Although confession is a personal act between a believer and God, the expression of the reality of our being forgiven is shown in our confession to one another. This doesn’t mean that we confess every single one of our sins to one another, but certainly the habitual sins which the Holy Spirit highlights by repeated conviction—those are the sins we are to drag into the light of Christian fellowship.
We are to confess our sins to one another because the Spirit of Christ is manifestly present in the church, and it is through the church that we might see the expression of the state of our forgiveness offered. As Jesus said to the disciples after His resurrection: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”—John 20:23 (ESV). It wasn’t that the disciples actually had authority to forgive sins, but they had the authority to declare forgiveness of sins that had already been accomplished through Christ. When a person came to know Christ, the disciples had the authority to say that his or her sins had been forgiven. And when a person rejected Christ, they had the authority to say that his or her sins had not been forgiven.
When we confess our sins to God, we are admitting that we are sorry for our sins and are desirous for change. But sometimes we are still fearful of what others are going to think of us, so we may be reluctant to confess our sins to another person. Or we don’t confess because we really aren’t remorseful for our sins, and our confession to another person would mean that we would really have to do something about our sin problem.
In John 20:23 we see that we have been forgiven of our sins because of Christ, but in James 5:16 we see that we express the authenticity of our repentance from sin and receive confirmation of Christ’s forgiveness as we confess to one another in our state of humble conviction. May we have the courage to confess our sins to another brother or sister in Christ. May we not let the dark shadow of shame conceal the desire to be in the light of Christian fellowship. May the love of Christ compel us to drag our sins into the light of Christ and His people so that we may experience the true joy of freedom, faith, and fellowship with other believers that Christ may be seen in and through us. Amen.
Confession is the act whereby we admit we are guilty of sin. Confession has two parts. The first part involves our relationship to God. We have sinned in the face of Almighty God and our confession is first to Him. As 1 John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He is the one to whom we confess, because He is the one whom we have sinned against, and He is the only one who is able to forgive our sins.
But there is a second part to confession. After we confess our sins to God, we are then to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). Why? Shouldn’t we only have to confess to God? Although confession is a personal act between a believer and God, the expression of the reality of our being forgiven is shown in our confession to one another. This doesn’t mean that we confess every single one of our sins to one another, but certainly the habitual sins which the Holy Spirit highlights by repeated conviction—those are the sins we are to drag into the light of Christian fellowship.
We are to confess our sins to one another because the Spirit of Christ is manifestly present in the church, and it is through the church that we might see the expression of the state of our forgiveness offered. As Jesus said to the disciples after His resurrection: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”—John 20:23 (ESV). It wasn’t that the disciples actually had authority to forgive sins, but they had the authority to declare forgiveness of sins that had already been accomplished through Christ. When a person came to know Christ, the disciples had the authority to say that his or her sins had been forgiven. And when a person rejected Christ, they had the authority to say that his or her sins had not been forgiven.
When we confess our sins to God, we are admitting that we are sorry for our sins and are desirous for change. But sometimes we are still fearful of what others are going to think of us, so we may be reluctant to confess our sins to another person. Or we don’t confess because we really aren’t remorseful for our sins, and our confession to another person would mean that we would really have to do something about our sin problem.
In John 20:23 we see that we have been forgiven of our sins because of Christ, but in James 5:16 we see that we express the authenticity of our repentance from sin and receive confirmation of Christ’s forgiveness as we confess to one another in our state of humble conviction. May we have the courage to confess our sins to another brother or sister in Christ. May we not let the dark shadow of shame conceal the desire to be in the light of Christian fellowship. May the love of Christ compel us to drag our sins into the light of Christ and His people so that we may experience the true joy of freedom, faith, and fellowship with other believers that Christ may be seen in and through us. Amen.
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