"True Confession"

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) In order to truly confess our sins to God we must know what our trespass is. This is nothing new, because the 'young rich ruler' which came to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life, did not know what he lacked until Jesus showed him. Likewise, Isaiah did not see his 'unclean lips' until he was in the presence of a Holy God. To help understand the point that I am trying to make, we should look towards our example, Jesus Christ, and what His reaction was towards them which crucified Him on the cross. In Luke 23:34 we can find what Jesus said to the Father regarding those that had just nailed Him to the cross and planted Him there on Calvary between the two thieves, He said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". This is not something that is easy to do, although there are many which claim that they have done it; but there is only one other example we find in the New Testament of this kind of charge, and it is involving the killing of Stephen. In Acts 7:54-60, we can find the account of what took place, and in verse 55, Stephen, being filled with the Holy Ghost, looks up into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Then in verse 59 as they begin stoning Stephen, he cries out, still looking at God's glory, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". And then finally, in verse 60 he makes the same request that Jesus did on the cross: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge". This is an example of true forgiveness, which requires the one doing the forgiveness to first give up their rights, and to accept whatever is done to them as done in ignorance. In other words, it is to say, Lord, don't hold them accountable for what they have done, because they really don't know what they are doing. This is no little thing we are talking about here, and it requires the person who is performing this action to be in complete submission to God's authority. Think about this for a moment, and see if you get what I am saying; because our tendency in this matter, is to say that we forgive someone, and yet we continue to ask God to hold them accountable for their actions. Maybe not knowingly, but deep down inside, we wish for vengeance to be done on our behalf; why? because we hurt, that's why!