Can Opener
Confession – Part 3
By Grant Gaines
For two weeks now we have been looking at the spiritual discipline of confession. We’ve learned why it is so important – because God can’t heal what you conceal. We’ve also learned what confession and repentance actually are – admitting your mistakes and taking the steps to right the wrong that you’ve done. Today we will wrap up this three week series on confession by learning how to confess. (For links to the previous two week’s blogs, click here for week one and here for week two.)
For years and years, millions of pounds of canned goods have been shipped over to third world countries in Africa in efforts to help feed the hungry who reside in their country. While the heart behind this effort is as precious as can be, the practicality of this action is often rendered useless by one small fact – the majority of the people in those countries who are receiving these canned good products don’t have a can opener to open the can.
They have all the food they could need to make a hearty meal for themselves and their family…they just don’t have anything to make this dream become a reality because they don’t have the correct tool to open the can.
Much like these poor African men and women who have the canned goods but no means to open these cans, the knowledge of confession can only do so much for us; we must apply this knowledge to our lives. So what exactly does it look like to practice the art of confession? Glad you asked. Here are the two main steps of confession.
First, we must confess our sins to God. No surprise there – God sees your sins and knows your sins more intimately than you do so it’s obvious that we should confess those sins to God…or is it? Do you ever wonder why we need to confess our sins to a God who already knows about our faults and failures? I mean, if He already knows that we’ve fallen, why remind Him of that? Why not just move on with our day and try better next time?
The answer to that question goes back to what we learning in week one of this three-week series on confession. But rather than just telling you, let me show you why we confess our sins to God from this story in Matthew 20:29-34.
In this particular story, Jesus was just a little over a week away from being crucified on the cross for the sins of the world. As He was leaving Jericho, we learn that a large crowd was following Him (Matthew 20:29) as He made His way towards Jerusalem. “Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!'” (Matthew 20:30, NIV). After a short dialogue between Jesus and the blind men, Christ went on to heal them by giving them back their sight.
But rather than focusing on the miracle that these two men received, I want you to notice who didn’t receive a miracle – the rest of the “large crowd.” Certainly in a crowd of that magnitude there had to be someone who had a constricting illness, a broken relationship, or a crippling fear. Certainly there had to be a large portion of that crowd that could have used a touch from the Miracle Worker’s hands to restore whatever aliment they had in their lives.
And yet, how many people were healed? Just two. And who were those two again? The only two that called out to the Son of God for help.
That’s why we confess our sins to God. Not because He doesn’t already know them or need to be reminded that we need to be forgiven. Rather, the reason we confess our sins to God is, as we’ve said before, because God can’t heal what you conceal. But just as Christ was able to heal these men of their blindness once they brought their problems to the light, God will always heal what we reveal.
Ok, so we know we are supposed to confess our sins to God, that’s step one. Ready for step two? Good. Step two is to confess our sins to others.
I know that sounds weird and probably conjures up thoughts of confession at Catholic Mass but hear me out on this one. While the Bible never specifically instructs us to confess our sins to a priest in church because we have a High Priest, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:15), who is our only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), the Bible does instruct us to confess our sins to others – “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other for the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective” (James 5:16, NIV).
So what’s the purpose of confessing our sins to others who are also just as sinful as we are? What good can they do? While they definitely cannot forgive us of our sins, confessing our sins to others goes a long way towards repentance, not just confession.
Do you remember the difference between the two? Confession is simply identifying the sin while repentance is trying to turn away from ever committing that sin again. With that in mind, the value in confessing our sins to others is that they will help hold us accountable to our goal of not falling back into that pattern of sin. They can pray for us, ask us intentional questions, and even take some practical steps to help remove certain temptation from our lives.
That being said, there’s only one thing to do from here – bring your sins before the God who can heal you and confess your sins to those who can hold you accountable to not falling into temptation again.
Do you have anything you need to confess today?
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
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©Grant Gaines 2016
