Session 6: A Prayer of Confession
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Our greatest need is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Sin is what keeps us from that relationship. Even for a believer who has stepped into that relationship with Christ, sin can become a barrier in growing that relationship. King David—who was called a man after God’s own heart ()—sinned. However, he also modeled for us what it means to come to God in confession and repentance.
Paul’s speech in Perga synagogue:
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’
Let’s look at
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Debts and Debtors. What or who do you think this is referring to?
Metaphorically, it is those who we have sinned against and those who have sinned against us.
What does it mean to forgive and why should we?
We have been forgiven, and the One who forgave us is no less than the Creator and King of the universe, God Himself.
The moment we repented of our sin and trusted in Jesus Christ, God canceled our sin-debt, and set us free.
He forgave us unconditionally and unreservedly, on the merit of what His Son had done for us.
Remember the punchline Jesus gave in ?
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Forgiveness is not feeling something
Forgiveness is not feeling something
Is Adams exaggerating to make a point? Sad to say, I don't think so. You may be struggling with forgiveness right now because you are clinging to an unbiblical concept of forgiveness. Let me mention two common misunderstandings.
A. It is not feeling something. Sam came to his pastor and said, "I've had it with Sally. Our marriage is over. And don't talk to me about forgiving her. That's impossible because I just don't feel it." That's a common objection to forgiveness, isn't it? The problem with it is twofold...
Feeling is not a prerequisite to forgiving. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you have to feel like forgiving in order to forgive. If you wait for a feeling, you're waiting in vain.
It is a decision to say something. Something specific. Something intentional. Something you've thought through and mean. We'll see what it is momentarily. Before we do, another myth...
Forgiveness is not forgetting something
There is a difference between "forgetting" and "not remembering." What's the difference?
Forgetting is passive. Not remembering is active.
When God forgives, He doesn't forget, does He? Can an omniscient Person not know something? No. When God forgives us, He chooses to not remember. Listen to how God forgives: ; ; ;
And the king knew he was had.
34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
When God forgives, He doesn't forget, does He? Can an omniscient Person not know something? No. When God forgives us, He chooses to not remember. Listen to how God forgives:
But when it comes to biblical forgiveness, forgetting isn't a prerequisite anyway.
25 “I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.
When God forgives, He doesn't forget, does He? Can an omniscient Person not know something? No. When God forgives us, He chooses to not remember. Listen to how God forgives:
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”
; ; ;
"I, even I, am he who blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own name's sake, and will not remember thy sins."
17 then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
; "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."
Forgiveness is a declaration.
II. What Forgiveness Is.
According to the Bible, forgiveness is the following...
A. Forgiveness is a declaration. It's not feeling something. It's choosing to say something. It's a making a decision that involves a promise...
It is a promise to not remember something.
It is a promise not to bring the issue back up as a basis for how I will treat you.
I haven't forgotten the event, but rather I choose to not remember it.
B. Forgiveness is a three-fold promise... If you've sinned against me, and you come to me and say, "I was wrong for what I did. Will you forgive me?", when I say, "I forgive you," I am promising you three things...
1. I will not bring it up so as to hurt you. I will not use the event as leverage against you the next time we face a problem, "Well, you owe me one." No you don't. I forgave you.
Right here's the reason why many families don't have peace. They don't forgive. They hold grudges. They give the silent treatment. What's tragic is that God's way is so much better. When I forgive, I make a promise to no longer hold your sin against you. The slate is clean. We can move on. There's more. When I forgive, I am promising that...
2. I will not talk about it with others so as to hurt you. Which, sad to say, is what we often do. Instead of dealing with the problem God's way, we talk to people who are not a part of the solution. The Bible calls that what? Gossip. When I say "I forgive you" I am promising I will not do that. Nor...
3. I will not dwell on it myself. I will not brood, sulk, have a pity party over the transgression. When I say, "I forgive you," it's settled, done, case closed.
You may wonder, "Isn't that hard to do?" Sure, but what part of living the Christian life isn't hard? In fact, my Savior says to me, "Without Me, you can do nothing." There's a big difference between hard and impossible. I cannot forgive based on my strength, but I can with God's. Indeed, I must.
Forgiveness is a choice to do with others what God did with us.
It's not forgive and forget, It's forgive in order to forget.
It's forgive in order to forget. If you choose to forgive, what you will discover is this. As time passes, you will think less and less of the offense. Forgiveness is like a sharp knife that cuts away the tentacles of the offense and set us free to serve God and love our brother.
So forgiveness is a declaration, a promise, and choice I make to do with others what God did with me. In order to forgive, I must choose to do something with my "rights."
I must choose to give up my "right" to remember a hurt or to get revenge for it (). states, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil...Do not take revenge, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the LORD...Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
It's God's place to get even, not mine.
When I choose to give up this "right" and keep the promise, I will have fulfilled the necessary requirements for forgetting the event.
And that's what biblical forgiveness is all about. George Herbert once said, "He who cannot forgive others burns the bridge over which he himself must pass."
There's an interesting story that's told about the days following the Civil War. As you know, the Civil War left a tragic aftermath of bitterness, hatred, and resentment in America. The wounds inflicted were deep in our country. Even after the guns were silent, the anger lived on. Many could not let go of the past.
One man who refused to participate in this terrible harvest of bitterness was General Robert E. Lee, former leader of the Confederate Army. Lee urged reconciliation between the north and the south. He knew the war was over and the future of the nation demanded a new attitude and a spirit of forgiveness. It's been said that to the day of his death, General Lee was never heard to speak an unkind word about those who had formerly been his enemies.
One day, a lady in Lexington, Virginia, showed him the scarred remains of what had once been a large, beautiful tree in her yard. All the limbs had been shot off by Federal artillery. She thought the General would share her sense of anger and outrage, and waited for his reply.
Finally, Lee spoke, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it."
Beloved, if you've been hurt or slighted or offended or disappointed by a past event--whether intentional or not--the Word of God is calling you to make a decision. Cut it down. Choose right now to respond to the past according to God's Word. Choose to forgive.
But how? That brings us to the second vital question…
Part 2—How Do We Seek Forgiveness?"
There is an unusual epitaph on a large headstone in a cemetery outside of New York City. The name of the person in the grave is not on the headstone. There is no mention of when the person was born or when he died. It doesn't say anything about being a beloved mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, or daughter. Just one word stretches across the headstone: Forgiven.
Forgiveness is an amazing thing, isn't it? It's amazing to know the forgiveness of God. It's amazing to know that we can be right with God because of what Jesus did for us. It's amazing to know we can be right with each other, through forgiveness, even after we've blown it. And it's amazing, though sad, that forgiveness is so often so misunderstood.
There are two key aspects of forgiveness: seeking it, and granting it. How do you seek forgiveness? And, how do you grant forgiveness to someone who seeks it from you? We'll address the first question now, and the second question momentarily. If we are to be biblical when it comes to seeking forgiveness, we need to consider two things...
I. Recognize some common misconceptions about forgiveness.
Allow me to mention two...
A. We must avoid using unbiblical terms. It's been observed that a problem well-defined is a problem that is well on its way to being solved. One of the reasons there are so many unresolved interpersonal conflicts is because we've adopted so many unbiblical notions about forgiveness. Here are two...
1. "I'm sorry." (problem: that merely communicates an emotion) As parents, we often perpetuate this unbiblical approach. When our 5 year old comes running into the kitchen screaming, "Mom! Billy told me I'm stupid!", what are we prone to do? We take 5-year-old Sally, get her older brother Billy, sit them on the couch, and say to Billy, "Young man, did you tell Sally she's stupid?" To which he mumbles, knowing he's in trouble, "Yea." To which we reply, "We don't talk that way, do we? You need to make it right." So Billy mutters, "I'm sorry." And then we turn back to Sally and say, "Billy says he's sorry. What do you say?" And Sally is supposed to say, "That's okay."
What's wrong with that scenario? Two things. One, we've made a liar out of Sally, haven't we? Was it "okay" that Billy called her stupid like we insisted she say? A second problem is that we've urged Billy to resolve a situation in a way the Bible never endorses. Saying "I'm sorry" is merely communicating an emotion, how you feel. It hasn't resolved anything. The sin is still on the table.
2. "I apologize." (problem: that leaves the conflict unresolved) You will look in vain to find the practice of "apologizing" in the Bible. Actually, the English word "apologize" has roots in a Greek term apologia which means "a verbal defense."
Which is often what happens. For instance, take Billy again. Mom says, "Billy, you need to apologize for what you did to Sally." And Billy responds, "Okay, I apologize. But the reason I called Sally stupid is because she gets under my skin. She's always coming into my room when I want to be alone."
Question. Did Billy apologize? Yes. He gave a verbal defense of his actions ("I did what I did because..."). But did he seek forgiveness in a way the Bible endorses? Not at all. When we seek forgiveness biblically, we don't make excuses or seek to justify what we've done. We must avoid using unbiblical terms. Related to this...
B. We must avoid using unbiblical substitutes. Here are six examples...
1. Some minimize the offense ("It's not a big deal."). Back to Billy again, "Oh, what's the big deal? Kids at school call other kids a whole lot worse things than 'stupid.' Maybe I shouldn't have said what I did, but it's not a big deal." That's minimizing the offense.
Listen, it's always a big deal if sin is involved. What does prohibit? "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs."
2. "I've asked God to forgive me. Why do I need to ask you?" What's the answer to that? Because God says so. God commands us to go and seek forgiveness from the person we've sinned against (read ).
3. Some prefer to ignore or condone the sin rather than to seek and grant biblical forgiveness. This is related to the former unbiblical substitute.
Why would some people prefer to ignore sin rather than deal with it biblically? Because it's easier. "Oh, let's just forget it happened!" is their plea. And things settle down. For awhile. Until the next blow up.
Listen. Unresolved problems don't go away. They resurface in time. They're like the proverbial snowball that gets bigger and bigger as it goes downhill.
4. "I need to forgive myself first." That's not in Scripture.
5. "I need to forgive God first." Like the man who refuses to seek forgiveness of his ex-boss with this rationalization, "I can't. I know I was wrong for what I did, but God put me in that job. I'm mad at God. You can't expect me to go to my ex-boss until I work things out with God, can you?" That's certainly not a Scriptural approach, and borders on the blasphemous, but it's not uncommon.
6. "I can't seek forgiveness until I feel like it." Is that true? Can we not do something until we feel like it? Did you feel like getting out of bed this morning? If you didn't, why did you? Because you wanted to please God, right? And you knew that coming to church would please Him.
Jesus said this to His disciples in , "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."
So, when it comes to seeking forgiveness, we first must recognize and reject the common misconceptions about forgiveness. Secondly, we must...
II. Resolve to be biblical when you need to seek forgiveness.
tells us, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Or stated positively, "Keep current in resolving problems. Don't ignore them. Don't run from them. Deal with them." exhorts us, "Pursue peace with everybody." gives us this powerful incentive for working at reconciliation, "If we carefully judged ourselves, we wouldn't be judged."
That's a sober warning. God says that if we don't deal with our sins against another person, He will. He'll act in judgment. It's better, Paul says, not to wait until that happens. The thing to do is to judge ourselves.
Why is forgiveness so important? ;; ; ;
1. It's vital because of what Christ did for us (). Peter once asked Jesus (), "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" To which Jesus responded, "No, until seventy-seven (or seventy times seven) times." And then He told the story about the wicked servant who was forgiven a trillion dollar debt, but then refused to forgive his fellow-servant of a $300 debt.
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The point of the story is, "It's unthinkable!" In light of what Christ has done for us, how could we refuse to take forgiveness seriously in our relationships with each other? We are to forgive as we have been forgiven by God in Christ ().
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
). Listen to Jesus' words, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
I must be willing to forgive those who have not asked me for forgiveness. The actual granting of forgiveness doesn't occur, however, until it is requested (which we'll develop next time).
3. It's vital because it prepares the way for restoration (). "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Seeking forgiveness is vital if restoration is to occur. A sin against another person is like a brick. If I sin against you and don't deal with it biblically, it's as if I lay a brick between us. Another sin, another brick. Unresolved sin creates a wall, a huge wall between us. We can have no true fellowship any longer, only a pseudo-peace at best.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
God's way is to much better!
How do I ask for forgiveness?
13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
1. State clearly what you did wrong. reveals, "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." If I've sinned against you, I can't undo the deed. I can't rewind the clock and change the past. But I can make it right. How? By admitting and stating in clear, concise terms, "I was wrong." Who must we admit that to?
Let’s now look at verse 13
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
The Greek term used here may indicate a specific entity (such as the devil; compare ) or evil in its many forms.
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
Does God tempt believers? Does he test them? Compare , and
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
This is a request to guide us to avoid life’s temptations - our weaknesses. Example: alcohol addiction - pray for strength to drive a different route if there is a favorite bar on the way home. This ties in to 1 Corinthians 10:13
6:13 This final (sixth) petition addresses the disciples’ battle with sin and evil. Lead us not into temptation. The word translated “temptation” (Gk. peirasmos) can indicate either temptation or testing (see notes on 4:1; ). The meaning here most likely carries the sense, “Allow us to be spared from difficult circumstances that would tempt us to sin” (cf. ). Although God never directly tempts believers (), he does sometimes lead them into situations that “test” them (cf. ; also ; ; ). In fact, trials and hardships will inevitably come to believers’ lives, and believers should “count it all joy” () when trials come, for they are strengthened by them (). Nonetheless, believers should never pray to be brought into such situations but should pray to be delivered from them, for hardship and temptation make obedience more difficult and will sometimes result in sin. Believers should pray to be delivered from temptation (cf. ; , ; ; ) and led in “paths of righteousness” (). deliver us from evil. The phrase translated “evil” (Gk. tou ponērou) can mean either “evil” or “the evil one,” namely, Satan. The best protection from sin and temptation is to turn to God and to depend on his direction. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen” (ESV footnote) is evidently a later scribal addition, since the most reliable and oldest Greek manuscripts all lack these words, which is the reason why these words are omitted from most modern translations. However, there is nothing theologically incorrect about the wording (cf. ), nor is it inappropriate to include these words in public prayers.
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
“our trespasses:”—The word properly signifies our debts. Thus our sins are frequently represented in Scripture; every sin laying us under a fresh debt to God, to whom we already owe, as it were, ten thousand talents. What then can we answer when he shall say, “Pay me that thou owest?” We are utterly insolvent; we have nothing to pay; we have wasted all our substance. Therefore, if he deal with us according to the rigour of his law, if he exact what he justly may, he must command us to be “bound hand and foot, and delivered over to the tormentors.”
Indeed we are already bound hand and foot by the chains of our own sins. These, considered with regard to ourselves, are chains of iron and fetters of brass. They are wounds wherewith the world, the flesh, and the devil, have gashed and mangled us all over. They are diseases that drink up our blood and spirits, that I bring us down to the chambers of the grave. But considered, as they are here, with regard to God, they are debts, immense and numberless. Well, therefore, seeing we have nothing to pay, may we cry unto him that he would “frankly forgive’ us all!
The word translated forgive implies either to forgive a debt, or to unloose a chain. And if we attain the former, the latter follows of course: if our debts are forgiven, the chains fall off our hands. As soon as ever, through the free grace of God in Christ, we “receive forgiveness of sins,” we receive likewise “a lot among those which are sanctified, by faith which is in him.” Sin has lost its power; it has no dominion over those who “are under grace,” that is, in favour with God. As “there is now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus,” so they are freed from sin as well as from guilt. “The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in” them, and they “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
14. “As we forgive them that trespass against us.”—In these words our Lord clearly declares both on what condition, and in what degree or manner, we may look to be forgiven of God. All our trespasses and sins are forgiven us, if we forgive, and as we forgive, others. [First, God forgives us if we forgive others.] This is a point of the utmost importance. And our blessed Lord is so jealous lest at any time we should let it slip out of our thoughts, that he not only inserts it in the body of his prayer, but presently after repeats it twice over. “If,” saith he, “ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (, .) Secondly, God forgives us as we forgive others. So that if any malice or bitterness, if any taint of unkindness or anger remains, if we do not clearly, fully, and from the heart, forgive all men their trespasses, we far cut short the forgiveness of our own: God cannot clearly and fully forgive us: he may show us some degree of mercy; but we will not suffer him to blot out all our sins, and forgive all our iniquities.
In the mean time, while we do not from our hearts forgive our neighbour his trespasses, what manner of prayer are we offering to God whenever we utter these words? We are indeed setting God at open defiance: we are daring him to do his worst. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us!” That is, in plain terms, “Do not thou forgive us at all; we desire no favour at thy hands. We pray that thou wilt keep our sins in remembrance, and that thy wrath may abide upon us.” But can you seriously offer such a prayer to God? And hath he not yet cast you quick into hell?’ o tempt him no longer! Now, even now, by his grace, forgive as you would be forgiven! Now have compassion on thy fellow-servant, as God hath had and will have pity on thee!
And now lets look at
The occasion for this psalm was when Nathan the prophet came to David to reprove him and prompt him to repent after [David] had gone in to Bathsheba, which is related in .
Then, to the person
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Someone might say, "But what about ? There David writes, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned and done what is evil in Thy sight.' David says that sin is against God alone, so why must there be confession to the person who was wronged?"
What does it mean to confess?
Several reasons could be cited. Jesus' admonition to leave the altar and go to the person who has ought against you. The words Jesus put into the mouth of the prodigal son who after he sinned said this to his dad (), "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you."
But what about David's words? Two options. One, David could be saying that though what he did to Bathsheba and Uriah was wrong, the real issue was what he did to God (he disobeyed God). A second option is to translate it, "Before Thee, Thee only." That is, since the sin was done in secret, God and only God knew about it. That's what David is acknowledging here.
2. Request the person's forgiveness ("Will you forgive me?"). If you are the offender, you must go, and go quickly. You must state clearly what you did that was wrong.
Don't go justifying your sin, "I've come to tell you I'm sorry about what I said after you pulled that rotten trick on me." No. Stick to you own sin. "I was wrong for _____. I've asked God to forgive me for this sin. I'm here to ask you the same. As God is my witness, I regret what I did and by His help will never do so again. Will you forgive me?"
3. Use simple, factual terms (). "When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise."
4. Be sure your attitude backs up your words (). "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." There must be a genuine, heart-felt repentant spirit when we go. A good question to determine if you really mean what you're about to say is this, "If you could repeat the situation, would you do it differently?"
If your attitude is, "Well, maybe I did come on a little strong, but you had it coming!", then the request for forgiveness is deficient.
5. Don't confess accusingly. Like the husband who says to his wife, "Well, dear, I was wrong for spending the $250 for that new golf club without talking to you about it first, but of course the reason I didn't was because I knew you'd blow up at me. Will you forgive me?"
That's confessing accusingly, isn't it?
So, to summarize, what's the biblical way to seek forgiveness? It's to follow these steps. One, state clearly what you've done, to God and to the other person, saying, "I was wrong." Two, ask the other person to forgive you. Three, use simple, factual terms ("I was wrong when I did ______. I'm heartbroken that I did. Will you forgive me?"). Four, be sure your attitude backs up your words (if not, go back to your prayer closet). Five, don't confess accusingly, but take full responsibility for what you did.
Now the ball is in the other person's court. What needs to happen after forgiveness is sought? It must be granted. How does that happen? We'll see next time.
One of my favorite stories about forgiveness is the one Corrie Ten Boom tells about herself.[2] "Corrie was liberated from a Nazi concentration camp a few days after the Allies conquered Germany. It took longer to be liberated from her simmering hate. But she set out on the forgiving journey through her remembered pain and kept traveling until she arrived at the place where she forgave even the Nazis who had dehumanized her life in the camps.
In forgiving, she believed she had discovered the only power that could heal the history of hurt and hate for the people of Europe. So she preached the possibilities of forgiveness. She preached it in Holland, in France, and then in Germany, too. In Munich one Sunday she preached forgiving, preached it to all those German people who were so eager to be forgiven.
Outside, after the service was over, a major drama of the human spirit unfolded. A man walked over to her; he reached out his hand to her, expecting her to take it. 'Ja, Fraulein Ten Boom, I am so glad that Jesus forgives us all of our sin, just as you say.'
Corrie knew him. She remembered how she was forced to take showers, with other women prisoners, while this beast looked on, a leering, mocking 'superman,' guarding helpless naked women. Corrie remembered. He put his hand close to her. Her own hand froze at her side.
She could not forgive. She was stunned and terrified by her own weakness. What could she do, she who had been so sure that she had overcome the deep hurt and the desperate hate and had arrived at forgiving, what could she do now that she was confronted by a man she could not forgive?
She prayed. 'Jesus, I can't forgive this man. Forgive me.' At once, in some wonderful way that she was not prepared for, she felt forgiven. Forgiven for not forgiving.
At that moment--in the power of the fundamental feeling--her hand went up, took the hand of her enemy, and released him. In her heart she freed him from his terrible past. And she freed herself from hers."
Forgiveness is an amazing thing, isn't it? It's possible to forgive and be forgiven because of Christ.
There are two sides to forgiveness: seeking it and granting it. We’ve looked at the biblical teaching on how to seek forgiveness. Now we’ll address the question…
Part 3—How Do We Grant Forgiveness?
There are two sides to granting forgiveness.
I. There is an unconditional side to granting forgiveness.
Isn't it amazing to be forgiven? In , David praises God, "Bless the LORD, O my soul...who forgives all your sins." He continues in verses 10-12, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities...As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
We don't earn forgiveness, do we? "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ()." Is there any sin the Lord continues to hold against you? No, not one. All our sins, past, present, and future, He laid on Christ. He forgave us. His forgiveness deals with all our sin. In that sense, it is unconditional.
Consider three elements that flow out of this.
A. God commands us to forgive. () "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander...Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." That implies three things.
1. I must have a forgiving spirit. That's the appropriate response for one who has been forgiven so great a debt.
2. I must be willing to forgive anyone. Could anyone ever commit a sin against me more treacherous than what I've done to the Lord? If you're prone to answer that question "yes," then you don't understand the holiness of God and the utter atrocity of the cosmic treason we've committed against Him. Yes, as one whose been forgiven by Almighty God, I must be willing to forgive anyone. To elaborate...
3. I must be ready at a moment's notice to forgive the person who sinned against me. We'll learn how to do that next. What's involved in granting forgiveness? As we learned in part 1, forgiveness is not a feeling. It's a declaration, a promise...
B. Forgiveness is a three-fold promise... When you ask me, "Will you forgive me?" and I respond, "Yes, I forgive you," I am making a three-fold promise.
1. I will not bring it up so as to hurt you.
2. I will not talk about it with others so as to hurt you.
3. I will not dwell on it myself. I haven't turned the clock back (I can't do that). But I have chosen to bury the hatchet, to refuse to return to the scene of the crime in my memory archive.
In our living room is a special clock. It was a gift from the fellows in Quincer Dorm where Sherry and I served as Dorm parents while I was in seminary. It has a chime, a swinging pendulum, and a loud tick-tock.
There's something else about the clock. It keeps decent time, but it loses a minute or so every couple of weeks, so I have to open the door and move the hands of the clock to correct the time. You can do that with clocks. You can't with the time of life.
Have you ever wished you could turn back the hands on the clock of life? Right after you let that cutting word slip to your spouse, do you wish you could turn back the clock and choose a different word? Perhaps you have an event that happened years ago that gnaws at you to this day, a deed you wish you could undo. But can't.
Is there hope? Yes, praise God because of Jesus Christ there is! Though we can't turn back the hands of time and change the past, we can deal with the past and make things right. That's what biblical forgiveness is all about.
Or to look at forgiveness from another slant...
C. Forgiveness is a choice to do with others what God did with us. "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him ()." What does that mean? It means that instead of holding our sins against us, God looks at the Cross of His Son, and says, "It is enough. The penalty for sin has been paid."
That's what we must do with those who've sinned against us. We must choose to do with others what God did with us. To look to the Cross, and let go of the offense.
1. It's not forgive and forget.
2. It's forgive in order to forget.
As we choose to treat the other person as God has treated us, as we choose to forgive and no longer hold the deed against the person we've released from the offense, guess what happens? No, we don't "forget" the event, but we think less and less of it. It no longer paralyzes us and holds us in bondage.
God's way is so good. We can't turn back the hands of the clock and undo the past. But we can deal with the past and experience His joy.
The truth is, when we fail to forgive, we actually are hurting ourselves more than the other person. We may think, "Well, I'll show that person! I'll never forgive him!" But indeed, we hurt ourselves.
I remember when one of our children was about a year old, she developed a most unusual pattern (thankfully it was shortlived). When we told her "No" about something, she would get mad at us and show her displeasure by banging her head on the ground, or by hitting her palm against her forehead. I wondered what in the world she was doing, but then it hit me. She thought that by inflicting pain on herself, she was hurting us!
That's the way it is when we refuse to grant forgiveness. We may irrationally think we're helping our cause, but indeed, all we're doing is hurting ourselves.
So there is an unconditional side to forgiveness. Would you ponder a question, "Is there someone in your life that you have refused to forgive? Is there a person to whom God wants you to grant forgiveness this very day?"
II. There is a conditional side to granting forgiveness.
Please follow carefully, for this aspect of forgiveness is greatly misunderstood in our day. Much of the contemporary teaching on the subject of forgiveness (even by Christians) fails to consider this key dimension of granting forgiveness. A key text is .
We must follow Jesus' instruction in . Read verses 1-2.
A. There's a warning (3a). "So watch yourselves," Jesus says. That's an unusual way to introduce teaching on the subject of forgiveness, yet that's the way Jesus did it. He obviously had good reason. What He was about to say goes against the grain of sinful people like us. It's not easy to do.
B. The situation involves a clear sin issue (3b; also ). "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." In the KJV we read, "If thy brother trespass against thee." Stop there, and notice the situation carefully.
1. The issue isn't personal preferences. It's not a case of someone doing something I don't like. "You sat in my seat. I rebuke you!" "You wore that tie I don't like. I rebuke you!" No.
2. The issue is that a brother has sinned against you. It's a clear matter of sin. exhorts us, "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently." The issue is a brother in sin.
But is even more specific.
The sin about which Jesus is speaking is a sin against you. How do you handle sins against you? Let's use a hypothetical scenario.[3]
Suppose here you are, minding your own business, when all of the sudden, literally or figuratively your brother comes along, stomps all over your toes, and disappears over the hill. There you stand, through no fault of your own, with ten toes flattened out like silver dollar pancakes. You are hurting! Now what do you do next?
C. Here's what we are not supposed to do. Two common responses...
1. We're not to have a pity party. We're not to whine and feel sorry for ourselves, "Why me?!" Some people do. They look for the syrup and pour it all over their feet (as Adams puts it). But that isn't what Jesus said to do.
2. We're not to blow up or gossip. Some do that. They get furious. They go after their brother to tell him off, or they go home and take out their hurt on innocent family members.
Others are more pious. They choose to go show their flattened toes to other people, to as many as will look, saying, "You know I hate gossip. What I'm about to tell you about so-and-so isn't gossip. I'm just warning you so you can protect yourself from getting your toes stomped on in the future. And oh, by the way, please pray for so-and-so." That's not what Jesus said to do either.
D. Here's what we are supposed to do (3). Our responsibility involves potentially four steps.
1. Rebuke him, but do it tentatively. "If your brother sins, rebuke him." Jesus wants us to go to our brother, and say to him, "Brother, look at my toes!" He doesn't permit us to tell others about it (yet), nor give us the option of sitting at home feeling sorry for ourselves. He doesn't even tell us to call the elders or deacons (that's not needed yet). What's needed is for me to go to my brother.
"But why should I go?" you ask. "I didn't do anything. I was minding my own business when he flattened my toes. Shouldn't he come to me?" The answer is, yes, he should. According to Jesus' teaching in , he's supposed to come.
"Well, then, if he's supposed to come, why can't I just wait for him. Why do I need to go, too?" Because Jesus said. Ideally, he should go, and you should go, and the two of you should meet on the way!
But there's a very practical reason you should go. Case in point. Steve was walking to his locker at school when he turned the corner in the hall and saw Billy closing his locker door. He waited until Steve was gone, then approached and opened his locker. He could tell things had been rearranged.
Steve was furious. He always thought of Billy as a good guy. They went to church together and everything. How could he do a mean trick like that and invade the privacy of his personal property?
Steve could have erupted, gone to the principal, or shared his frustration with some other buddies, but he thought of Jesus' words, and decided to go to Billy.
"Billy, we need to talk. I saw you closing my locker a little while ago. I can tell some things have been moved around. What's up?"
To which Billy responded, "Oh, I tried to put everything back as neatly as I could. When I came down the hallway, I saw your locker door open and your stuff scattered all over the floor. I don't know if it fell out, or someone deliberately trashed your locker, but I didn't think you'd want your stuff all over the floor. So I picked it up."
Crazy illustration? Maybe. But we all know that friendships have disintegrated over misunderstandings crazier than this one.
Do you see? You are obligated to go because your brother may not know he stepped on your toes. It may be a misunderstanding. Jay Adams offers this rule, "The one with the sore toes goes because he's the one who always knows."
What are we supposed to do when we go? Verse 3 uses an important word. Rebuke him. There are two words for "rebuking" in the NT. One means "to so prosecute a case against another that he is convicted of the crime of which he is accused." That's not the word used here.
The word in verse 3 means "to rebuke tentatively." That is to say you go with caution. You go with the facts as you see them. You present the facts, and then you wait for the possible explanations of the facts. Your desire is to restore the relationship, not to make someone pay. Don't assume you're right. Give the person the benefit of the doubt.
Caution: Should we rebuke every time? says this, "A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense." If you can overlook an offense and still have a positive, loving, God-honoring relationship with your brother, fine. But if the deed creates a barrier, go to him. Rebuke him tentatively. Then what?
2. Give him opportunity to repent. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents." That's the goal, repentance. To hear our brother say, "I'm so sorry. I was wrong for stepping on your toes. Will you forgive me?"
3. If he repents, forgive him. If it was hard to go and rebuke, here's where it gets even harder.
Suppose you forgive your brother for stepping on your toes. But suppose 45 minutes later, he steps on them again. And again he repents and asks for your forgiveness, and you forgive him. And 45 minutes later, he does it again, and again comes in brokenness, saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I have such a problem with my temper. I was wrong again. Will you forgive me?" Here's the question: How often are you supposed to forgive your brother?
And Jesus answers (3-4), "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."
The world doesn't buy that. Hurt me once, it's your fault. Hurt me twice, it's my fault. But we're called to a higher standard, a divine standard, a standard we cannot attain on our own strength. More about that in a moment.
4. If he doesn't repent, remain willing to forgive. Don't miss this. According to Jesus, forgiveness is conditional. The condition for granting forgiveness is that it must be sought through repentance.
What if the person doesn't repent? Then what? We must stand willing to forgive, and choose to treat the person graciously, as Christ would. But to forgive is to release, to refuse to bring a matter up again. And as we'll see, according to , if the person refuses to repent, the matter must be brought up again.
You say, "Why is forgiveness conditional?" Here's the answer...
E. Here are some reasons for believing forgiveness is conditional.
1. Jesus said it is based on the person's response (3). "If he repents, forgive him." Jesus said the person's response is the condition.
2. God's forgiveness is conditional (; ). Has God forgiven the whole world unconditionally? No, that's universalism. If you answer yes, how do you explain hell? God's forgiveness is conditional, and shows the condition, "The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name."
What must a person do to experience God's forgiveness? Repent. elaborates, "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." You must repent to experience God's forgiveness.
3. God commanded us to deal with each other conditionally. Where? In .
E.g.-- (three steps of church discipline)
picks up where leaves off (.): "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over [that's ; but then what?]. But if he will not listen [forgive him? No...], take one or two others along...If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen to the church, treat him as you would a pagan."
4. What about Jesus' words in ? That's where while on the cross Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Doesn't that show that we should forgive even if we're not asked? No.
a. Jesus was praying, not granting forgiveness. Must we be willing to forgive our offenders? Yes. As Jesus was. And many at the Cross later did repent and were forgiven.
b. The cross would be irrelevant.
c. It ignores the "unity principle" of interpretation. We must compare Scripture with Scripture to interpret Scripture. No one text stands alone.
F. We must reject common excuses for not forgiving.
1. "I'm not sure I see the fruits of repentance." () Again, indicates if your brother comes to you seven times in a day saying, "I repent," forgive him.
2. "I don't have enough faith." () It's interesting that's exactly what the apostles said next to Jesus (5), "Increase our faith." It's too hard! To which Jesus said, "No, a little faith will do. Obedience is the issue. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed...you can do it."
3. "I don't feel like forgiving him." () Which is the objection Jesus addresses in the parable that follows. It's a story about a master and a servant. Does the master reward his servant for doing what he was told to do? No. And Jesus says (10), "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do [like forgiving!], should say, 'We are unworhty servants; we have only done our duty.'"
We don't need to feel like granting forgiveness to do so. It's our duty. The issue is obedience.
Understanding what the Word of God says about forgiveness will change your relationships with people. When we begin to look at our relationships with people from God's perspective, it is revolutionary. It is eye-opening. It is attitude changing.
Yes, attitudes are difficult to change. If you've been hurt by someone, it's not easy to forgive. But attitudes can change. The following story told by Charles Stanley illustrates how (taken from Forgiveness, pp. 30-31)....
[1]as explained by Jay Adams in From Forgiven to Forgiving, p. 52.
[2]As recounted by Lewis Smedes, Forgive and Forget, pp. 119-20.
[3]Adapted from Jay Adams helpful material in From Forgiven to Forgiving, p. 15.
6:12 Forgive us our debts (the fifth petition) does not mean that believers need to ask daily for justification, since believers are justified forever from the moment of initial saving faith (, ; ; ). Rather, this is a prayer for the restoration of personal fellowship with God when fellowship has been hindered by sin (cf. ). Those who have received such forgiveness are so moved with gratitude toward God that they also eagerly forgive those who are debtors to them. On sin as a “debt” owed to God, see note on .
6:12 The language used here for debt can reflect an Aramaic idiom referring to sin (compare note on ).
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. The Greek word for debts in the New Testament appears only here and . It is clear that Jesus and Matthew intended the word to mean “sins” here (). The choice of this word reflects the fact that all sins place us in debt to God. In a more extended treatment and parable on this same concept in 18:21–35, Jesus used the idea of debt to teach about sin and forgiveness.
This is the only petition that seems to have a condition prerequisite to its fulfillment and two full verses of explanation following (6:14–15). The context is the relationship of a child to a father. This is “family forgiveness,” not forensic or judicial forgiveness. Jesus is not saying that our forgiving is a necessary means to earning God’s forgiveness. The Bible makes it clear that there is nothing we can do to merit God’s judicial forgiveness, but that it is given freely (e.g., ; ).
One does not gain forgiveness by forgiving. But a person evidences his or her own forgiveness by forgiving others. Since this is family forgiveness, our sense of forgiveness is denied us when we deny forgiveness to others. As God’s children, we are commanded to be forgiving. When we fail to forgive, we reap the consequences of spiritual and moral defeat.
Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body. So the next prayer is, Forgive us our debts. Sin is likened to a ‘debt’ because it deserves to be punished. But when God forgives sin, he remits the penalty and drops the charge against us. The addition of the words as we also have forgiven our debtors is further emphasized in verses 14 and 15 which follow the prayer and state that our Father will forgive us if we forgive others but will not forgive us if we refuse to forgive others. This certainly does not mean that our forgiveness of others earns us the right to be forgiven. It is rather that God forgives only the penitent and that one of the chief evidences of true penitence is a forgiving spirit. Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have minimized our own. It is the disparity between the size of debts which is the main point of the parable of the unmerciful servant. Its conclusion is: ‘I forgave you all that debt (which was huge) …; should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
The Greek term used here may indicate a specific entity (such as the devil; compare ) or evil in its many forms.
Following this phrase, many ancient manuscripts add an affirmation that the kingdom, power, and glory belong to God. Although this statement likely is not original, it appears to have been incorporated into Christian liturgy from the earliest days of the church. It probably comes from David’s speech in .
6:13 This final (sixth) petition addresses the disciples’ battle with sin and evil. Lead us not into temptation. The word translated “temptation” (Gk. peirasmos) can indicate either temptation or testing (see notes on 4:1; ). The meaning here most likely carries the sense, “Allow us to be spared from difficult circumstances that would tempt us to sin” (cf. ). Although God never directly tempts believers (), he does sometimes lead them into situations that “test” them (cf. ; also ; ; ). In fact, trials and hardships will inevitably come to believers’ lives, and believers should “count it all joy” () when trials come, for they are strengthened by them (). Nonetheless, believers should never pray to be brought into such situations but should pray to be delivered from them, for hardship and temptation make obedience more difficult and will sometimes result in sin. Believers should pray to be delivered from temptation (cf. ; , ; ; ) and led in “paths of righteousness” (). deliver us from evil. The phrase translated “evil” (Gk. tou ponērou) can mean either “evil” or “the evil one,” namely, Satan. The best protection from sin and temptation is to turn to God and to depend on his direction. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen” (ESV footnote) is evidently a later scribal addition, since the most reliable and oldest Greek manuscripts all lack these words, which is the reason why these words are omitted from most modern translations. However, there is nothing theologically incorrect about the wording (cf. ), nor is it inappropriate to include these words in public prayers.
There is confession of faith and confession of sin.
6:14–15. Jesus expands on the theme of forgiveness in v. 12 (see the comments on 18:31–35). It is possible that He means, “If you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you,” but this runs contrary to the very idea of forgiveness, which by definition cannot be earned. It is better to see it as indicating that one’s capacity for forgiving others is tied to the receipt of forgiveness from God. If one does not or cannot forgive others, it may indicate that he has not yet received forgiveness, so that forgiving others becomes an evidence of one’s forgiveness before God.
13. “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”—As nothing but sin can hinder the bounty of God from flowing forth upon every creature, so this petition naturally follows the former; that, all hinderances being removed, we may the more clearly trust in the God of love for every manner of thing which is good.
“our trespasses:”—The word properly signifies our debts. Thus our sins are frequently represented in Scripture; every sin laying us under a fresh debt to God, to whom we already owe, as it were, ten thousand talents. What then can we answer when he shall say, “Pay me that thou owest?” We are utterly insolvent; we have nothing to pay; we have wasted all our substance. Therefore, if he deal with us according to the rigour of his law, if he exact what he justly may, he must command us to be “bound hand and foot, and delivered over to the tormentors.”
Indeed we are already bound hand and foot by the chains of our own sins. These, considered with regard to ourselves, are chains of iron and fetters of brass. They are wounds wherewith the world, the flesh, and the devil, have gashed and mangled us all over. They are diseases that drink up our blood and spirits, that I bring us down to the chambers of the grave. But considered, as they are here, with regard to God, they are debts, immense and numberless. Well, therefore, seeing we have nothing to pay, may we cry unto him that he would “frankly forgive’ us all!
The word translated forgive implies either to forgive a debt, or to unloose a chain. And if we attain the former, the latter follows of course: if our debts are forgiven, the chains fall off our hands. As soon as ever, through the free grace of God in Christ, we “receive forgiveness of sins,” we receive likewise “a lot among those which are sanctified, by faith which is in him.” Sin has lost its power; it has no dominion over those who “are under grace,” that is, in favour with God. As “there is now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus,” so they are freed from sin as well as from guilt. “The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in” them, and they “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
On the one hand, confession means to declare publicly a personal relationship with and allegiance to God.
14. “As we forgive them that trespass against us.”—In these words our Lord clearly declares both on what condition, and in what degree or manner, we may look to be forgiven of God. All our trespasses and sins are forgiven us, if we forgive, and as we forgive, others. [First, God forgives us if we forgive others.] This is a point of the utmost importance. And our blessed Lord is so jealous lest at any time we should let it slip out of our thoughts, that he not only inserts it in the body of his prayer, but presently after repeats it twice over. “If,” saith he, “ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (, .) Secondly, God forgives us as we forgive others. So that if any malice or bitterness, if any taint of unkindness or anger remains, if we do not clearly, fully, and from the heart, forgive all men their trespasses, we far cut short the forgiveness of our own: God cannot clearly and fully forgive us: he may show us some degree of mercy; but we will not suffer him to blot out all our sins, and forgive all our iniquities.
In the mean time, while we do not from our hearts forgive our neighbour his trespasses, what manner of prayer are we offering to God whenever we utter these words? We are indeed setting God at open defiance: we are daring him to do his worst. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us!” That is, in plain terms, “Do not thou forgive us at all; we desire no favour at thy hands. We pray that thou wilt keep our sins in remembrance, and that thy wrath may abide upon us.” But can you seriously offer such a prayer to God? And hath he not yet cast you quick into hell?’ o tempt him no longer! Now, even now, by his grace, forgive as you would be forgiven! Now have compassion on thy fellow-servant, as God hath had and will have pity on thee!
;
On the other hand, it means to acknowledge sin and guilt in the light of God’s revelation, and is thus generally an outward sign of repentance and faith.
This profound plea for forgiveness was written, according to the superscript, after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. “In sin my mother conceived me” (KJV) may mean that as David’s mother and father were sinners, so was he. Or it may mean that he had been sinful from birth. It does not mean that the act of procreation was itself evil.
I. Confession In the Old Testament
There is confession of faith and confession of sin. On the one hand, confession means to declare publicly a personal relationship with and allegiance to God. It is an act of open joyful commitment made to God in the presence of the world, by which a congregation or individuals bind themselves in loyalty to God or Jesus Christ. It is an avowal of faith which can have eternal eschatological consequences. On the other hand, it means to acknowledge sin and guilt in the light of God’s revelation, and is thus generally an outward sign of repentance and faith. It may or may not be followed by forgiveness (; ; ; ; ).
I. In the Old Testament
God’s mighty acts of mercy and deliverance is consequently closely related to the confession of sin. Both aspects of confession form an integral part of prayer and true worship (; ; ; ;).
9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.
35 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.
26 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
35 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’
26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him;
he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
27 He sings before men and says:
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
and it was not repaid to me.
28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
and my life shall look upon the light.’
To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
12 Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
26 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
A Maskil of David.
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
7 You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him;
he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
27 He sings before men and says:
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
and it was not repaid to me.
28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
and my life shall look upon the light.’
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
II. Confession In the New Testament
Confession can lead the believer to pledge himself anew to God, to sing hymns of praise, to offer joyful sacrifice, and can give him a desire to tell others of God’s mercy and to identify himself with the worshipping congregation in the house of God at Jerusalem.
Confession is not only personal and individual; it has a liturgical connotation where, as on the Day of *Atonement in the context of expiation and intercession, the high priest vicariously confesses the sins of the people, laying his hands on the head of a live goat which symbolically carries sin away from the covenant community (). In similar fashion Moses vicariously pleads for Israel (; cf. ; ; .).
51:title Psalm titles were likely added later (see note on 3:title). However, the story of David’s greatest failure provides a rich historical lens through which to read this psalm’s appeal for forgiveness. See .
Confession in the sense of joyful acknowledgment is prominent in the Qumran texts where frequently the psalms begin, ‘I thank thee, Lord, because … ‘, in a way similar to our Lord’s prayer in (1QH 2.20, 31, etc.).
II. In the New Testament
It is primarily used with reference to faith in Christ. It gathers up the OT aspects of thanksgiving and joyful praise, as well as of willing submission, as in ; ; .
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
It means, however, more than mental assent. It implies a decision to pledge oneself in loyalty to Jesus Christ as Lord in response to the work of the Holy Spirit.
It implies a decision to pledge oneself in loyalty to Jesus Christ as Lord in response to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Confession of Jesus Christ is linked intimately with the confession of sins. To confess Christ is to confess that he ‘died for our sins’, and conversely to confess one’s sins in real repentance is to look to Christ for forgiveness ().
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Confession of Jesus Christ is linked intimately with the confession of sins. To confess Christ is to confess that he ‘died for our sins’, and conversely to confess one’s sins in real repentance is to look to Christ for forgiveness (). In preparation for the coming of Christ, John the Baptist summoned people to confess their sins, and confession was a constant element in the ministry both of our Lord and of the apostles (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ).
51:1 The Hebrew term used here, chanan—which may be literally rendered as “to show favor”—often appears in lament psalms as the psalmist seeks God’s favor or compassion (e.g., ; ; , ).
Although addressed to God, confession of faith in Jesus Christ should be made openly ‘before men’ (; ; ), by word of mouth (; ), and may be costly (; ; ). It is the opposite of ‘denying’ the Lord. Confession of sin is likewise primarily addressed to God, but may also be made before men, for example, in corporate confession by a congregation or its representative in public prayer. Where the confession is for the benefit of the church or of others, an individual may openly confess sins in the presence of the church or of other believers (; ), but this should never be unedifying (). True repentance may require an acknowledgment of guilt to a brother (), but there is no suggestion that confession of private sin must be made to an individual presbyter.
Confession of Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, and as such is the mark of the true church, the Body of Christ (; ; ). For this reason it accompanies baptism (; ), out of which practice emerged some of the earliest creeds and confessions of the church, which acquired added significance with the rise of error and false doctrine (; ).
The perfect pattern of confession is given to us in Jesus Christ himself, who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate (). He confessed that he is the Christ () and that he is a King (). His confession was before men, over against the false witness of his enemies () and the denial of a disciple (), and was infinitely costly, with eternal consequences for all men. The church in her confession identifies herself ‘before many witnesses’ with the ‘good confession’ of her crucified and risen Saviour. Her confession (of faith and of sin) is a sign that the old man is ‘dead with Christ’ and that she is possessed by her Lord, whom she is commissioned to serve. In her confession she is called to participate through the Spirit in the vicarious intercessions of Christ, ‘the apostle and high priest of our confession’ (), who has already confessed our sins on the cross and given praise to God (; , quoting ; ).
Confession in the NT (like denial of Christ) has an eschatological perspective, leading to either judgment or salvation, because it is the outward manifestation of faith or lack of it. Christ will one day confess before the Father those who confess him today, and deny those who deny him (; ; ). Confession with the mouth is made to salvation (, ; ), and our confessions today are a foretaste of the church’s confessions of the last day, when every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (; ; ; ; ).
The psalmist bases his appeal for God’s mercy on His faithful, covenantal love
32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
One thing that undoubtedly qualified David as “a man after [God’s] own heart” () was not that he was sinless, but that when confronted with his sin, he sincerely confessed and repented of it, rather than excusing, diminishing, or ignoring it.
Such was exactly his response when called out by Nathan on his sins of murder and adultery. His request to blot out my transgressions pictures forgiveness with the image of writing being removed from a papyrus scroll (cf. v. 9; 9:5; ; ).
What is the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow? Which is David expressing and why do you think that?
Paul speaks of “godly sorrow” that brings restoration, whereas “worldly sorrow”—guilt with no healthy remedy through grace—proves deadly ().
8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore we are comforted.
And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
The heart of the matter:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Key Verses
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
51:2–3. David’s request for forgiveness is further illustrated with the images of wash me in terms of the removal of filth and cleanse me in terms of ritual purification for participation in temple worship (v. 2). Once David was confronted by Nathan, he recognized reality: my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me (v. 3).
51:2 In his request for cleansing, the psalmist asks God to forget his sin and to purify him by removing it. Compare .
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
What is your interpretation of verse 4?
51:3–4 In confessing his sin, the psalmist recognizes that he has sinned against God Himself. He acknowledges God’s right to judge him. While his sin may have involved and harmed others, the psalmist is primarily concerned with his offense against God. This fits David’s response when Nathan confronts him about his sin with Bathsheba (;
13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
Of course, in doing wrong he has hurt others; the point here is that God is the ultimate judge for all sin (thus harming others is given not less weight but more).
51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned. Of course, in doing wrong he has hurt others; the point here is that God is the ultimate judge for all sin (thus harming others is given not less weight but more). Cf. David’s response to Nathan, . so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. The psalmist acknowledges his guilt before God “so that” God’s justice in all he does will be clear. In Paul cites this part of the verse from the Septuagint in support of his argument that God is just and is entitled to judge.
4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
“That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.”
He was not denying that he sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba; he knew he had committed the sin of adultery and murder. Instead he is affirming the grievous nature of his sin against the Lord, Compare Joseph in .
9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
David recognized that in addition to the people against whom he had sinned, his primary sin was against the Lord, who alone is the source and standard of righteousness (cf. ; ; ; ) and who alone is the judge of all human sin
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
What does verse 5 acknowledge about us?
at each worshiper learns to trace his sinful tendencies to the very beginning of his existence—not only from birth but even from before that, to conception. (This certainly attributes moral accountability, the most important aspect of “personhood,” to the developing baby in the womb. This is why many see this passage as implying that an unborn child should be thought of as a human person from the point of conception in his mother’s womb.) See The Beginning of Life and Abortion.
51:5 The psalmist makes no excuses but recognizes that iniquity has been with him since birth. In doing so, he does not condemn his mother or conception; rather, he confesses the extent of his iniquity ().
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
51:5–6. By saying I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me ),
21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
8 You have never heard, you have never known,
from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,
and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
David bemoaned the possession of a sin nature, which came to him through natural generation at the moment of his conception.
David did not indicate that he was conceived during some sinful act by his mother. Rather, the better understanding is that David bemoaned the possession of a sin nature, which came to him through natural generation at the moment of his conception. David contrasted his sinful nature with the Lord, who desires truth in the innermost being. Therefore David desired in the hidden part for God to make him know wisdom (v. 6; cf. 37:30–31; 139:13–16).
The focus is on the inmost self, from which obedient actions flow: inward being, secret heart (v. 6); clean heart, right spirit (v. 10).
The goal of this confession is not self-abasement but a renewal of the joy and gladness (v. 8) that the faithful have in God’s presence.
51:7 hyssop. A plant with hairy leaves and branches; bunches of the branches are good for sprinkling. For its use in a cleansing ceremony, cf. ; . Israelites used hyssop branches to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to their doorposts (see
6 He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.
6 And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
6 He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.
6 And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.
Let’s move to
51:7 Hyssop alludes to cleansing ceremonies (; ) that point forward to the final cleansing from sin through the work of Christ ().
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Throughout the works of the prophets, God states He will restore His people by giving them a new heart that will enable them to return to Him in obedience
Signifies the complete purity the psalmist wishes for (see and note).
51:7–9. Following his confession of sin, David returned to his plea for forgiveness. David implored God’s mercy, which meant not giving him the death penalty he deserved for both murder and adultery (cf. ; ; ). David recognized that God in His justice cannot simply ignore sin, and that the penalty it requires (i.e., life) must still somehow be paid (; ). So he implored God to forgive him and to purify him with hyssop (v. 7). Hyssop is an important shrub mentioned in the Bible. Jewish slaves dipped a bunch of hyssop in the blood of a slain lamb and applied some on both the lintel and doorposts of their houses prior to the Passover (). Hyssop was also used in ceremonial cleansing from skin disease () and in making the red heifer offering (). Thus, the symbolism of hyssop portrayed spiritual cleansing. The request to wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow is for complete purity (v. 7; cf. ). To hide Your face from my sins is parallel to blot out all my iniquities (v. 9; cf. v. 1), or in other words, remove my sins from before You.
51:8 The psalmist longs for joy to replace the guilt he feels from his sin.
51:8 bones. The feeling of God’s displeasure, and of his favor, penetrates into the whole person; cf. 32:3.
51:9 Usually when God is said to hide his face from someone, it means that he will no longer look upon that person with favor (cf. 13:1; 22:24; 27:9; 88:14; 102:2; 143:7; ; ; ; ; ; ). Here the singer asks God no longer to look upon his sins. To blot out (cf. ) is to remove completely from the record book; cf. .
51:10 Throughout the works of the prophets, God states He will restore His people by giving them a new heart that will enable them to return to Him in obedience (see ; and note).
7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
David expresses desire for a clean heart free from sin so he can be reconciled to God.
What does it mean to repent?
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Repentance
REPENTANCE Change of mind; also can refer to regret or remorse accompanying a realization that wrong has been done or to any shift or reversal of thought. In its biblical sense repentance refers to a deeply seated and thorough turning from self to God. It occurs when a radical turning to God takes place, an experience in which God is recognized as the most important fact of one’s existence.
Old Testament The concept of a wholehearted turning to God is widespread in the preaching of the OT prophets. Terms such as “return,” turn,” or “seek” are used to express the idea of repentance.
In Amos 4–5 the Lord sends judgment in order for the nation to return to Him. Corporate repentance of the nation is a theme in Hosea (Hos. 6:1; 14:2) and the result of Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh (Jon. 3:10). Classic calls to repentance are found in Ezek. 18 and 33 as well as Isa. 55. The shift toward an emphasis on individual repentance can be seen in Ezek. 18.
New Testament Repentance was the keynote of the preaching of John the Baptist, referring to a complete turn from self to God. A note of urgency is attached to the message, “The kingdom of heaven has come near!” (Matt. 3:2 HCSB). Those who were prepared to make such a radical reorientation of their lives demonstrated that by being baptized (Mark 1:4). This complete redirection of their lives was to be demonstrated by profound changes in lifestyle and relationships (Luke 3:8–14).
The emphasis upon a total life change continues in the ministry of Jesus. The message of repentance was at the heart of His preaching (Mark 1:15). When describing the focus of His mission, Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32 HCSB).
The call to repentance is a call to absolute surrender to the purposes of God and to live in this awareness. This radical turning to God is required of all people: “Unless you repent, you will all perish” (Luke 13:3). Those who had witnessed the ministry of Jesus, the reality of God, and His claims on their lives faced serious jeopardy if they failed to repent. Jesus warned of serious consequences for those where His ministry had been rejected: “He proceeded to denounce the towns where most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent” (Matt. 11:20 HCSB). On the other hand, for the one sinner who repents, there is great “joy in heaven” (Luke 15:7). In His final words to the disciples, Jesus demanded that the same message of repentance He had preached would be preached to all nations (Luke 24:47).
The term remained in use as the early church began to take shape. The preaching in the book of Acts contains the call to repentance (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:22). On the one hand, Paul’s discourse at Athens reveals God as the one who “commands all people everywhere to repent” (17:30 HCSB). On the other hand, repentance is shown to be the result of the initiative of God: “God has granted repentance resulting in life to even the Gentiles” (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:24–26). The abundance of NT references makes clear that repentance is an essential element in the salvation experience. In response to the call of God in one’s life, there must be repentance, that is, the willful determination to turn from a life of sin and self-rule to a life ruled by God and lived in His righteousness. Repentance can be said to have occurred when someone has been convicted of the reality of their personal sinfulness, rejects and renounces that life of sin, and turns to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance is so central that when Paul summarized his ministry he could say, “I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21 HCSB). The experience of repentance precedes salvation (2 Pet. 3:9).
While the majority of calls to repentance are directed to unbelievers, repentance sometimes refers to believers. Paul wrote of a letter sent to the Corinthians which caused them grief but which ultimately led them to repentance (2 Cor. 7:8–13). Several times in the letters to the churches in Revelation, repentance is called for (Rev. 2:5, 16, 21–22; 3:3, 19), in order that these believers and churches might bring their lives into greater conformity to the will of God. Individual believers, as well as churches, must constantly engage in self-examination, allowing the Spirit of God to point out areas where change is needed. Repentance is more than just remorse. See Confession; Conversion; Faith; Kingdom of God; Sackcloth.
REPENTANCE Change of mind; also can refer to regret or remorse accompanying a realization that wrong has been done or to any shift or reversal of thought. In its biblical sense repentance refers to a deeply seated and thorough turning from self to God. It occurs when a radical turning to God takes place, an experience in which God is recognized as the most important fact of one’s existence.
Old Testament The concept of a wholehearted turning to God is widespread in the preaching of the OT prophets. Terms such as “return,” turn,” or “seek” are used to express the idea of repentance.
Corporate repentance of the nation is a theme in Hosea (; ) and the result of Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh (). Classic calls to repentance are found in and 33 as well as . The shift toward an emphasis on individual repentance can be seen in .
1 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
who are on the mountain of Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
when they shall take you away with hooks,
even the last of you with fishhooks.
3 And you shall go out through the breaches,
each one straight ahead;
and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
declares the Lord.
4 “Come to Bethel, and transgress;
to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days;
5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;
for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
declares the Lord God.
6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
1 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 “Fallen, no more to rise,
is the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”
3 For thus says the Lord God:
“The city that went out a thousand
shall have a hundred left,
and that which went out a hundred
shall have ten left
to the house of Israel.”
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
“Seek me and live;
5 but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.”
6 Seek the Lord and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
7 O you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth!
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning
and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the Lord is his name;
9 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
10 They hate him who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore because you trample on the poor
and you exact taxes of grain from him,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
12 For I know how many are your transgressions
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.
13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
15 Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:
“In all the squares there shall be wailing,
and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
They shall call the farmers to mourning
and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
17 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
for I will pass through your midst,”
says the Lord.
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
Why would you have the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, and not light,
19 as if a man fled from a lion,
and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, 27 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2 Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
the vows of our lips.
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
5 “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— 6 if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, 7 does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, 8 does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, 9 walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord God.
10 “If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things 11 (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, 12 oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, 13 lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.
14 “Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise: 15 he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, 16 does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, 17 withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live. 18 As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. 23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? 24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
25 “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? 26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
5 “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— 6 if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, 7 does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, 8 does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, 9 walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord God.
10 “If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things 11 (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, 12 oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, 13 lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.
14 “Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise: 15 he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, 16 does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, 17 withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live. 18 As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. 23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? 24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
25 “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? 26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
NT: ;;; ; ;
32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
The experience of repentance precedes salvation ().
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Several times in the letters to the churches in Revelation, repentance is called for (, , ; , ), in order that these believers and churches might bring their lives into greater conformity to the will of God.
5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Individual believers, as well as churches, must constantly engage in self-examination, allowing the Spirit of God to point out areas where change is needed. Repentance is more than just remorse. See Confession; Conversion; Faith; Kingdom of God; Sackcloth.
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The need for repentance is highlighted in Jesus’ earliest preaching: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” (). Repentance is rooted in the human consciousness of sin, an awareness of falling short of a standard, relational brokenness and alienation, and fear of judgment. Whether motivated by inner guilt or shameful loss of face, repentance involves attitudes and acts that aim at setting things right. Coupled with confession, repentance is involved in the process of receiving forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ, and provides a model for person-to-person reconciliation as well.
Coupled with confession, repentance is involved in the process of receiving forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ, and provides a model for person-to-person reconciliation as well.
From its beginning, the biblical narrative speaks of our need for repentance. Made in the image of God, and meant for fellowship with the Creator, Adam and Eve use their freedom to disobey a divine command ().
20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
The sacrificial system of the Old Testament is established (in part) to address the necessity of atonement (; ): “apart from the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Jewish tradition shows a lifelong struggle between the yetzer ha tov (good impulse) and the yetzer ha ra (evil impulse; compare ; ). The life of David dramatically demonstrates this.
The New Testament suggests several forms of turning to repentance and confession. suggests personal confession of sin directly to God.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Hebrews emphasizes the ministry of Jesus as once-for-all sacrifice and abiding high priest (; ). The letter includes a fervent exhortation against backsliding from life in Christ (; ). Similarly, the book of Revelation proclaims the need for repentance for individual believers and entire church fellowships ().
Verse 11: The Spirit in OT vs. NT
Under the old covenant, the Spirit would come upon individuals to enable them to do remarkable work (see, e.g., ; ; ), but He could also depart from them (as in the case of Saul in , after which Saul’s decisions as king were consistently unwise, even though he himself was still “saved”;
3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship,
31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship,
6 And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
In David’s case, the Spirit came upon him so he could function skillfully as Israel’s king
13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
1sam
Nowhere is the Spirit promised such that He might take up permanent residence in the rank-and-file OT believer.
Nowhere is the Spirit promised such that He might take up permanent residence in the rank-and-file OT believer.
Under the new covenant after the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit permanently comes upon and resides in believers, never to be taken away
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The psalmist hopes his sin will not make him an enemy of God, but that he will enjoy God’s presence
The psalmist hopes his sin will not make him an enemy of God, but that he will enjoy God’s presence
The OT rarely discusses the Holy Spirit’s role in cleansing the inner life
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
ps5
The biblical use of the word appears to reflect the language of ancient treaties where a vassal agrees to the terms of the *covenant made by his suzerain, and binds himself by an oath to be loyal. Likewise from the legal context of confession of guilt in a court of law, the term is transferred to the confession of sin to God.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
I. In the Old Testament
In the OT confession frequently has the character of praise, where the believer in gratitude declares what God has done redemptively for Israel or his own soul. The noun (tôḏâ) may thus mean confession, thanksgiving, praise, or even be used for a company of people singing songs of praise. Such acknowledgment of God’s mighty acts of mercy and deliverance is consequently closely related to the confession of sin. Both aspects of confession form an integral part of prayer and true worship (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). Confession can lead the believer to pledge himself anew to God, to sing hymns of praise, to offer joyful sacrifice, and can give him a desire to tell others of God’s mercy and to identify himself with the worshipping congregation in the house of God at Jerusalem.
Confession is not only personal and individual; it has a liturgical connotation where, as on the Day of *Atonement in the context of expiation and intercession, the high priest vicariously confesses the sins of the people, laying his hands on the head of a live goat which symbolically carries sin away from the covenant community (). In similar fashion Moses vicariously pleads for Israel (; cf. ; ; .).
Confession in the sense of joyful acknowledgment is prominent in the Qumran texts where frequently the psalms begin, ‘I thank thee, Lord, because … ‘, in a way similar to our Lord’s prayer in (1QH 2.20, 31, etc.).
II. In the New Testament
Notice in verse 12 it says restore his joy of salvation, not his salvation itself. Why is that important? Compare this to
In the NT the Gk. word to ‘confess’ has the generic meaning of acknowledging something to be the case in agreement with others; it is primarily used with reference to faith in Christ. It gathers up the OT aspects of thanksgiving and joyful praise, as well as of willing submission, as in ; ; . In this it follows the lxx usage of the word, as in ; ; . It means, however, more than mental assent. It implies a decision to pledge oneself in loyalty to Jesus Christ as Lord in response to the work of the Holy Spirit.
To confess Jesus Christ is to acknowledge him as the Messiah (; ; ; ), as the Son of God (; , ; ), that he came in the flesh (; ), and that he is Lord, primarily on the ground of the resurrection and ascension (; ; ).
Confession of Jesus Christ is linked intimately with the confession of sins. To confess Christ is to confess that he ‘died for our sins’, and conversely to confess one’s sins in real repentance is to look to Christ for forgiveness (). In preparation for the coming of Christ, John the Baptist summoned people to confess their sins, and confession was a constant element in the ministry both of our Lord and of the apostles (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ).
Although addressed to God, confession of faith in Jesus Christ should be made openly ‘before men’ (; ; ), by word of mouth (; ), and may be costly (; ; ). It is the opposite of ‘denying’ the Lord. Confession of sin is likewise primarily addressed to God, but may also be made before men, for example, in corporate confession by a congregation or its representative in public prayer. Where the confession is for the benefit of the church or of others, an individual may openly confess sins in the presence of the church or of other believers (; ), but this should never be unedifying (). True repentance may require an acknowledgment of guilt to a brother (), but there is no suggestion that confession of private sin must be made to an individual presbyter.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Confession of Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, and as such is the mark of the true church, the Body of Christ (; ; ). For this reason it accompanies baptism (; ), out of which practice emerged some of the earliest creeds and confessions of the church, which acquired added significance with the rise of error and false doctrine (; ).
The perfect pattern of confession is given to us in Jesus Christ himself, who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate (). He confessed that he is the Christ () and that he is a King (). His confession was before men, over against the false witness of his enemies () and the denial of a disciple (), and was infinitely costly, with eternal consequences for all men. The church in her confession identifies herself ‘before many witnesses’ with the ‘good confession’ of her crucified and risen Saviour. Her confession (of faith and of sin) is a sign that the old man is ‘dead with Christ’ and that she is possessed by her Lord, whom she is commissioned to serve. In her confession she is called to participate through the Spirit in the vicarious intercessions of Christ, ‘the apostle and high priest of our confession’ (), who has already confessed our sins on the cross and given praise to God (; , quoting ; ).
Confession in the NT (like denial of Christ) has an eschatological perspective, leading to either judgment or salvation, because it is the outward manifestation of faith or lack of it. Christ will one day confess before the Father those who confess him today, and deny those who deny him (; ; ). Confession with the mouth is made to salvation (, ; ), and our confessions today are a foretaste of the church’s confessions of the last day, when every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (; ; ; ; ).
When we sin, we do not lose our salvation, but we lose our joy through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Only through restoration can we feel the joy of our Lord once again.
The need for repentance is highlighted in Jesus’ earliest preaching: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” (). Repentance is rooted in the human consciousness of sin, an awareness of falling short of a standard, relational brokenness and alienation, and fear of judgment. Whether motivated by inner guilt or shameful loss of face, repentance involves attitudes and acts that aim at setting things right. Coupled with confession, repentance is involved in the process of receiving forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ, and provides a model for person-to-person reconciliation as well.
Takeaways
Takeaways
From its beginning, the biblical narrative speaks of our need for repentance. Made in the image of God, and meant for fellowship with the Creator, Adam and Eve use their freedom to disobey a divine command (). In estrangement they hide; when discovered, they attempt excuses in their fearfulness. At the origins of the human family, sin is present (hence the term “original sin”), which becomes part of the spiritual reality of all humanity. The result: “the person, the one sinning, will die” (). The sacrificial system of the Old Testament is established (in part) to address the necessity of atonement (; ): “apart from the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
God forgives our sin and expects us to forgive others
The first step in being forgiven is to acknowledge one’s sin against God
ALL sin is against God even when it is acted out against others
Sin disrupts the quality of our fellowship with God, but it does not destroy our relationship with Him.
Self-Reflection
Self-Reflection
Is there sin in your life you have not confessed? If so, why?
Jewish tradition shows a lifelong struggle between the yetzer ha tov (good impulse) and the yetzer ha ra (evil impulse; compare ; ). The life of David dramatically demonstrates this. A man after God’s own heart, David nonetheless falls deeply into evil, committing adultery and murder (). When David faces God’s justice and the consequences of sin, presents his public response: a contrite heart, personal confession, and repentance (). Later, Solomon received the promise that when God’s people humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from sin, God hears from heaven, forgives them, and heals their land ().
The New Testament suggests several forms of turning to repentance and confession. suggests personal confession of sin directly to God. Other passages invite the ministry of a friend, counselor, or minister to hear one’s confession (; ; ). In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the son’s repentant return is embraced by the parent’s unconditional love, bringing reconciliation (). Jesus Himself teaches His disciples to pray “forgive us”—and this underlies general confession in corporate worship (). The kyrie prayer, “Lord have mercy,” transcends cultural boundaries ().
In the early church, initial repentance and forgiveness were closely identified with conversion and baptism (). In addition to the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, other exhortations about sin were emerging (; ; compare ; , , ), which were accompanied by reflections on especially “deadly” sins (; ; ).
Hebrews emphasizes the ministry of Jesus as once-for-all sacrifice and abiding high priest (; ). The letter includes a fervent exhortation against backsliding from life in Christ (; ). Similarly, the book of Revelation proclaims the need for repentance for individual believers and entire church fellowships (). Paul even speaks of “godly sorrow” that brings restoration, whereas “worldly sorrow”—guilt with no healthy remedy through grace—proves deadly ().