Prayer: Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalms 19:12-14). Amen
Main Scripture:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us (1John 1:9-10).
Associated Scriptures:
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord " and you forgave the guilt of my sin (Psalms 32:3-5).
To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty (Psalms 18:25-27).
Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels (2 Timothy 2:22-23).
Correlative Quotes:
When we confess, God is faithful and just to all that Christ is, and has done, and the sin is forgiven so that fellowship may be restored. This is what we may call paternal forgiveness, to distinguish it from the eternal forgiveness which reached us as sinners.[1] – Frank Binford Hole
when Jesus Christ the Son of God suffered on the tree, He did not suffer for Himself. He had no sin, either natural or actual. He had done nothing whatever that could bring Him under the ban of heaven or subject His holy soul and His perfect body to grief and pain. When He suffered it was as a substitute. He died—“The just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”[2] – Charles Spurgeon
If, from a deep sense of our guilt, impurity, and helplessness, we humble ourselves before God, acknowledging our iniquity, his holiness, and our own utter helplessness, and implore mercy for his sake who has died for us; he is faithful, because to such he has promised mercy, Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 28:13; and just, for Christ has died for us, and thus made an atonement to the Divine justice; so that God can now be just, and yet the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.[3] – Adam Clarke
Study:
The other night I was searching for an object on my desk and it was dark in the room. I reached for a small flashlight that I keep near my computer and when I turned it on it was dim. As I used it to continue searching it keep getting dimmer until I could barely see any light at all. The battery was going bad. I opened up the flashlight, took out the battery and placed it in the recharger and then replaced it within a few minutes. Now the light was bright and lit up the whole room. I easily found what I was looking for and shut it off, placing the battery back in the charger this time.
Many Christians are like the flashlight. They reach a point of spiritual growth that is fully charged and they feel like they have arrived. They begin to bask in the power of their relationship with God but start making decisions on their own without His direction. As a result of taking their eyes off the target, they begin to slide backward spiritually. As the world becomes more important, a closeness to God becomes less imperative. The light becomes dimmer. It is not until some crisis appears that requires God’s grace and solving it in our own power doesn’t work, that we turn back to God.
Crisis followed by recognition of our own inadequacy to recover, pushes us toward repentance and ultimately to confession and reconciliation with Jesus. Reconciliation is a result of Christ’s faithfulness and justice. He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). God’s faithfulness will guarantee that we will never be alone. His justice will not disown us.
The Apostle John in Revelation 3 wrote, under the direction of Jesus, calling the church at Laodicea, “lukewarm.” They were neither spiritually hot nor cold. The command in Revelation 3:19 was, “be earnest, and repent.”
Repentance, feeling sorry, and confession, acknowledgment of our sin, are continual actions. Since we are continually sinning, we must be continually confessing. We must keep our spiritual batteries plugged into the source of power at all times.
To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom (Jesus, John 3:29) we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.”[4] – Oswald Chambers
Maintaining a relationship with Jesus is essential to our spiritual stability and growth. There are three steps to maintenance. They are recognizing sin in our lives, feeling sorry that we have been disobedient to God, repenting of sin, and the revealing of that sin.
It is important that you confess to God what He already knows. However, it is equally essential that we ask others who have been hurt by our actions to forgive us. Since relationships are both vertical, toward God, and horizontal, toward others (1 John 1:7), it is necessary that we ask for forgiveness from both.
Confession and repentance have a major impact on our lives. Confession allows continuous fellowship with God. Secondly, confession reestablishes the fellowship with those we have hurt. Finally, “Confession is good for the soul.” This means that we now are freed from the guilt that so often accompanies the transgression. We begin to feel good about ourselves once again.
Confession is limited without repentance. Confessing tells God and others that we are sorry for our disobedient words or actions. However, confession has only a temporary impact on our actions until it is accompanied by repentance. Repentance is turning away from sin and walking in the other direction. Repentance means that we will begin trusting in the Spirit of God by allowing Him to work in tandem with our spirit to keep us from committing the same sin again.
Ezekiel 18:30-32 tells us that we need to repent and that repentance brings life. “Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!”
Believers are reconciled to God through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. It is God who is the reconciler. God has reconciled Himself to man. When we confess our sin and believe in Jesus, we are then reconciled to God positionally.
However, as we continue to commit sin, we must continue to confess that sin to recognize our position of reconciliation with God.
The Ministry of Reconciliation that God has given us involves the spreading of the gospel message to others. We are His Ambassadors. We testify to His saving grace.
Summary Statement:
No matter how dim the light within us, when we realize our sin and its and ask for forgiveness (repentance), ask God to forgive us (confession), and trust in Him that it will be completed (faith), we renew our fellowship with him and once again the flame of spiritual enthusiasm blazes within us. God is faithful to His truth, the word of God. He is magnanimous in His blessings, and He gives us the strength to resist temptation in the future. Just do the right thing; repent. The light is always on; we must open your hearts so that we can see it.
Lesson within the Lesson:
Forgiveness is essential to Christians. How is forgiveness attained and maintained?
In what ways is Jesus faithful and just to us?
Under what circumstances might Christians maintain that they are sinless?
What are the steps to a continued relationship with God and how do we establish these steps in our lives?
[1] Frank Binford Hole, Hole's Old and New Testament Commentary, Public Domain, stempublishing.com/authors/hole/,
[2] Charles Spurgeon, Justice Satisfied, Sermon #255, Public Domain, 1859, spurgeongems.org/vols4-6/chs255.pdf, P. 2.
[3] Adam Clarke, The Adam Clarke Commentary on Revelation, Volume 6, Public Domain, © 1836, Thomas Tegg and Son, 73 Cheapside, London. godrules.net/library/clarke/clarkegen1.htm, P. 863.
[4] Oswald Chambers, Maintaining the Proper Relationship, © 2015 My Utmost For His Highest, utmost.org/.
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