CONFESSION OF SIN – Part 1of 3
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote the following to me:
“I see all the time the verse from the Bible that if you confess your sins then you will be forgiven. To whom must you confess your sins? Surely God already knows the sins we have committed? I just wonder about those people who can be hurt if I confess those sins to them. I certainly do not want to know if my wife was unfaithful to me, because it will just hurt me if I knew about it. Even more so I do not want to know if a loved one has stolen from me or any other person. This would harm the relationship because you will no longer trust the person near to your possessions. I just wondered about to whom must you confess your sins and I hope you can shine a little light on the subject.:
This is how I see the matter. I want to begin with some information, here is the first of three thoughts from the Word, firstly to show you how our Lord, to put it that way, how He feels about you and how precious you are to Him, You, to you and about you that I am now going to write about.
Because remember, I can just write about how I see it in the Word, how it works for Jesus’s followers.
To begin with, how absolutely delightfully wonderful to know – Everyone who has truly accepted Jesus Christ into his/her heart, as Redeemer and Saviour and live in this relationship throughout his/her life until the grave, has the certainty:
All my sins which I have committed, or still going to commit, although I do not want to continue doing them, at Golgotha Jesus took them upon Himself and gave His life on the cross to pay for them, so that I can go into Heaven unblemished:
ISA 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (TNIV)
ISA 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (TNIV)
With so much precious peace from our Lord do we go through our lives! How precious to know this and to be jubilant sometimes with tears of happiness (joyfulness) in our hearts.
ROM 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (TNIV)
ROM 8:2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (TNIV)
Look at how extremely big is God’s love for the people –
Because God is totally perfect, could only a perfect offering (sacrifice) save us from hell and for the whole of eternity was there only One who met those requirements and that was Jesus. Jesus then walked to Golgotha with that never ending love of God in His heart to be offered (sacrificed) for us.
Therefore it is for the true child of God just simply not possible to be like those people to live in the world, or to act like them, ordinary, because in truth we are not of this world. We are still on this world, but according to our Lord, we are certainly not part of this world.
Look at what our Lord says about the true child of God, as far as it concerns the world we live in:
JHN 17:14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. (TNIV)
What are you and my status in the eyes of our Lord, while we are still in this world, and while we plead for our Lord to come, our body will also at some or other time will lie down without life?
So, as you have seen, our Lord sees us already as no part of the world with all its wickedness and that is why He calls us His true followers:
JHN 5:24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (TNIV)
How wonderful is that, child of God, to be in peaceful knowledge of what you have just read, to get up every day and to continue with your life in this world. That delightful, peaceful knowledge, as I believe, which is also part of Jesus’s peace in our hearts as He talks about what has been given to us:
JHN 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (TNIV)
You have now seen, how much love our Lord has for you and me, and how Jesus has already taken our sins upon Himself.
In my second thought about this matter, I share with you why our Lord then still requires us to confess our sins to Him, because the Word is full of this that we must confess our sins to Him.
Greetings,
Sakkie