But what if the Christian does not confess His sin?

[Yahshua]

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]Prior To Christ's Death[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]After Christ Ascended to Heaven[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Person Sins[/TD]
[TD]Person Sins[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Person gets a pure sacrificial animal[/TD]
[TD]Christ was the pure sacrifice[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Person lays hands and confesses his/her sin onto the animal[/TD]
[TD]Person confesses his/her sin to God in prayer (Matthew 6:12 & 1 John 1:9)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Animal is brutally sacrificed to get the pure blood[/TD]
[TD]Christ's work on cross was finished. Pure blood now available[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Blood is poured for temple ministration (at base of altar & sprinkled on furnishings)[/TD]
[TD]Christ is now ministering in the temple, sprinkling his blood on our hearts to change/clean it[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sin is forgiven by God[/TD]
[TD]Sin is forgiven by God[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Person is reckoned as clean once again, but heart hasn't changed[/TD]
[TD]Reckoned as clean, Person is also being made clean in heart so that they want to obey God not sin anymore.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

All that has changed in this process is that Christ is performing the work he was prophesied to do; the only work he alone could do, the work that we must have faith in because we can't see him doing it in the temple in heaven (or in us), so that the cycle that occurs year after year (sin/death/sin/death/etc) is finally broken and we can one day stop sinning.

But it's still the same priest's job as exemplified in leviticus, and it's the same responsibility placed on the repentant person to do their part to confess their sin and then "sin no more" as Christ said. Only now we have a high priest who is everlasting; who never tires or needs sleep or perishes, needing to be replaced by a new high priest; who won't stop ministering with his blood until he finishes the work he begins in God's living temple made with unhewn stones (i.e. in us). That's the new and living way (as opposed to the old dead way)!

- Christ's sinless life created the pure blood for ministration.

- Christ's sacrifice made available that blood for ministration.

- Christ's resurrection provided the everlasting High Priest for ministration with that blood.

...but the sinner still has to confess their sins for the High Priest to minister God's forgiveness just like the OT examples in leviticus show...only now all we have to do is close our eyes and pray like Christ taught us.


It's a slippery slope to say we don't even have to confess our sins anymore when scripture (and specifically Christ's words) says to do exactly that.

 

[duewell]

whats funny is, i wasn't a Christian. if anything i was part of a group that openly mocked Christians and other religions for their superstitious beliefs. i didn't study the scripture and i didn't have faith or belief. Christianity wasn't real. it was all a big joke as far as i could see and yet here i am a Christian. how did that happen...

well i pretty much had everything going exactly the way i wanted it. i thought i couldn't be any happier with life. then it slowly started to unravel. nothing major really, just started feeling paranoid about certain situations. my friends suggested i just smoke a little less weed. so i cut back on the partying but still felt a bit paranoid. i decided i would write a biography of my own life just in case someone would ever want to read it. wrote everything i could remember from my entire life. good stuff and bad stuff. eventually that biography became a confession of well, everything. needless to say i broke down while writing it and i asked Jesus for help.

right next to me, clear as day, i heard a voice say, "finally"

wtf was that? that was really odd. hrmm. Houston we have a problem.
did i suddenly have faith and belief and a new understanding at that moment? nope. but that is where the journey started.

until i made that confession and asked Jesus for help there would have been no journey following the Spirit with faith leading to belief and knowledge. so for me confession is a very big part of Christianity. do i still confess my sins? well lets just say i try to be very effing careful about avoiding sin. do i avoid all of it? of course not, but i have faith that they will be forgiven. does this give me a free pass on sin? ya i would rather not test that out. Jesus seems kinda big on irony when i'm around. my Christian experience seems a bit more extreme than most but it is mine, not yours. yours will probably be different. if you have not had a major Christian experience yet, you might want to go work on that confession. couldnt hurt to try, you got the time.

Jesus can save anyone, if you think there is anything anyone can do to undermine Jesus and his teachings, you've never experienced them. keep up the good work on spreading the word, don't worry to much about trying to make other people understand it. Christ has it covered. he didn't go through all that to do things half measure.

matthew 16:24
mark 4 v 11-13
duewell

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Even if James were speaking of Christians, then physical death needs to be considered, as I shared in post #56. The NAS, ESV and NKJV all say if any/anyone AMONG you strays/wanders from the truth.. What we really need is a verse that specifically says a really "saved" person really "lost their salvation" in order to absolutely prove that's the case.

Any Christian who sins, and refuses to confess that sin to the Lord, or sins against a brother or sister and refuses to confess the wrongdoing to the individual, asking forgiveness, is in serious spiritual trouble indeed! If that person continues on in such a state, it is impossible but that spiritual deterioration must be the case. As it regards the salvation of such a person, I’ll have to leave that to the Lord.

James 5:19-20 - “19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth (James is speaking here of believers, and of them straying from the truth of the Cross), and one convert him (refers to strengthening the individual, turning him back to the right way of truth, which is back to Christ and the Cross);

20 Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way (bluntly proclaims any way other than the Cross as the 'way of sin,' which then makes the one traveling such a way 'a sinner') shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (This refers to the fact that if the believer leaves the Cross, thereby transferring his faith to something else, and such an erring way is continued, it will result in the loss of the soul. To pull one back to the Cross saves that soul, which the Cross alone can do!)”

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Unfortunately, there is a teaching that is becoming quite dominant in this country and elsewhere. It’s referred to as the Grace Revolution, but in reality, it is an evolution away from the true grace of God.

In essence, this hyper-grace doctrine claims that the Cross of Christ addressed all sin, past, present, and future, which is exactly correct. Most definitely, the Cross did do this. But then it states that when a Christian sins, due to the fact that all future sins have been atoned as well, the believer does not have to confess his sin, or ask forgiveness, or even mention it at all. In other words, just go on as if though nothing has ever happened. Plain and simple this is error. And as all error does, sooner or later it will cause the believer terrible problems. In fact, some will even lose their souls.

The foundation of this false doctrine claims that I John 1:9 is speaking to sinners only and not saints, and that Christians do not — and should not — confess their sins to the Lord.

In the Expositor’s Study Bible, I John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins (pertains to acts of sin, whatever they might be; the sinner is to believe [Jn. 3:16]; the saint is to confess), He (the Lord) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (God will always be true to His own nature and promises, keeping faith with Himself and with man), and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (‘All,’ not some. All sin was remitted, paid for, and put away on the basis of the satisfaction offered for the demands of God’s holy law, which sinners broke, when the Lord Jesus died on the Cross.)”

As Pastor Swaggart put so well in these expository notes, “the sinner is to believe; the saint is to confess.” So my question is this: are there really born-again believers who think that they no longer have to confess their sins to the Lord?

"The phrase, ‘If we confess our sins,’ pertains to acts of sin, whatever they might be. No Christian has to sin; however, the sad truth is, every single Christian does, at times, sin.

‘Confess’ in the Greek is homologeo, and means ‘to say the same thing as another,’ or, ‘to agree with another.’ Confession of sin on the part of the saint means, therefore, to say the same thing that God does about that sin, to agree with God as to all the implication of that sin as it relates to the Christian who commits it and to a Holy God against whom it is committed (Wuest).

All of this includes the saint’s hatred of that sin, his sense of guilt because of it, his contrition because of it, the determination to put it out of his life, which can be done only by understanding that all victory is in the Cross, and that our faith must ever be in that finished work. In fact, the very reason that we sin is because we get our eyes off of the Cross (Lk. 9:23-24) and onto other things.

The English word confess means ‘to admit the truth of an accusation, to own up to the fact that one is guilty of having committed the sin.’ But the Greek word means far more than that, as we have addressed above.

The Greek word teaches that the constant attitude of the saint towards sin should be one of a contrite heart, ever eager to have the Holy Spirit to point out all wrong, and to put it out of the life by the power of that same Holy Spirit.

 

[HisHolly]

When folks don't let the Holy Spirit give them full council, they error in taking only the NT into consideration.. The covenant changed not God. Confession and repentance were separate acts that happened when they realized what they had done.. Shedding of blood was a means to aid them to go on... likewise the blood of Christ although greater only works if you admit your wrong doing... no scripture says we are through with this or that's its a one time deal to seal...

 

[seed_time_harvest]

Simple. What you dont cofess, cant be forgiven and youll go to hell as sin cannot enter the kingdom of God.

With the heart,man believes and with the mouth,confession Is made unto salvation.

How many confessions does GOD need to hear before a person has salvation?

 

[eternally-gratefull]

1. If someone has not confessed they are a sinner, They are a Christian in name only.
2. Good luck confessing every sin you ever commit. It is impossible, Many sins we do not even know are sin yet, especially the babe in Christ. That's part of learning.
3. The OT law did not require confession of every sin, the day of atonement was given for all sin, Known and unknown, confessed or unconfessed. why would God hold us up to a greater standard.