Lesson
6 March 24, 2004
Step One—Confession
One of the most important and foundational steps to having the focus
so essential to living by faith is confession and the nature of a confession
that goes to the root of our problems.
In that great Psalm of confession where David was seeking
to reestablish his fellowship with the Lord, David wrote: “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.” (Ps. 51:6).
The point is,
God wants His wisdom, the truth of the Word and the realities of
Christ, to break through those places in our heart or mind that we have closed
to the real issues we need to face.
Refocusing,
then, begins with the need
of honest examination of our life, followed by confession.
In contrast to the blame game, the first step is honest acknowledgment
of our sin and self-dependent ways to ourselves
followed, of course, with confession to the Lord. 1 John
1:9
If they would
refocus and would make straight paths for
their feet (a figurative
statement for getting back on God’s path of growth and the walk of faith, the upward focus), they would experience God’s
healing and growth in righteousness i.e. becoming increasingly conformed to the
image of Christ. Hebrews 12:14-15
To fail to do so is to neglect God’s grace. But why?
Because apart from God’s grace, the process of sanctification through the
finished work of the risen Christ, advancing in our understanding of the Word
of God, and orienting correctly when in the school of training through
suffering, he says, no one will see the
Lord.
But what is meant by “see the Lord”? Job 42:5
When we fail to advance in our walk and fail to appropriate His grace
provision for it, (i.e. the process of sanctification) we grieve God’s Spirit
(Eph.
The result is there are some consequences in our life:
(1) Barriers are established to
our fellowship with God and men (Isa. 59:2; 25:23).
(2) We stifle His power and
answer to our prayers (Isa. 59:1; Ps. 66:18; 1 Thess.
(3) If the state is maintained
then we stifle His purposes through the trials faced in life (Ps. 119:67, 71; Rom.
Vital to the process of sanctification (growing and walking by faith)
is confession because of its restorative
nature, the cleansing provided.
“Confess” is the Greek word
o`mologe,w, [homologeo] “to say
the same thing, to agree with,” and then, “to acknowledge, confess.”
The Hebrew word for “confess” is hdy which originally meant “to
throw or cast,” and from the act of the outstretched arm, it came to mean
“to point to.”
Confession emphasizes the principle of “recognition” and “declaration
of a fact, whether good or bad.”
Compare two key passages: 1 John 1:9 with 2:1 and Proverbs 28:13.