Confession of Sin

“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

Herein lies one of the verses in the Bible that deals with our greatest need as sinners…forgiveness! So how does confession relate to forgiveness?

We read about King David in II Samuel in the sad story where he forceably took Uriah’s wife, had sex with her, probably against her will, got her pregnant, and then arranged to have her husband “accidentally” killed. David probably suffered from the same poisonous symptom of unbelief that we do…covering up our sin. Maybe David told himself ”maybe I didn’t really commit adultery with Bathsheba, I’m the King and have rights to everything, right? After all I am a good kind, so why shouldn’t I have this one thing I want. And I didn’t actually kill Uriah with my hands, he just died in the heat of battle”. That’s the same thing we do sometimes. We tell ourselves lies to cover up our sin or make it not look so bad. This started in the garden with Satans “did God really say?”, and it still invades our spiritual lives today. But like David, when we tell ourselves these lies and try to keep our sins hidden, God denies our soul true rest.

He states in Psalms 32, “When I kept silent, my bones grew old. Through my groaning all the day long.”

So how does the Bible define confession of our sin? The Greek is homologeo and it simply means “to agree or acknowledge”. Instead of believing the lies we tell ourselves God simply wants us to agree with Him that it is sin against Him. It took Nathan confronting David with the truth and telling him he had hated God’s commandments and had coveted, committed adultery, and murdered Uriah, because this is how God saw it.
Then David confessed, “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
(Psalms 32:5)A wonderful thing happened to David, the Gospel. He confessed (agreed with God about what he had done) and he was forgiven!
Confessing our sin can be a scary thing, because we are agreeing that we have offended a perfect and holy God. But God offers us a way out in these verses.
The stories we tell ourselves to cover up our sin only do one thing, separate us from a God who is ready and willing to forgive us of all our unrighteousness!

A Jewish perpective on the Hebrews Warning Passages

The points listed below come from a website that is a ministry that shares the Gospel with Jewish people. I found this commentary interesting because it looks at the Hebrews 10:26 passage through covenant lenses and pulls the focus away from the individualistic interpretations that make thier way into a lot of commentaries now days. Hope you find it helpful:
Key Point 1: The sins in view here involves deliberately rejecting the New Covenant and calling the shed blood of Jesus “unholy”, that is to say, the death of Jesus is simply a “common” death with no value for forgiveness of sin. Notice it also involves “insulting the Spirit of grace”, a similar idea to the unpardonable sin spoken of in the Gospels. If one goes back to the Temple sacrifices after having been enlightened as to the truth of the greater and final sacrifice of Jesus, those sacrifices can no longer atone for sin.
Key Point 2: Notice the verb tense in 10:26. It says: “deliberately keep on sinning.” Henry Alford says, “Notice the present, not the aorist participle. ‘If we be found wilfully sinning’, not ‘if we have wilfully sinned,’ at that Day.” (Alford’s Greek Testament, Vol. IV, p. 199). This is not talking about a sin committed some time in the past, rather, it is talking about entering into a continuing state of rejection of the grace of God offered through the Messiah’s sacrifice as found in the New Covenant. It involves departure from the New Covenant community, giving up “meeting together.”
Key Point 3: Notice that the phrase “there is no longer any sacrifice for sin” (Hebrews 10:18) is echoed in the phrase “no sacrifice for sins is left” (Hebrews 10:26). The point is that if the final sacrifice for sin found in the New Covenant Atonement of Jesus us rejected, there is no other to be found.
Key Point 4: The clause in Hebrews 1:26, “If we deliberately keep on sinning,” is explained by verses 28 and 29, (as well as the other passages). It does not refer to one particular act of sin, but rather continuance in a state of rejecting the Covenant, having contempt for the Messiah and his atoning blood, and insulting the Spirit of Grace. It is a form of the one unpardonable sin, since all other sins can be forgiven.

More on Despair (The Christian in Complete Armour, William Gurnall)

“First we must distinguish between a soul’s being foiled through his own infirmity, and his enemy’s stability and power over-matching him, and another, who through a false heart doth voluntarily prostrate himself to the lust of Satan; though a general will show little pity to a soldier that should traitorously throw down his arms and run to the enemy, yet if another in fighting receives a wound and be worsted, it will be no dishonor for him to express his pity and love, no, though he should send him out of the field in his own coach, lay him in his own bed and appoint him his own surgeon. God doth not encourage wickedness in a saint, but pities weakness. Even when the saints fall into a sin in its nature presumptuous they do not commit it so presumptuously as others; there is a part true to God in their bosoms, though overvoted.”
“Verily, verily I say unto you, ALL sins and blasphemies will be forgiven men…” -Jesus

Despair (from William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour)

“Despair robs God of his infinitude and ascribes it to sin: by it the creature saith his sin is infinite and God is not: too like those unbelieving Israelites Psa cvi 7 ‘They remembered not the multitude of his mercies, but provoked at the sea, even at the red sea; they could not see enough in God to serve their turn at such a strait they saw a multitude of Egyptians to kill, and multitudes of waters to drown them, but could not see multitude enough of mercies to deliver them Thus the despairing soul sees a multitude of great to damn but not an infinitude of mercy in the great God to save him.”

Anglican Sermon on the Unpardonable Sin

I found a really good sermon on the Unpardonable Sin which seems to be a popular topic right now. It came from an Anglican pastor and it’s really good. He emphasizes the depth and darkness of this sin for those who think it can be accidentally unwittingly committed, but more importantly he emphasizes the riches of God’s grace and mercy over even the worst of sins. Here is an excerpt:
“Whereto then should this aweful warning of our Lord, loving (we must well know) in its very awfulness, tend in us? Not assuredly to make us dread, lest we have committed the unpardonable sin. Such a thought, we may boldly say, bold through the mercy of our God, is but a temptation of Satan. To fear lest we have committed it or have been near committing it, is a proof that we have not yet committed it. We see in the Gospels how they who are the types of it, went on unchecked from one wickedness to another; how the rebukes of the loving Saviour incensed them, His acts of love increased their hatred. There is no pause, no misgiving, no faltering in their sin. Mercy and love harden them the more, as though impenitence had been the very proper fruit of love. When our Lord performs an act of healing, “straightway they take counsel against Him to put Him to death;” they have not the compunctions of a heathen judge; nothing diverts, nothing moves, nothing startles them; they go on, as blind men insensible of any hindrance; the suggestions of Nicodemus, the expostulation of the blind man healed, the witness of their own servants, “never man spake as this man,” the testimony of John, the love of the multitude, the works of the Father, His wisdom, their own shame, all which could arrest their course, is cast aside. How could they be healed, whose disease grew through the very means of its healing, His works of power and His love? We have not sinned away all grace, if we have the grace left to fear. Nor again is the end of this warning to make us fear or think of others. “Judge nothing before the time,” says the Apostle. Who knows whether any now seemingly impenitent, may not yet be touched by the melting grace of God, may not, at the touch, start into life, and, much forgiven, love much, sorrow much, love more than we?
Read the whole thing here.

Helpless in the Storm

A couple of days ago it came a really bad storm in our city. It was lightning and thundering and the wind was blowing really hard. We have been teaching our 20 month old son to say “back!” to things that were scaring him, such as the dog or the waves in the swimming pool. Well, when the storm really got going he looked out the window and put up his hand, and with the most serious look on his face he said “Back thunder! Back!” Much to his disappointment the storm mocked him and continued to scare him while daddy held him in his arms.

My mind immediately went to the disciples as they were in the boat in Mark chapter 4. I bet they felt helpless, just like my son. But that’s not the end of the story. There was one on the boat who the storm really obeyed. Jesus. Even the blinding flashes of lightning, the loud claps of thunder, and the roaring white caps were as nothing when the Lord of Creation uttered his command to be still! Thanks be unto God that he is our Saviour when the storms rage in our lives…even though we may feel sometimes like my little 20 month old son.

“And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”” -Mark 4:37-41

Hebrews 6:7-8 – Habitual Hardness

This is one of the hardest passages in Scripture to interpret and it has caused many a conscience to shake in fear they have passed the point of no repentance, i.e. John Bunyan (read Grace Abounding). One thing I noticed recently while reading through this chapter was the verse that followed this very serious warning to Christians (that’s who the book was written to, right?). Verse 7-8 state “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” The idea here I think is not one of someone who committed a very bad sin that may be unforgivable, or even one of someone who slipped into a temporary season of sinning (even on purpose!). Notice that the author points out that the people that he is talking about received the rain “often” most likely over a period of time. But even after all the rain and cultivating and care by the sower, the ground still yields nothing but thorns and thistles, and is worthless.

The rain here signifies the blessings received from hearing and being taught the gospel: “…have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.” Instead of softening the ground (the heart of the hearers) the rain and seed were met with hard ground and thorns. This should point us back to Jesus’ parable of the soils where the seed that fell amongst the thorns was choked out by the cares of this world and fell away from their belief in the good news, which is exactly what the author of Hebrews is talking about here.

We should take much care when we sit under the gospel to receive it with meekness and thankfulness so that the ground of our hearts would be softened with the exhortations and warnings of Scripture.

New Home

This is the new home of my More Grace Abounding Blog!  I’ve moved here because of the better options offered by Word Press.  Not that Blogspot was bad, it’s actually pretty cool, but I thought I would give this one a try.  Blessings!

 T. Huskey

He Stood With Them

…And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them.” -John 18:5

John in his gospel has a strong theme running through his book, and can be a scary one. It’s a theme of those who close their eyes to who Jesus is and step off into the dark hole of unbelief. There are the Jews who see his miracles and hear his claims, and then crucify an innocent man as a blasphemer. There are the Pharisees who knew the OT Scriptures and saw them fulfilled before their eyes to the most minuscule detail of every prophesy, and carried out a plot to kill the Son of God.

Worst of all, there’s Judas, who walked with Jesus and heard his heart piercing teachings on the dangers of loving money more than Him. Judas also saw him have compassion on the worst of sinners. Somewhere in the middle of all that Judas’ heart became grace-proof, warning-proof, and repentance-proof. He had a hard heart of unbelief. If there was any doubt to Judas whether what he was doing was spiritual suicide or not it should have all cleared up for him when Jesus said, “…woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” If Judas ever doubted that Jesus was talking about him when he kept talking about the one who would betray him, Jesus confronted him here so as to leave no doubt.

When Judas left Jesus it was for the final time. John says, “…(Judas) then went out immediately. And it was night.” Judas closed his eyes in hardened unbelief to Jesus’ appeal of warning, and it wasn’t just dark outside, but it was forever dark in Judas’ soul. One interesting thing is that Jesus let him go. Sometimes we look at this and say “Why didn’t Jesus run after him, doesn’t he care?!” We have to trust that only God knows when it’s time to turn an unrepentant sinner over to their sin. Sadly the next time we see Judas, John says that he stood with the Pharisees. This wasn’t just a description of the proximity of Judas to the crowd. The Pharisees wanted Jesus dead and out of the way. So there they stood…with the treacherous Judas standing with them. This wasn’t a momentary lapse for Judas and this wasn’t something he fell into. This is something he thought out and deliberately stepped into. He sided with the murderers of Jesus…for a hand full of change.

John Owen on Sin in Believers and Unbelievers

“Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known
lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” -Romans 7:7

That which in the entrance he calls “sin” indefinitely, in the close he particularly terms “lust,” as being the hidden, secret cause of all sin, and which, once discovered, swallows up the thoughts of all other sins, it being altogether in vain to deal with them, or to set a man’s self in opposition to them, whilst this sinful womb of them is alive and prevalent. This is that which we call original sin, as to that part of it which consists in the universal alienation of our hearts from God, and unconquerable, habitual, natural inclination of them to every thing that is evil; for this sin works in us “all manner of concupiscence,” Romans 7:8. This, I say, is the womb, cause, and principle of sin, both in believers and unbelievers, the root on which the bitter fruit of it doth grow, wherever it is. No man ever sins but it is from his own lust. And in this there is an agreement between the sins of believers and others, they are all from the same fountain.” -Owen