EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/10/2024 9:40 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Confessing”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 1:9
Message of the verse: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Once again I want to tell those who read my
Spiritual Diaries around the world that it is my goal to be able to put things
onto my blogs in order to first of all be used by the Holy Spirit to convict
those who are not believers to be convicted of their sins and then trust Jesus
Christ as their Savior and Lord. Next I
desire to see believers who read these Spiritual Diaries to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). Next I desire to
see those who are believers to experience revival in their lives as they walk
with the Lord. Lastly it is my desire
that the Holy Spirit continue to send these Spiritual Diaries around the world
to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I wish to continue quoting the last part of this important section
from John MacArthur’s commentary on this very important verse we have been
looking at.
“The apostle was not referring to
feeling bad about the consequences of one’s sinful conduct, which is the
worldly sorrow characterized by despair, depression, and sometimes suicide
(Matt. 27:3-5). Rather, he was
describing the kind of godly sorrow that produces real repentance that leads to
salvation. Biblical repentance will
result in ‘earnestness,’ ‘vindication,’ ‘indignation,’ ‘fear,’ ‘longing,’ ‘zeal,’
and ‘avenging.’ (For more on these results,
see comments on 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 in John MacArthur, 2 Corinthians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody,
2003], 264-67.) When repentance is
present, believers will have a strong desire for God to deal with sin and at
any cost (cf. Matt. 5:29-30), even when that cost may be high for them
personally (cf. Luke 19:8-10). True
believers are therefore habitual confessors who demonstrate that God has not only
pardoned their sin and is faithfully cleansing them daily from it, but has
truly regenerated them, making them new creatures with holy desires that
dominate their will. (Later in this
epistle, John shows how true believers do not go on sinning [3:4-10], but
strive to obey God [3:19-24].)
“In spite of this straightforward
meaning, many throughout history have misinterpreted and misapplied the concept
of confession. The Roman Catholic
Church, for example, sees confession as the anonymous divulging of sins to a
human priest in a confessional booth.
Catholics believe such confession to be a meritorious act, one that
earns the confessor forgiveness, if followed by the performance of some
penitential ritual (such as repeating a prayer or saying the rosary a certain
number of times). Under that system, one
essentially receives forgiveness based on the good works of confession and
penance.
“Others view confession as
psychologically and emotionally therapeutic—and act that helps people feel good
about feeling bad, ensuring that they ‘feel’ forgiven and experience
healing. Still others teach that the
confession in this verse refers only to the moment of salvation, with no regard
for subsequent times of acknowledging sin.
But if one truly trusts in Christ as Lord and Savior (Luke 9:23; Acts
2:38-39; 16:31; Rom. 10:9-10; cf. Mark 10:21-27; John 15:4-8), he will regularly
admit his sins before God, as the present, active form of the verb confess indicates.
“Perhaps the most popular but
erroneous view of confession in this context is that believers are forgiven of
only those sins they confess. If that
were correct, it would mean that unconfessed sins remain with believers until
the judgment seat of Christ, at which time they will have to give an account
for those iniquities. But such is simply
not the case. No one will enter heaven
with a list of unconfessed sins still hanging over his head (cf. 1 Cor. 15:50;
Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Rev. 22:15), because the finished work of Jesus Christ
completely covers all of the sins of those who believe, including those that
remain unconfessed (see commentary on 2:12 in chapter 7 of this volume). As the apostle Paul wrote:
“David also
speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from
works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will
not take into account’ (Rom 4:6-8; cf. 8:33; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Col. 2:13).”
If there is one thing that I get out
of this verse it is that it was written to both unbelievers and believers. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now if a
non-believer confesses his sins before the Lord asking Him to be his Lord and
Savior then Christ will save Him. If a
believer agrees with the Lord that what he did was sinful and admits it to the
Lord then the believer is thankful that all of sins have been forgiven when he
became a believer, past, present, and future.
The rest of the verse shows that an unbeliever will be forgiven of his
sins and cleansed from all unrighteousness.
9/10/2024 10:12 PM
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