I read a marquee the other day with this inscription: “Failure is never final.” This is true with one exception: rejecting the gospel. When a man or woman refuses to hear the gospel and dies without it, that fatal decision is irreversible. The ticket to hell is one way and there are no return flights. 

This thought flooded me with gratitude. Even though I am a rotten sinner, God’s grace is abundantly greater even than my sin. Do you ever feel like you are drowning in a sea of sin and unable to break the surface? Don’t even try. Just go to God and confess it. To “confess” means to “say the same thing.” When John the Apostle urged his flock to “confess their sins” (1 John 1:9) he was essentially saying, “Say the same thing about your sin that God says.” Don’t belittle it. Don’t excuse it. Don’t try to make up for it by good deeds. Confess it. Face up to its heinous evil and admit what you’ve done. That’s all it takes and God is “faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Note that John did not say “some unrighteousness” but all.

A confessed believer who has sinned grossly a million times over is cleaner than the most righteous moralist who rejects Jesus Christ. Even the kindest, sweetest, most sacrificial person on the planet who rejects the provision God offered for his sin, Jesus Christ, will receive no mercy for all the confessions in the world. Every righteous deed he endeavors only serves as a weight of judgment hung around his neck on the Day of Judgment. The most righteous deeds of the un-confessed sinner are the filthiest rags in the eyes of God (Is 64:6).

But when you embrace God’s method of reconciliation: Jesus Christ, you will find more cleansing than you could dream of. When Joshua stood before the Lord in filthy clothing representing his sinfulness, Satan stood up to accuse him. Satan is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), always trying to drag God’s people down with guilt and discouragement as he whispers reminders of all the wicked things they have done. But instead of joining Satan in his railing assault, the Lord turned to Satan and said, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!...Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zech 2:1-2). What is this? God does not rebuke the sinner? No. Because that sinner named Joshua was plucked from the fire of judgment and saved by the blood of the coming Messiah. When you stand in Christ you stand free from sin and ready for forgiveness.

Instead of letting sin drag you down, turn away from it, confess it, and press on for God with a clean conscience. It is the faithfulness of God that keeps you clean and forgiven. It is the righteousness of God that keeps you acquitted of all guilt. “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God would be faithless and unjust if He did not forgive you when you humbly confess.  Why? Because His holy justice against sin was already spent upon Christ at the cross.

Yesterday my friend Jay and I witnessed to a Roman Catholic at Western Michigan University. He thought that Christ’s death was simply an expression of God’s love and that’s it. And then Jay asked this question, “Do you think that Christ’s death was an act of God’s justice?” The Catholic didn’t know how to respond. In his mind Christ died to show God’s love but he had never considered why Christ had to die. So Jay explained that Christ died for more than just an expression of love, He had to die to save us. Some had to take our place of punishment, and that someone was the Son of God. That’s why Scripture calls Christ the “propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). “Propitiation” means satisfaction. Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God at the cross. He soaked it up leaving not a drop for us to suffer. This is why it would be unjust for God not to forgive the believer who confesses his sin, for his sin was already punished for, paid for, and cast as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12). And God has promised forgiveness. Thus, if God did not forgive the sin He would be unfaithful, essentially a liar.

God will no more condemn you for your sin then He would send His own Son to hell. If you are in Christ, His security is your security; His righteousness, your righteousness. So next time you sin, give up the man-centered efforts of getting things right and do it God’s way: confess it.