Confession and Judgment

In our last Refuge service, we talked about the “Vulnerability of Confession” specifically dealing with 1 John 1:9. This is a passage that is often used in witnessing to unbelievers, but the real power behind this verse goes to those who believe. In dealing with believers who sin, John says, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The point for was that just because we mess up doesn’t mean that we are messed up. As Christians, we have been forgiven of our sins, past present and future, by the work of Jesus dying on the cross as the propitiation (satisfaction of God’s Holy law) for our sins. The problem is that even though we have been forgiven, we still sin and are not sure what to do with that. We have this tension within our minds as Paul stated to the Romans,

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 6:15-20

It is here then that we must ask the question, if as believers we still sin and if confession is necessary for the forgiveness of sins, how do we make sense of 2 Corinthians 5:10 which says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

When Jesus was crucified on the cross, He died once for all. The fact that each of us will appear before the judgment seat of Christ has nothing to do with justification because it has already been credited to the Christian fully and forever through faith in Christ. Also, while we are told in 1 John to confess our sins, this has nothing to do with any amount of judgment waiting to fall on us because our sins have already been judged on the cross.

Confession has everything to do with walking through the process of sanctification, which is the process of becoming more like Christ. To confess our sins is to agree with God about our sins. It is through confession that we acknowledge its reality and affirm that it is disobedience of God’s holy law and a violation of His will. Believers who truly repent will seek to eliminate sinful behavior from their lives.

John MacArthur explains confession by saying, “A believers forgiveness is not because of their ongoing confession, but their ongoing pattern of repentance and confession is because of their forgiveness and transformation. As the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, He continually produces within them a hatred for sin, which results in repentant hearts and a sincere acknowledgment of their sins. “ (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1-3 John p. 39). If confession is genuine, it will always stem form proper sorrow over sin and a real longing to turn from sin.

Going back to 2 Corinthians, Paul says, “We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” If our sins have been judged on the cross and if confession is the process of sanctification, what is there to be judged? Believers will not be judged for sin at the judgment seat of Christ. Every sin of every believer was judged at the Cross, when God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This judgment then refers to what we have done with our lives as Christians.

The word, appear, means literally to “make manifest,” “to make clear,” “to make visible,” or “to reveal.” Philip E. Hughes writes, “To be made manifest means not just to appear, but to be laid bare, stripped of every outward façade of respectability, and openly revealed in the full and true reality of one’s character.” (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 180).

It is in this judgment day that the full truth about our lives, character, and deeds will be made clear. We will discover the real verdict on our ministry, service, and motives. Again, believers will not face their sins, but we will have to give an account for our works and service for the Lord. If we have been faithful it will be a place of reward and recognition. For those who have been faithful, it will be a time of rejoicing as we glorify the Lord by giving our rewards back to Him in worship and in praise. Perhaps to best understand this we need to know in heaven, all we are going to want to do is to praise our God. Those who are more faithful with their time on earth will have the ability to offer up even more praise that will be honoring to Him.