confession and repentance

[David H.]

confession and repentance are like the oil that lubricates our spiritual maturation. Sin in our lives interferes with our fellowship with God, confession and repentance restores that fellowship, and the humility which it takes to confess and repent Is the broken and contrite heart God loves to mold as Potter molds clay.

Scripture:
Psalm 51:17, 1 John 1:5-10, James 4:1-10

 

[Jane_Doe22]

Very much agreed!

Of course, people can argue all day long about what confession specifically entails and the role of any outside aide, but those particulars are secondary to the foundational importance of confession and repentance.

 

[Behold]

. Sin in our lives interferes with our fellowship with God, confession and repentance restores that fellowship,

The only thing that happens when you confess that same sin again, David, is that your guilt trip feels better.
But not usually the first day,.. but by day 3, you are not really concerned about it anymore..... isnt that right?
Why is that? Because you have again completed your little mental game with yourself, and now you feel better.

So.....What you said is the typical legalist idea of trying to keep yourself saved, by doing something.
See, you are teaching Fellowship with God, but the New Testament does not, as it teaches RELATIONSHIP between God and Man.= Salvation.
The NT teaches Fellowship between believers....

Try to understand that God as Christ came there not to give you "fellowship", but to give you SONSHIP RELATIONSHIP.......becoming a SON/Daughter of God.
That is completely different than "fellowship".
A born again Christian, is "ONE WITH GOD"....>"In Christ".
This does not change.

Also, God is kept at peace with the Born again, not by confessing sin, but by the Death of Christ for your sin.

 

[David H.]

The only thing that happens when you confess that same sin again, David, is that your guilt trip feels better.
But not usually the first day,.. but by day 3, you are not really concerned about it anymore..... isnt that right?
Why is that? Because you have again completed your little mental game with yourself, and now you feel better.

So.....What you said is the typical legalist idea of trying to keep yourself saved, by doing something.
See, you are teaching Fellowship with God, but the New Testament does not, as it teaches RELATIONSHIP between God and Man.= Salvation.
The NT teaches Fellowship between believers....

Try to understand that God as Christ came there not to give you "fellowship", but to give you SONSHIP RELATIONSHIP.......becoming a SON/Daughter of God.
That is completely different than "fellowship".
A born again Christian, is "ONE WITH GOD"....>"In Christ".
This does not change.

Also, God is kept at peace with the Born again, not by confessing sin, but by the Death of Christ for your sin.

Keeping fellowship with God is not the same as keeping yourself saved as you accuse me of teaching... think about that please before you bloviate.

 

[Behold]

Keeping fellowship with God

Fellowship with God is not caused by you., exactly as Salvation is not caused by you.

These are created by JESUS, and they are kept by God. Philippians 1:6


Remember that Christ died on the Cross?
Why?
So that you can have eternal relationship with God..
You dont control that, as you didn't cause IT.

What do you control?
How you feel and what you want, and what you think, and what you choose.
You are in charge of your freewill., but not your relationship with God.

God is always kept at PEACE with the born again, based only on the Cross of Christ.
Lets say that today you decided you hate God and want to go to hell.
Well, if you are born again, .. GOD is in you, and he's not going anywhere while you make all these decisions.
THe born again, belong to God who has given them to Jesus, as the Bride of Christ.
That is not going to change, no matter how you behave.

Let me break it down to the atom level for you.

Im assuming you are born again......and that is not water baptized, or believing you are "predestined to be the elect", or "One of the 144,000"..
None of this junk.<

So, if you are born again.....you were a lifelong ungodly sinner, the day God made you a Saint and a Son.
So, the same way He did that is the same way He does it today and forever....= NOT BASED ON YOUR BEHAVIOR.

 

[Pearl]

I don't think we need to confess every little wrongdoing to a priest - especially if we then go and do the same thing again. But I do think we need to keep a clean slate with God so that we don't carry around those burdens with us. And also if we need to we must also confess to anybody we may have wronged.

 

[LearningToLetGo]

God is always kept at PEACE with the born again, based only on the Cross of Christ.

Could you explain this further? How does being born again keep one always at peace? Born again or not, we are still human. We are still tempted and we still fall short. I can't see us ever being always at peace while we still live in the flesh.

 

[amigo de christo]

I don't think we need to confess every little wrongdoing to a priest - especially if we then go and do the same thing again. But I do think we need to keep a clean slate with God so that we don't carry around those burdens with us. And also if we need to we must also confess to anybody we may have wronged.

Specially when priests tell ya to do ten hail marys and etc . That aint the solution to erring , IT IS ERRING .
Them folks basically have folks err when they confess their errors . WE PRAY TO NONE BUT GOD IN JESUS NAME .
PEROID .

 

[Jane_Doe22]

I don't think we need to confess every little wrongdoing to a priest - especially if we then go and do the same thing again. But I do think we need to keep a clean slate with God so that we don't carry around those burdens with us. And also if we need to we must also confess to anybody we may have wronged.

In my experience/observation, every Christian faith believes in confession. This takes many forms including any number of the following:
- Confessing to yourself & God: always
- Confessing and saying you are sorry to hurt persons
- legally confessing if this involves a serious crime if applicable
- Confessing to a priest for serious sins. The exact purpose/method varies between denominations. Some view a priest as a stand in for Christ. Others view the priest not as Christ but as a mentor to help guide and support through the repentance process. And a bunch of different views.

 

[amigo de christo]

Dont forget even if an angel preaches another gospel we dont heed it . JUST a reminder . cause i know
how many cults got started .

 

[Pearl]

Could you explain this further? How does being born again keep one always at peace? Born again or not, we are still human. We are still tempted and we still fall short. I can't see us ever being always at peace while we still live in the flesh.

I think it's like being at peace as opposed to being at war. Friends rather than enemies.

 

[LearningToLetGo]

I think it's like being at peace as opposed to being at war. Friends rather than enemies.

At peace with God vs. at peace with ourselves? That makes sense. Strange, I never considered humanity to be "at war" with God. He wants desperately to redeem us after all, and it's only our own pride that blocks us from his grace.

 

[Pearl]

At peace with God vs. at peace with ourselves? That makes sense. Strange, I never considered humanity to be "at war" with God. He wants desperately to redeem us after all, and it's only our own pride that blocks us from his grace.

He does want to redeem us so that we can live at peace with him rather than be his enemies. Those who are in the world are enemies of God's Kingdom until they accept Jesus as their Saviour. And once we are at peace with God, through Jesus we can then be at peace with ourselves as we let the Holy Spirit bestow on us that peace that transcends understanding.

 

[marks]

confession and repentance are like the oil that lubricates our spiritual maturation. Sin in our lives interferes with our fellowship with God, confession and repentance restores that fellowship, and the humility which it takes to confess and repent Is the broken and contrite heart God loves to mold as Potter molds clay.

Scripture:
Psalm 51:17, 1 John 1:5-10, James 4:1-10

Man's first response to having sinned was to hide from God. He became aware he was naked.

When we fail to believe in our reconciliation in Jesus Christ, we also hide from God, failing to remember that we are in Christ, reconciled to God. If we choose to hide, this is to choose our flesh, and leads to more sin. If we choose our reconciliation in Christ, to believe in what Jesus did for us, to rely on His obedience, we come boldly before the throne of grace, to find timely help.

Much love!

 

[Behold]

Could you explain this further? How does being born again keep one always at peace? Born again or not, we are still human. We are still tempted and we still fall short. I can't see us ever being always at peace while we still live in the flesh.

"""Jesus is the "prince of Peace."""
"""" The Holy Spirit is the COMFORTER""""
The peace of God, passes all understanding""

God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit live IN the born again......in Spiritual Union......and so the born again are become : "the Temple of the Holy Spirit."
= "ONE with God"

So, as i was explaining.... in the last 2 posts...... The Cross of Christ, is Why God has a relationship with a human being. There is no other way and no other reason.. John 14:6
God came here, and became one of us, to save all of us. And how did He do that?.

A.) The blood of Jesus and His Death...= God accepts on our behalf, to accept us.
We have no part in this acceptance, other then to give God our Faith in Jesus, and RECEIVE .."The GIFT of Salvation" and "The GIFT of Righteousness"

See those 2 "gifts"..... they are FREE, and you have them the instant you are born again.

= There is your Peace.... The Peace comes from the comfort of Knowing that God has accepted you, not based on you...but based on Christ.
See that?
That takes all the self effort away from Salvation, which allows it to be God's Mercy and God's Grace, which is what it is....

See, when we are trying to confess sin, and endure, and all this self effort...to try to please God or to try to prove you are sorry for something you did..., then you are taking Christ's Place, and that is why there is no peace.
As there is no peace when we try to perform for God.....as Salvation is God saving us.

God's Forgiveness, just like eternal life.... is not temporary.....Its not based on our behavior..>its based on what Christ has "FINISHED".... on the Cross for us.
And that is the "Gift".

Knowing He did, ... knowing that its All of God and none of you.... this takes the pressure off of you, and that pressure to try to be good to stay accepted is usually a worry that if you are not, you lose your Salvation.
However, as Salvation is not what you can earn or keep or control, then once that Revelation comes alive in your faith by revelation, then there is a peace that passes all understanding, in that area that use to be a fear.
Fear of losing your Salvation.

What is the Joy of the Lord?
Its the Peace of Christ....that is found when you finally understand that Salvation is all of God, that is given as a GIFT, and this Gift is kept by God for us and in us.
Philippians 1:6

Here is another verse..>>"the Gifts and calling of God are without Repentance".

"without repentance" means, He will never take it back, for any reason.

Why is that such a Hallelujah ? = Because Salvation is a : GIfT.....and He will never take it back.

 

[L.A.M.B.]

I try my best to ALWAYS allow the Spirit to guide my walk with God.
However we are still flesh and blood and the old nature can still rear it's head.

We can be quick to pop off at other drivers, grumble when the store and parking place is full and you have to park a distance away.
Get angry when fellow housemates are sloppy, and we don't get what WE want, to name a few.

These flare ups or quick spurts are against the Spirit bearing his fruit. One of which is gentleness, and another self control.
If we leave these feelings of the flesh to fester we can get worse in our attitude and decide it's ok to be like this.

For sins defined in the bible I pray no believer is committing theft,murder,adultery, pathologically lying ect.

We have to as one said keep the slate clean in our relationship between ourselves and God for correct communion.

We do this by confessing our sins,faults,flaws ect to Jesus our mediator , who purchased our sins and offers forgiveness.

 

[LearningToLetGo]

confession and repentance are like the oil that lubricates our spiritual maturation. Sin in our lives interferes with our fellowship with God, confession and repentance restores that fellowship, and the humility which it takes to confess and repent Is the broken and contrite heart God loves to mold as Potter molds clay.

What is the purpose of confession? Since God already knows our innermost thoughts, confession cannot serve to benefit God. Therefore, confession must serve to benefit us. In that case, what benefit does confession endow us? In other words, why confess?

 

[David H.]

Fellowship with God is not caused by you., exactly as Salvation is not caused by you.

Sin separates us from fellowship with God as a born again believer., Confession (Humble acceptance of our sin) and repentance, (turning from that sin) restores that fellowship, because if walk in the light we have fellowship with one another. (1 John 1:7)

So No, I do not agree with your premise, and see it as anti-biblical. The Bible has a term for this known as Quenching the Spirit, putting out the fire of the Spirit By sinning, or grieving the Holy Spirit, where His direct active presence is not involved in your life because of the sin. Fellowship with God for the born again has everything to do with the individual as the Holy Spirit will not force his will upon the believer instead He waits for us to surrender to his leading and instruction.

 

[David H.]

I don't think we need to confess every little wrongdoing to a priest

I Am not talking about this kind of confession and for the purpose of this post confession is the humble acceptance of our own wrongdoing. Sometimes the hardest words to say are "I am wrong". It takes great humility to say these three words and mean it.

 

[David H.]

What is the purpose of confession? Since God already knows our innermost thoughts, confession cannot serve to benefit God. Therefore, confession must serve to benefit us. In that case, what benefit does confession endow us? In other words, why confess?

As I mentioned to @Pearl confession serves us in that he keeps us humble, and able to be led by the Spirit and taught by the Spirit and sanctified by the Spirit.... It is the good ground in which the seed can germinate.