Tag-Archive for » confess «

The Other Shoe

Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 | Author:

for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  Romans 10:10  NASB

Resulting – You’ll need to read a few other English translations of this verse to see the issue.

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”  ESV

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”  NIV

“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  NKJV

Do you see that “resulting in” doesn’t even appear in these other three versions?  In fact, there’s isn’t any Greek word in this text for “resulting” or “and is” or “and are”  in any of these translations.  The Greek simply uses the preposition eis (“in, into, until”).  Eis is a preposition about a spatial  relationship.  That’s why the NKJV is closest with “unto.”  Paul isn’t saying that belief produces righteousness or that confession produces salvation.  Paul is Jewish!  Believing into righteousness means that these two nouns are the same thing.  Believing is righteousness because, just like shema, the verb “believing” manifests itself in righteousness.  I cannot have one without the other.

The same logic applies to “confesses.”  Confession is not the basis for some further state called “saved.”  Confessing is salvation.  Paul literally says “confesses into salvation” (homologeitai eis soterian).  The verb means “to speak the same as.”  It has a Hebrew root equivalent that is tied to praise and worship.  It is associated with making a statement as in a court of law, providing a witness or making a solemn oath.  In other words, the act of confessing is by its very nature the act of deliverance.  It is to say the same thing that God says about who you are.  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You” is the essence of confessing.

In our culture we tend to separate act from consequence, but this is not true in Hebrew thought.  Just as the act of disobedience contains within itself the inevitable consequences so that sin and punishment are inextricably tied to each other, so the act of believing and the act of confessing are coupled with righteousness and salvation.  Now you might have a better understanding of Genesis 15:6.  What is the lesson here?  Hebrew thought involves inward attitude and outward manifestation.  If you don’t see righteousness, then there is no believing.  If you don’t see the symptoms of salvation, then there is no confessing.  So, take a look.  What do you see?

Topical Index:  resulting in, confess, believe, righteousness, salvation, Romans 10:10

 

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Phonetic Confusion

Friday, July 27th, 2012 | Author:

He that conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.  Proverbs 28:13  NASB

Confesses -  “Yada, yada, yada,” is a common Hebrew phrase that has made its way into English.  We are familiar with its idiomatic meaning – “and more like that” or something similar.  You know that the Hebrew verb, yada’, is the general verb for “to know” in all of its wide range on contexts.  But you might not know that the phonetically similar verb, yada (spelled Yod-Daleth-Hey rather than Yod-Daleth-Ayin), is connected to confession.  What you might find even more interesting is that this yada is also the word for “to praise, to give thanks, and to thank.”  In one of its forms, toda, it is often found in the Hebrew expression for “thank you.”  The emphasis of the word is agreement with the facts.  Confession is really saying, “You’re right about me, God.  Your assessment of who I really am is the truth.”

Today we have made confession of sins into a religious ritual.  It might be a trip to the altar; it might be joining an elder for prayer; it might be taking our place in the booth.  The truth is that none of these things are real confession.  Confession is always an act of admission before God.  The outward signs of confession can be mimicked, but the inward examination of our hearts cannot.

The amazing thing about confession before God is that He already knows all about us.  Confession before God has a self-reflexive motive.  It is for our own good, not His.  Why does God require that we reveal our secrets to Him if He already knows them all?  Because we need to see ourselves from His point of view if we are going to become what He designed us to be.  Confession is for us.  It clears our air.  It focuses our sight.  We can’t be released from the destructive power of a secret as long as we expend energy to keep it secret, even if God knows it anyway.

Confession is just like forgiveness.  My refusal to forgive hurts me.  So do those sins I have not confessed.  Admitting my true condition before God clears the ground for change just like forgiving someone else’s sin against me repairs my inner damage.  Confession and restoration go hand in hand.

This verse tells us that agreeing with God about my real moral state and turning away from practicing what doesn’t fit His design guarantees compassion.  As long as I refuse to see myself from God’s perspective, I will hurt inside.  When I face the truth, the pain of admission will be followed by mercy.  That’s a promise!

Topical Index: confess, yada’, praise, acknowledgement, forgiveness, Proverbs 28:13

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Dialing 911

Thursday, April 07th, 2011 | Author:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9  NASB

Confess – “What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus,” wrote Robert Lowry in this famous hymn from the 19th Century.  He was absolutely right.  Nothing can clean off the pollution of deliberate sin except the crimson red disinfectant.  Once cleansed, we are free to obey out of hearts of gratitude.  We come blameless before the throne, unashamed to enter into the presence of the King of the universe.

But what happens if we mess up again?  John provides the answer.  There is emergency help.  It’s called confession.

Confession is not like a daily shower.  God does not expect His redeemed children to play in the mud.  He expects them to live righteously.  He expects them to stay clean once they are washed with red soap.  There would be no point at all in providing instructions for living if God thought that we were so magnetically attracted to life’s dirt that we couldn’t avoid it.  Torah would be useless if it were impossible to obey.  The point of getting cleaned up is to stay cleaned up, not to run back to the mud.  That means that sin subsequent to being washed in the blood is not the norm.  It is the exception to the rule.  Nevertheless, it happens – and when it does, emergency measures must be taken.  Confession is one of those emergency measures.  In the event of a calamity, in the case where we stumble in spite of our deliberate redirection after cleansing, God provides a 911 emergency number.  It is 266 3377.[1] And it’s toll free.

When I was the victim of Augustinian-Lutheran thinking, I used to believe that repentance was a daily exercise.  If I am born a sinner and a sinful nature directs my every action, I obviously must confess continuously.  Even after I am “saved,” that sinful predilection persists.  I am in an eternal spiritual battle, fighting to keep the faith while observing that I sin every day in word, thought and deed.  When Augustine decided that Romans 7 was a description of every Christian, when Martin Luther adopted Augustine’s point of view and declared that sin springs out of every pour, the trap was set.  Confession is no longer an emergency provision.  It was the mainstay of religious life.  One can only wonder why there wasn’t a confessor priest in every village in Israel.  The Roman Catholic Church certainly operated on the principle that confession was interminable.

But John doesn’t speak like the Pope.  He writes in order that we will not sin!  Once cleansed, sinning is an aberration.  He says, “If anyone sins,” not “when anyone sins.”  He used the Greek word homologeo (confess), a word that means to acknowledge openly.  In an emergency, we admit that we have stumbled and Yeshua accepts our admission in the same way that YHWH accepted Abraham’s trust.  Restoration is instantaneous and complete.  We are ready to go back to obedience.  The Hebrew equivalent of homologeo is yada’, the verb that covers “to know” in the widest possible sense.  Confession is not only knowing that I have stumbled, admitting that I have fallen, it is also knowing the intimacy of His promise to forgive and experiencing restoration.

If you have to dial 911, do it now.  Then get back to the Way.

Topical Index:  1 John 1:9, sin, emergency, confess

[1] For those who need more than a hint, CON-FESS

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