As we discussed last week, many believers think that living under THE TEN COMMANDMENTS somehow maintains moral order within the Body of Christ and that if we let go of all that to fully come under the LIBERTY of the New Covenant, it would result in some kind of spiritual anarchy where believers are running around with inadequate restraints on their behavior. But that's NOT what your Bible says. Religious tradition says it, but your Bible says something entirely different. Indeed, it talks AT LENGTH about a New Law in the Holy Spirit that FOR BELIEVERS has replaced the Law of Moses.
But before we get too much farther on this point, I need to clarify again (as in previous articles) that THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are still essential for providing moral direction and order on the level of nations and world order. Why? Because the majority of people living in particular nations are NOT true believers and so for the good of the various nations, the Old Law is necessary until it can reach a point sometime in the future where all of us are true believers living and functioning by direction of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, a nation is still subject to the moral code of the Mosaic Law while we as individual believers are set free from that bondage to become inhabitants of the Kingdom of God where life is lived by the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The Need for Mind Renewal
Now in order to come into the fullness of the New Covenant, the Word says we need to have our minds renewed (Romans 12:2). To RENEW one's mind means to change one's way of thinking. From what to what? In sum, our minds need to be changed from the World's way of thinking which is for non-believers to the Word's way of thinking which is for believers who dwell in the Kingdom of God. Before we were saved and believed in Jesus, we were in the World and we had worldly ways of thinking. But now we need to come into a new way of thinking that agrees with the Word of God.
The way that RENEWAL happens is by the POWER OF THE WORD. The Word of God possesses its own POWER to renew and give life (1 Peter 1:23), and we access that POWER by reading and learning and eventually understanding the Word. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and His textbook is the Bible. And, one of the major things He's teaching us is how to have the optimum relationship with the Father, not the way the World and religious tradition have taught us but the way the Bible teaches.
The World says that God is a strict task master who punishes people for their sin and manipulates people with adversity and hardship to conform to His predetermined plans for their lives. He's quick to punish and He has to be appeased with begging and demonstrated remorsefulness and guilt and even self-abasement sometimes in order to escape His wrath. We can sometimes escape by getting angry with Him and pouting to make Him change how He's dealing with us. Did He not say in the Bible that if you disobey My statutes, a lot of curses will come upon you (Deuteronomy 28:15-68)? Well yes, He did say that for the Old Covenant but then He sent Jesus to create a New Covenant that's reserved for believers and as believers we need to come into a new way of thinking where all that "God-is-mean" stuff no longer applies.
Are We Required to Confess Our Sins?
Now there are a number of unbiblical ideas that are routinely and traditionally taught in the Body of Christ and wind up interfering with our ability to experience the fullness of Spirit-led FREEDOM under the New Covenant. One of them is that God can somehow be manipulated with our good works or our acts of holy contrition to make up for our ongoing sins. In other words, when we commit a sin we need to do something correct and righteous so that God won't punish us too severely. One of the related teachings is that we should CONFESS our sins as a way of "apologizing" to God and asking for forgiveness so we can come back into fellowship with Him. There are two particular verses in the New Testament that are the focus of this point of view:
1 John 1:9 = "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
James 5:16 = "Therefore, confess your sins to one another..."
There are whole denominations in the Body of Christ built around the misapplication of these two scriptures. You can go out on the Internet and find that the debate rages on as it has for centuries: are believers REQUIRED to CONFESS our sins to somebody in order to stay in fellowship with the Father? To me the answer is clearly NO because all Scripture has to fit neatly together or there's a wrong application involved. Let's start with a couple of definitions:
CONFESS = in the context of Scripture the Greek behind the English word means to AGREE in your thinking. It does NOT mean that I have to go tell somebody about my sins.
REPENT = again, in the context of Scripture it means to turn around and go in the opposite direction with your thinking. It does NOT mean to apologize or to seek forgiveness.
Here's the point: Jesus has ALREADY paid for all sin for all time (Hebrews 9:12) which is why God isn't holding believers accountable for them (2 Corinthians 5:19) and in fact He has ALREADY chosen to not remember them (Hebrews 8:12). What can we do about our sin more than what Jesus has ALREADY done? If you say to God: "Father I'm sorry for that sin I just committed," wouldn't He be accurate in responding, "What sin, I don't remember your sin." But friend, there are many people in the Body of Christ today who believe with all their hearts that if they don't regularly CONFESS their ongoing sins (ask for forgiveness) they could lose their salvation and go to Hell for eternity. They're afraid that if they die without having CONFESSED their latest sins, the blood of Christ wasn't enough to pay for them. Why can't we all just read the whole Bible and keep reading it until ALL the pieces and parts of it fit together?
In the case of 1 John 1:9, the explanation is simple even though I used to wrestle with it until I finally saw the simplicity: the Apostle John was addressing that comment to non-believers. That's the ONLY view of it that fits with the other parts of the New Testament. When we finally AGREE with the Word that we are sinful and accept our Savior, He's faithful to forgive but He only needs to forgive us one time, not over and over again. Otherwise we would be back where the Jews were under the Old Covenant needing to constantly renew our forgiveness. The fact is, the forgiveness is already available and we just need to be born again and accept what's already been set before us. By accepting it we automatically and PERMANENTLY apprehend the righteousness of Christ which cleanses us of ALL unrighteousness once and for all time.
Regarding James 5:16, it doesn't mean that we have to have people in our church to sit and listen to us recount our sins or that we have to have a CONFESSION PARTNER to whom we run constantly to admit our private sins. NO! It simply means that if we hurt somebody with our words or actions, we go to that person and admit that we wronged them and ask for their forgiveness, FROM THAT PERSON. Otherwise, your sins are private between you and the Holy Spirit. What is some person able to do about your sin that the Holy Spirit cannot do? Are you kidding? The person you're confessing your sin to is probably a worse sinner than you are!
As a suggestion, a scriptural way under the New Covenant to deal with our sin is to first AGREE, probably out loud but privately, that something we did was indeed sin and that we have every intention of going in the opposite direction and working on changing that area of our lives. If you feel so led, it's okay to tell God you're sorry about how you acted but it's NOT required anywhere in New Testament scripture that you apologize. I could certainly THANK God for Jesus who shed His blood and gave His life so I could have eternal forgiveness for ALL my sins. And I could sure ask the Holy Spirit to teach me and show me how to avoid particular sins in the future. In fact, most likely I will need to ADMIT to myself that I need His help to overcome particular sin areas because I'm weak and won't be able to overcome it on my own. But I also make a point of NOT feeling guilty about my sin or withholding myself from fellowship with God for a few days until I feel better about myself. Guilt always separates us from God so get over it quickly and run TO God with a clear conscience.
In sum, the misapplication of the CONFESSION scriptures leads Christian believers back into the bondage of the Law of Moses with the thinking that there's something we need to do to make up for our sin. If that was all there is to it, why did we need Jesus? Either we have undeserved GRACE or we don't. I say we DO have it because the Word says we do and now it's time to have our minds renewed so we can focus on the freedom that GRACE gives us.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on May 15. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus, I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
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If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM central time. Agree with us for God to answer your petitions.
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