the Freedom of Confession
Friday Highlight – The Freedom of Confession
When my wife and I had only been dating for a few months, I asked to borrow her guitar for a short-term mission trip. This was a bold request because 1) I wasn’t very good at guitar, and 2) this guitar was a special gift she’d had since 8th grade (plus it was a Martin, so not cheap). She made the equally bold choice to trust me with it. Turns out this was unwise, because on the way back, her guitar fell out of the van at a gas station and hit the concrete with a sickening crunch. Upon inspection, I found that the whole front panel had become separated from the body, so it was unplayable. Broken.
I was devastated. How could I let this happen? I cared about this girl, and even worse than breaking her guitar, I’d broken her trust. If I can be vulnerable, I admit that my first thoughts were of concealment. Maybe if I didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t notice? Or maybe I could blame someone else? But no, I quickly realized that I had to come clean. She had to know the truth. She’d almost certainly break up with me, but maybe–just maybe–I could beg for her forgiveness. I was embarking upon the path of confession, and it’s never an easy one. The rest of the van ride back to our college campus was agony. I was so worried. With much fear and trembling, I brought her broken guitar to her dorm room and told her the whole sad story. Shockingly, she laughed, forgave me instantly, and not only kept dating me, but eventually married me! Her forgiveness was like soothing balm on a sunburn. All my anxiety was turned to relief. We even grew closer together as a result. (We actually still have that guitar hanging up in our living room today, fixed by a luthier.)
This story illustrates a surprising truth we see in the Bible and in life: the freedom of sin confession. Obviously, an accidental drop of a guitar is very different from cosmic rebellion against the King of the universe, but the temptation to hide is the same. The world and our sinful flesh wants us to believe that freedom is found in successfully covering up our sin (or carelessness), in getting away with it. But that’s just not the case. We’ve all experienced the agony I felt on the van ride back to campus. Concealment is a heavy burden placed on our shoulders by fear. We’re afraid of the consequences of our actions, so we hide. And the more we hide, the more we have to keep hiding, piling burdens on top of burdens. It’s exhausting. But when we confess our sin–both to God and to those we’ve hurt–we experience overwhelming freedom. David describes the burden of sin and the freedom of confession in Psalm 32:
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
(Psalm 32:1-4)
Confession is just better than concealment. It’s freedom! Concealment feels like our bones are wasting away. Confession is the only way to experience the blessing of forgiveness. But how do we confess our sin and find this blessed freedom? Hebrews gives us the answer:
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Here’s the key to finding freedom: run to the throne of grace. That’s the only place the burden of sin can be removed. We can go directly to God to confess our sin. We don’t have to make annual sacrifices for our sin because Jesus made the all-sufficient sacrifice on the cross (Rom 6:10; Heb 9:25-26; 10:10). We don’t have to go to a high priest because Jesus is our perfect high priest (Heb 2:17; 7:26-28; 8:1-3). We don’t have to plead our case because Jesus is our intercessor (Rom 8:34). His death on the cross makes it possible for us to run straight to God, not with anxiety, but with confidence. And even more incredibly, he promises to forgive us when we do:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
When we bring our sin directly to God’s throne, we don’t have to worry that this will be the time when his mercy runs out. He is faithful and just. He will always forgive. When we knock on his door, he will always open it up for us (Matt 7:7-8). We don’t have to be afraid of God’s wrath because Jesus already absorbed his wrath on the cross (Rom 5:9; 2 Cor 5:21). Like a father woken up by his child in the middle of the night, God loves it when we run to him, even when we mess up.
We all sin (Rom 3:23). We all make dumb mistakes like breaking a borrowed guitar. The question is: What will you do with your sin? Will you try to hide it? Or will you embark on the path of confession? It’s never easy, but it’s the only way to be free.