The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at New Georgia

Tim Johnson, editor

March 30, 2008

 
In This Issue:
Acknowledge Your Sin
by Steve Klein

 

 

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Acknowledge Your Sin

   The Lord knows when we sin.  He doesn't need us to tell Him. "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3).  He knows when we sin, yet, He expects us to confess our faults.  It's for our benefit, not His.

  Admitting sin helps us in several ways.  It promotes humility by forcing us to come face to face with our failures.  It clarifies for us the need to correct our behavior.  But chiefly, it enables us to receive forgiveness from God.   Until we acknowledge our sin, we cannot receive forgiveness because we do not see our need for forgiveness.  Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Mark 2:17).  We have no reason to seek, receive or appreciate forgiveness until we are able to acknowledge our sin.

  Jerry Vine's illustrates this point as follows:

      I once heard the story about a little fellow who spent his summers with his sister on his grandparent's farm. They would go to the farm in the summertime and spend the summer riding horses, playing with the cows, and running in the woods. Thy just had a real big time.
      On day the little boy decided he would make a slingshot. He got where he was quite an expert at hitting things with it. So, he looked out and there was his grandmother's prize goose. And he thought to himself, "I wonder if I could hit that goose?"
      He got a big rock and he put it in his slingshot and took dead aim at his grandmother's goose. Sure enough he hit that goose right on the head and he killed it and he knew he was in trouble. So he said to himself, "I'd better dig a hole and bury it before anyone finds out."
      So he dug a hole and put the goose into it and he was covering the goose over when he heard his sister say, "I caught you, I caught you, I caught you! I saw what you did. I saw you kill grandmother's goose and I'm going to tell on you!"
      She really had him. I mean she really had that poor fellow and she made life miserable for him. When it was her turn to get the water, he had to go get it because he was being blackmailed. When it was her time to bring in some wood for the stove, he had to do it because he feared she would tell on him.  She just made life miserable for him. He was guilty and he knew he was guilty. It began to eat away at him and finally he just couldn't stand it anymore.
      Finally, one day he went running into grandma's room. He threw himself into her arms and said, "Oh, grandmother. I killed your goose. I did it. I didn't think the rock would kill it. I buried the goose and I have been so afraid that sister was going to tell you that I just can't stand it! Would you please forgive me for killing your goose?"
      His grandmother said, "Why son, I was looking out the window and I saw you kill that goose. I have known you did it all this time. I just wanted you to come and ask me to forgive you for it."

  And so we see why confession of sin is an important condition to receiving forgiveness.  God has seen this from the beginning, and has always required man to confess in order to be forgiven.  Notice the following passages.

In the Old Testament:

  • Leviticus 5:5 -- "And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing."

  • Proverbs 28:13 -- "He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy."

  • Psalm 32:5 -- "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin."

  • Psalm 51:2-3 -- "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me."

  • Jeremiah 3:13 -- "Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' says the LORD."

During the ministry of John the Baptist:

  • Mark 1:5 -- "Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins." (cf. Matthew 3:5-6)

Under the New Testament:

  • 1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

  • James 5:16 - "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

   In Acts 19, we find the Apostle Paul in the city of Ephesus - a city eaten up with idolatry and occult magic.  When the people realized that Paul possessed authentic power from God, the name of Jesus was magnified and many believed.  As is the case in most places, believers in Ephesus had been caught up in the sins of their culture.  But Acts 19:18 tells of their wholesale repentance: "And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds."  One might think that so many believers confessing their sins would have been a setback for the church in Ephesus.  But there is nothing shameful or reproachful in the confession of a sinner who is seeking forgiveness.  "So," after the confessions in Ephesus "the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed" (Acts 19:20).

  Today, we need churches filled with humble, forgiveness-seeking believers who are willing to come "confessing and telling their deeds."  Is that what we have?

-- Steve Klein