Are You Ready to Confess Your Sins to God?

Are You Ready to Confess Your Sins to God?

Good Morning Friends,

In Christ we have salvation as a gift of grace. But what is our responsibility? Maybe you’re confused about the various requirements different Christians say accompany being a follower of Christ. Galatians raises questions of law. So what rules should a Christian follow? Are we exempt through Christ? How do we understand what God requires of us? My apologies for going back and reviewing some basics of our faith today but sin is a terrible thing and we should not have misconceptions about it. We need to live out our faith in both obedience and freedom. The point is this: sin abounds in our lives and society, but some people think they can become righteous on their own or that even if they know it is a lie, they will be better off to claim they have not sinned. How many times have we heard politicians state forcefully that they have not sinned? Do we really think we are any better? Don’t think for a moment that any of this is new. It is for this very reason that Christ came into this world. It is the central point of the Good News.  Don’t think for a moment that any of us are too good for God to reject or that we are not sinful enough for God to condemn. God is perfect. We fall short. We cannot do this alone. We need a Savior. We need a Lord. We need to repent. We need Grace. The Kingdom is at hand.  Are You Ready to Confess Your Sins to God?

Scripture: 2My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:1-2 (NRSV)

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶yet we know that a person is justified^* not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.^* And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ,^* and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. ¹⁷But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. ¹⁹For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,^* who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification^* comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Galatians 2:15-21 (NRSV)

Message: It is essential that we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. This has to be the central thing in our life. It is essential that we be reconciled to God. Under the law we are convicted but in Christ if we repent and confess then we can become freed of the demands of the law. It is not so much a sin to be a sinner as it is to fail to confess. But what is it we need to confess? Do we need to confess that Christ is the Messiah…the Son of the Living God? Do we need to confess that Jesus is the resurrection and the Life?  Are we missing something if we say it is as simple as sharing a few words? Friends really, we cannot just echo this mantra. There is a problem in just repeating our corporate confessions aloud if what we say never makes it to our hearts. We are to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that means He is our Master and owner…we are His slaves, owning nothing. That means that everything we call ours is His…everything. It means we give up control. Only when we are ready to make that kind of commitment will it change our lives. So confess that there is a gap between what we say and what we believe. There is a very large gap between our ideas of religion and our commitment to God. If we are honest we will all have a crisis of belief each and every time God invites us to do something. What we think we believe always comes into tension with what God asks us to do. It is in this crisis…in this dangerous opportunity that we need to confess.

Pray that even though we are sinful we have a heart of repentance. Pray we ask Jesus to help us. Pray that in our struggle we fight against sin. Pray that we are able to prove we are sincere when it comes to asking for forgiveness.  Pray we embrace God’s invitation and submit to God’s leadership but realize we must also conquer the crisis in our own hearts and minds. Pray for hypocrites. Pray for sinners. Pray that for us to live is Christ. Pray that our convictions lead us to do something with Christ in the tension between what has been and what is to be. Pray we invest in God’s future. Pray we choose the Kingdom. Pray we never think the fight is finished. Pray we hear the Good News and obey.

Blessings,

John Lawson