The word confession identifies two great elements in God's plan for man's redemption. One is the personal, verbal pronouncement of our faith in Jesus as Christ and Savior, and the other entails the admission and acknowledgement of our sins before God, and sometimes before our fellow men.

Jesus said, "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 10:32-33) And the Apostle Paul wrote, "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:10)

Acts 8:36-38 contains an example of this verbal confession of faith as a part of obedience to the gospel of our salvation. The Ethiopian eunuch, after hearing preaching about Jesus, asked, "What hinders me from being baptized?" The preacher, Philip, answered, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." The eunuch then made a public declaration of what he believed in his heart when he said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." After the eunuch made that confession, Philip baptized him into Christ.

This confession is termed the good confession. In 1 Timothy 6:12-13, the Apostle Paul referred to two confessions--the confession of faith in Christ that sinners make, and Jesus' admission before Pilate that He was the Christ--good confessions, because both are central to the accomplishment of our salvation.

This public declaration is instrumental in one's commitment to Christ. Just as a young man and woman may have privately acknowledged their love for one another, during the wedding ceremony they are asked to publicly pronounce their love and lifetime commitment to each other.

Also, and just as importantly, acknowledgement of our sins is called confession. And this action also is essential to salvation, both in its beginning and in its perpetuation.

Very simply, those who don't think they have any sins have absolutely no interest in the gospel (good news). But, to the person who admits sin in his life, the gospel is a remedy, remission, and renewal--and thus, salvation.

Confession and repentance are intimately linked. Repentance is a turning away from sin and toward God, a change of heart and action. No one can repent of what he will not confess (at least to himself) is sin.

But there is more. Once a person becomes a Christian and his or her past sins are forgiven, the question of dealing with future sins arises. Does such a person need to be baptized again each time he/she sins? The answer is negative. But it is necessary to repent and confess our sins to God to obtain renewed forgiveness.

This may be best authenticated in the teaching of 1 John 1:8-10. John wrote by inspiration, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

Notice that John wrote this epistle to Christians, not to the unsaved. But regarding God's willingness to forgive us of sins after our initial obedience, John used conditional language--"if" we confess our sins, God will forgive and cleanse. So confession of our sins remains critically important for as long as we live as Christians.

Confession is not just a New-Testament concept.

God's desire and demand that men confess their sins did not begin in the New-Testament age. King David wrote long ago, "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)

David, in the wake of his adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband, presented a classic case study in what is involved in confessing our sins to God as he wrote Psalm 51. In it, he pled for mercy and cleansing, openly acknowledging his sins, admitting that his sin was, first and foremost, against God, declaring what evil he had done, and seeing his admissions as a means to receipt of God's forgiveness.

For many, confession is a great obstacle.

We live in an age where denial of guilt is epidemic, and popular psychology encourages us to blame everyone but ourselves for our bad behavior. Parents are blamed; culture and environment are blamed; poverty is blamed. But the individual who sins is told, "It's not your fault."

Everyone, it seems, is looking for cover. That is, they are looking for a way to cover or hide their sins, the very opposite of what God's word demands--a confession of guilt.

Sin often provides the opposite of what it offers. The Bible teaches that if we want our sins covered, then we must confess them. That may seem paradoxical, but God will not bury our sins unless we are willing to admit them.

Perhaps this is because denial evidences impenitence and unwillingness to change. No real progress can be made under these circumstances. Forgiveness largely would be wasted on such an individual, since he will be intent on repeating his sins.

Confessing sins to one another.

We need to address one other aspect of confession. That is the matter of confessing our sins, not just to God, but to one another as Christians. James 5:16 tells us, "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

Many Christians balk at this command. Confessing one's sins privately to God, under conditions where family, friends, and brethren never learn of our sin, often is deemed sufficient.

But this overlooks two important elements. First, it ignores the power of confession. Second, it ignores the power of prayer.

Just as confessing our faith in Jesus is a pledge of allegiance and commitment to our savior, so public confession of our sins helps us commit to never again practicing these sins. It is a remarkable, memorable point of change in our lives.

And, since the habits of sin are hard to break, we need help. God and our brethren in Christ are our sources of help. Obviously, we ourselves can pray to God for assistance. But James points out the great value of fervent prayer from righteous men. How can our brethren pray for God to assist us in our struggles with sin, if they don't know about the sin?

We particularly need to confess our sins to our brethren when we have sinned against a brother or sister. Jesus himself made this extremely clear in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:23-24). By necessary inference, we learn the same thing in Luke 17:3-4. Logic says that repenting in the presence of a brother against whom you've sinned involves confession of that sin. Confession of sins also is necessarily the implied result hoped for in the pattern set forth in Matthew 18:15-17 for confronting brethren who sin against us.

When does it become necessary to confess error before the congregation?

When we are simply seeking the help of our brethren in our struggles with temptation and sin, it is absolutely appropriate to confess and share those matters with a single Christian friend or a small circle of close brethren. If we've sinned against a single individual, we need to admit the sin to that person.

But there are also circumstances when a public confession before the entire local body of believers is most proper. Remember that repentance, confession, and forgiveness are closely linked. Confession of our sins is a part of the reparative process, putting sinful behavior behind us so we can live anew in Christ.

Repentance requires our best effort to make things right, to cease causing sinful harm. So if our behavior has brought shame and reproach upon the entire body of believers with whom we worship, we need to confess our sins before all those against whom we've sinned. This can be done by going to each and every member individually, or it can be done by going before the congregation, admitting our error, and repenting. Brethren then know of our sorrow and change. They can pray for us. They can forgive us, as God will. They can let any detractors know we've changed. The pulpit plea to saints to "come forward" and "confess sins" is not particularly a call to special humiliation, though humility certainly must underlie true confession. Rather, it is an expedient to accomplish needed confession of sins to a larger group in a single, simpler, and timelier manner.

We need to be more open to confession.

There is a great need in the body of Christ for greater willingness to confess our sins, privately to brethren, and publicly when the circumstances call for it. If we want forgiveness from God and men, we must see confession as a crucial element in God's plan for our redemption. But we also need to be more open in our confession of faith in Christ. Certainly, we must do so as part of our initial obedience to the gospel. But our confession or profession is not limited to that first declaration. It is to be a constant part of our lives as Christians, as we let the world know of our faith, both through our verbal declarations and the manner in which we live our lives. To do anything other than constantly confess our faith is to show ourselves ashamed. And we dare not demonstrate such shame, or Jesus Himself will be ashamed of us on that most important Day!