I love crime investigation shows.  Cue up some old re-runs of Columbo, Perry Mason, Murder She Wrote, or some of the newer shows like CSI, Cold Case, or Without A Trace, and I am in another world trying to keep up with — or get ahead of — the ongoing investigation and figure out “who did it”.  Most of these shows wrap up with a tidy “confession” of some sort by the guilty party.  A confession that does not necessarily shed new light on the case, but a confession that is an agreement that what they are being accused of is true.  An out of the blue “confession” to a crime by a person who is not a suspect does happen occasionally, both on the shows and in real life, but that is not the usual case or practice of confession in our legal society.  More often than not, it is an attempt to clear the conscience after the facts have been laid out so well that there is no doubt the suspect will be proven guilty. 

That is really the way confession works between us and God — and between us and our fellow man.  It is a matter of taking responsibility for our actions.  Admitting to our self what God already knows.  It is agreeing with an offended person that we have offended them.  It is acknowledging the sin in our life that God has been convicting us of and He has made it obvious to us so that we would agree with Him about our sinful state.

Our text yesterday in the “God Is Faithful” part of “The View From The Top: What Does God Say?” study I am doing, was 1 John 1:9.  Picking up the context with verse 8, it says this:

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

What a powerful passage!  Verses 8 and 10 pack the punch that makes it clear we are not exempt from the need for verse 9.  If we read verse 9 and immediately come up with a list of people who ought to confess their sins, we miss the point of this scripture.  John writes that any claim to have no sin to confess is simply us deceiving our self.  Not only that, but if we wish to continue in that claim, we make God out to be a liar.  Throughout scripture, and through His Holy Spirit, God has laid out the proof that He has that you and I have sinned.  As He lays out His proof, His request is for us to confess this sin — agree with Him that He is right and the sin that He has called us on is, or has been, present in our life.

And what a wonderful promise!  If we do that — if we confess our sins — He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.  Wow!  To throw myself on the mercy of this court is a sure solution to what is otherwise a very bad verdict.  As judge, God’s desire is to have the lowest “incarceration” rate ever.  As judge, God says, “If you agree with me about your sin, I can take care of it.”  God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance.  God knows that agreeing with Him about our sin is a critical step in our turning from that sin.  As we begin that process of repentance by confessing our sin, we can have confidence in a God who is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.

May you and I choose to not walk in denial before God.  May we confess our sins to Him and count on His faithfulness to forgive us and cleanse us — transforming us into the new creations He has called us to be.