Join us as we explore the liberating journey of forgiveness and the role confession plays in it. Through compelling teachings and biblical insights, discover how confession allows us to maintain our intimacy with God, releasing the inner turmoil that keeps us in bondage. This episode guides listeners to a deeper understanding of grace, healing, and the magnificence of living as forgiven children of God.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, May 22nd. Have you ever found yourself begging God to forgive you? Today, we are reminded that forgiveness isn’t based on how fervently we ask, but solely on Christ’s sacrifice.
SPEAKER 01 :
If the Lord Jesus Christ had intended for His children to live in bondage, He would never have said, He came to set the captives free. If He came to set free those who are in bondage, surely He does not intend for you and me to live in any form of bondage. Yet that is exactly where many of God’s people are, living in some form of bondage or the other. One of those forms of bondage is this. That is the fear or the feeling… of not being quite sure that God has forgiven us, that we are accepted, that everything is right between us, that we have not displeased God. Now, we’re in a series on forgiveness, and today I want to talk about confession and forgiveness. What part does confession have to play in our forgiveness? So if you’ll turn to 1 John chapter 1, and I want us to read beginning in verse 5 and read through verse 10 of that chapter, and chapter 2, the first two verses. And in the first four verses of this book, John is introducing the book and also telling where he’s coming from. And that is he’s coming from a basis of conviction of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ that he came as God in the form of flesh. He says we’ve seen him, handled him, have seen him. He’s the word of life. He is eternal life. And then he says in verse five, and this is the message that we’ve heard from him and announced to you that God is light and And in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, or just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. My little children, these things I am writing to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And he himself is the propitiation. He himself is the sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Now, in light of what he says about confession and what we say about the forgiveness of our sins, what does confession have to do with the forgiveness of our sin if we are the forgiven children of God. The word confess means to agree with. If you confess something to God, you agree with Him and His attitude about it. The word to forgive means to release, to remit, to cancel a debt. So when we talk about forgiveness and confession, we have to understand what the meanings of those two words are. Now, confession is essential in the Christian life to a right relationship with the Father. And I speak of relationship not as my standing as a child of God, but in my intimate relationship with Him, my communication with Him, my ongoing daily life with Him. Confession is a vital part of that. Now, if you think about where we are in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, we’re not under condemnation any longer. He says we’re walking in grace. We have been given the gift of righteousness with Christ Jesus living within us. Our sins have been forgiven. How many of our sins? All of them. All the penalty for all of our sin before God so that no condemnation rests upon a child of God. Yes, if I disobey, if I violate a principle of God, the very nature of sin is that the consequences of that sin I’ll have to face up to and deal with. But God is not condemning me for my sin. We are the forgiven children of the living God. Now, on the basis of that, why does he say in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? And the implication is if you don’t ask him to forgive you, then you won’t be forgiven. Do I confess to get forgiveness, that is to remove the condemnation and the wrath and the displeasure of God? Is that why I confess? What is the true place of confession for the believer? And why do you have to confess if you’re already forgiven? And that’s what I want us to see as we go back to 1 John 1, verse 9. And that is now, let’s look at the proper view of confession as it relates to the believer and his or her sin. When you and I sin against God, we not only feel guilt and the tension of our relationship between Him… But by our sin, we place ourselves in emotional bondage. Fear, doubt, uncertainty, not sure about what God thinks, all kinds of things. Why does God want me to confess my sin? God wants us to confess our sin, not to get Him to wipe away any condemnation or penalty, but He motivates us, He challenges us to confess our sin in order to be released. We’re already forgiven. It’s when I confess it to Him, when I agree with Him, when I assume responsibility for it, what does He do? He releases me. Releases me from what? The emotional bondage of the guilt and the fear and the certainty of displeasure and uneasiness I have in my life toward Him. We are already forgiven as far as the penalty of the transgression is concerned. He says that we are to confess our sins. He says He’s righteous and just to forgive us. What does He mean by forgiveness there? Take away the penalty. Take away the condemnation. I don’t have any of that. We are released from that inner bondage and tension. We’re released from that of what’s going on on the inside of us. It doesn’t cause God’s attitude or relationship to change. It’s always the same. You say, well, suppose I don’t go to Him for forgiveness. Here’s what happens. When you and I do not face the Lord in confession of our sins, He allows the pressure to to remain there, the tension, the guilt, the fear, and all the rest, until we assume responsibility and agree with Him that we’ve done the wrong thing. And what? and thank Him for the forgiveness that is already ours. And what we do by confession is we position ourselves once again to be in an intimate, warm, loving relationship. I do not mean by relationship my standing as a child of God, but relationship on an ongoing day-by-day carrying on of my life with Him. Confession is absolutely essential to that. But what I want you to see is it is not essential to be forgiven and meaning by forgiveness that God isn’t going to penalize me and I’m wiping away the condemnation, knowing the wrath of God. You’re not under any of that to begin with. Now, let’s turn to another passage. If you go back over to Matthew chapter 5 for a moment and you recall what Jesus said in this passage. And he says following, amen, for if, listen, conditional, if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgression. Does that mean? What most folks mean, that means that when you’re having it out with somebody and you’re not in the forgiving spirit at that time, then God won’t forgive you. Let me ask you a question. How long can you justify remaining with an unforgiving spirit towards someone else? We can’t ever justify that. In other words, if I have an unforgiving spirit towards someone, I can’t ever justify that. It doesn’t make sense what they’ve done. I have a responsibility to be forgiven because I am indwelt by the forgiven one, and I am to forgive my brother how many times? Seven times? No. Seven times? Seven? Yes. How many more times? As many times as he sins as he sins in the 17th chapter of Luke. We’ll come into that later. He says, if your brother comes to you seven times in one day, you’re to forgive him. Now, what do we mean by forgiveness? Is God going to suddenly cancel out His forgiveness of me until I get right? Here’s what it means. Only as I release my brother, only as I exercise a forgiving spirit, I release him. I don’t hold him accountable. He’s forgiven. That means I just release him emotionally. He’s no longer in bondage to me. Now, here’s what I want you to see. If you have an unforgiving spirit toward someone else, would you not agree that you’re in bondage? You’re in bondage. You’ve got stress. You’ve got tension. There’s no such thing as a happy Christian who has an unforgiving spirit. You say, now what does the Lord mean when He says, if I forgive, He will forgive? Here’s what He means. If I am willing to release you for what you’ve said or what you’ve done… Then the Father is free to release me from the same kind of bondage I’m holding you in because God’s going to keep the pressure on me till I face up to the fact that I don’t have a right to be unforgiving towards you, regardless of what you’ve done to me. So, when he says, if we forgive, he will forgive, that doesn’t mean that God is angry and God is up there about to really put one on you because you have a wrong spiritual brother. He’s talking about the inner bondage and guilt and stress, the emotional bondage that we’re in, that we bring upon ourselves. God isn’t going to take that away. God isn’t going to release me from what I’ve got you in. Until I’m willing to release you from that, then I can be released. Because God keeps the pressure there to force me to face up to who I am. That does not mean that God… is condemning me because I have an unforgiving spirit. Even with my unforgiving spirit, I’m walking in forgiveness, and that’s part of my guilt. I know that God forgives me, and here I am. I have an unforgiving spirit towards you. Only when I release you will I sense release in my own heart. Turn to James chapter 5. Here’s another passage. Somebody says, well, but now wait a minute, because he says in James chapter 5, talking about healing. Look in verse 13. I want you to see the sequence of events and recognize that James did not say this in necessarily the sequence in which it must take place. Here’s what you do. You call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him or her with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who’s sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he’s committed sins, they’ll be forgiven him. Therefore, because that’s true, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Now, I’ve prayed just like you have for folks who are sick and we anoint them with oil. Pray for them for God to heal them. Never would I pray for anyone to be healed who did not first confess. You don’t pray anoint them with oil and ask God to heal them and then have confession. The confession must precede all the rest because here’s what confession does. If there is sin in the life of a believer who wants to be healed, the confession is facing up to their responsibility before God as a forgiven child of God. Giving an account that is facing up to what’s not right thanking God for His forgiveness, and allowing God to release them from the tension and the turmoil because their relationship is not right. He’s not wiping out wrath. He’s not taking away judgment, taking away condemnation. He don’t have any of that. What I’m feeling, I need to deal with. Secondly, if I have wronged a brother, he’s just confessing our faults to one another. If I’m holding you in bondage, there is absolutely no way in the world for me to get right And to get healed, because you see, it’s a proven fact that the body, physiologically, this body responds to what this mind and this spirit thinks or feels. Bitterness and resentment are a part and a motivation and sometimes probably the instigation of some diseases. If I’m going to be healed, I must do what? I must free. I must liberate. I must be willing to let go. I must release any kind of feelings that I have that put other people in bondage to me because of what they’ve done. The whole body feels the tension of an unforgiving, bitter, resentful spirit. The whole physical body responds to that. Healing must be preceded by confession. That is not confession to get rid of God’s judgment and His animosity. He doesn’t have any of that toward us. And even in my asking for his forgiveness, what am I asking for? I’m asking, Lord, what? Not, God, would you wipe away my sin. I’m coming to him and I must deal. with the emotional bondage that has transpired in my life because of my wrongdoing. Thanking him for his forgiveness and telling him that I assume responsibility for my wrong. I thank you, Father, for your forgiveness, that I’m walking in for your forgiveness. Do not deserve it. And walk away knowing that I’m forgiven and things are right. You see, confession is essential to keeping what? My ongoing intimacy with him right. The confession is to deal with something on the inside of you so that the intimacy of your relationship can be as intimate and loving as God has provided all the time. So you and I are walking in forgiveness, living in forgiveness. We never have a right to hold anyone else. He says, if you do not forgive your brother… Will God not forgive us of anything having become His? Listen, think about this. He says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much will the Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him? Would you forgive your children no matter what they did to you? Would you say, not going to forgive you? If you and I, and He says, no matter what, we’re to forgive 490 times. That’s just the start up. If we’re to forgive others, would God literally withhold forgiveness from us? No, He won’t because He gave His Son to guarantee that all of our sin has been paid for. So here’s the whole import of what I’m saying. We come facing our sin not to get forgiveness. from the way most people think about it, that God’s going to take away all the condemnation and take away… No, I come to be released in my heart so that I can once again intimately walk with Him on a level that is not only rejoicing to God, but rejoicing to my own heart. If I don’t do it, I’m going to be in bondage. If I’m in bondage, there’s not going to be any peace in my heart. If you see confession as if to get the kind of forgiveness that God will no longer punish you and no longer chastise you and no longer do this, you’re looking at forgiveness in the wrong way. Confession is absolutely essential in the life of the believer, but for the right purpose. For some release to happen within us toward this heavenly Father whose fellowship toward us has never been damaged, whose love toward us has never diminished, whose forgiveness toward us has never been altered, whose grace toward us cannot be touched, whose unconditional love toward us never changes. He’s always the same. The confession is on our part not to eliminate the to make my intimacy with Him just right. Now, here’s what I want you to see. Don’t look at God as up in heaven, choking off black marks against your sin. He’s a loving Father who is in heaven, grieved when He sees you disobeying, because listen, because He sees what it’s going to do to you. The consequences of our sin, our confession does not necessarily erase. Confession has to do with my intimacy, not striking out the penalty, not eliminating chastisement, not helping me to escape anything because my forgiveness is always there. But God is not going to release the pressure that I’ve built up in my life because of my sin until I am willing to assume responsibility for it. So I’m simply saying this. You don’t confess sin to get God, to get Him to start loving you more, accept you more, be better to you than He was before, getting Him to feel better about you. None of that. It all has to do with an intimacy with Him. So that when you get up tomorrow morning, you rise as forgiven children of God. If you sin against Him, what should you do? Thank Him at that moment for bringing it to your attention and thank Him for His forgiveness through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. One of the reasons for confession is that I am continuously acknowledging that I am living by grace purchased at the cross. I thank Him for His forgiveness. I assume responsibility for what I have done. And I thank Him for His release. And if that sin has to do with someone else, then I deal with that and I’m free. It is a freeing process because God intends for you and me to live as free men and women, not under a cloud of anything but the grace of Almighty God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to Confession and Forgiveness. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
