Owning Up to Sin

The story is told of Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia, who was visiting a prison. As he spoke with the inmates, he heard endless tales of innocence, misunderstood motives, and exploitation.

Eventually, the king stopped at the cell of an inmate who remained silent. The king said, “Well, I suppose you are an innocent victim too.”

The man replied, “No sir, I’m not. I am guilty, and I deserve my punishment.”

Turning to the warden, the king said, “Quick, get this man out of here before he corrupts these other innocent people.” He couldn’t believe he had found someone who owned up to what he had done.

All too often, we play the blame game. Pastor and author Chuck Swindoll has described blame this way: “Blame never restores, it wounds. Blame never solves, it complicates.”[1]

There will have to come a point in our lives when we say, “I’ve sinned. The problem is me.” And that is when things will change for us.

What does it mean to confess our sins? That is important for us to know because our forgiveness hinges on our understanding of the term. The Hebrew word for confess means “to acknowledge.” In the New Testament, it could be translated as “to agree with” or “to say the same thing as another.”

John used the same word when he wrote, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9 NLT). This is essentially saying that if we will agree with God about our sin, if we will acknowledge it for what it is, do not make excuses for it, see it as God sees it, and turn from it, then He will forgive us.

But here’s the problem. Some people think they’ve confessed their sin when they haven’t. They believe that confession is merely acknowledging. So, when they sin and get caught, they say, “Okay, I confess that sin. It was a bad thing, and I won’t do it again.”

But then they go out and do it again. That is not confession. It’s simply recognizing the obvious.

Confession means to see sin for what it is, be sorry for it, and turn from it. We must take that sin to the cross and recognize it is offensive to a holy God. Then we must turn from it, stop making excuses for it, and be sorry enough to change.

Are you willing to do that? If so, then God will forgive your sin, and He will cover it. Psalm 32:1 says, “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!” (NLT).

Not only does God cleanse us of our sin, but He places His righteousness into our spiritual bank account, so to speak. And that balances the moral and spiritual budget for us.

So, we have a choice. We can try to cover our sins and live in the misery of them, or we can bring them to Jesus, confess them, and be free from them.

[1] Charles R. Swindoll, Man to Man: Chuck Swindoll Selects His Most Significant Writings for Men (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 69.

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