Confession

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

9 ἐὰν ὁμολογῶμεν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, πιστός ἐστιν καὶ δίκαιος, ἵνα ἀφῇ ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας καὶ καθαρίσῃ ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἀδικίας.

This is one of those verses that just about every Christian either has memorized or is very familiar with.  If he isn't, he should be.  I remember that this is one of the first verses I ever memorized.  It's one of those great verses which summarizes the gospel beautifully.

What is John telling us here?  It seems absurdly simple, doesn't it?  We confess our sins and He forgives us.  I don't think that he has the sacrament of penance in mind here either.  I don't think that this is an ongoing process either.  When God saves us He cleans us from all unrighteousness.  We become white as snow as we are washed in the blood of the Lamb.  It all starts with admitting our guilt before God.

Note that all the verbs are in the subjunctive.  The construct with ἐὰν ὁμολογῶμεν is a third-class condition.  This means that the fulfillment is uncertain, but likely.  John is saying that he doesn't know if the reader is necessarily going to confess his sins, but he does know that if we confess our sins we can be sure that God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  This is because He is both faithful to His promise and He is just in not putting us under double jeopardy for the crimes for which Jesus was already convicted.

Where are you?  Are you trying to live life as a good person?  Do you hope that someday your good works will outweigh your bad on some divine scales of justice?  If so, admit that you are a sinner before God because all it takes is one bad work to tip the scale.  Once you've sinned you can never make up the lost ground.  But Jesus came to offer Himself as a ransom for the penalty we deserve.  Confess to God that you need His salvation.  He is faithful and just and will forgive you.

Controversies

2 Timothy 2:23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

23 τὰς δὲ μωρὰς καὶ ἀπαιδεύτους ζητήσεις παραιτοῦ, εἰδὼς ὅτι γεννῶσιν μάχας·

This is one of those chapters where I could write about several different verses.  I chose this one because of a great discussion I had with a commenter last week.  It is vitally important that we be careful about our controversies.

There are a lot of dangerous areas with me.  First, I'm in seminary and thinking about matters of theology.  This is the time when one is forced to think about these matters and start to make decisions about them.  Papers are polemic by nature, so it is easy to be in an argumentative mood.  I need to be careful about that.

Second, I'm a Calvinist.  This is not to say that Arminians have no interest in discussing theology.  Far from it. However, for some reason we Calvinists tend to be a little more combative when it comes to these things.  We tend not to be afraid of being "jerks for Jesus" because we figure that the important thing is just to get the word out and let God sort everything out.  While that is true to a degree, it does not excuse any lack of gentleness nor does it excuse looking for a fight.

Third, I tend to thrive on discussion and argument.  I like hashing stuff out with others.  I'm not very good at sports, but I still like to compete.  This is one area where I can be competitive and often win.  However, theology is not a competition.

Ultimately the goal is to show people Christ so that they may enjoy Him.  I also want to enjoy Him more.  I don't think that foolish controversies add to that.  However, we also need to remember that some controversies are vital.  The trick is to distinguish which are vital and which can be left with a decision to "agree to disagree."  I think we learn that by time in the Word to see what is important to God and by listening to the Spirit as we go about our lives.

Secret Confessions

I've started to read the stuff that I see when I get to my Blogger Dashboard. I noticed that Post Secret has a new book out. For those of you who don't know, this is a site that lets people send in postcards with various confessions. I spent some time looking at old entries via Google Images, and this is what I've found:

• Many relate to sex. These vary from stories of molestation and rape to stories about using sex to get back at people.
• Many relate to drugs and alcohol
• There are many about abortions
• There are plenty that are about doing generally secret naughtiness (i.e. I like to urinate when I swim)
  

It's really fascinating to see these. I know that some people are very depressed and they don't feel like they have anywhere to turn. I sure hope that no Christians are using this site. The reason I write that is because we should be able to talk to our brothers and sisters in Christ about these kinds of things. That is what the body of Christ is for. At the very least, we can talk to God about these dark places in our lives.

I can tell you that the site is very intriguing, but it's also very sad. Some of these people are so desperate for help that you just want to reach out to them and show them the love of Christ. Actually, we're all that desperate, amen?

I realize that this sounds like a pat Christian answer. It's probably not something that Doug Pagitt would recommend, though I suspect John MacArthur would. The world can use something like PostSecret because it doesn't know Jesus. What it really needs is Jesus.