What is a confession of sin?

Corporate worship is a time of joyful covenantal renewal that includes call to worship, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, prayers, congregational singing, preaching the Word, the covenantal climax of communion in the Lord’s Supper, and benediction). Confession of sin invites us to honest expression within the context of our covenant relationship with God. God’s grace comes to us, creating a relationship with us in Christ in which honesty about our sin is welcome and safe. It is a time of honesty and joy for it strikes a blow against self-righteousness and humbles us before God as we say what we know to be true of ourselves and the only Lord who saves us. It reminds us that we are not better than others and that it is only grace (an alien righteousness) which makes us what we are. God remembers, in the covenant in Christ's blood, not to treat us as our sins deserve.

Some of us become Christians and just go on our merry way, never thinking of sin, while others fixate on our failings and suffer from despair. One person feels no conviction of sin; the other person feels no relief from sin. Neither of these habits should mark the Christian. The Christian should often feel conviction, confess, and be cleansed.

The cleansing, mind you, is not like the expunging of a guilty record before the Judge. That’s already been accomplished. This cleansing is more like the scraping of barnacles off the hull of a ship so it can move freely again. We need confession of sin before God like a child needs to own up to her mistakes before Mom and Dad, not to earn God’s love, but to rest in it and know it more fully.

1 John 1:9, then, is not just about getting saved. It’s also about living as a saved person and enjoying it.