Every house, every business, every building is going to make or have trash. It is inevitable. We could add trash to the two things we can be sure of, death and taxes. We should say, three things we can be sure of, death, taxes and trash.
I believe that in the church our repentance and confession is very much like taking out the trash. Well, maybe repentance is like throwing your garbage in the trash bin and confession is like taking out the trash. Here is the thing though. If everyone in your house through away all of their garbage in the garbage bins but no one ever emptied the trash you would still have a pretty major problem on your hands. No?
We are called to repent for our sin.
Acts 3:19 reads, "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,.
Romans 2:4 reads, "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?"
There are many many others calling us to the same. Yes, we know we have to repent for our sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness. And, when we repent He always shows grace and forgives and forgets. This act for the Christian is like throwing away the trash. We take it to the right place, repent and give it to Jesus. But we are also called to confess. Now this is a little different then take time to repent before the Lord in prayer. In fact most of our acts of repentance happen in private and in silent or private prayer. And I believe that in these times we are forgiven. But we are also called to practice confession our sins.
We are called to confess our sins.
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Confession, brings God’s mercy, forgiveness, freedom from guilt, strength through fellowship, and a multitude of blessings from God, Proverbs 28:13; Psalm 32:2; 1 John 1:8–10. Confession is connected to repenting but it goes a step further. See repentance we trust Jesus to forgive us from our sin. We trust Jesus to take away our sin and by His blood that He shed on the cross, where He paid our debt for sin, wash our sin away. He takes our garbage or sin and we walk away without its judgement. And we love this truth. Jesus takes our garbage and gives us back life, hope, love and freedom. Most of us are okay with repenting, and praying to God to forgive sin that we have in our lives.
But, I have noticed that many Churches and Christians alike though love the idea of repentance don't like and don't practice the discipline of confession. They through away the trash but they don't take out the trash so to speak. And I know its not a perfect analogy but hear my meaning.
See confession calls us to not only talk to God about our sins, often secret sins, but it calls us to tell others about our sins. This is what we don't like. We fight the idea that anyone should have to know about this sin. "Besides," we tell ourselves, "If I have already repented, God knows, I'm forgiven and free so who else really has to know?" We also justify our actions by concluding that if people found out that a good Christian like me was engaged in that sin it would make the church and it would make Jesus look bad, so repentance is enough. The logic is human and is like throwing away the trash but never really taking out the trash.
See I think we love the idea that God forgives and forgets our sin in Jesus Christ when we repent and ask for forgiveness. But, we struggle to obey when the bible calls us to confess our sins to each other. See we trust Jesus to wash away our sins and forgive us, but we don't truly trust Jesus with our reputations, with our public image, with our shame, fear and guilt. We trust that we are forgiven and live a life with Him and go to heaven, but we have to take care of our image, we have to make sure others don't know of the sin we have done. We have to manage and control our own shame and guilt because we often still live in fear of what people would think if they saw our sin.
Bonhoeffer, in His book Life Together writes these beautiful words...
In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more distavorous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. this can happen even in the midst of a pious community. In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is make manifest. It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted... ... Since the confessions of sin is made in the presence of a Christian brother, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned.
I would connect that the stronghold of sin is defeated in this way because there is no more place for sin to hide. By asking God for repentance but keeping our sin a secret we give evil a hiding place. In fact the necessity for confession along with repentance is perhaps even more important then we often realize.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Confess allows us to not only fully trust Jesus Christ to forgive our sins but it puts us in the place of trusting God in Jesus Christ with our guilt, shame, and fear of what people will think. Repentance and confession call us to fully trust Jesus Christ with our lives in every area that pertains to sin and the guilt, shame and fear it causes. Repentance and confession together is like throwing away the trash and taking out the trash all at once. Not just throwing out the garbage in the over flowing waist basket under the sink and trying to hide the mess from everyone. The problem is hidden but still in your house. Confession puts us in a place were we have to trust God and trust our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ who we confess to. It makes me come to a place where I have to truly and totally give my sin, shame, guilt, and fear to Jesus and believe that in Him I am truly forgiven. And when I am truly forgive I am born again, made new, made clean. These are all ways to say that old is gone, the sin is gone and I am a forgiven and free. Meaning I am free of the sin and judgment for it but also free from having to hid it. It is like I have thrown away the garbage in the bag under the sink and have taken that bag out to the curb and meeting Jesus there, He took it away and it not in my house any more. I don't care who comes to visit now or even what they say about the past garbage that I have had. I no longer carry it nor do i have need to hide it. And when someone comes over I can share with them what used to be under my sink but also show them that it's now clean. I have no fear of them walking around my kitchen or even opening the cupboards under my sink. I have taken out the trash compealty. This kind of repentance and confession does not happen in many of our Christian circles. I believe it is one of the reasons so many of us still struggle with so many of our secret sins. It is also one of the reasons we struggle with public sins but are often so blind to them. If we practiced repentance and confession more I believe we would find that there is more freedom in Jesus Christ through the purifying and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit then we have been experiencing.
So, if you have sin in your life don't just repent in secret, but also confess your sins to one to another. Find someone you trust and who understands our need as believers in Jesus Christ to live lives of repentance and confession as we aim to shine for Jesus and not let sin or satan have a foot hold in our lives. Don't live forgiven for sin in Jesus Christ but then live under the burden of the shame, guilt and fear that sin causes. Bring it to Jesus openly, trusting Him fully to forgive and wipe you clean, make you know and take out your trash and all that goes with it for good.
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