*Originally written in February 2021

Confession is absolutely essential to the Christian faith. You literally cannot be a Christian without confession. It’s a daily necessity.

When people hear the word “confession,” many think of Catholicism: Sunday confession, priests, the confession box, etc. Whatever image you have when you hear “confession,” I want you to throw it out the window. Try to come to this study with no previous bias or ideas. Let’s start with a completely clean slate.

Confession of Sin

First, take a look at 1 John 1:8-9 and think about this first question.

Let me start with this. Confessing our sins is NOT easy. First off, it’s difficult to even recognize our sins, let alone confess them. And what even is sin, anyway? I talked about sin in detail in this Sunday Chapel Time message, but let me give you a quick definition anyway. “Sin” literally means, “to miss the goal.” It’s when we act against God’s desire for us. And what is God’s desire for us? Simply put: it’s to love God and to love others with all our being.

What kinds of sins should we confess? All of them—big and small.

My Personal Confessions

I’m going to be vulnerable here, and confess some of my own sins to give you a better idea of what this looks like. First off, I’m prideful. I have a major superiority complex, and often think other people are incompetent. Often, I think that other people are not as smart or as capable as me. I also tend to manipulate others for my own selfish benefit. When I was a child, I often cheated my siblings, tricking them into making deals that had no benefit for them. They put in all the work and I reaped all the benefits.

Even now, I repeatedly take advantage of my roommate’s efforts in our home. She cleans everything, and I hide behind my perceived wall of stress, tiredness, and busyness to avoid cleaning. Does any of this sound like love? No. It’s selfish, and evil. It’s sin.

Those are just a few of my “big” sins. But I’ve got small ones, too. I took an extra 50th-anniversary pen from my church here without asking. And I used some of my roommate’s almond milk without asking or telling her the other week. You might think they’re small things, but it’s stealing. I was dishonest and stole from people I love and care about. And then I have the gall to act self-righteous, as if I’m this good person who never does anything wrong. I’m not always a good person. I don’t love others the way I should. I’m full of sin, just like everyone else. This is what sin looks like in our lives.

When we confess our sins, we have to take an honest look at ourselves. It’s NOT going to be fun. and it’s NOT going to feel good. You’re going to feel awful. But we can’t even begin to hope for improvement if we don’t admit each of our specific issues. If we aren’t honest, then we’re living a lie. As the verse says, we’ve deceived ourselves if we refuse to identify and confess our sins.

Of course, no one is perfect. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay. You’re selling yourself short if you think that being flawed and sinful is acceptable. You were created to be more than this imperfect, sinful person. You were made for glory and goodness. You’re not there yet, but you can be.

The Importance of Confession of Sin

Take a moment now to consider question two.

If we confess our sins to God and ask for forgiveness, God will forgive us! It’s God’s nature to forgive us when we genuinely come to Him and confess our wrongs. God loves us so much, He can’t help but forgive us. God doesn’t want us to be sinful and unrighteous. He wants us to be the wonderful, beautiful, glorious beings we were meant to be. God can forgive us and take away all of our sins. We only need to come to God, confessing and repenting of our sins (general and specific), and ask for His forgiveness. And it’s done! We get a fresh start.

It’s an ongoing process. Every day is an opportunity to live according to God’s desires. But every day is also another opportunity to sin. And we do sin still. So it’s important to continually confess our sins to God. We can’t possibly confess all the sins of our life in one confession. But luckily, God’s forgiveness, grace, and love have no limit. We can confess new sins every day, and God’s forgiveness will always be there. There’s no reason to hold back.

Confessing that Jesus is Lord

Finally, take a moment to read Romans 10:9 and think about this last question.

Many people think that believing in Jesus is all you have to do to be a Christian. Believe in your heart, and that’s it. Done. But this is an incomplete idea. You do have to believe in Jesus in your heart. It’s essential that you believe that 1) Jesus is God, Lord over all things, 2) he died for our sins, and 3) he was resurrected from the dead by God and now sits at God’s right hand. But believing this without verbally confessing is faith without commitment or accountability.

We become part of Jesus’ family

When we confess, or declare that Jesus is Lord, we not only recognize what Jesus means to us, but also show the world what He means to us. We admit that Jesus is the Lord of our life, we are part of His family, and we are committed. If we don’t do this, we are ashamed of Jesus. Why else would we not tell the world what He’s done for us? If we’re ashamed to talk about our love and belief in Jesus, we can’t truly claim to be part of His family. We have no business claiming the benefit and reward of being in Jesus’ family.

There’s no reason to hold back our confession. I guarantee that we’re all equally messed up. But we’re also guaranteed righteousness and salvation with our confession. The Bible says that all the nations will confess one day. But it’ll be too late at that point. We can confess now by choice, or we can wait until we’re forced to by Jesus Himself.

If I have a brother that I’m ashamed of, and I don’t talk about him, I’m choosing to ignore our connection. I’m treating him as if he’s not my family. So why should I receive the benefits of our family relationship if I’m treating him as if he’s not family? That’s just pure selfishness. It’s sin. If we truly believe in what Jesus did for us and verbally confess that He is Lord—to ourselves and others—we become a part of Jesus’ family. We receive the benefit of God’s family: life.

Forgiveness and Salvation through Confession

Confession. That’s it. That’s what we need to do to be saved. No checklists. No training. No special, complicated rituals or offerings. Just confess our sins in repentance and confess what we believe in our hearts: that Jesus is Lord. We need to humbly and honestly recognize our sins and confess them to God. We need to believe and confess that Jesus took away our sin with his death, and our confessed sins have been forgiven in His resurrection. That’s how we’re saved. That’s how we have life in Jesus. That’s the way we become part of God’s wonderful and glorious family.

I just confessed several sins of mine here. Was it hard? Yeah, it was. Was it worth it? If it means that I get to be a new and better person in God’s family? Then it’s totally worth it. It’ll be worth it for you, too.