[EGW editor's preface:  One of our readers sent in the following question: “Does man have to confess his sin to another man?  Meaning, if you tell a lie, is asking God for forgiveness enough?  Or do you have to confess to the person whom you lied to?”  As with any question concerning what we hope to learn from the Bible, we must always strive to apply good hermeneutics and to let the Bible interpret itself.
     (For more tips on good Bible-reading skills, click the subjects Hermeneutics and Bible study)]

     I like the general thought of our reader’s question for at least two reasons:

     1.  This question rightly challenges popular denominational practice.  Several denominations teach their members to “confess” their sins to some supervising clergy or member in order to have those sins “absolved,” “cleansed,” “purged,” “exonerated,” “expunged,” or (whatever particular word they use to describe how these people distribute forgiveness of the members’ sins).  This degrading practice for “confession” has no Bible-based instruction or concern at heart, but is really a twisted means of controlling the membership … often by using this confidentially-gained information to intimidate or even to threaten members into submitting to the wishes of their denominations’ leaders.
     2.  This question reminds us as individuals to study the Bible for ourselves.  As people faithfully trying to seek out and obey God’s instructions for Christians, we have a right and a responsibility to question & examine everything taught and practiced by our churches in light of God’s word.  Where a church’s specific teaching or practice obeys what the New Testament Scriptures command Christians to do, we should encourage them to continue that.  Where a church’s specific efforts and activities fit within what those same Scriptures allow or even suggest Christians to do (i.e. is “ok” with God), we should accommodate their freedom to do so.  Where a church’s specific teaching or practice or effort or activity disobeys the New Testament’s instructions from God, we should refuse and discourage it by teaching them from the Bible what is correct and authorized by God.

• Digging into the Scriptures:

     First of all, we need to make sure we are using this word “confess” as the Bible uses it.  To say, “I confess something” today usually means “I admit to doing something wrong.”  However, the Bible uses “I confess something” with the broader meaning of “I admit or acknowledge something is true or correct.”  [dgc: in the passages we will be looking at today, I've highlighted certain portions to more quickly identify how they relate to the point at hand.]

     In 1 Kings 8:22, Solomon begins a prayer to God at the dedication of the new temple.  “When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You,” Solomon prays in verses 33-34, “and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers.”  “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You,” he continues in verses 35-36, “when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk;  and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.”
     How is Solomon using the word “confess” here?  He’s saying that when the people finally do repent from their sin and turn back to God, they must also confess God’s name … in other words, they must “admit” or “acknowledge” His authority as the one and only true living God.  Obviously, in this case, the people’s confession probably includes admitting the fact of their sins, but only as a part of their goal to acknowledge God’s authority as their master.
     In the book of Job, chapter 40, God issues a challenge to Job demanding an answer as to whether Job can do the things that only God do.  If Job can, “Then I will also confess to you,” the LORD states in verse 14, “that your own right hand can save you.”  In other words, God is willing to acknowledge something about Job as true, but if and only if that something really is true.
     Jesus applies this usage of confession to His true followers and Himself.  “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is heaven.” we read Jesus say in Matthew 10:32-33.  Luke 12:8-9 records another occasion where Jesus speaks this way, “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.  But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”  Our confession is our admission of certain facts about ourselves and God, namely that we obey God as our Master.  Jesus’ confession is His acknowledgement that we confessed the truth.
     These confessions by Christians about God and by Jesus in heaven imply more than mere words.  The apostle Paul, when on trial before the Roman governor Felix in Acts chapter 24, tells Felix that what he is confessing affects both his worship and his action.  “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect,”  Paul admits in verses 14-16, “so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets.  I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.  This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”  In his second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul demonstrates how this confession is part of a Christian’s obedience to Christ’s gospel, is reflected in our acts of righteousness, and in turn brings glory to God.  “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,” he explains in 2 Corinthians 9:10-15, “while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.  For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  Our confession is a part of our obedience, a part of how God changes our lives, and a part of how we point people to God.
     In Isaiah 45:22-23 we read God saying, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself;  the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.”  However, when we read how Paul quotes verse 23 in Romans 14:11, we discover that this oath is equated to a confession of God's authority and that authority must guide the Christian’s actions.  Beginning at verse 9, “For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.  But why do you judge your brother?  Or why do you show contempt for your brother?  For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  For it is written:  ‘As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”  Our confession to God is our oath of submission … our promise of obedience … to His authority and judgment.

     Our confession to God is our acknowledgement of certain facts about ourselves and God.  Our confession is a part of our obedience and of how God changes our lives.  Our confession is our oath of submission to His authority and judgment.
     Our confession to God is also a conditional requirement of our salvation.  “… if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead,”  Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, “you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  This condition does include confessing our sins to God.  David wrote in Psalm 32, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.  When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.  For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;  my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.  I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”  Solomon wrote in Proverbs 28:13, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”  “This is the message which we have heard from Him,”  John wrote to us in 1 John 1:5-10, “that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.    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.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

     We cannot be saved without Jesus confessing us to His Father in heaven.  What Jesus confesses about us depends upon our confession of Him and God, which includes confessing our sins to God.  Our confession of Jesus involves admitting the truth about ourselves, God, and our relationship with God.  God considers our confession to Him as our oath or pledge of allegiance and uses this confession to change our lives for the better.  And our confession must be ongoing until we die.
     “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,” we are encouraged in Hebrews 10:23-25, “for He who promised is faithful.  And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”  The inspired writer then reminds us of why this is so important, summarizing in verses 35-39 — “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.  For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

‘For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith;  but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”  When Christians lose their confession and die without their confession, they die without their salvation.

     We've seen clearly that we must confess our sins to God.  But do we have any instructions about confession concerning other people?  In other words, when and why should we confess our sins to other people?
     One instruction and reason to confess our sins to other Christians is to gain their prayers on our behalf.  “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another,” James wrote in James 5:16 to all Christians, “that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  Notice the “one another”?  This particular combination of confessing and praying is a mutual thing … Christians approaching each other as equals with shared concern for each other and praying toward God for each other’s forgiveness and improvement.  A very far cry from the denominational practice of reporting sins to a superior who claims the authority to distribute God’s forgiveness.  How unrealistic such man-made practice is!  How much simpler and more helpful are God’s instructions in His written word.
     A second reason is to gain forgiveness from those people we've wronged.  We read in Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”  This thought is also expressed in Colossians 3:12-17.  “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;  bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another;  even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body;  and be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
     A third reason is to keep our own worship acceptable to God.  Jesus addressed this very issue of how our sin against a fellow Christian can hinder God’s acceptance of our worship, especially if that person holds it against us before God.  Read with me in Matthew 5:21-26, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council.  But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.  Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
     A fourth reason might be that as Christians confess their sins to those Christians they've wronged, they enable each other to obey Christ’s instruction to forgive each other and also help each other to worship acceptably to God.  Mark 11:25-26 tells us Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”  Notice that God holds each Christian responsible to have a willingness to forgive.  Any Christian who refuses to be forgiving runs the risk of God refusing to be forgiving.  Remember also, as we saw indication earlier, that when Christians confess sins done against others, their confession carries an oath promising to repent from doing those sins.  Certainly this repentant attitude should make it easier for us to forgive other Christians when they ask us to forgive them, for them to forgive us, and for us to encourage each other to forgive.

     We’ve seen that the Christian’s confession of God includes, but is much more than, confessing sins to God.  We’ve seen that some circumstances and reasons are appropriate for Christians to confess their sins to other people, especially other Christians.  How often is this to be done?  Is it appropriate for Christians to confess their sins to anyone and everyone?
     I see at least three elements common in the instructions concerning confession of sins to one another.  One element is purpose to improve something … to restore a broken relationship, to right a unforgiven wrong with an apology, to request informed help, to encourage repentance and growth, to clarify a harmful misunderstanding, etc.  In other words, when one Christian wrongs another Christian, and then confesses that sin to the one he wronged and requests forgiveness & prayers on his behalf, the good result God desires is for both Christians to draw closer to Him and to each other.
     A second element is that those being confessed to about a specific sin already have a prior knowledge about that sin or have a concerned interest about that sin's effects or both; i.e. someone who knows or cares or does both.  When we confess a sin to God, He already has both a prior knowledge about that sin and a prior concern about that sin's consequences, and wants to help us stop that sin, fix the damages, and do better in the future.  When we confess a sin to other Christians for prayers, they should already have a prior concern for our spiritual well-being and the damage sin can cause us.  When we confess specific sins to other Christians that we've wronged, they are probably already aware of the sins, but probably are not yet aware of our desire to repent.
     A third element is that the sins being confessed are as-yet unforgiven sins … forgiven sins of the past are sometimes discussed as factual matters of history, but they are not apologized for again.  There is no need to request confession or forgiveness for a sin that has already been forgiven.  To do so would actually deny God’s willingness and ability to forgive sin, and would also falsely judge fellow Christians’ willingness and efforts to obey God.
     For one example of men of God applying these elements in action, let's briefly consider the apostle Paul in the New Testament.  
     At the end of Acts chapter seven, we read about a Christian named Stephen who is stoned for his faith and we are introduced to the young man Saul, who helps out with the stoning by watching the garments and valuables of others involved.  At the beginning of chapter eight, we are told that Saul consented to Stephen’s death … it’s important we understand that his attitude and actions make him as guilty of killing this godly man as those who actually threw the rocks.  In verse three, we learn how Saul “made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”  In Acts 9:1 & 2, we see “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”  This man was a murderer of Christians and a cruel persecutor of Christ’s church … that’s what the man (whom we also know as the apostle Paul) did before he became a believer in Christ later in that same chapter.
     When Paul recounts to an angry mob in Jerusalem (in Acts chapter 22) the story of how he had persecuted the church and of how he became a Christian, he mentions the details of his persecuting Christians simply as historical, undeniable facts to illustrate his point … but he makes no effort to “confess” these facts as sins and to ask forgiveness from the crowd.  Why not?  Did the crowd care or disapprove of these past deeds?  No, instead they cared and disapproved that he was teaching Christianity.  Were the people interested in rightly restoring Paul’s relations with God or themselves?  No, they wanted to beat and kill him, not help him do better.  Were those people even in a position to forgive Paul for those sins against Christians?  No, those sins had already been forgiven by God and by those he had persecuted … Paul needed no one else to forgive them again.  For Paul to have confessed sins and requested forgiveness from these people would have served no purpose.
     Suppose every time Paul preached to a new congregation of the saved or to a new group of unsaved souls, he brought forward these past forgiven sins and asked them for their forgiveness before teaching them from God’s word.  Would this have served God’s purpose for confession of sins?  No.  Instead it would have done great harm by placing a false emphasis on Paul the man and on a life he no longer lived, and thus distracting his audiences from what was really important … God’s message for them.
     
• Summary:
     
     “Does man have to confess his sin to another man?  Meaning, if you tell a lie, is asking God for forgiveness enough?  Or do you have to confess to the person whom you lied to?”
     God has provided some instructions about some situations and some reasons where Christians should confess sins to Him and to other Christians.  The purpose of these instructions is to help restore and reconcile the sinner’s relationships with God and other Christians.  The sins are confessed to persons (including God) whose knowledge and concerned interest of the situation require their involvement in this process of restoration and reconciliation.  Once these sins have been forgiven, there is no Scriptural reason to keep “confessing” them.
     These instructions also imply some reasons why in some situations attempts to confess sins to some people are a waste of time and may even cause harm instead of good.

     Something else that God’s instructions for confessing sin suggests, but we didn't explicitly discuss yet is this … the window of opportunity for confessing sins to each other is limited.
     One limit of this window of opportunity is available feasibility … sometimes it's less than we might like or even missing altogether.  How could all the drunk drivers ask forgiveness from all the playful children they've killed with their cars?  How could all the con artists, pickpockets, liars, and other thieves ask forgiveness from all their nameless victims?  How could all the wealthy families who cheated on their taxes ask forgiveness from all the needy families their unpaid taxes would have helped?  How could all those whose sins got themselves killed ask forgiveness from those they left behind?  How could all the new Christians seek forgiveness from all the people they've wronged in their past before becoming Christians?  How could all those who've refused opportunities to forgive seek forgiveness from all those who first sought forgiveness from them?
     Another limit is available time … sooner or later it runs out.  How many opportunities have people passed by to confess a mistake, tell of heart-felt love, or even show a simple kindness while others still lived … opportunities people later regained in vain by trying to tell an empty room or a cold tombstone their tender words spoken too late?
     What can we do when we can not go ask and receive forgiveness from those we've wronged?  
     We can ask God to forgive us and ask fellow Christians for their prayers asking God to forgive us, and then demonstrate our confession by working with God and our family in Christ to forsake those sins leaving them behind us.  Fortunately, we can trust Him at His word to forgive us.  But, as Psalm 28 reminds us, if we wait too long, we can lose that opportunity as well.  How many people have gone to their own graves before realizing they've run out of time to repent and to confess?

          Psalm 28

1    To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me,
     Lest, if You are silent to me,
     I become like those who go down to the pit.
2    Hear the voice of my supplications
     When I cry to You,
    When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
3    Do not take me away with the wicked
    And with the workers of iniquity,
    Who speak peace to their neighbors,
    But evil is in their hearts.
4    Give them according to their deeds,
    And according to the wickedness of their endeavors;
    Give them according to the work of their hands;
    Render to them what they deserve.
5    Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,
    Nor the operation of His hands,
    He shall destroy them
    And not build them up.
6    Blessed be the Lord,
    Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!
7    The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
    Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
    And with my song I will praise Him.
8    The Lord is their strength,
    And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
9    Save Your people,
    And bless Your inheritance;
    Shepherd them also,
    And bear them up forever.