Confession Requires Repentance

Church Family:
How many times do you confess your sins and yet continue to do the same sin over and over? You read or hear God’s Word and are repulsed by your sin; your friend brings a sin to your attention and are convicted; your spouse asks you to stop speaking that way and you are condemned; the Holy Spirit once again produces within you a heart-wrenching conviction because you continue to do that thing again and again. You confess the sin once again and yet no lasting change occurs toward Christ-likeness in this battle. It is all such a discouraging cycle.

Ezra found himself leading God’s people through this same scenario. As we saw last week, God’s people were once again justifying intermingling the worship of other gods by marrying women from other nations. They freely chose to transgress God’s commandments and pursue idolatry and iniquity. So, Ezra led them into seeing their sin as an abomination before our Holy God and he lead them into confession. But what if their confession had stopped there (Ezra 10)? What if they confessed their sin and yet no commitment to change occurred? Would that confession had been for any Godly purpose?

God is not just interested in us feeling bad and confessing sinful actions. He wants our confession to lead to a commitment of Christ-like change, sanctification. True confession creates a commitment to a life reformed through repentance. Our language will be life-giving. Habits will be habituated. Devotion to God and others will be renewed. Relationships will be repaired. The purpose of confession is to lead to repentance, a commitment to Christ-likeness. Confession requires repentance.

Without true repentance you cannot have a happy marriage. Without true repentance you will not have lasting relationships. Without true repentance you will be a short-lived employee or employer. Without true repentance you cannot live at any real depth in a church full of sinners. The pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and you. It is absolutely true that you cannot attain any degree of holiness without God working in your life, but you also must make a fighting effort to do your part through repentance that is committed to life change. God has made it possible for you to walk in holiness, but He gives you the responsibility of doing the walking. He does not do that for you. Confession leads to contrition leads to commitment to change leads to holiness.

Remember the promise, "repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…" (Acts 3:19-20).

See you Sunday, with sins blotted out: Steve