know that the title of today’s blog just doesn’t sound right. Yet, the fact of the matter is that when we agree with God about our sin, we are proclaiming God’s truth.
Why? Because He has told all people that we are sinful. No ifs, ands or buts.
Consider these verses:
“8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1: 8-10
If we say we have no sin, what are we saying that God has lied about? Oh …just the Gospel, which proclaims that we are all sinful and in need of a Savior. Oh…. just that Calvary was of the utmost importance, purposeful and efficacious. Oh… just that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
The interesting thing is that it is not easy for a person to recognize that they are sinful. You may think that it is intuitive That everyone knows that they do things that are sinful. That God exists, and that our sin matters to Him. That they need a Savior. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope and nope. To the contrary, many people (even religious folk) believe that they don’t sin, or that their sin is no big deal. Because of this, they feel that they don’t have anything to confess to God, or anyone else for that matter. I overheard a conversation the other day where a Roman Catholic shared that they stopped going to confession because they became convinced that they had no sin to confess. They went so far as to say that this was also true of other people they knew, and that those people were “angels”, so what would they have to confess? How deceived we can be.
The Bible does not let us get away with such thinking. You can’t do an honest read of it and not walk away saying that no one sins, or that sin doesn’t matter to God. You can’t flip through its’ pages and conclude that Jesus came just to be a nice guy, or a good teacher. This is what the Bible, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, does to you when you read it. It tells you that you are a sinner in need of confession.
The wonderful thing that I have noticed through the years is that for many, the more they read the Bible, the more aware they become of their sinfulness. I have also observed that for many, the more aware they become of their sinfulness, the more it grieves them, and the more they want to do something about it. Lastly, I have seen that for many, the more they want to do something about their sin, the more they see the gracious hand of God purifying them from unrighteousness and giving them victory over their sin. Many people who don’t read the Bible are often insensitive to sin. They don’t understand it. They don’t apply its’ significance to themselves. They don’t know what God has said about it, or them. They can go to their graves that way, and sadly, unto damnation.
So, take my word for it. I am a sinner. I need to confess my sins to God regularly. His truth is in me. This is not something I have figured out. God had to show it to me. He had to put His truth in my heart. I was lost and going nowhere, and I would have been content sinning the rest of my life, and calling God a liar, had He not saved me.
Rob