Confession comes first

When my children were small, I told them that the most important verse in the Bible is 1 John 1:9. I know without any doubt that verse is true, but I also know that if I do not do what it says, any fruitfulness or effectiveness in my Christian life grinds to a halt.

The verse says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This simple concept was true even in the Old Testament. Whenever confession was made, God forgave the sinner who confessed. The ritual or purification offering was a sacrifice for sin, but also a symbol that showed how forgiveness is based on the shedding of blood. At that time, it was the blood of an animal. Now it is through the blood of Jesus Christ.

In Recalling the Hope of Glory, the author explains that Old Testament confession without the ritual was incomplete, but the ritual without the confession was worthless. Even now, Christians know that we have no foundation to ask God to forgive us other than Jesus died for our sins. We also know that taking part in communion (to remember what He has done), will not remove our sins. Neither will baptism nor any other rite or ritual. God forgives when I confess. Period.

This is also true for those who do not know Christ, but the basis for forgiveness needs to be clear. It is not because we confess that God forgives; it is because Jesus died. His shed blood represents His life that was sacrificed because of our sin.

In the Old Testament rituals, that blood was put on the horns of the altar, horns representing power and in this case, the powerful intercession of the offering. Then the sacrifice was burned on the altar. Scripture clearly shows that this indicated that God accepted the offering. Then the priests carried the remains outside the sanctuary, assuring the sinner that all sin had been cleansed and removed.

The problem with this ritual is explained in Hebrews 10:1-4. It says:

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

The next verse starts out, “Therefore, when Christ came into the world . . .” and the passage later adds that God “takes away the first that He may establish the second” so that by that “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

This raises a question. If the often-repeated Old Testament offerings stopped, and Jesus Christ ended that continual ritual, why then 1 John 1:9? Do I need to keep on confessing sin?

The Bible describes two kinds of confession. One is from the mouth of a sinner who confesses that his entire life is filled with sin. He wants God’s forgiveness and salvation from sin’s penalty. When he comes to God with that confession on his lips, God forgives and cleanses him, making him a child of God who has eternal life, knowing that Christ paid his penalty for sin.

The other confession, the kind described in 1 John, is for Christians who have sinned and long to escape sin’s power. When I disobey God, I do not lose my relationship with Christ or my salvation. Instead sin controls me. I’m no longer obeying God. Sin has put a barrier in my relationship with Him, a lid on the power of the Holy Spirit, and makes me unable to serve and worship Him. I’ve turned the wrong direction, submitted to the wrong master. When I confess what I have done, God restores me, turns me around, even removes that defilement from me.

What I most love about this verse is that it works. As I see and confess my sin, I experience the peace of God and the reality of having that sin washed away. Even if I repeat the sin (I am such a stubborn child), God repeats His work in me and the power of that sin becomes less and less. His forgiveness and cleansing set me free from sin’s tyranny.

However, sin has a way of demanding control in an effort to usurp Jesus Christ. The challenge in my life (and in the lives of all who name the name of Christ) is to kick sin into the back seat and eventually right out, but I cannot do that unless I give top priority to keeping short accounts with God through confession.