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Quotes That Keep The Church in Bondage: Pt 1
No comments · Posted by Peter Wilson in The Power of God's Word
Quotes That Keep The Church In Bondage!
Over the past 100 yrs the gospel has spawned a number of statements that people have latched onto. These statements or quotes have been picked up by people and passed around until they take on a life of their own and are taken as being Bible!
In my view these quotes, rather than setting people free, have kept them imprisoned in their sin and in bondage. I would like to challenge these quotes and replace them with what I consider to be Biblical truths. The first one is:
CONFESSION OF SIN
LK 18:13 GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER (NKJV)
This quote suggests that when a person comes to Christ, they have to confess their sins and ask God to forgive them. This formula has to be continued throughout a Christian’s life, hence whenever they sin, they have to confess it and ask for God’s forgiveness. But let’s look at what the scriptures teach – in the New Covenant there are only 3 instances of people confessing their sins:
1) John The Baptist: John came into the wilderness preaching that all people should repent of their sins. The people responded to his call: Mt 3:5,6 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him (John) and were baptised by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. (NKJV)
John the Baptist was still under the Old Covenant and was preaching an Old Covenant message of repentance that demanded confession of sin!
2) The Pharisee and Tax Collector This is a parable of 2 men who went to the Temple to pray. The Tax Collector prayed thus: Lk 18:13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ (NKJV)
Again this story takes place under the Old Covenant.
3) The First Epistle of John The Apostle:
1 Jn 1:8,9 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (NKJV)
In my view, John is writing 1 Jn Ch1 to Gnostic’s who held to the believe that sin wasn’t real or didn’t matter.
The word ‘confess’ in v 9 could equally be translated as ‘acknowledge’. Hence John is telling the Gnostics that if they will acknowledge they are sinners, they can receive God’s forgiveness, but they are to acknowledge not confess their sins.
Let’s now look at 4 reasons why God under the New Covenant no longer asks us to confess our sin.
1) All our sin forgiven: At the cross Jesus as our High Priest, offered up Himself as a once for all sacrifice and took the punishment for ‘all’ our sins, past, present and future.
1 Jn 1:7 The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (NKJV) (Heb 9:28)
2) Sin Taken Away:
Jn 1:29 “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”! (CEB) (Rom 11:27)
Jesus became our scapegoat who carried our sins away never to be brought back again.
3) Sin Not Remembered:
Heb 10:17“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (NKJV) (Heb 8:12)
Jesus as our scapegoat took our sins away never to be brought back to our remembrance, and God Himself says He will remember our sins no more. The word ‘no’ is a double negative in the Greek, strengthening the denial.
It is God saying He will not, He will absolutely not, remember our sins any more.
4) Sin not counted against us.
2 Cor 5:19 God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. (CEB) (Rom 4:8, 5:13)
At the cross then, God forgave the sin of the world, took it away and has forgotten it. For good measure, He now says He will no longer count it against us. Sin is gone forever.
Subsequently, whenever we sin, we are not to confess our sin, we are instead to receive His forgiveness which was freely given to us at the cross 2000 yrs ago.
Meditation Point: Ask yourself a question: If God forgave all my sin at the cross without asking anything of me in return except to receive His forgiveness – why am i spending all this time, energy and strength constantly confessing my sins?
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