Confession of Sin
(Editorial - February 2004)
This issue contains the first of a series on “Famous Last Words” written by Bro. Chris Sales of Shelburne, Ontario who has been living, with his family, in Adelaide, South Australia, for nearly two years. In the course of developing the last words of Adam, “I did eat,” Bro. Chris cites Proverbs 28:13: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” As sometimes happens, this verse, sitting by itself, struck us with particular clarity and force and prompted a reflection on confession of sin.
Denial is childish
The opposite of confessing
our sins is to deny them, to others, to ourselves, to God. We frequently
see this in children: “Who put those marks on the wall?” “I don’t
know” is the reply, as we note marker stains on his fingers. Or “Who
started it?” as both point to the other protesting, “He did!”
even as we know they were taking turns pestering each other.
Depending largely on parental guidance and reaction, as the child grows he/she either becomes better able to frankly admit wrongdoing or becomes more creative in denials and excuses. Usually other people are involved when we sin, and we can blame their misbehavior instead of our own. Or we can criticize them for being an accomplice instead of helping us do the right thing. Or we can justify our actions: “It was just a small dent and I was already late, that’s why I took off,” or “Everyone was doing it, I felt like such a nerd.”
Nobody looked more childish in his denial than Saul as he towered head and shoulders above Samuel. “I have performed the commandment of the LORD,” he said. “And Samuel said, ‘What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?’ And Saul said, ‘They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God…” Of course, the LORD their God had said, “utterly destroy all that they have…and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites” and Saul knew it. But he kept trying, “Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD…but the people took of the spoil…” Perhaps they did, but what about Agag the king of the Amalekites? Who would want him but Saul himself? Obviously Saul and the people were of one mind to do what they wanted, not what God had commanded (I Sam. 15:13-23).
To any parent, all the excuses are similar to what they’ve heard before: Saul’s denial was childish. But this was the king of Israel trying to deceive Samuel and thinking he could deceive God, which reveals another aspect of failing to confess our sins.
Denial denies God
The wicked man does his
evil deeds without regret or repentance thinking he can get away with them
for, “He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth His face;
He will never see it.” We know such thinking is utterly foolish because
we know, “Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to
requite it with thy hand” (Psa. 10:11,14).
We know the Lord’s gaze penetrates to the inner man, “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eye of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:12-13). There is, therefore, no hiding of our sins before God. There is no way we can deceive Him by blaming the other person, or saying our motives have been mistaken. He knows.
“Yes,” we may say, “God knows but I don’t want to lay myself bare before other people.” Yet that is exactly the pattern of scripture. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Peter – all these great ones have great sins recorded for all time. Why is that? It’s so we can see the total person and have courage when we fail. We don’t despise them due to their failures, we rejoice with them as they turn back and we take courage in their reliance on the mercy of God.
Exactly the same thing happens when we confess our sins one to another. People take heart that others fail and recover; they take heart they have someone to confide in regarding their own problems.
Denial is debilitating
It can be physically
debilitating as David revealed: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old
through my roaring all the day long” (Psa. 32:3). The wicked man may
have no conscience so that his slander, injustice and licentiousness never
troubles his sleep. With the believer this is not so. Suppressing the
pangs of his conscience can bring on depression and a stultifying lethargy
of spirit.
Unconfessed sin can be spiritually debilitating. We will be super-sensitive to any perceived criticism and will lash out at opponents real or imagined. Even Asa, who “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” was “wroth with the seer” who exposed his sin. Asa should have known better from the words of his great-great-grandfather: “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Psa. 32:5). Denial only damaged Asa: confession would have brought him relief and divine comfort.
The same is true for ourselves because we, too, have a precious relationwhip with the Father and the Son who delight to show mercy.
God welcomes confession
We have just noted God’s readiness to forgive
in the case of David and that is a very dramatic and encouraging example.
But there are other cases even more dramatic.
Manasseh, king of Judah, Hezekiah’s son, “made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen” for he tried to eliminate worship of Yahweh in God’s own land. For his heinous sins and crimes, Manasseh was carried away captive to Babylon. In his captivity, something came over this exceedingly wicked man so that he “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him: and He was entreated of him…and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom” (II Chron. 33:9,13). God’s mercy in this case takes the breath away, it is so vast and encouraging.
Ahab is another example, for “Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him” (I Kgs. 16:33). Yet when Ahab heard Elijah’s awful words of judgment, “he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted…” Where we might have esteemed this as nothing more than Ahab’s self-pity, the Lord generously read into Ahab’s actions a manner of repentance and delayed execution of the judgments (I Kgs. 21:21-29).
Therefore, when we recognize our sins, and there is no man who sinneth not, let us not deny them but openly confess our sins, “for he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
Don Styles