Confession
Confession is agreement with God about what is sin.
What is sin?
Sin is more than doing bad things or committing wrongful acts. Sin is a condition - it is the condition of being less than holy compared to God. We fall short of Perfection. Our hearts, minds, deeds, motives and responses are tainted with self-interest. God is love... completely; we are not. Jesus, God incarnate, was tempted in every way, yet did not sin; we cannot say the same.
What is confession?
To confess our sin is to agree with God about our condition. Sin literally means "to miss the mark." It is the same term used in archery to describe an archer missing the bullseye on a target. Every Christian who understands God's revelations understands that we never "hit the mark" of perfection. The standard of perfection is complete consistency with the nature of God. In confession we agree with God that we have not hit that bullseye. He already knows it; we simply agree with him, confessing our need for his forgiveness and mercy, rather than justifying our sin.
Why confess our sins?
To claim perfection by our own merits disqualifies us from being a Christian. Jesus said that it is the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy (Matthew 9:9-13). So, to regard ourselves as completely healthy in a moral and spiritual sense, is to say that we have no need of Jesus the great Physician; no need of the Savior. God's Word says, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8,9). When we confess, we are set free from guilt and shame. We are freed from having to appear perfect, to ourselves or to others. We are released from a guilty conscience as the One to whom we confessed our guilt says, "sentence served by my Son, your Savior." Only sinners need a savior. Therefore, confession is to agree with God that we are sinners; that we fall short in thought, word, motive and deed; that we are not holy by the standard of God's nature and that we therefore need a savior.
How do we confess our sins?
We can confess our sins in many ways, including to God alone and to a brother or sister in Christ.
We need no intercessor or priest to hear our confession; Jesus himself is our high priest (Hebrews 3:1). He represents us before the Father, offering His sinless state as our atonement before God in response to our confession of need for forgiveness of sin. The Spirit also intercedes for us, interpreting the prayers of our hearts so that what may seem inadequate to us is translated perfectly in the throne room of God (Romans 8:26,27).
While Jesus himself is our mediator, we are also urged to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). That is, we can confess to any brother or sister in Christ whom we feel has the maturity to handle that confession with the love and grace of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church has relegated this role to the priesthood, but scripture invites us to confess our sins to one another. Except in the case of our seeking reconciliation with someone we have sinned against, we are wise to choose our confessors carefully from among those who understand the universality of sin, the power of pardon, and the divine transformation of grace. Indeed, we might choose to enter into a covenant relationship with just one person to whom we submit ourselves in accountability. This person should be of the same gender as ourselves and have our spiritual development at heart, as we have theirs. He or she should be attuned to the Spirit and echo what we are hearing from the Spirit.
Another effective way to confess our sins is to write down the sins that we wish to confess. The task of choosing the words to form a sentence that expresses our confession has a very clarifying effect. We come to better recognize and understand exactly that which we are confessing. Read the prayer aloud in a private place, speaking only to God. Ask forgiveness in Jesus' name.
What is the result of confession?
The result of confession is to renew our right standing with God. It is to agree with God that we are sinners, that He is sinless, and that we trust in the atonement of sin provided by Christ. We profess anew that Christ is our Savior because we, specifically, need a savior. We come away from confession knowing that we are loved despite our sin and that we are clean before God, freed from shame, renewed and released to live for Him the new life He has given us in Christ.
