| “And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing” (Leviticus 5:5). |
| You might be surprised that we are using this verse today, but it contains a very important lesson for us. Back in the Old Testament, the children of Israel were told to offer certain sacrifices, or offerings, to the Lord. One of these was the trespass offering, which we find in Leviticus, chapter 5. This offering was to be made when someone had broken a known commandment. |
| We are not going to go into the details of this offering, but only to notice that when the man was guilty, he had to admit that he had sinned “in that thing.” He could not say, in a general way, “I am a sinner,” nor could he say, “Well, others have sinned too.” He could not blame others for what had happened. The matter concerned him, and him alone, and he had to confess the exact sin that he had committed. |
| This is often hard to do, for none of us wants to admit that we are wrong. We will invent every excuse possible to avoid saying, “I was wrong for … … .” This problem has gotten worse in this world over the past few years, so that people who have done wrong will defend themselves, blame others, and even tell lies, to avoid having to admit that they are wrong. |
| We may be able to get away with this with others, but before God, only confession of our sin will bring forgiveness. When we get saved, we cannot confess all of our sins, for we have forgotten most of them; the Lord knows them, and “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). But if we sin after we are saved, we must confess it in order for the Lord to forgive us, and restore us to happy fellowship with Him. King David went through this experience, and had to say, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me” (Psalm 32:3-4). Finally he says, “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee … and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (v. 5). |
| Keeping quiet and not confessing the sin only resulted in the Lord’s hand being on him, for the Lord wanted him to confess. When he finally confesses the sin, forgiveness is immediate. Let us remember this important lesson. |
