Weekly devotionals from Pastor Mike Fabarez Senior Pastor at Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, CA and host of daily Focal Point Radio broadcast.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Confession
The Bible instructs
us to “confess” our sins (1Jn.1:9). While many think that means to say “I’m
sorry” to God, the word actually precludes most forms of modern apologies. The
word confess in the Greek New Testament is a compound word which is made up of the
words “the same” and “to speak”. The idea is that when we confess our sins, we
are saying the same thing about our sins that God says. God, of course, sees
our sins as detestable (2Kgs.21:11), appalling (Jer.2:12-13), shameful (Job
31:11), grievous (Eph.4:30), wicked (Gen.39:9), offensive (Pr.17:9), and even
nauseating (Rev.3:16). Popular sentiments like “I’m sorry if I offended you” or
“I’m sorry you were hurt by my actions” is a long way from calling our own
actions detestable or appalling. True biblical repentance always includes
seeing our sins for what they are and agreeing with God about the sinfulness of
sin. That is why passages that depict biblical repentance include phrases like
“this godly sorrow has produced in you… indignation, alarm and readiness to see
justice done” (2Cor.7:11). So let us be careful that we don’t mistake a
half-hearted “I’m sorry” for biblical “confession” of our sins.
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