Why Confession of Sin is Important

Kevin DeYoung:

You often hear statements like this: “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more or to make him love you less.”  And while it’s true that those who have been justified by grace through faith can never be more justified, we can hear a statement like this incorrectly.  Yes, God loves us fully in Christ, but this does not mean we are incapable of doing things that are displeasing to God. We can get out of step with the Spirit. We can grieve him too. Even after we have been redeemed, our sin continues to be offensive to God. And this has an effect.

Think of adoption.  You complete the paper work, pay the money and the child is yours. You are not sending him back.  Never, ever, ever. In one sense, this new child can’t do anything to make you love him more or less.  You will always love him deeply, more than he can possibly realize.  But you can still get upset, still be offended, still be very pleased or very displeased. In the same way, God still notices our sin and it disrupts our fellowship with him.

That’s why we confess, privately and corporately. Confession of sin is one of the missing ingredients in the life of today’s Christian. We feel bad all the time, but often it’s over the wrong things. And when we do feel sorry for our sin, we don’t know what to do with it. We feel like we would be cheapening the blood of Christ if we confessed again. So we hesitate to repent. We feel bad, but we don’t confess and enjoy a clean conscience.

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