30 Days of Promises - #30
"GOD WILL CONTINUALLY FORGIVE US AS WE CONFESS TO HIM"
It's such an incredible fact that all sin in our lives was wiped clean at the cross. We are free and forgiven forever. However, we are still living in this fallen world in a fleshly body that has been tainted by the effects of sin. Our sin has been forgiven, but we still make mistakes from time to time.
When I slip up, I so easily go into the mode of condemning myself. While I believe there is a place for healthy repentance, it can be very easy to buy into the shame that the enemy wants us to. Why does he want us to? Because he knows that shame robs us of intimacy with God because it causes us to run from Him. That's exactly what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. And that is what we can also do so easily.
Instead, God wants us to run to him. Even when we slip up, we run to Him, bringing Him the good, the bad and the ugly in our lives. When we do, we are promised that He is faithful to forgive us. We can release the shame and the burden of our sin to Him, we can invite Him into those spaces to move and to heal, and we can continue to move forward in freedom and intimacy with Him.
This does lead me to ask a question: if God has already forgiven us, why is confessing our sins still important? I love the way Brian Simmons, the translator of the Passion Translation of the Bible, describes it in his study notes:
"Confession of sin is a way to find restoration and unbroken fellowship with God. It cleanses the conscience and removes every obstacle from communion with Christ. Confession does not gain God's acceptance, for that was won for us forever by the sacrifice of Christ. It is on the basis of being his dearly loved children that we restore intimacy with God through our tenderhearted confession before him. God will always be faithful to restore our first-love passion for Him. There is no need to confess the same sins over and over, for that is ignoring the blood of Jesus that cleanses us. All of our sins were paid for on the cross and we can do nothing to remove them, but confession acknowledges God's faithfulness to restore intimacy with Him. Our Father and forgiving Redeemer fills the heavens with grace toward every believer, even when we sin."
Amazing. What a promise!
"If we boast that we have no sin, we’re only fooling ourselves and are strangers to the truth. But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us." (1 John 1:8-9 TPT)
"If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." (1 John 1:8-9 NLT)