Since I had a revelation of the meaning of God’s grace, I have not confessed sin. Why is this? Isn’t that heresy? Aren’t I outside of God’s presence? Doesn’t the bible teach us to confess?
All good questions.
First of all, the verse that has given rise to the ‘confession’ is 1 John 1:9.
“If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and purify us from all righteousness.”
Yet later, in chapter 3, John writes:
“No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”
And then again, in chapter 5, verse 18:
“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.”
- does not continue to sin.
Also, think about this verse, in 1 John 2:1
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.“
It is not us who speaks to the Father when we sin, it is Jesus.
The great preacher Charles Spurgeon put it like this, in The Precious Blood of Christ:
“Through Jesus’ blood there is not a spot left upon any believer, no wrinkle nor any such thing remains. O precious blood, which makes us clean, removing the stains of abundant iniquity, and permitting us to stand accepted in the Beloved.”
Singaporean preacher Joseph Prince says it like this:
It’s as if we are stones in a waterfall, constantly washed clean.
It is not our confession which washes us clean. We are already washed clean through Christ’s work on the cross.
In fact, to say that we still have sin, is to declare the cross not powerful enough to cleanse us of our sin. But Christ crucified our sin on the cross. He destroyed it. He did away with it. Once for all. And in doing so he made us perfect forever:
“We have been made perfect through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, once for all.”
– Hebrews 10:10
When Christ destroyed our sin, he gave us His righteousness, as a free gift.
Isaiah has a revelation of this, and can’t believe it, proclaiming:
“I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation, he has draped me in a robe of His righteousness.”
- Isaiah 61:10
They cast lots for his clothes, leaving him naked on the cross. At the same time, he draped us in a robe of His righteousness.
Christ did it all!
To say we can have a part in cleansing ourselves of our sin by confessing, is giving us a part to play in our salvation. But we have no part to play. Christ did it all. It is finished.
To say we can have a part to play by our action, is to say the cross wasn’t powerful enough to cleanse us once for all. That there is something we can do that can cleanse us once for all.
It’s saying that unless we confess, we are still sinners, day in day out. We have to confess in order to be holy. We have to do it.
Isn’t this a kind of self-righteousness? A works gospel. To say there is something we have to do? Christ didn’t do it all. The cross wasn’t enough?
“Now, at the end of the ages, Christ appeared once to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself, once for all.”
Once, for all. By the sacrifice of Himself.
Some people like to confess, to see themselves as sinners. But the truth is, all of us, without Christ, are sinners. But when God sees us, he doesn’t see us as sinners, because of our faith, he sees Christ in us. It is not us as sinners that God sees. He sees us righteous – as righteous as Christ.
“He is our holiness, righteousness and redemption.”
1 Corinthians 1:30.
If it makes us feel better confessing our sin to God. Go ahead. It can do no harm. As for me, I relish in the complete freedom I have knowing my sin was destroyed once for all on the cross. I am completely, holy and pure forever because of what Christ did for me on the cross.
But what about 1 John 1:9 ?
“If we confess our sin He is righteous and just to forgive us our sin.”
This is the sinners prayer, when we first accept Jesus.
Now, when I say sorry, God says to me:
“Steve, I have forgiven you once for all on the cross. You are completely holy, righteous, perfect and holy in my sight because of what Jesus did for you. Your faith has saved you. You are already as perfect as Christ. Sin cannot touch you. You are washed in the blood of my Son.”
As Paul says:
“Nothing you do, it is the gift of God.”
- Ephesians 2:8
I know it’s a difficult concept to grasp. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. But that’s the gospel. It’s not just good news. It’s too good to be true news!
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