Unconfessed Sin

<<unacknowledged wrong>>

Eternal punishment awaits the unsaved – those who refuse to repent of their sin (owning up to breaking God's commands) and accept Jesus’ sacrifice for it (Jn 3:15-18; 2 Thes 1:8,9).

Meanwhile, for a believer this is any personal sin that the Holy Spirit has made us aware of but which we have not, yet, confessed to God and sought forgiveness for until the matter is acknowledged and dealt with the weight of guilt is heavy on us. David wrote of this burden and his decision to deal with it. “I will confess my sin…. You forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Now I say that each believer should confess his sins to God when he is aware of them, while there is time to be forgiven. Judgment will not touch him if he does” (Ps 32:3-6, 38:1-18).

“Your sins have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear...Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong” (Isa 59:2; Ezek 39:24; Mic 3:4; Hab 1:13). By concealing or not acknowledging our sin a barrier is erected between God and us, preventing us prospering spiritually, yet if we confess our sins He will forgive and we will be restored to relationship with Him (Ps 66:18; Prov 28:13; 1 Jn 1:9). Even those secret sins we hide in the recesses of our hearts He knows all about: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb 4:13).

At our time of conversion we asked for cleansing from our past sin (and we were forgiven), however we still sin in word, thought and action on a regular basis. Make it a daily practice to review your life, not with morbid introspection, but rather

Have mercy on me, O God…Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin – Psalm 51:1,2

giving the Holy Spirit opportunity to point out areas that need dealing with and putting these right so you can live a life pleasing to our Saviour. Why not come to Jesus for cleansing now. Don’t make excuses; own up and be washed in the blood of Christ. Don’t be like those who consider themselves pure in their own eyes, justifying their behaviour and comparing themselves to others – the Bible is the standard and the Holy Spirit is the referee (Prov 30:12; 2 Cor 10:12).

Failing to deal with sin that the Holy Spirit convicts of will lead to justifying other sins and the estrangement from Christ will increase with a dulling of the conscience and a blindness to spiritual truth (1 Cor 2:14). Those who indulge in sin are “darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Eph 4:18,19). If, as children of God, we choose to remain in our sin, then we choose the consequences that go with that choice – broken fellowship and lack of growth result. To love Him is to desire to please Him (Jn 14:15). Unconfessed sin gets in the way of pleasing Him, so a true child of God wants to confess it, change it, and restore fellowship with God. Why not get right with God now, yet understanding true confession and repentance involves making behavioural changes so we don’t continue a lifestyle of unrepentant sin for “We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom 6:1,2; 1 Jn 2:3-6, 3:7-10).