CONFESSION,CONFRONTATION AND FORGIVENESS
The Essentials for True Happiness.
By Henry Jaegers
“So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned. He shall then prepare as a burnt offering according to the ordinance. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin which he has committed, and it will be forgiven him”. (Leviticus 5:5, and 5:10 )
I have often heard uninformed people say that the Old Testament was for the Jews under the law, and but in the New Testament we are under grace. This study in Leviticus shows some basic New Testament principles that those holding to this previous view will totally miss. From cover to cover, the Bible is the absolute word of God. Although times change, and God's plan is more fully realized, the truth is, that God never changes. He is still holy and perfect, and man is totally depraved. When man commits sin, God in his love and mercy provides a way for restoration. The comments in this article contain facts that many Christians seem to misunderstand.
A simple illustration can be seen in how God dealt with our first parents. First, God created Adam perfectly. He had no need. His surroundings, and his person were created without flaw. If we were to say God made any mistake in making Adam, it would probably be in allowing Adam to make a choice. But that was no mistake, that was part of God's perfect plan.
Next we find God giving Adam just one command. He was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That should be easy enough but as we shall see, it wasn't. Adam and his wife eventually succumbed to temptation and took of the forbidden fruit. Upon doing so Adam experienced a great separation. He didn't know what to call it but we know it to be the word " guilt””. Guilt is a great motivator to get us to do something, and true to its purpose, Adam acted and covered himself with fig leaves. Full of fear and guilt, Adam beside covering himself with fig leaves, hid himself in the garden. But God being the great loving compassionate One that he is, came looking for Adam. We cannot hide from God although we may fool ourselves into thinking we can. We cannot cover our own guilt either, because God knows all about it and the only way to get rid of guilt by turning to God.
We find God in the Garden calling out to Adam “”where are you" It was not that God didn't know where he was, but something had to happen that was important. Adam had to face the fact of his guilt, and God was calling him into accountability. God began the process of removing Adams fig leaf covering to present him with something better. During this time of confrontation, Adam made all kinds of excuses before he finally confessed to God that he had sinned. Most Bible expositors do not tell us, but it's there. Before God could give Adam a covering sufficient for his sin, he first had to be brought to the place of confession. Once Adam acknowledged his sin, God gave him a new covering of skins and gave him an opportunity for a new beginning. That is what being born again is all about.
We find this idea of confrontation many times in Scripture, but the one most prominent is when Nathan confronted David about his sin. How important this process was. We do not know or could not imagine the depth that David could have sunk had Nathan not confronted him first about his sin. I remember talking to a new pastor in a church I attended and I told him that the church he was pastoring was "a safe church." He didn't know what I meant by that. Can you imagine a man called of God, not understanding that a safe church was one as never having any fear of being confronted about sin. I have attended many churches just like that one since the time I shared this with him. Somehow men need to know what the purpose of guilt is. The law in its application is meant to convict man of sin, using guilt to drive him to seek a remedy. Many people become superficial because the fact of sin has never been brought to the surface.
Once a man has received God's covering for sin then a new phase of the Christian life begins. Receiving God's forgiveness, and covering opens up new opportunities for spiritual growth and development. God never intends for us to remain neutral. Many Christians never experience true happiness in their life because they have not known, by experience, the fact that God loves them. They are content to live in the superficial mold and never realize that true happiness comes by giving and serving. That's what Christ has created us for. “Saved to serve ïs a statement that opens the door to true happiness.
As I close this section, I would like to ask the question: what have you done about your guilt? Have you tried to cover it with fig leaves? What I mean by that is, sometimes when we are confronted by guilt we find inadequate ways of removing that guilt. We may try to forget it by joining with our happy friends and partaking of their spirits with the purpose of trying to forget our problem. Or another way we may cover our guilt is by going into debt and purchasing expensive toys which gives us superficial pleasure, but it does not remove the problem the problem, Sin must be confronted, and that is the work that the Holy Spirit does by producing guilt. And when we are confronted about our sin we must face it honestly. The word confession means “to say the same thing ", and what that means is when God points out sin in our life we must immediately agree that God is right and set our course to do something to remove the guilt. Once again, only God can remove guilt, and He has provided a covering for that guilt by the death of his perfect son. When the Scripture tells us that “the law is our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ,” (Galatians 3: 24) it basically means that the law produces guilt that drives us to the only one who can remove that guilt and that is God alone through the person of His SonJesus Christ.
We can never fully appreciate the great love that God has for us and the purpose he has planned. Following Jesus is the only thing that makes sense when it comes to experiencing complete happiness.
Have you received the gift of eternal life provided by God, as he provided coats of skin for Adam, or are you, like Adam, content to live the rest of your life with fig leaf coverings? Remember God is a good God, He never makes mistakes and He always has our best interest at heart. That is the God who loves us. “He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to eternal life”. God has provided for all but we must leave our fig leaf covering first and receive the covering that God himself has provided.
Confession, confrontation and forgiveness are clearly taught and found in the book that no one likes to read, the book of Leviticus.
