I Confess

I trust that you have been following closely with this “times series”; if you have, you know that it is time to talk about the “C” in the list of things I noted a few posts back.

C) Put known sins out of their (your) lives (life)

We’ve learned that “sin is the transgression of the law” I John 3:4 – this basically means that, when you fall short of doing what you know is the right thing to do, you have ‘transgressed’ or broken the law of God. This is not a good thing. When you do it accidently, unintentionally, etc., it is called sin. However, when you knowingly do it, it is called iniquity. God hates iniquity.

Let us see just how much God hates iniquity and how He deals with iniquitous people:

1.     “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” Psalm 5:5 – I think that is pretty clear.

2.     “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.” This one needs help.

What I understand this verse to mean is that the level of one’s willingness to sin, has so deadened his or her conscience, until the iniquitous sinner does not even fear the wrath of God anymore. They have gone so far down the wrong path, until they are completely jaded. Every time this person opens his/her mouth to speak, he/she is seeking to lie and deceive the hearer; there is no desire in them to do right anymore.

However, when one a) draws near to God; b) returns to Bible based teachings, which equal truth and c) puts known sins out of his/her life, then this is what God has to say:

“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Hebrews 1:9 – What we are seeing in this verse is that God is pleased that one has decided to do the right things, for the right reason, which is a layman’s term for righteousness. In short, God says that He will honor one who does that and bestow honor on them, more than their peers. That is pretty neat!

So, let’s wrap up this little discussion, by telling you how you can get rid of your known sins. Let’s read it together:

            “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9 – This is one of the most beautiful promises in Scripture. Jesus tells you that all you need to do is to tell him that you are truly sorry for all of the things in your life that is not pleasing to him and to ask for his forgiveness. He then PROMISES that he will forgive you and then clean you up of your mess. That’s exciting! There is no better promise to accept for forgiveness than that one.

To be continued...

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