Set Free: Confession

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, 
Whose sin is covered!
How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin.
Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found…

Psalm 32:1-6

      Satan desires to hold us captive. So long as we deceive ourselves about our sins, he will. However, when we confess our sins, they are wiped out and Satan’s hold is broken. Further, I have found confession to be one of the absolutely key steps to being set free from bondage to sin.

      Biblically, confessing our sins means to say the same thing as God does about them. It is one thing to confess we are sinners. The tax collector of Luke 18 did that. It is another to confess our sins.

      We do not have to perfectly check off every sin in confession or face God’s wrath. Rather, confessing our sins helps us overcome Satan and be released from his hold and the hold of sin in us.

      To say the same thing as God does, we need to acknowledge, along with God, what we did is sin. We need to acknowledge, along with God, what the sin has done to our relationship with Him. We need to acknowledge, along with God, how the sin has impacted our lives. We need to acknowledge, along with God, the logical end of our sin. We need to acknowledge, along with God, what our sins have done to our relationships with others.

      We must be brutally honest neither sugarcoating nor justifying. After all, David said those would be blessed who have no spirit of deceit. Go ahead, be honest with God. He knows it all anyway.

      Why does confession help us conquer Satan and sin? It admits where Satan has his foothold in our lives, alerting us to where we need to work. It calls God to our aid in specific areas of our lives. Additionally, our faith in God’s forgiveness through confession (I John 1:9) leaves us free to serve Him without guilt and shame.

      Sit down with a pen and paper. Call to mind the sins defined in God’s word and list the ones with which you struggle. Write down when and why you commit them. Write down which relationships they affect and how. Then confess those to God, seeking His forgiveness and aid (cf. Matthew 6:12-13).

      More to come on this.

Edwin L. Crozier