What saith the scripture?
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
*** God is faithful to cleans us from our iniquities.
In Matthew 6:12 we learn that our Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray and say: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” In saying this, we acknowledge that God is who forgives our sins.
But sometimes we sin against one another, Peter asked “... and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” What Jesus was telling Peter was that he should forgive as many times as it takes. So we know that we should forgive the offended person, and not confess, nor seek forgiveness through a third person, such as the Catholics tend to do. Our Lord gave a great illustration about this in Matthew 5:23-24: “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” What Jesus was teaching is that we ought to reconcile with your brother that has an issue against you, and not necessarily you against him. This teaches what love and forgiveness is, or as Ephesians 4:32 says: “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” Now, some have taken James 5:16 out of context; “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” We are to seek help/counsel within the church of Christ by sharing our concerns, faults, errors, weaknesses, but not to confess them with the intent to seek forgiveness; the word here is faults, not sins. And if you continue to read the verse out, you will understand that the message is that we should pray for the brother who is troubled by faults. Sins done in secret or indirectly that cannot be rectify, meaning, you can't locate the person that you sinned against, should be confessed to God, that you may be forgiven, not to a man.
-May the Love of God, and grace of our Lord, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you.
