Introduction: The Question of Confession

Confession of sin is expression of our full agreement with God about the evil within us that produces acts of disobedience. It is NOT the recitation of a detailed list of wrong acts, which we admit we did but for which we deflect responsibility to God or others. True confession is the beginning of reconciliation and restoration.

Proverbs 28:13-14 provides the best introduction to the complex of questions surrounding the concept of confession:

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,

    but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Blessed is the one who always trembles before God,

    but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.

Proverbs 28:13-14 (NIV).

This passage looks rather simple, but, like every verse that uses the noun “confession” or the verb “confess,” it has taken on a complicated technical church meanings that differ depending on the specific denomination or Christian tradition to which one belongs. This is very unfortunate, because the meaning of the passage is really quite simple. The passage places verses 13 and 14 parallel with each other, in an ABB’A’ chiasm. Thus, people (“whoever”) conceals their sins (A) are parallel to people (“whoever”) that harden their hearts toward God (A’), whereas the person (singular) who confesses and renounces those same sins (B) is parallel to the one who always trembles before God {B’}. These two conditions are contrasted with each other, and, following one of the normal rules for interpreting Hebrew poetic chiasms, the emphasis is on the parallel elements in the center of the chiasm, B and B’–the one who always trembles before God confesses and renounces their sins, and is blessed to find that God is merciful. A and A’–concealing sins and hardening our hearts–illustrate this central meaning by contrast. “Renouncing” sin is the subject of a separate series on repentance. This series will deal with confession.

The classic example of people who hardened their hearts when confronted about a sin, and therefore attempted to conceal it, are Adam and Eve. When God came for his daily walk with the couple, already knowing that they had eaten the forbidden fruit, and found them hiding, he gently asked Adam “where are you?” Adam, then, instead of acknowledging his rebellion, told God only that he was afraid of God because he knew he was naked. God then asked Adam directly whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit, and Adam, instead of fully acknowledging what he had done, blamed his wife for giving him the fruit, which he then ate. God then asked Eve what she had done, and she blamed the serpent for deceiving her to eat it. Both Adam and Eve gave answers that implicitly agreed they had, in fact, eaten the fruit (i.e., committed the forbidden act), but denied personal responsibility for the decision to eat it (i.e., denied the rebellion, the underlying “sin”). Genesis 3:8-13. Adam and Eve are only the first of many scriptural illustrations of the fact that it is possible to admit a sinful act while nevertheless concealing the underlying sin. Any reasonable interpretation of Proverbs 28:13-14, and other scriptures that tell us to confess our sin/sins, must avoid approving of similar hedged admissions.

The word translated “confess” in Proverbs 28:13 (this link is to an interlinear) is a form of the root verb yadah, which primarily denotes “to throw” or “to cast (out).” This verb has connotations in numerous contexts that include “to worship” or “to praise” (to throw out praise), or to “confess” the name of God, but which also include, in far fewer contexts, to “confess” sin/sins. As will be discussed more fully in later articles indexed below, in most of the instances in which forms of yadah, and of a couple of other Hebrew words that are sometimes translated “confess,” are used in the context of confessing sin/sins, the confessions or instructions recorded focus on the underlying departure from God rather than on the details of the outward sinful acts (if any) that resulted from them. On reflection, this is what would be expected based on the bad example of Adam and Eve, who reluctantly confessed detail of their disobedient act, but deflected responsibility for it.

Similarly in the New Testament, forms of the word “confess” applied to sin/sins are found in most English translations in only five places. See, Matthew 3:6; Mark 1:5; Acts 19:18; James 5:16 and 1 John 1:9. In each of these contexts, the verb translated “confess” is either homologéō or its strengthened form eksomologéō. The verb homologéō is formed from the prefix homo-, “the same,” and the verb logéō, to “speak,” and means to “say the same thing as,” thus to “agree with”–to agree with God, in these contexts. The verb eksomologéō is formed from homologéō and the prefix eks-, “from” or “out from”, and implies saying the same thing as someone else (God, in these contexts) out from within oneself, from the heart, not deceptively (again, like Adam’s and Eve’s “confessions). Moreover, as will be shown in later posts, in each of these contexts the thing that is to be confessed is the underlying rebellious pattern, which in all cases amounts to idolatry (putting myself or an idol I have set up in God’s place), not just the details of individual sins. The goal of our complete and unevasive agreement with God about these things in each case is restoration to our faith in God and healing, not absolution from guilt of individual acts, one at a time. Additional scriptures dealing with what it means to confess sin/sin, and on what was/is to be confessed, with links to additional discussions is given here (the links are in progress):

James 5:16 and its context. Repentance, Confession and the Textual Variant in James 5:16. Why the difference between confessing our “faults” to each other, as advocated by the Byzantine Greek textform, and confessing our “sins” to each other, as advocated by the Alexandrian textform, makes such a difference.

1 John 1:9 and its context. Confessing our Sins to God, what exactly it is we confess, and the consequences. Will include as a postscript a discussion comparing traditional Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican/Lutheran auricular confession with the common Protestant practice of strictly individual confession and the modern 12-Step version of auricular confession/accountability, setting forth the ways in which all sides get the matter partly right.

Psalm 66:18 and its context. One of the usual proof texts for the Power of “Unconfessed Sins.” What are “Unconfessed Sins?”

Psalm 51: David’s best-known psalm of repentance, written to express repentance for two related single acts, yet it never names those acts, only the inward sinfulness and offense against God those acts demonstrated.

Related Keys to Psalm 37:4-5 and Psalm 51:3-4

Matthew 3:6 and Mark 1:5 with Luke 3:1-16–People Confessed their Sins while Being Baptized by John.

Matthew 5:21-25–Both Parties have the Initiative in Settling Disputes (Don’t Wait for an Apology).

Matthew 18:15-20 . Dealing with the Sins of Others in the Church–Seeking Repentance and Restoration.

Galatians 6:1-5: Gently Seeking Restoration in the Church.

John 13:1-20: The Example of Foot Washing.

Luke 17:1-5: Forgiving Others who Confess an Offense Against Us.

Repeated sins, repeated repentance and repeated forgiveness in Luke 17:3-4

Matthew 18:21-35: Forgiving Others’ Offenses Against Us is one Major Goal of Confession (and of Church Discipline).

2 Corinthians 2:5-11 and 1 Corinthians 5: Restoration and Agreement in Church Discipline.

Luke 18:9-14: The Parable of the Pharisee, the Tax Collector, and the Heart of True Confession.

Acts 19:18 in context. Confessing and declaring their deeds, in the context of renouncing magical arts.

Psalm 32: The Reasons to Acknowledge my Sin(s) to God.

Psalm 38: Confession Can Be Made from Within the Consequences.

Psalm 39:7-18. God Must Rescue us from our Transgressions.

Psalm 69:5-7: God Already Knows our Folly, but Should be Asked to Minimize its effect on Others.

Isaiah 59:1-13. Recognition of Social Sins. Unconfessed and unremedied social sins, and individual sins generalized to a social level, and our individual parts in them.

Leviticus 5:2-10; Numbers 5:5-9: Places Where the Law Required Confession of Individual Sinful Acts. The only places confession of individual acts as offenses is commanded are in the branch of the Old Testament sacrificial system that pertained to civil law and in the law related to becoming ceremonially unclean. In the civil law–law governing property and interpersonal relationships–this was necessary so that proper restitution could be made. This was necessary in the law pertaining to ritual purity so that it could be determined whether the person had, in fact, become unclean, requiring an offering.

1 Corinthians 6:1-10: The Settlement of Private Disputes Within the Church: The New Testament Parallel to Old Testament civil law confession. Unbelievers remain outside of this. The goal is restoration of relationships and of church unity.

Leviticus 4-6, except for 5:2-10: Individual Sin and Guilt Offerings Involved Sacrifice, not Confession. Nowhere else in the entire set of regulations for “sin” and “guilt” offerings is any instruction given that the guilty worshipper is to “confess” anything.

Leviticus 16:3-22 (esp. vv. 21-22); Lev. 26: 40-42: Confession of Rebellion in General with the Atonement Offerings. Otherwise, confession was to be made concerning sinfulness and rebellion, areas in which the people now agreed with God that they had departed from him, and apparently not a bill of particulars.

Ezra 9: Ezra’s Prayer of Repentance for His People.

Ezra 10:1-4: The People’s Prayer of Repentance in Response to Ezra,

Nehemiah 1:4-11: Nehemiah’s Personal Prayer of Repentance and for Direction.

Nehemiah 9: The Prayer of Repentance of the People after the Reading of the Law,

Daniel 9:1-22: Daniel’s Prayer of Repentance and for Understanding at the End of the Seventy Years of Exile.

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NEXT SERIES: Repentance.