Psalm 40Sample

You know that gross feeling you get when you know you’re in sin or you haven’t confessed a hidden sin from your past? It’s a slimy feeling in your gut that no matter how hard you try, you can’t get rid of. It’s always there, just under the surface of your skin, keeping you from feeling pure, from having a clear conscience.

It’s a severe mercy of God called conviction of sin. While it may be uncomfortable at times, conviction of sin is a kindness of the Holy Spirit—leading us back to God in repentance and faith, reminding us that God is not finished with us yet. He has plans for our future, and they are good. There is only one way to get rid of that feeling, of that grossness: confession.

What are we told to do in order to be forgiven? 

The Greek word for confess in 1 John 1:9 means to declare openly, acknowledging and agreeing with God that what you are doing or what you did was wrong.1 God says if we confess our sins and turn from them, He’ll forgive us and bring us back into right relationship with Him. We confess in order to be right with God.

Sometimes God also tells us to confess to one another.

When we confess before the Lord, whom our sins are always primarily against, He forgives us and cleanses us. When we confess to one another, we are healed. And that word “healed” carries a meaning of being made whole. How? How does confessing to someone cause healing and wholeness? This passage in James refers to the power of intercessory prayer in accountability as we love one another enough to fight for the holiness of our brothers and sisters and the intimacy of their relationships with Christ. As scholar Ralph P. Martin says, “The author [of this passage] is showing that the prayer, not the person, ... is the channel through which God’s power to heal is conveyed.”2 In confession of sin to one another, we bring our brothers and sisters before God in prayer, asking Him to heal them. 

The grossness only goes away when we confess and choose to walk in the light, no matter how scary, no matter the consequences. Nothing, no hidden sin or fear of exposure or awful outcome, is worth compromising the freedom you have when your conscience is clear and your heart is pure before the Lord.

1. “Homologeo,” Strong’s G3670, Blue Letter Bible. Available at www.blueletterbible.org.

2. Ralph P. Martin, James, Word Biblical Commentary 48 (Dallas: Word, 1990), 211.