Do We Need To Confess Our Sins To Receive Forgiveness?

Do We Need To Confess Our Sins To Receive Forgiveness?

You may have been taught different things about what you need to do to receive God's forgiveness. For example, when I was an earnest young adult, I was taught that I had to confess all my sins in order to be forgiven. I loved the Lord and wanted to be pleasing to Him in every way, so I ran as hard as I could with this teaching. I was told that you had to keep "short accounts" with the Lord, which meant that once you sinned in thought or deed, you had to confess your sin as soon as possible, so that you could always be "right with God." I did not want to spend even one minute not being "right with God," so whenever I had a wrong thought, I would confess that sin immediately. I would cover my mouth and whisper my confession every time I felt that I had failed.

I took this teaching very seriously and ended up confessing my sins all the time. When I was talking to my friends, I would stop mid-sentence to confess my sin if I realized that I had said something I shouldn't have. During meal times, I would confess my sin when a bad thought slipped into my mind. Even when I was playing soccer, I would stop to whisper my confession when I caught myself shouting angry words at my opponents! Can you imagine how weird I appeared to the people around me? They had no idea why I was always whispering into my hand. I was trying my best to keep short accounts with the Lord, but I was actually being a bad testimony to my friends, who thought that Christians were strange.

  The constant, unceasing confession of my sins made me so sin-conscious and so aware of every thought that I believed that there was no more forgiveness for my sins, and that I had lost my salvation. The enemy took advantage of my sin-consciousness and constantly put me under condemnation. The oppression was so heavy that it came to a point where I felt that mind was about to snap! I went to the elders of the church that I was attending then but they offered no relief. Some encouraged me to keep on confessing my sins, while one elder actually told me that I had lost my salvation! Can you believe that? It was a dark and terrible time for me, and even though I was confessing my sins out of a sincere heart, I was sincerely wrong. Confessions of sins did not liberate me. It just made me so conscious of sin that I almost went over the edge.

This teaching on the confession of sins has caused so much bondage and oppression in the church. Sincere, well-meaning believers live in fear that they have not searched their hearts diligently enough to discover and confess every sin that they have committed. As such, they believe that they must forfeit their fellowship with God and His blessings. But in reality, there is no scriptural basis for this teaching! Ephesians 1:7 explicitly states that the forgiveness of sins is "according to the riches of His grace [unmerited favor]." Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the forgiveness of sins is according to the confession of our sins. Nowwhere! My friend, here is the truth of the matter: The forgiveness of sins is established on unmerited favor. You cannot earn it with your confessions.

  Instead of receiving forgiveness by grace, some Christians have made in into a law that no man can ever keep perfectly. If you believe that you are not right with God unless you confess all your sins, then let me ask you this: Have you confessed all your sins today? Have you confessed your worries? Have you confessed "whatever is not from faith" since the Bible considers anything that falls into that category a sin? Have you confessed every wrong thought that you had in the last five minutes? When was the last time you made a confession? How short are the accounts you are keeping with the Lord?

You see, once you make the forgiveness of your sins your responsibility and maintaining it a law you need to abide by, you will surely fail. There is no way any person can confess all their sins perfectly. You will just drive yourself crazy. If you really believe in the confession of sins for your forgiveness, you cannot just randomly pick and choose which sins you want to confess and ignore the rest. The law works in totality and the Bible states clearly that "whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." If you really need to confess your sins to be forgiven, you need to confess every point of failing all the time. Otherwise, you are still "guilty of all" for "judgement is without mercy."

  Are you beginning to see just how absurd the teaching about confession of sins is, and the bondage and oppression that comes with it? This is not God's heart for you and this is certainly not based on the new covenant of His unmerited favor, which declares that all your sins and your lawless deeds, He remembers no more! And if He remembers them no more, then sin can no longer prevent you from being seperated from Him and from receiving the blessings that He wants you to enjoy. So let's have clarity on this issue: Are you right with God because you have confessed all your sins perfectly, or because of the one sacrifice of Jesus for sins forever? Which is it? You cannot believe both at the same time. You either believe in Jesus and Jesus alone for your forgiveness, or you believe in your own confession of sins for forgiveness.

Paul Did Not Write About Confessions Of Sins

"But Pastor Prince, what about 1 John 1:9, which says, 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness'?"

Good question. I was just about to address this verse. Every time the teaching on the confession of sins is brought up, someone quotes 1 John 1:9. Before I go into the context of 1 John 1:9, let me establish first that you cannot build a doctrine based on one verse in the Bible. The teaching needs to be confirmed and established by various verses in the Bible before it can be sound.

Now, have you ever wondered why Paul, the apostle of God's unmerited favor, the man who wrote over two-thirds of the new covenant epistles, did not make the slightest mention of "confession of sins" to all the churches he wrote to? Don't take my word for it. Review all the letters that Paul wrote: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews (the author of the Book of Hebrews (the author of the Book of Hebrews is not clear, but many prominent Bible scholars believe that Paul was the author, as do I). Paul wrote extensively to all these churches, and yet there was not one mention of the confession of sins in all his Spirit-inspired letters. Why is this so?

Paul had the perfect opportunity to teach the Corinthians to confess their sins of fornication when he wrote to them as they had clearly sinned. But what did Paul do instead? He said, "...do you not know that your body i the temple of the Holy Spirit who IS in you...?" He did not say, "Do you not know that your body was the temple of the Holy Spirit? Now, go confess your sins and restore your fellowship with God and perhaps He will put His Spirit back in you." There was not even one mention that they had to confess their sins. Instead, Paul reminded them of their identity in Christ, and even in their failures, he maintained that their body IS (present tense) still the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul apparently believed that to remind believers to be conscious of who they are and what they have in Christ continually is the key to victory over their sins.

If confession of sins is so important for the church, how could Paul have left it out in every one of letters to churches? If our forgiveness of sins is indeed contingent on our confession of sins, hasn't he done us a great injustice by not including this teaching in any of his letters? Don't you think that Paul, who loved the church, would have written about the confession of sins in every one of his letters, and given us detailed instructions on how to confess our sins, if the confession of sins was truly necessary for us to experience forgiveness of our sins?

  Now, all Scripture was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Would God Himself have forgotten to include this teaching in all of Paul's letters if the forgiveness of our sins was based on the effectiveness of our confession of sins? Of course not! Instead, we have clear and certain passages in all of Paul's letters that state beyond the shadow of a doubt that ALL our sins are forgiven, and that our forgiveness of sins is "according to the riches of His grace [unmerited favor]," and not by our works!

1 John 1:9 Was Written To The Gnostics

Since Paul did not mention the confession of sins in his letters, we are left with only one verse - 1 John 1:9 - that people have used for years to justify this teaching. Now, before we carry on, remember what Miles Coverdale, who translated and produced the first English Bible, said: "it shall greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what goeth before, and what followeth after." When reading the Bible, always look at the context of verses. When you take the "text" and interpret it out of its "context," all you are left with is a "con"! So don't be conned. Read everything in its context. When you are reading chapter 1 of 1 John, one of the things that you need to be clear about is WHOM it was written to. Notice that in the first part of 1 John, there are no greetings to believers. If you look at Paul's letters, you will see that it was common during those days for the author to greet believers when writing to them. For instance, Paul would write "To the saints who are in Ephesus" or "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." 

When you compare 1 John with the greetings found in 2 John and 3 John, you can see that John greets believers directly in the other two letters. In 2 John, he writes, “...To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth... Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God....” and in 3 John, he writes, “... To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth: Belovef, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” In stark contrast, there are no greetings to believers in 1 John 1. Why is that? It is because John was not writing to believers in that chapter. He was addressing the Gnostics who had infiltrated the early church. Gnostics are heretics who do not believe in the existence of sin. That is why John wrote: 

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.    we confess our sins, He is faithful and 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.

1 John 1:8-10

John used the editorial “we” in his writing, but we know that this does not mean that he did not believe in the existence of sin. This passage was clearly written to the unbelieving Gnositcs to encourage them to stop their denial of sin, acknowledge the truth that sin exists and acknowledge that they have sinned. It was written to bring them to the realisation that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 

Essentially, John was preaching the gospel to the Gnostics and telling them that if they confessed their sins, God would be faithful and just to forgive them their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. That is why at the beginning of 1 John, John said, “...that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. John was clearly preaching to non-believers (in this case, the Gnostics) about Jesus and His finished work, and inviting them to fellowship in Christ with the other believers in the early church.

  With this context in mind, it becomes clear that 1 John 1:9 was not written to believers. The verse is a reference to the prayer that a sinner prays to accept Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. You may know this as the “prayer of salvation “ or “the sinner's prayer.” If you are a believer today, it means that you have already prayed that prayer. Now, let me ask you this: How often do you have to pray the prayer of salvation? Only once! You are “born again” only once! You cannot be born again and again.

  In the same way, how often do you have to confess your sins for Jesus to forgive you and cleanse you ffrom all unrighteousness? Only once! In that very instance when you prayed the prayer of salvation, all the sins that you would commit for your entire life were forgiven once and for all. You received the full redemptive work of Jesus on the cross into your life, and all His blessings, His favor, His health, and His success became yours! Let me say this plainly: You do not need to confess your sins again and again to be forgiven. You are already forgiven! Today, you can be honest with your Father about your mistakes and failures, knowing that He loves you and has already forgiben you. You don't confess your sins to Him in order to be forgiven.

  While chapter 1 of 1 John was written to Gnostics, John directs his attention to believers when it comes to chapter 2. It becomes immediately clear that he is talking to believers once the chapter begins because he writes, “My little children, these things I write to you, so 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 for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

  Right after John addresses the believers, he states clearly that if any one of us sins, we have an Advocate with the Father! Notice that there is no mention of confession of sins at all. Hey, this is the same John who wrote 1 John 1:9, which has been wrongly used to teach believers that they have to confess all their sins and to keep short accounts with the Lord to have fellowship with Him. No, when we as believers fail today, our Advocate fights for us. Our Advocate shows any accuser His nailed-pierced hands as a receipt for the payment that He made for our sins at the cross. Whenever we fail today, there is no power in confessing our sins, but there is power in confessing our righteousness in Christ, our identity in Christ and our unmerited favor in Christ!

  Furthermore, in verse 12 of the same chapter, John states, “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.” Here, John takes it for granted your forgiveness of sins without confessions. It would be a strange double-talk for John to write 1 John 1:9 and 1 John 2:12 both to believers.

  Beloved, instead of being sin-conscious, become righteousness-conscious, and receive the power of God to step out of that sin that seems to have a grip on you.Receive the power and wisdom of God to turn around any failure in your life. Sin-consciousness will make you depressed and keep you in a cycle of sin even when the unmerited favor of God is on your side. Every time you search your heart for sin and failings, guess what? You will find something! Instead of looking at your own failures, turn away from yourself and look at Jesus. Look at His heart of love and His forgiveness toward you. When you know that you do not deserve His grace (unmerited favor), and yet receive it, how can you help but be transformed? How can you help but want to worship Him?

  Jesus wants you to have no more consciousness of your sins. Instead, He wants you to have a consciousness of your righteousness in Him. The more you are conscious of your righteous identity in Him, the more you are transformed by His unmerited favor, the more the desire to sin dissipates and the more you become a true worshiper. My friend, believers who know that their entire life of sins is forgiven by the blood of Jesus won't want to run out there and sin like the devil. Instead they become true worshipers of Jesus with hearts purified by His blood and having no more consciousness of sins!

From the book Unmerited Favor by Joseph Prince