Confess and Forsake

Our first parents lost their game of hide-and-go-seek with the Lord after they sinned. They ate, hid from God, and covered themselves with fig leaves. It took one stroll through the garden for the Lord to discover, question, clothe, and expel them. They didn’t get away with it.

If we need any further proof that we all descend from this couple, here we find the uncanny resemblance with how we deal with our sin. We children of Adam love to hide and cover. The garments we make are most colorful, the excuses most creative, but the result is always the same — we are found out. He sees our nakedness behind all the leaves. He hears all our whispered sins and promises one day to proclaim them from the housetops.

Proverbs joins in concert with the rest of Scripture: “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper” (Proverbs 28:13). Reader, do you believe this? Let me ask it a different way: Is there any sin you are now hiding? Is there any sin you are now practicing? Is there any darkness hidden from your friends, your family, and (you hope) your God? Are you deceiving yourself into believing that there is anything — even sin locked away in the heart — that will really be kept secret? Do you think you will win this dangerous game with God and prevail in the end?

Whoever conceals his sin will not prosper. What do you do with your sin? Do you bury it, cover it, clothe it? Do you excuse it, overlook it, try to cancel it with good works? When forced to face it, do you explain why it’s not that bad, or why it’s not your fault, or why the blame belongs somewhere else, perhaps with the woman or Satan — or God? What did you do the last time you sinned? Do you and I have the humility to own our faults? Do you possess enough fear of God and faith in the gospel of Christ to regularly confess before God and others?

When was the last time you revealed your sin with a broken heart and naked honesty? When was the last time you asked your wife for forgiveness? When is the last time you told your children you were sorry? When was the last time you really felt that what you did was unacceptable, worthy of death — a cruel ingratitude against your heavenly Father? When was the last time you were distressed for preferring sin to your Savior, or for grieving his Holy Spirit, whom you resisted in carrying out your wrongdoing?

I offer these questions to you because they convict me. Am I a revealer of my sin or a concealer of it? I would like to meet the man who does not need to memorize Proverbs 28:13. Let us reflect upon it together to aid our memory and our souls.

Terms of Mercy

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
     but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)

Here we find the terms of receiving forgiveness from God.

Terms for mercy? At first, this sounds like a contradiction. Mercy is entirely undeserved. We cannot earn it. We cannot work hard enough to obtain it. It is of heaven, and we, of earth. It must be brought to us. Man could sooner reach up and snatch a star from the sky as lay hold on mercy from God of his own initiative.

And yet, the Giver of mercy articulates conditions for securing and enjoying his mercy. He will not have his grace abused. The sinner will receive in God’s way or leave empty-handed. God does not lie about the price of forgiveness to inflate the numbers of professed converts. He does not lower the standard for repentance, like we sometimes do in evangelism. He makes it clear from the beginning that he will not bestow mercy upon sinners concealing their sin. How does someone conceal their sin? The text warns us of two ways.

1. Refuse to confess.

Maybe you confess some sins, just not your favorites. You put the lesser sins to death but spare the king, sacrifice the maimed sheep but keep the dearest in the fold.

Or maybe you drag some vermin into the light, just not the ones that make you look really bad. Some sins present as very dignified, more upper-class than those grimy ones sold in the back alleyways by sinners that look the part. Different sins bring varying degrees of shame. And so, you confess some sins but keep quiet about the ones that will leave too damaging an impression. Or maybe you only expose sins that other people have already confessed. If others struggle with it too, it doesn’t seem as scary to admit. You don’t want to be the only one.

“Christ has died; you can confess. Christ has risen; you can forsake.”

To cover sin is to leave it unconfessed, partially admitted, or mostly attenuated. To uncover sin is to confess it — first to God, and then to others whom it concerns. Again, this verse is about receiving mercy. Those unwilling to confess are unwilling to be forgiven on God’s terms. To refuse confession is to prize our reputations over reconciliation, our pleasures over pardon, our fandom over freedom. Are there any sins in your life you are not confessing?

Some today think that life under the new covenant means forgiveness without conditions. Such will remind us that we are in fact Protestant. Let Rome play pretend in their boxes all they want; we cast off those shackles long ago. Yes, we reject priestly absolutions and the confessional, but we do not reject confession. We believe in forgiveness being unmerited but not unconditional. The same condition of confession meets us at the end of our Bibles: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Confession of sin is necessary to obtain mercy from God. Not because it earns mercy. Not because God is late to the scene of the crime and needs to know exactly what happened. But because we need confession. We need to admit what happened to God and to ourselves, and we need to be led afresh to the scarred hands of our Savior, who purchased forgiveness for us. A life of confession is for our good, not God’s. If we were more astonished by our sin through confession, we’d be more astonished by God’s grace through Christ.

2. Refuse to forsake.

Yet sin can be concealed in another fashion. This one less emphasized and more costly than the first. “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

More people would rather confess sin than forsake it. If caught in the act or “tired of falling,” they might acknowledge it — for a season. But they do not leave it for dead. They tattle on it from time to time but don’t have the heart to abandon it. They wag a finger at it for tearing up the carpet but keep its kennel in the basement. They do not truly desire to forsake sin, and so they do not finally obtain mercy.

Again, this remains a New Testament condition: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Our light-walking — meaning our grace-fueled efforts at walking in holiness and forsaking the shadowy ways of sin — is a condition for true fellowship with believers and for Christ’s blood cleansing us from all sin. We do not make ourselves forgivable, but our walk provides evidence that Jesus’s blood has already canceled the penalty and power of sin in our lives, and continues to do so. Not perfectly in this life, but still powerfully.

Are you confessing and forsaking your sin? Turning away from transgression is the beating heart of true repentance.

Meager Terms, Tremendous Mercy

You may need to confess and forsake a sin many times in your life. Like a hornet, it keeps following you. You must swat it away by the Spirit’s power for years before you’re truly and finally free. But you will be increasingly free. Grace will empower you to leave your sin by the side of the road and drive away. Again and again. Some sins will fade in the rearview completely and be seen no more in this life. Others will finally vanish from view only when we see Christ face to face.

Until then, beloved, keep confessing and keep forsaking your sin. Do not conceal it. To do so is akin to concealing a stab wound from the doctor, or capital crimes from a judge offering full clemency. Christ has died; you can confess. Christ has risen; you can forsake. Again, this is for our sakes: “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20).

I wouldn’t wonder if you refused to expose and relinquish sin if no possibility of exoneration existed. But full forgiveness is available on these meager terms: Confess and forsake your sin. Trust in Christ’s death on your behalf, and follow him into newness of life. How can you delay plunging yourself under such a waterfall of mercy and cleansing your stained soul with Christ’s spilled blood? Do not linger another moment in iniquity. Cast it from you, and run back to your Father’s house, for he will run more rapidly toward you, in mercy.