The lamentation and confession of Diether, 1884, Wikimedia Commons
TRUE CONFESSION
We have probably all heard the old adage, “confession is good for the soul.” In reality, confession is good not only for our souls, but it is also good for the souls of those who hear us. Confession has a way of strengthening our spiritual lives. It not only gives us confidence and encouragement, but it gives these things to our listeners as well.
Confession is likely one of the strongest offensive weapons in our spiritual arsenal. This is probably why the devil makes our confession one of the main targets of his attack. Truly, the enemy desires to steal it away. When we speak of confession today, its meaning is a bit clouded by misuse and misunderstanding in the church. We surely need to gain a biblical understanding of this concept. We also need to realize that there are two types of confession mentioned in the Bible.
OUR CONFESSION OR TESTIMONY OF THE LORD
Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) are expected to confess Jesus; to testify or witness about him regularly. In Matthew 10:32, the Lord says, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” In Luke 12:8, he says a similar thing, “…whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.” The Apostle Paul, in giving us what seems to be a recipe for salvation, sums it up in the words of Romans 10:9-10: “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” We see by this that there are no secret believers in Christianity, and no silent salvation.
Those who are willing to confess or testify, even in this enlightened age, may possibly find themselves martyrs for their faith. This is already true in many oppressive countries, including several in the Moslem world. It is interesting that the Greek word in the New Testament for “witness” is also the word used for “martyr.” According to Revelation 6:9, we learn that martyrdom will be a part of the last-day scenario. In Revelation 12:11 we read of the last-day saints: “And they overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
In the Bible, the idea of testimony is also used in regard to God’s truth, whether spoken or unspoken. The Hebrew words ed, edah and eduth are often used in this regard. These Hebrew words are translated in the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Old Testament as “witness.” In Psalm 89:37, we see that the heavenly bodies are a faithful witness. We see in other places that they continually declare the glory of God in an unspoken manner. The Ark of the Covenant was often called “the testimony” or “witness” in the Hebrew Scriptures (Exo. 26:34). The Law of God given to Moses was called a “testimony” (Exo. 32:15), and the word of God in general is also referred to as “testimony.”
However, we should bear in mind that a primary testimony, confession or witness in this world is still the believer. God says in Isaiah 8:16, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” In another place God says of his people, “You are my witnesses…” (Isa. 43:10).
THE CONFESSION OF SIN
There is another meaning of confession in the English Bible. The scripture is clear that we must also confess our sins. The confession and repentance of our sins is one of the very first steps into the Kingdom of God. The Lord gives us a wonderful promise in regard to confession of sin. The promise is found in 1 John 1:9, and it would bear memorizing: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In the same passage John warns us that if we say we have no sins we are liars.
When we try to hide our sins we become hypocrites – our bones waste away and our strength is sapped, as was the case with David in Psalm 32:1-5. When David acknowledged his awful sin, he could then call himself “blessed” because his sin was forgiven. In the same sense, the Bible assures us that if we cover over our sins we will not prosper (Prov. 28:13). When we bury sin it sprouts and produces more sin. It is only when we confess and forsake sin that we obtain mercy.
In James 5:16, a new twist is added to the matter of confessing sins. In this passage we are instructed: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed…” We see here that confession is not only to God, but to men. Now the confession of sin in a public sense is quite an unpopular thing in our day. Occasionally we hear of a revival where college students line up and wait until two in the morning for an opportunity to publicly confess their sins. Although this is rare today it was not so rare in past great revivals or in Bible times. We see for instance in Nehemiah’s day that people stood for hours confessing their sins publicly (Neh. 9:2-3).
Besides the embarrassment, one thing that would slow down our public confession of sin today is the biblical injunction of restitution. There are some cases wherein the guilty party must make restitution along with confession. The biblical pattern is seen in Numbers 5:7, where we read “then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged.” Not only are we to restore what we have taken wrongfully, we are told even to add some to it.
The public confession of sin seems to be a hallmark of the great revival movements past and present. Norman Grubb in his little classic entitled Continuous Revival, points out the importance of public confession of sin. He cites it as one very important element in keeping revival fires burning year after year. This was the case with his experience in East Central Africa around the middle of the twentieth century. He points out how the natives became quick to confess even their smallest sins to each other. The value of such quick confession is that the evil seed of sin is not allowed time to take root and grow.
Also, it is obviously much better to confess the sin of a lustful thought than to confess the sin of adultery much later. What a healthy practice, to confess our sins to each other. Husbands and wives should certainly get into this practice. Prayer groups and even fellowships would also profit greatly from doing this. It would liberate us and deliver us from much plastic “churchianity”.
It must be a devastating thing for the kingdom of darkness when people begin to confess. Satan’s kingdom is built upon deception, lies, hypocrisy and concealment. When people confess publicly, they shatter the darkness with the light of truth. They begin to walk in the light and this makes true fellowship with one another possible. The New Testament word for confession is the Greek “homologia” in its various forms. The word means literally to “say the same thing.” When we confess our sins we say the same thing that God is saying about us. We affirm that his testimony about us is true, for the Bible says, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Rom. 3:23).
WALKING IN THE LIGHT
Many times, we make lame excuses for ourselves and for our behavior. We try to cover things up and keep our mask in place. As Christians we make excuses as to why we are not as close to God as we once were. We even try to make God a party to our deception. The real problem is our sin. It is really about the only problem, so we should hurry up and confess it. God says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2 ).
I remember on one occasion when I was less than honest in the purchase of some materials from a Christian bookstore. By my deception I had gotten the materials at a very cheap price. Upon leaving the store I first rejoiced and thanked God that he had so blessed me. My praise did sound a little hollow. Later, the umpire, the Holy Spirit within me cried “foul!” Of course, I was compelled to take the materials back and clear up the matter. I nervously waited at the store until the line at the cash register disappeared and then hurried up to confess my fault in private. It seemed that almost instantly a crowd gathered at the register to overhear my confession. The confession was good for me, but it was also probably good for others to hear it. It was God’s way of doing things.
Confession, witness and testimony are words closely linked in the Bible. We cannot have a testimony or witness without confession and vise versa. Our spoken confession of Jesus is extremely important in this day. Islam is perhaps the fastest growing religion on earth and one very good reason is that Moslems confess their god openly and loudly five times each day. We Christians should certainly exceed their devotion. In this dark, defiled and depraved age, God desires that we shine forth as stars, that the light of our confession may turn many to righteousness.
– Jim Gerrish
This updated article is presented courtesy of Bridges For Peace, Jerusalem. Original publication date – 1997.