Confession, Repentance, & Healing
(Father, please let me say something True, and nothing else. And Amen.)
I narrowed my focus down to true and false confessions. We know what confession and repentance are. But it isn’t enough to know what they are; we must also know how to do them. Christians must “Trust and Obey.” “Behold God and Forsake sin.” It’s that simple. Christianity is simple. It’s not easy, but it is simple. We make it complex and often confuse “a life spent admiring God from afar” with “a life with God.”
-Meet Tim. *[Tim is a stickman illustration for a live presentation. You’ll have to just pretend.]
-Tim has encountered a yawning chasm.
-Pulling back, we see it’s the shadow of Christ’s cross. Tim has spent his life in the land of darkness and death.
-He hears a call to cross over and live with the Christians. All he has to do is confess Christ is Lord and Savior, acknowledging his sin-guilt, receive the gift of life by grace through faith in the Faithful One, and, having repented, join the camp of believers. Right?
[say goodbye to Tim, for now…we’ll check on his progress later]
That’s a typical confession/repentance story. And the problem isn’t with what is said at conversion, but with what comes after. Tim will need to understand that living a life of maturity and intimacy with God will be marked by continued repentance; falling on the mercy of the cross over and over and over again. The repentance that brings justification is the first in many such events towards christ-likeness. In other words, while the initial moment of conversion is enough for salvation, it’s insufficient for maturation. Repentance and confession gets me across the sin-and-death chasm so that I can continue confessing Christ is Lord. True confession is so good that it’s worth doing again and again, and again.
False confession, on the other hand, despises the blood of Christ’s covenant and often neglects to continue in the simple way of grace received at the start. In my experience, when I’ve been entrapped by sin it’s because I’ve stopped confessing faith in Jesus’s work. I started trying to fix myself in my own strength. At times, I wasn’t healing because I wasn’t being honest; I wasn’t being honest because I wanted what I wanted—I wanted my sin. I didn’t want to change, at least, not completely. Such false confession accomplishes little while providing the illusion of muchness. And false confessions don’t have to be intentional. I can be deluded and delusional, unable to see the truth.
In my own life, I find that false confession arises from one of three sources. I either neglect to repent, assign to myself the work that only Christ can do, or simply prefer to keep my sin close at hand.
Here are some examples:
#1 I would talk about God but I wouldn’t spend time with God. I would assuage my guilt with Biblical conversations. This is never a substitute for knowing God himself.
#2 I’d learn about how to be a good man but not do the actions to be a good man. This included reading books, listening to teachings, and meeting with believers while simultaneously refusing to do the things I already knew to do. That’s not how to mature. I can’t achieve the walk of repentance by aiming at repentance. A man doesn’t become a man by aiming at manhood, and a Christian doesn’t mature by aiming at maturity. A man becomes a man by doing manly acts, and a Christian grows Christ-like by doing Christian acts.
#3 I’d search for someone or something to explain my choices other than my own sinful desires. “I was a drunk because I was unhappy. I mistreated Lindsey because she didn’t respect me. I ignored my children because I deserved to rest. Sure, I did those things. But they weren’t completely my fault.” In reality those were excuses to distract from my unwillingness to change.
And through it all I thought “if I admit that my circumstances are my fault, I will die.”
Thanks be to God, that is exactly what happened.
What are some marks of true confession? The walk of a true confessor will look a lot like this:
#1 True confession names names: I am selfish. I hate so and so. I was jealous and acted foolishly out of envy. I have fits of rage. I was angry and cruel. I was gluttonous. I’m a drunkard. I’m a reviler. I’m a liar. I’m a mocker. I like to brawl. I said that to hurt you. Fill in the blank. But it always names specific acts in order to forsake sin and make specific restitutions.
#2 True confession hasn’t time for excuse making. No more explanations other than the depths of my own depravity. A True confessor has looked into the mirror of God’s law and doesn’t split hairs over what he sees there.
#3 True confession does not settle for simply listing out wrong-doings but instead, vomits sin out through self mortification rather than mere admissions of guilt. And blessed riddance, for the devil is well-aware of his errors, but this knowledge offers him no freedom. True confession/repentance will always result in more freedom, not less.
#4 True confession is Godward, not man-centered. This is to say, it is an act of worship and acknowledgment of who God is and what he’s done rather than an exercise in self-flagellation. The aim of Biblical confession is right standing with God.
#5 True confession says I want God more, and I want more of God. Get this trash out of me, Lord! I’m done. I give up. I surrender and submit. Thy will be done, not mine.
That’s what Christian confession should look like. Dispense with all those monkey-shines of going over and on about the many guilts we have. The devil knows his guilt, yet boasts all the more. Let’s not copy him. Look to the Son of God. Only His sacrifice can cover sin. If you desire true healing and freedom from sin’s bondage uncover your sin and turn to Jesus. True confession is that simple. And it’s so good that it’s worth doing again and again.
As Martin Luther said, “…when [our Lord] said ‘repent’, [he] willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”
I had a word with my friend, Tim. After beginning with elation he then met with a hard reality.
I said, “Come on, Tim. Follow me as I follow Christ. Obedience will be the death of you, Tim. But that death brings life. True life awaits those who trust and obey Christ…day…after day…after day.”
-Come on, Tim, keep going. Don’t give up. *[watching Tim walk the long walk of obedience]
-I need to remember this perspective.
-Christian, quit trying to deal with your sin. God’s already dealt with it. Receive the grace of God with true confession and repentance. Stop trying to inspect your faith and look to the Author of faith. Draw near to Him through a confessional life.
“I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” -Ps. 119:32 .
Sources and Influences:
Holy Scripture
John Bunyan; “All Loves Excelling”
Michael Foster, Dominic Bnonn Tennant; “It’s Good to Be a Man”
C.S. Lewis; “The Four Loves”
C.S. Lewis; ”The Problem of Pain”
Martin Luther; “95 Theses”
Nathan Michael Miller; “Finn and the Cloud Eater”
R.C. Sproul; “What is Repentance”
J.C. Ryle; “Repentance”
Thomas Watson; “The Doctrine of Repentance”
R.J. Rushdoony; “The Cure of Souls”
A.W. Tozer; “The Pursuit of God”
Douglas Wilson; “Reforming Marriage”
Jim Wilson; “Letters”
