The one thing all people have in common is guilt. Ever since
Adam and Eve hid from God, because they were afraid, out of a
sense of guilt, man has had to bear the burden, and suffer the effects
of guilt, and these effects are enormous. Modern psychiatry is
discovering that guilt is enemy number one of good mental health.
It is the destructive force behind dozens of different kinds of mental
illness. It is the basic cause for the anxiety and fear that makes millions
live in dread and depression. It is the cause for the
ineffectiveness of many Christian lives. It disarms the believer of the
whole armor of God. It cuts at the root of the tree of life. It poisons
the springs of living water, and it sends a corrupting worm into the
fruit of the Spirit.
Everyone who has done something he does not want known has
guilt. This of course means that just as all are sinners, so all are
guilty. The more we learn about the guilt of man, the more we
realize it is a major factor in all of human life. One doctor treating
one hundred cases of arthritis and colitis found that a hidden sense
of guilt played a role in 68% of these patients. Flanders Dunbar in
the book Psychiatry In The Medical Specialties reports that, "It has
been found that at least 65% of patients are suffering from illness
syndromes initiated or seriously complicated by psychological
factors." Conclusions like this are being reached in one study after
another, and the result is that men are beginning to see that man's
ultimate problem is sin. It is sin and its effects that are the greatest
plague in the world. And guilt is sins major effect.
Rowe expresses the minds of millions when he writes, "Guilt is
the source of sorrow! 'Tis the fiend, the avenging fiend, that follows
us behind, with whips and stings." There is no escape from the
facts. Modern psychiatry has confirmed what the Bible says: "All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God." All are caught in
the web of guilt. But thank God the facts do not stop there. John
knew almost 2000 years ago that this was man's major problem, but
he did not just analyze it and diagnose it, but he gave a prescription
authorized by the Great Physician Himself. John had to have an
answer for the problem of guilt in order to ever bring his readers to
his established goal of fullness of joy, and fellowship with the God of
light. Guilt is just the opposite of this, and no amount of truth could
ever lead to that goal that did not first show a man how to be
relieved of guilt. That is why John begins with the matter of sin and
forgiveness, for all Christian maturity begins with clear
understanding of this basic issue. John shows us three basic steps
from guilt to God.
I. CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN-V 8.
John says that if we try and live on the hypocritical level of
non-admission to guilt and sin, then we are self-deceived. The truth
is not in us, and in such a state we cannot be forgiven. Such a
person, and they are not rare, suppresses his guilt and tries to give
the impression that there is nothing wrong in their lives.
Meanwhile, though they have succeeded in hiding their guilt from
their consciousness, it is invading their whole being like a poison,
and will reveal itself in either a psychological or physical problem,
or both.
Many unbelievers do not respond to Christ just because they
refuse to admit they are guilty. They are hiding their guilt, and they
are saying we do not need a Savior, for we are not so bad. The
natural man is fighting for survival, and does not let himself be
conscious that he is a mass of guilt in need of cleansing, for to do so
he knows must lead to repentance and death for the old man. The
same is true for the Christian who lets the old man revive and live
again in his body. He hides his guilt because to admit it is so painful,
and his old man does not want to die. This is why guilt so often
leads to mental illness. It is an escape. It allows the sinner to say he
is sick rather than guilty. This sounds foolish, but this is just how
hard man struggles against admitting he is a guilty sinner.
This may sound like a harsh and cruel judgment on mental
patients, but the facts being discovered by competent men are
reversing the idea that there is nothing to be ashamed of in mental
illness. It could well be that such illness is, as Dr. David Bellgum
calls it, "An involuntary confession of guilt." Unconfessed and
unforgiven sin acts like a cancer of the soul. It effects the total
person in body, soul, and spirit. O. Hobart Mowrer in his book The
Crisis In Psychiatry And Religion comes right out and says that
neurotics and psychotics are not sick so much as they are sinners
caught and condemned by their own conscience. Dr. Bellgum says
this applies also to many with physical problems, for he says
physical "symptoms are often the amplified voice of conscience." In
other words, you might suppress it, but one way or another guilt is
going to show itself.
The saying was never more true than when applied to this area of
life, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Let us not jump to
the conclusion that all mental problems reveal suppress guilt. There
are many other causes; some uncontrollable which result in brain
damage, and for which the person is not responsible. There are
many exceptions to what we have stated, but there are many cases in
which it is true, and it shows that the church has the only answer to
man's greatest problem-sin. People do not need to be
psychoanalyzed, they need to be saved. They need to stop lying to
themselves and admit they are guilty sinners, for it is only then that
they will be conscious of their need for forgiveness. This is the first
step on the road to recovery.
To make it clear that we are not only dealing here with
non-believers, let us consider some actual examples of Christians
who fell into the category of those who refuse to admit guilt. Paul
wrote to the Corinthians , and said it was for this very thing that
many of them were weak and sickly, and some had even died. In I
Cor. 11 he explains that the reason was, they had been guilty of
unworthy participation in the Lord's Supper. They were observing
this remembrance of His death for sin, but were refusing to do so
with a consciousness of their sin. In lightness and carelessness, and
with no sense of guilt for their heathenish attitude, they
remembered the sacred event of Christ's death. The result was
hardness of heart. They sought no forgiveness, for they were not
conscious of sin, and the result was all kinds of symptoms in body
and mind, and in some cases leading even to death. These early
Christians were experiencing the consequences of repressed guilt
and unconfessed sin.
All of the facts support the statement that holiness is the best way
to health, just as sin is the surest way to sickness. Even the pagan
philosopher Seneca observed that guilt always punishes even if the
law does not. He said, "Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar,
it never fails of doing justice upon itself, for every guilty person is
his own hangman." Plautus said, "Nothing is more wretched than
the mind of a man conscious of guilt." It is true and it is painful, yet,
as John says, and as science supports, to be conscious of guilt and to
admit your sin is the only way you can be ready to take the next step
to the wholeness for which all men seek. Admit your guilt and then
take the next step.
II. CONFESSION OF SIN. V.9.
This verse is tree with so many branches, on each of which hangs
so much fruit, that we cannot begin to taste all of its riches in one
message. James Edwin Orr said, "Clear teaching concerning the
confessing of sins by Christians is one of the most neglected
doctrines of today." Here is a concept given by inspiration of God to
aid people against the most destructive force in the world, and yet it
is ignored as if it were incidental. The result is, all things have not
become as new as they ought in the lives of believers, because they
have not availed themselves of God's provision. Christians have
needlessly borne mountains of guilt when they might have had it
dissolved and cleansed through the blood of Christ. Continuous and
consistent confession of sin is a must for a Christian who truly
desires to attain the fullness of the stature of Christ. If your aim is
any lower than that, that too is a sin needing to be confessed and
forgiven.
Many are uninhibited when it comes to the confession of the sins
of others, but John is writing to Christian people who need to
confess their own sins. Confession is no part of the life of the
unbeliever. No doubt many deceive themselves into thinking they
can gain God's forgiveness, but John clearly states that only those
who walk in the light have fellowship with God, and only they are
cleansed by the blood of Christ. Confession is of no value unless one
is a believer walking in the light. Sin is a blockade as long as we
walk in darkness, but if we walk in the light and confess our sin it
becomes a bridge back into fellowship with God, for he loves the
sinner and waits in hope that they will confess and come back to
Him.
The story is told of how Satan approached God with the
complaint that He forgives His children over and over again, but He
never forgave him, and God replies to him, "You never asked."
This illustrates the truth that confession is an essential condition of
forgiveness, but it does not go far enough, for even if Satan did ask,
it would be to no avail unless he cease to be the prince of darkness,
and began to walk in the light.
It is important to see this truth, for those who do not see the
whole picture abuse this promise and stretch it beyond what it was
meant to cover. To think that one can confess, and yet have no sense
of guilt about continuing in the same pattern of life is to be deceived.
It is of interest to note that some Catholics are perfectly aware of
this danger in their own practice of compulsory confession. In a
questionnaire sent out to priests asking what kinds of persons failed
to gain anything from the confession, one answered in a way that
made clear he was aware of all the things that Protestants criticize
about the confessional. Here is what he wrote:
"The insincere-those who really are not in earnest about
breaking a habit of sin. The uneducated who consider the
powers of the confessional as magical. A 'bad confession.'
They are either so attached to the pleasure or advantages
deriving from the sin that they do not really intend to stop
the sin or the habit, or they are presumptuous of God's help,
thinking God will change them without their effort or
cooperation."
Not only will the Catholic confessional not be effective for those
people, but neither will the personal and secret confession to God
alone. No confession will cleanse the sinner who refuses to walk in
the light. Confession implies a change in walk, and not merely a
change in talk.
A basic maxim to be followed in confession is this: "Let the circle
of the offense committed be the circle of the confession made." That
is, if the sin is secret, it is to be confessed secretly to God alone. If
the sin is private, that is, against a particular person, you are to
confess to that person as well as God. That is called private
confession as distinct from public confession. Public confession is to
be made when the offense is against the whole church, or a large
segment of it. In other words, confession is to always be made to
those who have been offended, for they alone can forgive. This is
why we do not practice what is called auricular confession by the
Catholic church. Auricular means, told in the ear, and refers to
telling the priest one's sins. A party not involved in the offense can
not be involved in the forgiveness. We feel that no party who is not
offended can honestly be a party to the forgiveness. We do not deny
that it can be effective in relieving guilt, but we feel there is a better
and more Biblical way that exalts Christ rather than man. That is
by direct confession to God through Christ, who is our High Priest,
and who daily intercedes for us.
All of this is not to say, however, that God does not use men as
instruments of conveying his message of forgiveness. All of the
reformers such as Luther and Calvin rejected auricular confession,
but still retained what they called private confession to the pastor.
They simply recognized that in exceptional cases a child of God gets
burdened with guilt, and cannot sense the forgiveness of God. Such
a person can gain victory by confessing to a pastor, and by receiving
his assurance, as God's ambassador, that He has been truly forgiven.
This is more a matter of counseling than confession.
John R.W. Stott, the well known English pastor and author, has
written a book on confession. In it he rejects auricular confession,
but retains the concept of private confession. He stresses, however, it
is exceptional and not to be habitual. The normal pattern for
believers is to confess to God alone, or to the persons offended.
This would be the position and practice of most, if not all
evangelicals. The important thing to see is that the normal Christian
life is to be one in which there is a consciousness of sin whenever we
have departed from God's will, and an immediate confession of it to
Him since He is ever present. These two steps are essential for
Christian maturity. The third step that John mentions is-
III. CLEANSING FROM SIN.
This is God's step in the process. There is nothing we can do to
cleanse our life once we have stained it. God does not ask us to do
this. If we confess, He is faithful and just to forgive. This is the step
He promises to take if we take the others, and the result will be
fullness of joy and fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Cleanliness is not next to godliness, it is godliness, for this is the final
goal of Christian confession.
