When was the last time you admitted you were wrong? Go ahead and think about it for a minute. I can wait. For many of us, this is a difficult thing. It can be hard to admit when we’ve made a mistake. We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt that feeling in our stomach when we are confronted with our wrongdoings. Guilt. Shame. Embarrassment. Weakness.
For many of us, when we make bad decisions, we like to do one of two things: hide it or minimalize it.
Imagine for a moment a young child who has access to a bucket of their Halloween candy. They have been told that they can have two pieces a day, but the temptation is too much. They want that candy. So they eat some, and they hide the wrappers behind a couch. Perhaps you’ve even seen such a thing. This is an example of hiding it. We cover it up and pretend it didn’t happen.
Or in another case, we minimize our wrongdoing. Unfortunately, this one is much more commonplace for us as adults. We either argue that we aren’t really breaking the rule, or we try to rationalize that the rule was unimportant in the first place. For example, we might tell ourselves something like this, “I’m not really speeding, it’s only 5 over” or “This 4-lane road really shouldn’t be set at 40 ... .”
But when we look at the Scripture, we see a better way. In 1 John 1:9, we see God’s plan laid out. Instead of hiding our faults, God tells us to come clean. Here’s what He says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
For some of us, just the mention of the word “confess” makes our skin crawl. It’s the opposite of what we want to do. We want to hide. We want to minimize. But confession is exactly what God asks us to do. He wants us to bring our shortcomings before him and ask for his help. First, we must admit that we’ve messed up. Instead of hiding it, we need to confess it. Instead of minimizing it, we need to own it. “I messed up, and I know it.”
Then, we bring our faults to God himself, but look at the Good News that we see in this verse. When we confess our wrongdoings to God, he is faithful and just and will forgive us! He doesn’t hold it over us, but instead he puts those sins to death on the cross with Christ.
Finally, this verse tells us that God will “purify us of all unrighteousness.” We do not need to be stuck in our cycles of wrongdoing. If we ask for God’s help, he can show us the way to freedom from these destructive patterns. It may not be easy, but it is always good.
When we confess our sin, God can help.
