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Chain Reaction

             If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

For many, confession involves going to an authority of the Church or the court and admitting that one has done something wrong or getting up in front of an audience and proclaiming that one has done something (generally) shocking. I’m not sure how long it has been used in these senses. Maybe always, but it is derived from Latin terms meaning “together” and “to say, to speak.” That might involve going to someone and speaking to them about something, but another possibility is that the idea was to speak in agreement with someone.

When we confess, then, our goal should be to say the same things about what we have done as the one to whom we’re confessing. It’s not just, “I’ve sinned” but “I’ve sinned, I agree that it’s wrong. I’m rejecting that way of life and walking with you.”

But as you read today’s passage, there’s something important to note. It does not say that confession produces forgiveness. God doesn’t forgive because we confess. God forgives because God is faithful to His nature to forgive. He forgives because He is just, and Jesus has already paid the penalty for that sin. Perhaps more importantly than that is the fact that when God forgives, He also purifies us, and not just from the thing we confessed, but from all unrighteousness. Our confession is just one link in a chain of purification.

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