When the Bible talks about confession, many only relate to it in terms of confession of sins, but confession is much more than that. Confession means to speak the same thing with God in consent; it derives from the Greek word “homologia”; it’s a principle in the Kingdom of God that begins with your salvation as a child of God.

 

You couldn’t have been saved without confession; not the confession of your sins, but the affirmation of the Lordship of Jesus over your life. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” This is the true confession that catapults you into salvation.

 

The only time you confess something you did wrong
is after you’ve become a Christian and have received eternal life. When you do something wrong, you talk to the Lord about it and you’re cleansed. Even though you talk to God, you don’t really confess your sins, because He didn’t tell us to confess our sins to Him; He knows already. You only confess or acknowledge your faults to your brothers and/or sisters whom you’ve offended. That’s what we read in our opening verse.

 

Someone might ask, “How about 1 John 1:9 that says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?” For some people, they believe this means we’re always sinning; we’re in a perpetual state of sin and confession; but that’s not true; it means, if we acknowledge our sins, He blots them out. 1 John 2:1 says, “…if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Notice it doesn’t say, “When any man sin,” but “If any man sin,” letting you know that sin isn’t perpetual.

 

Moreover, the Bible says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you…” (Romans 6:14). Hallelujah.