Confessing Your Sins
God’s redemptive plan for humanity involves the death of Jesus for the sins of everyone. But we enjoy God’s forgiveness only when we believe what Jesus did for us. Have you noticed, even Christians still sin? Confessing or admitting our daily sin keeps our relationship with God fresh and alive. Sin creates a barrier to our fellowship with God. That barrier disintegrates and fellowship with God gets restored when we confess our sins.
Discussion Questions
Why is sin an uncomfortable subject for people to discuss? How would you define sin? Why is sin pleasurable (Hebrews 11:25)? Describe your greatest sin struggles.
The sin barrier between people and God started in the Garden of Eden. Read Genesis 2:16-17 and 3:1-7. What was the first sin? What were the consequences of that sin?
Jesus has removed the sin barrier between humanity and God. How did John the Baptist describe it (John 1:29)? Read 1 John 2:2. What was the extent of Jesus’ sacrificial death? What does propitiation mean?
Carefully read 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. What steps did God take to deal with the sin of humanity? What does it mean that God has not “imputed” the sins of the world against them? How do you fit into this scandalous story of grace?
Even though Christ died for our sins, a believer in Jesus can still sin. How do we deal with our daily sin (Read 1 John 1:8-10)? What does it mean to confess your sins? Why confess?
If Christ died for your sins, why do you still sin? What are some ways to defeat sin in your life and maintain fellowship with God?
Further Reading
When You Find and Follow Jesus
Becoming a Christian and living as one are two different things. God refers to one as justification and the other as sanctification. We might also understand these two distinctions as finding Jesus and following Jesus. Blur this distinction between salvation and...
Your Life with God
Salvation is often viewed as a singular “event” or moment in our lives. By God’s grace, we receive salvation by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus to save us. There is a sense in which this is absolutely true, from the moment of belief we are saved...
Your Growth Toward Maturity
You’re born into God’s family the moment you place your faith in Jesus for eternal life. You start as a spiritual baby. But it’s never God’s intention for you to remain a baby. You are to grow and thrive as a maturing believer in Jesus. But you never grow passively....
Your Old and New Natures
Have you ever felt unprepared? You’ve probably had a time in your life when you were not prepared at all for what was about to happen. As our flesh constantly fights to lead us further away from God, it’s easy for us to feel unprepared for life. But God prepares us by...
The Holy Spirit in Your Life
In the Bible, we read Jesus promising to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples after He is gone. As believers in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is also with us, living inside of us, just as Jesus promised. The question is, why did Jesus send the Holy Spirit to be with us?...
Your Assurance of Salvation
Is it possible to know you have a new life through Christ and are headed for heaven? If so, how? God never intends for the assurance of your salvation to be a perpetual guessing game. You can know you’re saved. Unfortunately, you can lose your grip on the assurance of...