A key word in the Christian vocabulary is the word “Confession.” At the same time confession is one of the most misunderstood, misused, and abused words in the Bible. The English definition of confession is to admit or acknowledge something, and many, perhaps most Protestants, follow this definition. But the biblical word for confession is a powerful word, made up of two strong words, “Homologeo.” Home means “same,” and “logeo” means “to say.” Thus biblical confession means to say or view sin just as God does, and God says that He hates sin because it separates one from God, and it is something humans must hate and turn from in order to be forgiven and cleansed. Note the latter part of 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us of all sins AND the result is that we are cleansed from all unrighteousness, indeed, changed with a new slate. Millions cling to the first part of 1 John, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of all sins” and completely ignore the last part, “and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I call this approach to confession as “Playing the Confession Game.” How does it work? Like this: the serious confessor tries to remember all his sins before he goes to sleep. He names them one by one – I lied to John at the office, I lusted, I cussed, told a dirty joke, and on and on. And at the end just to be safe and not overlook one sin the confessor would add, “Lord, and forgive me of anything I’ve overlooked.” But notice the confessor gave no thought of turning from those sins. So the next day he went out into the world and repeated the same sins again, and again admits them to God.
Why do we play the confession game? Because somewhere along the line we were taught that the purpose of confession is to clear our conscience so we would feel better, or if you want to “put a theological spin on it” we confess because we think it will somehow help God feel better about what we’ve done.[1]
Is not this kind of confession an insult to our heavenly Father? We would not dream of staying in relationship with another person who treated us this way. Example: Suppose your best friend stole from you every week, but came by and admitted it, and yet kept stealing from you the very next week and just kept admitting it but continued to do so at the same time.
Biblical confession is the first step to repentance and change. Yet many evangelicals – I fear most of them, certainly Baptists, have allowed confession to become a tool to facilitate our sins rather than ending them and changing us. As I grew up I heard that the Catholics would run into confession weekly, lay all their dirty laundry before a priest and go their merry way. Later I met some Catholics who told me they did that very thing. Now I have come to observe during 50 years of shepherding God’s people in local churches that many Baptists handle their sins very much like the Catholics. Evangelicals do go to God, admit their sins, and then come back the next day confessing the same sins.
In my research I discovered an amazing fact about the history of confession. Even the Catholics in the early days of Catholicism were not allowed to confess the same sins over and over. ONLY ONCE.[2] Some would insist that we all sin continually, often repeating the same sins, and thus needing continual confession. However, we must take into account that the same John who wrote 1 John 1:9 commands that we “sin not” (1 John 2:1), and furthermore writes these words in 1 John 3:9, “Whoever is born of God does not practice sin, for the seed of God remains in him and he cannot keep practicing sins because he is born of God.”
In the Scripture confession is clearly connected with repentance, restitution, and restoration: Consider this edict form Moses:
“Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty and must confess the sins they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged (Numbers 5:6-7).
For the Jew, this wasn’t about feeling better about yourself; it was about making things right with the one you’d sinned against- with interest. It wasn’t enough to be sorry. God was interested in change. And having to go public with you sin and make restitution certainly motivated people to change.
When John the Baptist waded onto the scene, he called people to repentance as well as the confession of sins:[3]
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4-5), NASB.”
“A bit further into the New Testament we find the infamous tax collector Zacchaeus following this Old Testament model of confession. But instead of the required one-fifth that God instituted in the law, Zaccahaeus gave back four times what he’d taken illegally.
Zaccahaeus wasn’t the cute little man depicted in our childhood songs and Sunday school classes. He was a wicked man considered a traitor to his nation. He’d wronged many of his fellow Jews, leaving a trail of relational wreckage in his wake. But when Jesus invited himself over to Zacchaeus’s house that fateful day, the little tax collector was changed. He found in Jesus the hope and forgiveness he had long since given up on. But Zacchaeus knew instinctively that it wasn’t enough to confess his sins to Jesus. That was a first step, but only a first step.
Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody of anything, I will pay back four times the amount (Luke 19:8).
How did Jesus respond? He didn’t say, “Oh no, no, no, Zachaeus! You’re forgiven! It was enough that you confessed your sins to me. There’s no need to make a public spectacle of yourself.” Instead, Jesus said in effect, “Now I know for sure that salvation has come to this house. Your public admission is evidence of a changed heart.”
Zacchaeus didn’t just admit to his sins of the past, he took public responsibility for them. He confessed in the truest sense of the term.
Over and over the Bible speaks of confession, not in terms of conscience relief, but in terms of life change. Never is confession offered as a substitute for repentance.”[4]
Solomon, endowed with the very wisdom of God Himself, understood the tragedy of covering our sins and not confessing them, and also the enormous blessing in true confession: “He who covers his sins (which is often by simply admitting them but not repenting) shall not prosper; but whoever confesses and forsakes his sins shall find mercy.” (Prov. 28:13). True confession and its blessings are spelled out as consisting of four powerful acts of the soul and life: “If My people who are called by My name shall humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn (repents) from their wicked way, THEN (and not until THEN) will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their lands.” (2 Chron. 7:14).
[1] Andy Stanley, Enemies of the Heart, Multnamoh Books: Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2006 and 2011, p. 96.
[2] Ibid. p. 97
[3] Ibid. pp. 97-98
[4] Ibid. 98-99.