Acknowledgment and Confession of Sin

Confession is good for the soul. Confession of sin is a powerful weapon in the hands of the believer who's willing to use it. We must examine confession of sin in depth to understand how it can be used to strengthen the daily walk of the child of God.

"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin (Ps. 32:5 KJV)."

The first thing we need to look at is the phrase "I acknowledged my sin unto thee". Sin is not obeying the commandments of God. Therefore when we sin, we sin against God. The word acknowledged used here means recognized or comprehended. We must recognize our sin before we can confess it. However, upon recognition of sin we are then faced with a decision. Do we confess the sin or do we hide it?

The next phrase of today's scripture passage is, "mine iniquity have I not hid." The decision is made to not hide our sin. We move forward confessing our sin to the Lord. Take note this confession is to God, not to man.

I want to look into the word confess used here. It comes from a primitive root meaning to use the hands, especially to revere or worship with extended hands. This means confessing our sin is a form of reverence or worship. The extension of the hands is a formal sign of surrender. Our confession is surrendering to God in worship.

When we worship God, he must respond. When we worship God in confessing our sin, he is moved to respond with mercy and grant forgiveness, which happens to be the final phrase of today's verse, "and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." This is why John could write, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn. 1:9 KJV)."

We only deceive ourselves when choosing to hide sin from God. Jesus said, "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known (Lu. 12:2 KJV)." Paul tells us when the Lord returns he will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and expose the counsels, or motives, of the heart (1Co. 4:5). Our sin will be exposed sooner or later.

Confession of sin brings mercy and forgiveness. Forgiveness brings freedom to live and walk in the grace and blessing of Almighty God. We can hide our sin and place our hope and trust in God's mercy, or we can confess our sin and live in the grace and blessing of God. This is what gives confession power. Confession brings mercy and mercy brings forgiveness. Forgiveness brings grace and blessing directly from God. God bless...