Say the Same Thing As - 1 John 1:9
August 25th, 2024
One of the signs of a grace awakening will be an increasing emphasis on the simple Gospel that Jesus revealed. Religion is complicated, but grace is simple. Religion is vague, but grace is crystal clear. Religion will give you a headache and make you sick and tired, but grace gives strength to the weary and life to the dead. Religions binds, but grace frees the prisoner. —Dr. Paul Ellis
salvation and forgiveness (denial of the thought of the thing) are simple in Christ…
Psa 62:1… “I rest in God alone… my salvation comes from Him…”
Acts 4:12… “salvation in no one else… no other name by which we are saved…”
yeshua/soteria/sozo… deliverance, rescue, safety, healing, welfare, prosperity, victory; present possession of all true Christians…
Eph 1:7… “in Him… thru His blood… we have forgiveness of sins… thru grace…”
Heb 9:22… “without the shedding of blood… there is no forgiveness…”
aphesis… release from bondage; let go as if they had never been committed; no penalty…
salvation opens door to inheritance… forgiveness leads to love, love to obedience… today, simple truth about biblical confession and repentance… pray… Eph 1… “in Him we have received an inheritance… HS is down payment… I pray the eyes of your heart will be enlightened to know wealth of His inheritance…”
Luke 7:36-50… “her many sins have been forgiven… that’s why she loved much…”
John 14:15… “if you love Me, you will obey Me…”
random thoughts from some friends about confession and repentance…
- Admitting to God I’ve sinned. Being sorry for not being the person He wants me to be.
- I have fallen short of God’s expectations. Convincing myself I must change and draw closer to Him.
- I was scared to death, thinking the priest would scold me for disappointing God.
- It meant you had to tell God every sin you had done and do something to make it right.
- Informing God of my sin, as if He didn’t know, and telling Him how good I’d be in the future.
- Telling God what I did wrong so He could forgive me and doing something to make it better.
Biblical Confession
most etp on this subject is wrong… only truth sets us free, not etp…
Mark 1:5… “baptized by John in Jordan River… confessing their sins…”
Acts 19:18… “many who became believers confessed their sinful practices…”
James 5:16… “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another…”
exomologeo… to confess; acknowledge openly and joyfully; to celebrate, give praise…
Rom 10:9-10… “confess with mouth… Jesus is Lord… you will be saved…”
1John 1:9… “if we confess our sins… He is faithful to forgive us…”
1John 4:15… “whoever confesses Jesus is the Son… God remains in Him…”
homologeo… say the same thing as, agree with; not refuse or deny; declare openly…
biblical confession is simple… not listing sins and begging God to forgive you… saying same thing as God… already forgiven thru Christ… joyfully praising Him that your sins are removed completely… now and forever… not denying that…
Isa 43:25… “I will obliterate your sins for My sake… never think of them again…”
1John 2:12… “children… your sins have been forgiven on account of His name…”
Why Should I Confess?
because it helps you heal… not price to receive forgiveness… but acknowledging total dependence on God’s grace… confess what you are, not what you were…
Rom 6:22… “but now… have been set free from sin… result is holiness and life…”
1Cor 6:9-11… “thieves, drunkards, greedy… you used to be like this… but now…”
Eph 2… “you were dead in sins… but now, you are alive in Christ… by grace…”
1Pet 2:10… “once you had no identity… but now you are God’s people…”
sin thrives in darkness and silence… good confession helps break its power…
Psa 32:1-5… “when I refused to confess… my body wasted away… I groaned all day long… my strength evaporated… finally, I confessed all my sins to You and stopped trying to hide all my guilt… and You forgave me… all my guilt is gone…”
1Thess 5:5… “we are children of the light… we do not belong to the darkness…”
Heb 4:16… “let us approach the throne of grace with boldness… to receive help…”
Jam 5:16 msg… “confess sins to one another… so you can live whole and healed…”
Biblical Repentance
NC repentance is simple… means change your mind… nothing more, nothing less… not just turning from sin… can turn to another sin… it means turning to God…
Mark 1:15… “the time has come… repent and believe the Good News…”
Luke 5:32… “I have not come to call the righteous… but sinners to repentance…”
Luke 15:1-10… “more joy over 1 sinner that repents than 99 righteous who don’t need to…”
Acts 20:21… “declared they must turn to God in repentance and have faith…”
Acts 26:20… “I preached that they should repent and turn to God…”
metanoia… a change of mind; to change one’s mind…
religious repentance is turning from sin… fixing what you broke… hiding gsc… biblical repentance is a heart response to what God has done… with thanks…
Hosea 14:2… “words of repentance to God… repay with praise from our lips…”
Acts 8:14-25… “repent and pray… so your heart’s intent may be forgiven…”
Rom 2:4… “it is God’s kindness that leads you to repentance…”
Rom 7:24-25… “how miserable I am… who will rescue… thank God for Jesus…”
Repentance means a change of mind. Formerly, I thought sin was a pleasant thing, but now I have changed my mind about it. Once I thought certain things delightful, but now I think them vile. Once I thought other things were worthless, but now I think them precious. That is a change of mind and that is repentance. No life can truly be changed apart from it. —Watchman Nee
Old vs. New
simple… OC puts focus on you and what you have to do… NC puts focus on Jesus and what He has done… God’s goodness and love leads to supernatural change…
Rom 12:2… “do not conform to world… be transformed by renewing your mind…”
2Cor 3:5-18… “minds blinded… at reading of OC, veil remains… only removed in Christ… with unveiled faces, gazing at goodness of God… transformed to same image… by HS…”
don’t confess and repent to be forgiven… confess and repent because we’re already forgiven… change your mind, say the same thing as God… be set free… pray…
1Tim 6:12… “fight good fight… take hold of life… confessed good confession…”
2Pet 3:9… “God does not want any to perish… but all to come to repentance…”
If you trust to your faith and to your repentance, you will be as much lost as if you trusted to your good works or trusted to your sins. The ground of your salvation is not faith, but Christ. It is not repentance, but Christ. If I trust my trust in Christ, I am lost. My business is to trust Christ alone; to rest on Him; to depend on what He did for me when He hung upon that tree. —Charles Spurgeon