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Who We Are - Sermon, Sunday, May 4th, 2003
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1 John 1:8-2:2 as follows --
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 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 has no place in our lives. 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. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
Dear Christians,
"Confession is good for the soul." That's a saying that's widely-accepted as true. To own up to the wrong you've done, to confess your crime, your sordid past, your most secret sin -- people generally believe is a healthy thing to do. Did you know that you can get on the phone and call "The Confession Line"? I'm not going to give you the 900 number, but it does exist. For just $2.99 a minute, you can anonymously record your confession; you can get that sin that's been bothering you off your chest. Or, for the same price, you can listen to other people's recorded confessions (apparently that's the real money-maker).
There is a certain amount of value in admitting that you've done something wrong. Just "getting it off your chest" can make you feel better. Confession is good, although if that's all it is -- if you're just Ôfessing up to something that's bothering your conscience -- and there's nothing more than that, its value is limited. There is infinitely more value in the confessing of sins that is done by Christians. When that is a part of our daily life, when that confessing is faith-based, when it is sincere and not just mouthing the words, when it includes all our sins -- then, absolutely, CONFESSION IS GOOD.
Do you ever watch any of those police/detective shows on TV? Often you see the detectives interrogating a suspect, trying to get a confession. They bully, lie, threaten, do anything to get him to admit that he did it. The suspect knows going in that if he confesses, he'll face punishment, but they tell him that not confessing will make it much worse for him. Either way, the consequences are bad. St. John tells us here that not confessing our sins to God is bad for us. But it's not at all like that detective thing on TV, where no matter what, the guilty suspect experiences consequences that are bad. In our relationship with God, the only bad results are if we do not confess our sins.
Confessing one's sins is vital in any personal relationship -- friend to friend, brother-sister, parent-child, spouse-spouse. Confessing to the person against whom you've sinned is good. It restores harmony in the relationship, it maintains the closeness, keeps that sin from driving you apart. John is writing about the personal relationship God has established with you and me. He sent his Son to save us, to remove the sins which stood between us and him. That being accomplished, God called us to faith in Jesus and now calls us his children, and we call him, "Father." But within that Father/child relationship, being still sinful in nature, we sin against our Father every day. In various ways, without intending to do so, we stumble and fall. I hope you know that these daily sins of weakness, as we call them, do not destroy the Father-child relationship. They do not separate us from God and his love. They don't move us outside the circle of his grace and forgiveness -- we're still there, as believers in Christ.
An important question, however, is: What happens if I do not confess my sins? There have always been some people who claim to be so spiritual that they simply don't sin any more. I've never met anybody like that, but I have known individuals who claim to be Christians but do not confess one particular sin. And here's a real danger for any of us. That one particular sin may be a lifestyle, or an occasional activity, or a habit of doing something or a habit not doing something. Whatever it is, it's something that I do not acknowledge to be a sin.
We live in a culture that widely denies sin. It labels almost everything as a matter of personal choice. Many things that God's Word calls sin have become acceptable, even to some who claim to be Christians. Some of the more glaring examples are related to the 6th Commandment, marriage and sexuality. There are professing Christians who don't bat an eye at unmarried couples living together. There are some who claim to be Christian, yet think nothing of having one sexual partner after another. And that's just one commandment; let's not forget that there are nine others. The unconfessed sin could be lying, gossip, hating, neglecting God's Word, cursing...
So, what if there's this one sin that I am not treating as a sin? The apostle says, "If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves...if we say that we have not been sinning, a liar we are making him out to be." Refusing to admit that what I'm doing is sin is a dangerous self-deception, and along with deceiving myself, I'm also calling God a liar. He says it's sin and I, by my words or actions or both, say it's not! If that's the case, God's Word is not in me, his truth is not in me, no matter how much I may think I am a child of God!
You know that if you keep sinning aggainst another person and do not admit it, to say the least it puts a strain on the relationship. It pushes you apart and can destroy the relationship entirely. If I, who claim to be a child of God, willfully keeping on sinning, it pushes me away from God. You see, unconfessed sin usually becomes repeated sin. and repeated sinning causes a callus, a hard spot, to develop on my conscience. The more I do it, the less I feel it. And if I persist in doing it, on purpose, eventually I will remove myself from God's grace.
It no doubt is an understatement to say that not confessing our sins is bad. In those TV shows, either way it's bad. If the suspect doesn't confess, he really gets the book thrown at him, gets punished to the full extent of the law. Even if he does confess, he still gets punished, just not as severely. But here's where, happy to say, God's ways part from our legal system. When we confess our sins to God, nothing but good things happen!
Confess your sins to God and you don't get a reduced sentence. St. John says: "If we keep on confessing our sins, faithful is he and just to remit our sins." "Keep on confessing" -- for God's children, confessing is like breathing! We will always have sins to confess; some we're aware of, some not, but we want to lay them all before God. That's not to inform him that we've sinned; he knows that already. What we're doing is agreeing with him. I agree with God that what I said or thought or did or did not do is a sin. I also agree with him that "legally" I deserve to be punished for it, to the full extent of his Law.
So why in the world would I, knowing that I am guilty, want to run to the Judge when I've sinned? Shouldn't I be running away from him? You know the answer to that: it's the fact that Jesus already suffered the punishment for your sins. You know, as John says, that "he is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world." God punished his Son in our place; therefore, since God is faithful to his Word, he will not punish us! Unlike Adam who tried to hide, afraid of God's anger, we run to our Father and jump into his arms, which is exactly what he wants. When you've sinned, dear Christian, remind yourself of your Savior and his suffering for you, and you'll be able to flee to God for his infinite mercy.
We could call this a "faith-based" confession. It's based on the fact that Jesus paid for that sin already. Based on his death and resurrection, I know I'm forgiven. So this is something that God's children do in faith. We own up to our sins daily, willingly -- no blaming others, no excuses, no rationalizing. And we experience what David wrote about in Ps. 32: "I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin." Confession is good! It maintains my relationship with God. It keeps me from developing calluses on my conscience. It's a daily agreeing with God; he's right about my sins. It's a healthy reminder that keeps me aware of my sins and the danger they pose, and it keeps me clinging to Jesus. And through it I daily experience the comfort of this truth: "Faithful is he and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
There will be one more HUGE result of confessing. John said, "I write this to you so that you will not sin." You and I, who know God's grace in Christ, will be tempted to use God's unlimited capacity to forgive us as an excuse for continuing to sin. I will be tempted to tell myself that since God forgives sins, then it's OK for me to go on sinning in this one particular way. Well, that would just show that I'm not looking at sin the way God does and maybe his truth is not in me. No, the apostle says "so that you will not sin." That's the goal! If your confession is sincere, you will also intend to stop sinning, and especially that one particular sin. Conscious and on-purpose sinning will not be allowed. Of course we'll still sin each day in weakness, but then remember: "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins!"
So get that 900 number and call "The Confession Line" if you wish. You can get it off your chest and it might make you feel a little better for a while. But I'd recommend that you just daily confess your sins to God. Confession is good, and that kind of confession is the best. A sincere and faith-based confession keeps us in God's grace. It maintains our relationship with the Father. It effectively relieves all our guilt as it brings God's assurance of forgiveness. And last but by no means least, it leads us to live a holier life day by day!