Confession is Necessary: the Bible says
1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Proverbs 28:13 – He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Romans 10:10 – For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.
As children of God we should hear this more often, but most of the time, other than the time that we gave our lives to God and confessed, we do not hear this much. Yet the Bible tells us to confess many times throughout our lives. It is something that is necessary, an action that we should be doing daily or weekly or at least monthly. We are not perfect and we have all fallen short of the glory of God – this means that we all have sins and mistakes in our lives that we must repent of consistently.
A child of God should have a life of growth that is forever transforming more into Christ. This means that we should learn and grow through the Holy Spirit. We need to become more like our Savior bit by bit until one day we will be with Him. But to grow consistently means that we see mistakes or sins in our lives that are not according to the Word of God and we repent and confess our sins to God, which further allows us to grow in Jesus Christ.
Confession is an important action for a child of God to do. You might ask, why should I confess? I would like to say here that if we believe the Word of God shouldn’t we follow it? Of course, the answer is, Yes. 1 John 1:9 tells us to confess our sins, this alone should be enough to answer why we should confess. BECAUSE THE WORD OF GOD TELLS US TO DO SO. Just because we might not understand everything does not mean we should not follow what our Lord Jesus Christ has told us to do.
If we look at 1 John, confessing our sins will do what? This will activate God’s faithfulness and being a just God, He will forgive you and me of our sins, and He will cleanse us from that which we have done that was unrighteous. Now, some don’t want to confess and believe that God will forgive, but this passage is simple to understand that God’s faithfulness and being a just God stands on if we first come to Him and confess our sins.
This is very important: we must confess. And through this, we open the door of forgiveness and cleansing of our unrighteousness. Just as is spoken in Proverbs 28:13 that if we do not confess or if we try to hide our sins we will not prosper, but the one that will confess shall have mercy. Mercy for what? The mercy of God to forgive us, to allow us into heaven.
We see further in Romans 10:10, that confessing with the mouth brings salvation. We see here in the three verses above that confession with our mouth, opens the door to forgiveness of all sins, allows mercy into our life from God, and it brings salvation to us.
Nehemiah 9:2- 3 – And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one-fourth part of the day, and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.
Daniel 9:20 – And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
The two passages above, in short, say that opening up and confessing our sins opens the door to the state of worshipping God (as we see in Nehemiah) and when we confess our sins we allow the breakage of walls that we build up between God and us. Sins can make such a powerful wall between God and us that our prayers are no longer heard. But by confession, the wall starts breaking down so that our words will reach God. We must remember that our God is a Holy God and He tells us to be Holy. Sin is the opposite of Holy and because of that, it builds a wall between us and God.
In Daniel, the verse says that it opened the door unto supplication – a state when we go before God and confess what we have done wrong, where we have sinned, and by doing so the confession has allowed us to come to God in a petition.
James 5:16 – Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Mark 1:5 – And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
The passages above are another few that speak about confession, among the many more that are in the Word of God. I would like us to understand that confession is not just necessary, but, in a way, it is a KEY; a key that opens the door to the following: truth, reconciliation, salvation, access, and many more. When looking at this we see that true confession is a powerful key to what God has in store for us.
Let us realize that confession is not “IF” I need it but rather “when.” Don’t be silent, confession is an important part of a Christian’s life.
Here is a summary of a few points of what confession does for us.
Confession opens the door to forgiveness;
Confession opens the door to true repentance;
Confession opens the door to the truth;
Confession opens the door to reconciliation (love and peace);
Confession opens the door to freedom into salvation;
Confession removes walls and allows access to God;
Confession breaks the bondages and chains of the devil on us.
May God Bless you, and the peace of God be with you!