If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 LSB

Salvation isn’t complicated. It’s pretty simple, actually. It is often explained using the acronym ABC. The first step is admitting you are a sinner. The second step is believing that Jesus Christ died to save us from our sins and that He is the only way to God the Father. Then we must confess our sins.

If you are sincere in your salvation, it will come with true repentance. So, what do we mean when we talk about repentance? Repentance or being repentant means that you have true remorse or regret over a wrong you have done or a sin you have committed.

If you have ever hurt someone you love through your words or your actions, you may have been very remorseful. Hopefully, you confessed your wrongdoing to them and expressed your deep regret and asked for forgiveness. Well, this is what we are talking about in our Scripture passage for today.

When we sin, it breaks God’s heart. It should also break our hearts. He wants us all to come to Him and to spend eternity in heaven with Him. He is a loving God, but never forget He is a wrathful God who will discipline our wrongdoing.

So, with all that being said, I’ll give you an example. I worked probation and parole cases for many years. It wasn’t uncommon for these offenders to get caught in violating the conditions of their probation and parole. Often times, they apologized. They said they would never do it again. They seemed to be truly sorry. Often times they were truly sorry, but not for what they had done. They were truly sorry that they got caught.

This meant they weren’t going to change their ways, they were just going to formulate plans to keep doing what they were doing, but their new plans would include what they considered more ingenious ways to beat the system. These methods or ways rarely worked out and they found themselves right back where they started.

The same happens with us as Christians. Many times, we go to God and confess our sins and ask for His forgiveness, but we continue doing what we were doing before. My friend, with God you are caught before you start. He knows our thoughts. When you are thinking about sinning, He is right there. He knows if you are going to take that thought captive and be obedient to Him (2 Corinthians 10:5) or whether you are just going to go ahead and deliberately sin.

This is why we are warned in Hebrews 10:26 if we go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

There cannot be true salvation or true revival without true repentance. God knows the difference between us being truly sorry and heartbroken over our sin as opposed to being sorry we got caught. He knows what is in our hearts. He won’t give us a free pass to sin. He will punish our sins.

I beg of you to turn to Him today. Believe in Him. Confess your sins to Him.  Earnestly repent and ask Him to help you to resist the temptation to continue sinning. He is faithful and just. He will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. This is the only way we can spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Jesus died so that we could be saved from our sins. We don’t have to remain in bondage to them, we can repent and be saved.

Have a great day!