Son or sinner – what are you confessing?
Imagine hearing a sermon like this: “Marriage is wonderful. Marriage is a gift from God. God wants everyone to enjoy the gift of marriage. If you give Him just $50 today, God is so faithful that He will release upon you the blessed state of marriage.” How would you respond to that invitation? If you were a desperate single, you might reach for your wallet! But if you were married you would be a fool to pay. You would say, “I’m already married! Why should I pay for a gift I’m already enjoying?”
Now substitute the word “marriage” for “forgiveness,” and “$50” for “confess-your-sins,” and you have the standard sermon on confession. “Forgiveness is wonderful. Forgiveness is a gift from God. God is so faithful that whenever we confess our sins, He will forgive us and restore our fellowship with Him.” It sounds good but it’s not. Yes, forgiveness is wonderful and God is faithful. But you cannot put a price tag on the free gift of forgiveness. Don’t let anyone charge you for what God has already given you.
We were forgiven at the cross by the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not die merely to secure our forgiveness – salvation is so much more than that – but forgiveness is the gift that unlocks all the other gifts. The Bible tells us that those who are uncertain about their forgiveness remain weak and unproductive. You might be confused about confession if you think it’s the Holy Spirit who is convicting you of your sins. So far in this study, we have looked at eight reasons why Christians never need to confess-to-be-forgiven. Today we will pull out the big guns and hopefully do away for good the diabolical lie that says Christians must confess-to-be-forgiven. Here are the final four reasons to be thankful for God’s gift of forgiveness.
9. Confessing-to-be-forgiven puts us under law
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Rms 6:14)
Would you sing a hymn like this: “Your sacrifice is not good enough to do away with sin, Your blood was not sufficient to redeem me, You will not finish what you started, But with my help we can save me. We are co-Saviors.” Of course no believer would ever sing such nonsense! Yet that is exactly what we’re saying if we think we must confess-to-be-forgiven.
Living under law means more than keeping the 10 commandments. It means living by the power of the flesh in the vain hope of earning what God has freely given us. At the cross God cancelled the law that stood against us (Col 2:14) and without the law there is no transgression (Rms 4:15). All who rely on the law are under a curse (Gal 3:10), but because of Jesus we are now the “blessed man” whose sins God is no longer imputing (Rms 4:8). Jesus went to the cross so that you can live under the grace of God. If you who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb still think that you must confess-to-be-forgiven, then you are setting aside grace and cursing what God has blessed.
10. Confessing-to-be-forgiven empowers sin and leads to death
…the strength of sin is the law. (1 Co 15:56)
If you live under the self-imposed law that says, “I must confess-to-be-forgiven,” then sin will have dominion over you (Rms 6:14). Rather than dealing with sin, this sort of confession actually makes things worse for it strengthens sin making it harder to resist the next time. Guess what happens when you follow this path to its logical conclusion? Romans 7:5 says that when we combine our fleshly performance with the law, sinful passions are aroused that work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Confessing-to-be-forgiven, like any law-based ministry, ultimately brings death (2 Co 3:7).
We are called to live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for us (Gal 2:20). Our choice is simple: we can trust God that His work on the cross was sufficient, or we can trust the work of our flesh. When you sin it takes faith to look at the cross, listen to the Holy Spirit, and confess “I messed up, but because of Jesus I am still righteous! I am still forgiven!” It takes absolutely no faith to feel unrighteous and unforgiven. It takes faith to trust that God’s grace is greater than your sin; to trust that His grace will empower you to say no to ungodliness so you can go and sin no more (Tit 2:12). It takes no faith to believe you must make things right, perhaps through confession. Whatever is not of faith is sin (Rm 14:23). Call it for what it is: confessing-to-be-forgiven is the sin of unbelief in the goodness and grace of God.
11. Confessing-to-be-forgiven keeps us from God
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience… (Heb 10:19,22)
Another argument which is sometimes used to justify confession is that it restores our fellowship with God. Confessing our faults is certainly a good idea when we sin against each other (Jas 5:16). But don’t make the mistake of relating to God on human terms. God does not love us with human love. He doesn’t love us because we are lovable and open about our mistakes. He loves us because it’s in His nature to love us. He is love (1 Jn 4:16). Let’s not fool ourselves – even the best of us is wholly unworthy, wholly undeserving of His love. The good news is that He loves us anyway.
When you sin you may feel like you are distant from God even though He has promised to never leave nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). You messed up so you may feel like you need to do something to restore your relationship. But confessing-sins-to-get-rid-of-a-bad-feeling is to walk in the flesh; it is not the way of faith. It’s never a good idea to interpret your relationship with God through the filter of your feelings. Feelings should always follow facts and faith.
The facts of the matter are this: we had a debt we could not pay and Jesus paid it in full with His blood. All of our sins have been forgiven and we are now debt-free. The proper response in light of these facts is joy (Is 12:3). Faith looks at the cross and the empty tomb and shouts, “thank you Jesus!” If you are feeling bad because of a guilty conscience, you have misplaced your faith. You need to review the facts. According to Hebrews 10:22, the blood of Jesus is the best remedy for dealing with a guilty conscience. So instead of confessing your sins and reminding yourself of how unholy you are, confess the blood of Jesus that sanctifies you (Heb 9:13-14). Then draw near to God with the full assurance that faith brings.
12. We’re called to be Christ-conscious, not sin-conscious
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (Jn 17:3)
Confessing-to-be-forgiven distracts us from the purpose of life which is to know and enjoy God our Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Confession tends to make us introspective and gloomy. When you look at all you’ve done wrong, how could you not get depressed? Our heavenly Father doesn’t want us to live like that. God didn’t send His Son to make us self-aware but Christ-aware. We don’t need healthy self-esteem, but life-giving Christ-esteem. The law makes us conscious of sin, but we are to be conscious of Christ our righteousness (Rm 3:20-22).
Every minute you spend dwelling on your sin is a minute wasted. You could’ve spent that time praising God for His mighty works! Instead of testifying of your badness, praise Him for His goodness. Instead of examining your unworthiness, celebrate His worth! Jesus died to make unworthy men worthy. If you were worthy, He would never have died for you. But you weren’t and He did and now you are! Glory to God!
If this is not practical enough for you, let me finish with Matthew 6:33. When you seek His kingdom and His righteousness first, all your unrighteous hang-ups will get taken care of. Make Jesus your focus. Hebrews 10:2 says that we’re not supposed to be conscious of our sins. How can we confess something we’re not conscious of? As a man thinks, so he is (Pro 23:7). If you think of yourself as a reformed sinner saved by grace, you’ll never be anything more than just a sinner. It’s smart for sinners to confess their sins (1 Jn 1:9), when confession means agreeing with God about our need for a Savior. But when a Christian confesses-to-be-forgiven, he’s acting like a sinner. He has become an unbelieving believer, a living contradiction. He’s like a married person who still acts as if he’s single. See yourself as God sees you. God calls you a son (Gal 4:6). Confess what you are, not what you were. Confess your sonship not your sinnership.
God’s great gift of forgiveness
Knowing that you have been forgiven by the grace of God is just about the best thing in the world! Forgiveness is a great gift and worth protecting; don’t let anyone take it from you. Don’t let anyone charge you for what Jesus has already paid for.
Nowhere in the New Testament do you find believers confessing their sins to be forgiven. Confessing-to-be-forgiven is an extra-Biblical church tradition. It is one of those things that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death (Pro 14:12). It is a work of the flesh that kills faith, nullifies grace, and treats as unholy the blood of the covenant that sanctifies us.
In this study we have reviewed 12 reasons why those who have been born again never need to confess-to-be-forgiven. You don’t have to do something you’ve already done to gain something you already have.
Be blessed!
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Profound Paul! You gave the confession habit a thorough ass whipping – and rightly so! This manmade tradition has been robbing the sons of their confidence in the finished work of the cross for centuries. Thanks for all the time you put into this, your messages have liberated many people in this area of their life. I love it!
confession is a fruit of salvation, not its seed
I’m deeply confused by this post. Are you talking about the daily/weekly/yearly (which ever) confession of say a person who is Catholic? Or are you referring to the confession of sin, and acceptance of Christ that non-believers make when choosing to have Faith in Jesus?
This is about the works of confession that some say Christians must do to stay forgiven. Catholics do it with a priest, Protestants do it directly to God. Either way, if you think you must do it to earn what God freely gives, you have set aside grace and made the cross of Christ of no effect.
Thank you for the clarification! I completely agree with you.
I love your writing on the Gospel of Grace. Good News is Good News.
This is my observation. Whenever a preacher peaches a mixture of law and grace, it is so confusing. For example, they believe that God heals but they also believe that God put sickness on Paul to humble him. Isn’t it confusing.
Hi Paul,
I too believe that Christians are not to confess-to-be-forgiven. We are forgiven of our past, present and future sins because Jesus is our sin offering. The context of 1 John 1:9 is talking about non-believer.
Some preacher said that the verb confess in 1 John 1:9 is in present tense and this tense denotes habitual or lifestyle action. While some says that present tense does not necessary denotes continuous action but also a simple event without indication of continuous action.
My question is how do we get an accurate understanding of the present tense verb? Thank you
Hi Johnny,
I too wish a Greek expert would step in and clarify these issues. I sense many of us amateurs are cutting with a broad sword and missing a lot of nuance. I provide my best understanding of the tenses in this verse in comment #1 in Part 1 of this study.
Present tense Greek verbs are a bit tricky. The question that has to be asked would be to question the aspect of the verb and the time of the verb. As a rule, with reference to aspect, the present tense is internal – which is to say that it portrays the action from the inside of the event, without special regard for the beginning or the end, but it makes no comment as to fulfillment or completion. The present tense’s portrayal of an event “focuses on its development or progress and see the occurrence in regard to its internal make-up, without beginning or end in view“. ((Fanning, Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek, 103 [italics in original])).
With reference to time, the present indicative is usually present time, but it may be other than or broader than the present time on occasion (e.g., with the historical present and gnomic present respectively).
In this case, John’s use of ὁμολογῶμεν (present active subjunctive 1st person plural of ὁμολογεω) doesn’t have the time reference that the indicative has, since the mood of the verb is subjunctive. The subjunctive, in general, can be said to represent the verbal action or state as uncertain but probable. This is the mood of probability, rather than uncertainty ( the optative mood would represent uncertainty). Regardless, even this definition is overly simplistic in light of its usage in the New Testament.
In this case, the present tense may or may not be denoting continuous action – what is more exegetically significant is the use of the subjunctive mood.
As a new covenant believer I know that forgiveness is a gift, but asking our heavenly Father for a gift is clearly not a work. In Matthew chapter 6 Jesus teaches US how to pray (He is not talking to Jews under the law but the Church when He makes many references to “your Father”). Part of this prayer is “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”, and in verses 14-15 Jesus clearly places a stipulation on forgiveness which is we must forgive each other or we WILL NOT be forgiven ourselves.
In reference to 1 John 1:7-10 The writer is clearly not talking to unbelievers because the word WE and US is used too many times to deny the fact that he is referring to HIMSELF also as well as US. He clearly states “If WE say WE have no sin then WE DECEIVE OURSELVES and the truth is not in US.” Chapter 2 verse 2 says He is the propitiation for OUR sins and not OURS only, but for the sins of the whole world… Jesus clearly states in Matthew 6:12 that asking forgiveness for sins should be a regular part of our prayer life. If we deny the fact that we still sin even as new covenant believers, then we clearly eliminate the need for Jesus as our “Great High Priest” spoken of in Hebrews chapter 4.
Thanks for your comment Kevin,
Some quick responses: How many times do you have to receive a gift before you have received it? Just once. You have either received forgiveness or you haven’t. For my take on Matthew 6, please see this post and then this one. If you have to ask for forgiveness for every single sin you commit every day of your life, then yes, it is a work. By your reckoning if you fail to ask, you are not acceptable to God. A more mannish-definition of works I could not think of. When I preach to the lost I use “we” and “us” as a means of identifying with them. I don’t preach at them. I speak just like John: we all need a Savior and Jesus is indeed the propitiation for all our sins.
A couple of thoughts on this post:
1. The most common mistake that I see Christians make regularly is to profess belief in perseverance, but then live like they may lose their salvation. Nonetheless, I must confess, not to be forgiven (which is a reality that we all struggle to live in), but rather I confess because sin disrupts the relationship the believer has with the Father. Keep in mind that a disrupted relationships isn’t the same thing as a lost relationship.
2. Becoming more and more aware of Christ will inevitably result in becoming more and more aware of sin! You cannot stand in the presence of the glorious, risen Christ and not be aware of the remnant of sin which remains in those who have received and rested in Christ for salvation. It is this reality that compels the believer to provide the evidence of his sonship by waging war on sin.
Happy Easter! I think this is my favoritist postestest!
I have a question for you that I’ve been too afraid to ask anyone else. A few years ago I was unfaithful to my husband. There’s a million reasons why if there’s one. Although I did not have intercourse, a line was still crossed. The guilt I have is tremendous. I have confessed and begged for forgiveness from God. I have not told my husband because I want to spare him the hurt. I have turned away from it but am living the guilt every day. I know I am forgiven (I’m a baptized Christian). HOwever, I am not sure if the fact that I can’t tell my husband is considered living a lie. It would destroy him. It might make me feel better, because my husband may choose to forgive me, but I can’t stomach the thought of hurting him for an action I am so regretful for. I think the guilt is my punishment that I have to live with. I don’t want to punish my husband. If I ask for forgiveness from God, do you think that’s enough or do I need to confess to my husband? It would free me from one form of guilt, only to cause another form of misery for both of us. I just don’t know!
Dear S,
That’s a tough one because confessing to your husband will make you feel better but possibly wound him deeply. Who knows how he may react? He may be so hurt that he does something you both regret.
I’m going to tell you what I think in a moment, but let me preface that by saying you should really ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom on this. He knows you and your husband and He’s here to help.
Personally, I am not a big fan of keeping secrets in a marriage. You may think withholding it is preserving your marriage but actually it’s undermining it – just look what it’s doing to you. What if you said nothing and your husband found out anyway? That would be very damaging. James 5 suggests keeping short accounts and confessing our shortcomings to one another is a key to healing relational hurts. So I would definitely lean towards being open and honest. But I don’t know all the details and I don’t know your husband. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and He will show you the way that brings life (or avoids death!). You really have an opportunity to cast your care on Him – I mean this is a radical risk – but do it! He loves you; He loves your husband. Trust Him.
The Lord showed me something and its exciting, praise God that it takes the Holy Spirit to understand the things FREELY given by our Dad (1 Cor 2:12, Gal 4:6, Rom 8:15-16). My Dad showed me that when the prodigal son left, he left as a son. Then when he returned with a ready confession the Father ignored it, and declared “bring out the BEST robe ect… He also said PUT it on Him, NOT, “son put it on yourself, hallelujah. Its the Fathers job to clothe you with righteousness (Lk 15:18-24). The father responds to righteousness and only the righteousness of Himself in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:21). The Father always wants to affirm you that you are righteous in Him no matter what (1 Cor 1:7-9, Rom 8:38-39). The Lord also shared with me Ps 107:2, Let the redeemed of the Lord SAY so (Gal 3:13-14, blessing of Abraham = righteousness). You have been redeemed from the hand of the enemy and that includes sin and death (Rom 8:10, Col 1:13-14). You are now as a son/daughter in the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through HIS BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins. Amen (Thanks Paul.)
That’s a great revelation Anthony! Thanks for sharing.
Praise God Anthony and thanks so much for sharing this!
I don’t know if this applies or not, but it reminds me of the account of the two walking on the road to Emmaus (with Jesus after His resurrection) and that they didn’t recognize Him until Holy Spirit opened their eyes when Jesus was breaking bread with them.
Blessings multiplied back to you!!!
Warren (South Carolina, USA)
Your standing as a Son/Daughter of the kingdom will never change as Jesus refers too in the story of the prodigal son. None of us (born again believers) were received into the kingdom by our works, so what makes any of us think we can keep right standing with God by our works (2 Cor 5:21)? Confession of something thats remembered no more makes no sense in the first place (Heb 8:12, 10:17). The Father Himself and the Holy Spirit agree your sins are removed forgotten, and forgiven. Jesus came to confirm the will of the Father and they are one (Jn 10:30, Heb 10:7, 1 Jn 5:7, Thus God agrees with Himself). We are in Christ, In the Spirit, and In the Light already (Col 2:6, Rom 7:5, Rom 8:9, Eph 5:8, Col 1:12). We walk this all out by our new life and identity of the finished work of Christ. The Lord also shared with me, “Is Jesus confessing sin on the throne too the Father?” The answer is, of course not BECAUSE AS JESUS IS SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD (Jn 4:17). We will have boldness in the day of judgement, not according too our accuracy concerning confession of sin as a Christian to keep fellowship and right standing. We have boldness because He is our right standing (1 Cor 1:30). Thank you Father for shedding light and removing all the religious nonsense in these last days (Acts 2:16-21).
Hey Paul I hope you have a good teaching on Heb 6 as well, I understand context by His grace lol. So either its already on this sight or I hope to see it in future updates. I understand the audience the person (I believe it was Paul) was writing too, saved and unsaved. By the way when Jesus rose again He never told Peter to confess his unbelief and renouncing of Christ, Thomas didn’t even believe the good news at all (John 20:25). Yet Jesus didn’t come to him saying confess your sin, He invited Thomas to test Him, and said go ahead and feel my wounds if it will cause you to believe, whatever it takes I love you. I can see a smile on Jesus face even in His correction to Thomas (Jn 20:29), and what did Thomas confess? MY LORD AND MY GOD! Amen
Only the righteous can sit on a throne of righteousness. We are SEATED at the right hand of the father in Christ (Eph 2:4-7). We are the body of Christ, we are one just as Jesus is one with the father according too Jn 17:20-23 (1 Cor 12:27, Col 1:18 we are his body, amen). Jesus is the head and we are His body, as far as I know unless we are decapitated (LOL), the body goes wherever the Head goes. This is why we have the mind of Christ (something extra for those who want to recieve it.) We reign with Christ and He seated us with him, we didn’t seat ourselves (Eph 2:6, Eph 1:20-23). Then Paul says in Eph 2:8-9, & 13 that it was a gift given by grace through faith in Jesus. We are brought near by the blood (v.13), not our continual confession of sin. Even the intimacy of being close to the Father was done by Jesus sacrifice (His Blood), and we love because He first loved us (1 Jn 4:19). Are right standing isn’t about our right doing (continual confession of sins) but by His and His right being, His Mercy, Throne, and Righteousness endures forever AMEN (Ps 136, Heb 1:8, Ps 110:3, Ps 112:3.). David spoke of the new confession, the confession of Jesus victoy hallelujah (Ps 107:2, Gal 3:13,). Our Father has removed our sins and recieved us graciously, all thats left is to thank Him (Hos 14:2 AMP, Heb 13:15) for his kindness and love for us. When we fail we should confess thank you Father that I still am and always will be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, thank you Father all my sins are forgiven because of Jesus (2 Cor 5:21). You are a new creation, the old you was sin conscious the new you should be Christ conscious (2 Cor 5:17 KJV). Homologio (confess) in the Greek defines confess as “same word”, god has said sin is sin, but in Christ “your sins and your lawless deeds I remember no more (Heb 8:12)”. Always point to the payment for your sins (Jesus, He was and is the ransom for all. 1 Tim 2:5-6), so lts agree with our Father church we are a forgiven and righteous people by his undeserved, unearned, unmerited favor.
I meant lets AGREE with our father, and before that OUR right standing isn’t about right doing lol.
AGREED and CONFESSED!!! 🙂
Blessings,
Warren (South Carolina, USA)
Sorry reformedrebel but that is unscriptual…
“but rather I confess because sin disrupts the relationship the believer has with the Father.”
No it doesn’t, the word says whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom 14:23), so by YOUR standard your are out of fellowship all the time, whether you sinned in thought, word, or deed. The Father sees us with the Mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), and in the finished work of His Son (Jn 19:30, Col 2:10-15) you are complete in Him. This is our starting point so lets acknowledge that and move on in that brother, Amen.
This is what the saints are saying about sin in heaven and on the earth Rev 5:9-13, now let His will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). The Father shared with me that “if your confessing sins on the earth then your confessing them in heaven, because our body is one and the mouth is apart of the Head which Christ is. So say what I say, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven” Amen (Matt 26:28, Jn 19:30, Acts 13:38-39). The Lord doesn’t hear your confession of sin as a Son/Daughter it was ignored by the Father in the story of thep prodigal son (Lk 15:18-22), “But the father said to His servants bring out the best robe (the greek definition for robe is even better, but i gotta go to bed lol) ect,, and lets party, religious folks hate this story Lk 15:28-31, and yet the father told the religious son in V.31 “you are ALWAYS with me and all I have is yours”, and that includes the forgiveness of sins (Jn 16:15 talking about the Holy Spirit in its context, Heb 10:15-18), the only requirement concerning fellowship is to come and we tell everybody else who needs to come to the Father as well Amen (Rev 22:17).
We are brought near to the Father and Him too us by the blood of Jesus (Lk 15:18-20, Eph 2:13). Even intimacy, being near, and the father falling on his neck (prodigal son) and kissing him came by Jesus blood. Not the sons confession, the father knew he would come back cause the goodness of God makes us turn around and change our minds (Rom 2:4). The Father was always looking out for him (prodigal son) all the time, because while he was a GREAT way off his father SAW him (Lk 15:20). The son never lost his standing and all that the father had was still and always will be his and ours hallelujah (Lk:15:21-24, 31). So we can see how the father see’s and reacts to us even when were wrong, which empowers us to repent (change our minds Jn 8:10-12). The lord confirms your identity that you are still righteous apart from your actions (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 4:5-6, 2 Cor 5:21). We are forever righteous apart from our confession 1 Cor 1:9 is proof of that. Jesus has made an end of all our sins, IT IS FINISHED!! (Dan 9:24, Heb 9:26-28, Is 53:10-11, Jn 19:30)
Wow!!!!!! Lol, Praise God.
I was cheated on by my Christian husband and I reacted by divorcing him (incredible hurt led to bitterness and that led to me sinning in adulterous ways myself very shortly after filing for divorce). I remarried a Christian man who loves me and shortly after the remarriage, I came upon teachings on the Internet that state that Christians who divorced and remarried cannot just repent (as I truly have…asking God and my former spouse for their forgiveness for my own unforgiveness and horrible sins)…they preach that one must divorce AGAIN in order to repent and either remain alone or return to the first spouse. I have no desire to ever divorce again, and my former spouse actually supports my remarriage. I still deal with pain and guilt over my past, and would like prayers from everyone that I may have PEACE from Abba about remaining as I am, happily remarried and forgiven through Christ alone…not through the law or through works. I grew up in a legalistic (works based) Christian background, and I daily struggle with feeling loved and accepted by Abba after I blew it so badly in my hurt and anger. Now I can truly say that my ONLY hope is in Christ…I have been so humbled to see my own sin. This website has been a tremendous blessing and comfort to me as I recover from the past and try to seek God’s blessings for my future.
Like the woman at the well , Jesus offers you living water , drink up and get on with the awesome gift he has given you , you need no longer thirst you have everything you need and on top of this a good husband.You do not need to seek his blessing for you future you like the woman at the well only have to accept it.
Thank you Chris! I prayed that the Lord would speak to me and He has given me such mercy and grace. Beyond what I myself have shown…it is incredible, undeserved…and humbling. I have dedicated my life to Him out of gratitude for His blessings. I am learning that God desires we just spend time with Him, allowing Him to LOVE us. I was recently studying Gideon…the story where the Lord tells Gideon, “You have too many people for Me to hand the Midianites over to you, or else Israel might brag: “I did it myself.'” (Judges 7:2). The Israelites were already pitifully outnumbered 4 to 1 by the Midianites…and God wanted it to be 450 to 1 before the battle commenced. God doesn’t want our pride to have a chance of taking credit for His victory. I’m at a point in following Him where I’ve been so humbled by my own weakness, that I am forced to depend ONLY on Christ for my salvation and hope. When we finally realize that our works and strivings are useless…(I sure have!)…He gets all the credit! His mercies and faithfulness are wonderful.
In Gods vocabulary asking is accepting, if not you are questioning and have no faith.
I am beginning to understand that it is all about faith. Without which, we cannot please God. It’s a real challenge to those of us who have trust issues that stem back to childhood. Learning every day to take the “masks” of learned misperceptions off of the Face of Love Almighty…
Very interesting. I just have a sincere question what about when Jesus addressed His disciple when He said gibe us this day our daily bread and asking for forgiveness as we forgive our debtor
Yes, he did. What’s the question?
Paul I want to thank you so much for your teaching on his perfect grace. I was just given a teaching in church that the only way a christian could lose fellowship with God was by un-confessed sin. I felt sick that I could possible be out of fellowship with him because I believed at the cross when he said it was finished that his blood was sufficient for me, that it was HIS blood that bought me into fellowship with God. So I went home to search the scripture and called my dad to get his thoughts. He also believed you had to confess but he said let me look into more I will call you back. He studied 1st John and called back to say he was wrong that what he had always been taught could not be true because like you he believed it was written to the unsaved. I’m so thankful for God’s word and men like you who are not afraid to boldly teach the truth of God’s Word. It was a horrible thought that I was out of fellowship with my redeemer for my sins I may not have confessed. I will be sharing your teaching with my Dad. Thanks
Anthony B
I agree,
What do you say to people when they point to how Paul referrs to himself in 1 Tim 1:15?
Thanks.
Hi Paul, I was blessed by this but here’s my concern, in Matthew 6:12, Jesus instructed us in our prayers to ask our heavenly father to forgive our debts as we too should be able to forgive others. Now, our debt is sin right? So why Jesus specifically instructed us to ask for forgiveness when that’s going to keep us under the law; keep us from God; empowered sin and leads to death as you said in #9, 10 and 11?
Please see this post and this post for my response. Thanks.
knowing all this I am still unsure but it is something I have always struggled with for so many years.
Jumping up and down in total JOY! So happy I stumbled upon this! I just experienced God’s light or Holy Spirit three weeks ago and immediately life changed completely. I was “directed” to Derek Prince (who I respect lots). I thought I need deliverance and repentance like no tomorrow. But it felt like – well – who am I giving my power to here: God or the enemy. This article made things click perfectly!!!! I already did some deliverances and it right away started feeling like a bottomless draining pit. No more. Jesus and God – you’re the best!!!!!
That’s awesome verakasi.
I like “who am I giving my power to here: God or the enemy” because when we “confess” our sins we are agreeing with God about them, hence God’s great grace can flow (which is our power…..”when I am weak, then I am strong”) in our lives. If we believe the lies of the enemy, we agree with them which frustrates God’s grace in our lives.
Blessings,
Warren (South Carolina, USA)
A little confused, what about 1 John 1:9?
I have written several articles on 1 John 1:9. You can find them in the Archives>Scripture Index.
I believe that while the spirit is saved the soul and body are not. I believe we have to confess when we sin because are souls are not saved. I agree with you guy’s on God’s love and forgiveness because I came out of a legalistic background but I still believe that because God is holy and I do not think is being under the law. I think that the author saying that when we confess it is wrong before God is a scary statement. I think that some of you might not like him but I agree with much of what Dr Michael Brown says in his book ” Hyper Grace”. I like much of this ministry and will still stand with it on issues I agree with.
If part of you is saved and part of you is unsaved, you’re not saved. You can’t be half a child of God or half in the kingdom. You’re either in or out. When Jesus laid hands on the sick, he didn’t heal their spirits, but their bodies. When he drove demons out of people, it was their minds that were set free. Yes God is holy and yes we should confess in a Biblical fashion.