The Gift of Confession

James 5:16 (ESV)

^“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed...”

Last night I had the opportunity to speak to our student ministry and teach confirmation class.  For me it was a blast.  Towards the end of the evening, one of the students asked me a great question.  “If God already knows my sin, why do I need to confess it to Him?”  The answer is really quite amazing.  God invites us to confess because we need to confess.  His invitation to confess our sins to him privately in prayer… publicly in worship… or when needed confidentially to a pastor is a gift… a precious gift.

Think of the story of our first parents in the garden, in Genesis 3.  God knew what was happening.  When they were hiding from Him among the trees, God knew they were hiding and where.  Yet still He called out, “Where are you?”  He already knew they had sinned.  Yet still He asked them, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”   Why?  Because they needed to recognize, to repent of what they had done.  The Lord wanted to give them the first promise of a savior.  But for that to mean anything… for them to fully appreciate God’s promise of a savior, of grace and forgiveness – they needed to admit to themselves and especially to Him what they had done… how far they had fallen.  Then He was able to give them that very first promise, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” His invitation to confess was a gift!

The same is true in the story of King David.  After He had compounded sin upon sin – adultery, lies, murder and more, David’s soul was tortured with guilt.  He tells us in Psalm 32, “For 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 dried up as by the heat of summer.”  So what did God do?  He sent Nathan the Prophet to confront David with His, to call David to repentance.  Why?  Because more than anything God wanted to offer David grace and forgiveness.  He wanted to lift David’s burden of guilt from His shoulders.  For it was when David finally confessed his sin, “I have sinned against the Lord.” That Nathan could then say to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.  Psalm 32 is really a Psalm in which David celebrates the wondrous gift God gives us in confession and absolution.  “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit…         I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

This is a gift He offers every day to you and me.  Anytime, we are troubled by some sin of thought word or deed, we are free to come to Him confessing our sin.  Every Sunday during worship, He opens His arms.  He gives us the opportunity confess together that we have “sinned in thought word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone…” that we “deserve His temporal and eternal punishment…”  He invites us to confess not because He is anxious to condemn and punish but because His chief desire to forgive and justify.  He desires that so much that He gave His own Son Jesus to pay the price for our sin by His innocent suffering and death on the cross.  His word promises, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The gift of confession doesn’t stop with private prayer or public worship.  Our Lord also offers us the gift of private confession to a pastor, an elder or another trusted Christian.  Some ask, “Do we have to confess our sins to another person?”  My friends, this is not a “have to”, it’s a “get to.”  No you and I are not conscience bound to confess every sin to a Pastor.   But there are times when some sin or struggle is really troubling our souls.  This is what was happening to King David.  This is the meaning of the words from James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed...”  There are times when we really need to speak the truth of our sin to another person… when we are really struggling with something and it will help to have another trusted believer to walk along side us in that struggle.  There are moments when we need to speak the truth about ourselves to another person and both see and hear that living breathing person say, “God knows all that. Jesus paid for that sin too. You are forgiven.”  I will never forget when I was a teenager, taking aside a trusted adult leader and sharing with him my confession.  What a great gift it was for him to tell me, “Wayne you are forgiven in Jesus’ name.”  He never mentioned it again to me or anyone else.   For me God lifted a great burden.  That’s one of the reasons God gives us Pastors, DCEs, Stephen ministers, trusted Christian friends and the like… people we can trust and lay bare our souls… That’s why confession is such a great gift – for with that gift God gives us an even greater gift – His love, His grace and His forgiveness.