Okay, and
Questions and Answers
why is it important for a Christian to continually confess his sins? because we still commit real sins. And I think first, it doesn't change the fact that we are righteous in the sight of God, our standing, if you believe on Christ and you're justified, that status never changes. But we still commit real sins as we still struggle in this present evil age. And first, John, I think is very instructive in this, especially because one of the main issues is the heretics he's writing against, they basically deny any sort of sin, the nature of sin and the acts of sin.
And so, you know, he, he does say multiple times that you make God out to be a liar, you deceive yourself if you don't recognize that there is sin in this world. And so then I think one of The passages that I've quote a lot and use a lot is 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's for us sensible sinners. Like we've sinned, we've violated God's law and we are forgiven in Christ, but we still struggle with sins.
So we need to go to our God and confess them. And John does say, My little children in chapter two, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. So we strive by the grace of God not to sin, but he says, if you anyone sins, we have an advocate. And so that highlights, you know, the the priestly work of Christ.
One, a priest is one who sacrifices, which Jesus did once for all time, but a priest also intercedes for us. And so Jesus is still interceding at the right hand of God the Father for us, and we still, because we still struggle with remaining sins, and all of our sins are forgiven in Him, but all the sins we will commit are forgiven in Him, but we still need to confess them to Him, and because, you know, the Bible does tell us we need to do that in 1 John 1, 9. So what happens if we don't? Like, it's not held against us or anything, right?
No, it's not held against us. When we're justified by God's grace, all our sins are forgiven, and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we, you know, that's the hallmark of our religion. It's not our works. It's not our doing.
It's the doing, dying, and rising of our Lord Jesus.
Confession as Relational Maintenance
I kind of parallel it to a father-son relationship. you know, if my son sins against me or does something wrong, I don't disown him. I don't cut him out of the will. Not that there's a great big will for him to be on anyway, but the relationship is a bit hurt. There's a fracture, you know, or a husband-wife.
Husband-wives, they get into altercations. They get into arguments. Sometimes the, you know, words get a little bit harsh. Well, that doesn't mean they're divorced.
It doesn't mean that it's dissolved the relationship. The relationship is hurt. The relationship is not what it is when you're not talking that way. So, I think, you know, at least for us, us-ward, when we confess our sins to God, It is an acknowledgement that by our sin, we've basically gone astray.
We've left the one that we love. We're sorry for that. We ask for forgiveness for that. And we want that restoration of that fellowship and that communion.
It's not an earning. You know, as long as I confess all my sins, I'm going to earn the pleasure and the smile of God. I don't think that's the way we're supposed to look at it. It's just maintenance of relationship. through the means that God's ordained.
I mean, 1 John is a great passage. When Mike says, sensible sinner, I think there's a bigger way to deal with that phrase, and I don't think that's what you were meaning. The hyper-Calvinists will talk about a sensible sinner, meaning meaning somebody who's got some preparatory work. I think he means by that we're mindful as God's children now when we are prone to wander and when we do leave the God that we love.
And so, 1 John 1 isn't an evangelistic, invitational text to sinners to come to Jesus. It's for us, the maintenance of that relationship with our Heavenly Father. And you see it in the Psalms as well. you know, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand, David says, but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. So, we seek that forgiveness, and it then has that reflex action on us where it provokes in us or promotes in us that fear of God, or that right relating to God.
So, we receive forgiveness, and then it impacts us in such a way that we then hopefully march onward and don't commit those same sorts of things. But we most likely will, and we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. So all of it is designed to locate glory upon the Savior. And if our confession of sin brings glory to Jesus, then let's confess our sin.
Psalm 25 on Confessing Sin
Just thinking about Psalm 25 this morning, and it's one of the passages that I like to go to when we talk about forgiveness of sin. And it really, you know, the way the psalmist prays here is so contrary to the way that we do. No, maybe not you guys, I just know for me. He says, For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Do we usually go to God, Lord, you know, I've really tried doing the best I can. In light of that, could you just pardon my sin? Now, David's argument is you have to pardon it because it's great. There's just so much of it.
It's just so bad. So there's basically a request, pardon my iniquity. and two reasons. One, for your name's sake, O Lord. God's name is glorified in the pardoning of my iniquity.
Then the second reason is the greatness of the iniquity. Again, that's not typical, natural prayer for us. God, I want you to do something in terms of forgiving me of my sins, and I want it to be for your glory. Usually it's, I want my peace, I want my happiness, I want my joy.
And usually we try to minimize our sin because we think we're at the bargaining table. See, God, I have tried. the woman whom you gave me." You know, we always want to evade what is clear in our paths or clearly wrong in our path, but the psalmist says, I need forgiveness because it's great. She's got a lot of sin. And I just think that the psalmist is a lot more, I don't want to say honest because that means we're dishonest, but I think a lot more open than we are when it comes to the freeness of God's grace.
Psalm 102 and Persistent Prayer
I think of a subscription or superscription in Psalm 102, a prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord. That's a great sort of parallel to Luke, you know, the importunate widow. Why does Jesus tell that? Because men were losing heart.
What's the remedy against losing heart? It's to pray to God Almighty. So, when you come to the Psalms, you get a good dose of real religion.
Psalm 116 and Love for God
Psalm 116. Again, I don't, you know, I think about this because I read the Psalms. I don't think I would think about this intuitively, But when's the last time you went to a prayer meeting and somebody said, I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. It almost sounds like He's affording a reason for His love.
I love God because. We don't usually talk like that. I love God because. I mean, we might in a general sense because He saved me.
He keeps me, you know, all that sort of a thing. But here specifically, I love Him because He's heard, because He's inclined His ear to me. Therefore, I will call upon Him as long as I live. So, you know, we're not only justified by the just judge of all the earth, but we're adopted sons and daughters of our blessed God, and we're in relationship with Him.
And so, I would look at the ongoing confession of sin as ongoing maintenance of that relationship, not again to secure it, to make sure it doesn't go away, but because in relationship, that's what you do. If I sin against you, I need to go to you. If I've hurt you, I need to fix that. And that doesn't immediately cause all pain to go away, but it goes a long way to repairing that relationship.
No, it's excellent. I've never heard it explained that way in terms of repairing relationships. That's helpful to me as well. So thank you.