03. Chapter Three
Chapter Three 3. THE NATURE OF TRUE REPENTANCE (1)
I shall next show what gospel repentance is. Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. For a further amplification, know that repentance is a spiritual medicine made up of six special ingredients:
1. Sight of sin 2. Sorrow for sin 3. Confession of sin 4. Shame for sin 5. Hatred for sin 6. Turning from sin If any one of these is left out, repentance loses its virtue.
Ingredient 1: Sight of Sin The first part of Christ’s medicine is eye-salve (Acts 26:18). It is the great thing noted in the prodigal’s repentance: “he came to himself” (Luke 15:17). He saw himself as a sinner and nothing but a sinner. Before a man can come to Christ he must first come to himself. Solomon, in his description of repentance, considers this the first ingredient: “if they come to themselves” (1Kng 8.47). A man must first recognize and consider what his sin is, and know the plague of his heart, before he can be duly humbled for it. The first created thing God made was light. So the first thing in a penitent is illumination: “Now you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). The eye is made both for seeing and weeping. Sin must first be seen before it can be wept for. From this I infer that where there is no sight of sin, there can be no repentance. Many who can spy faults in others see none in themselves. They cry that they have good hearts. Is it not strange that two should live together, and eat and drink together, yet not know each other? Such is the case of a sinner. His body and soul live together, work together, yet he is unacquainted with himself. He does not know his own heart, nor what a hell he carries around with him. Under a veil a deformed face is hidden. Persons are veiled-over with ignorance and self-love; therefore they do not see what deformed souls they have. The devil does with them as the falconer does with the hawk. He blinds them and carries them hooded to hell: “the sword shall strike his right eye” (Zechariah 11:17). Men have insight enough into worldly matters, but the eye of their mind is stricken. They do not see any evil in sin; the sword strikes their right eye.
Ingredient 2: Sorrow for Sin I will be sorry for my sin (Psalms 38:18)
Ambrose calls sorrow “the embittering of the soul.” The Hebrew word “to be sorrowful” signifies “to have the soul,” as it were, “crucified.” This must be so in true repentance: “They will look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn” (Zechariah 12:10), as if they felt the nails of the cross sticking in their sides. A woman may as well expect to have a child without pangs as one can have repentance without sorrow. Someone who can believe without doubting, should suspect his faith; and someone who can repent without sorrowing, should suspect his repentance.
Martyrs shed blood for Christ, and penitents shed tears for sin: “she stood at Jesus’ feet weeping” (Luke 7:38). See how this distillery dripped. The sorrow of her heart ran out at her eye. The brazen basin for the priests to wash in (Exodus 30:18) typified a double basin: the basin of Christ’s blood we must wash in by faith, and the basin of tears we must wash in by repentance. A true penitent labors to work his heart into a sorrowing attitude. He blesses God when he can weep; he is glad of a rainy day, for he knows that it is a repentance he will have no cause to repent of. Though the bread of sorrow is bitter to the taste, it strengthens the heart (Psalms 104:15; 2 Corinthians 7:10). This sorrow for sin is not superficial: it is a holy agony. It is called in Scripture, a breaking of the heart: “The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart” (Psalms 51:17); and a rending of the heart: “Rend your heart” (Joel 2:13). The expressions of striking on the thigh (Jeremiah 31:19), beating on the breast (Luke 18:13), putting on sackcloth (Isaiah 22:12), plucking the hair (Ezra 9:3), are all but outward signs of inward sorrow. This sorrow is:
(1) To make Christ precious. O how desirable is a Savior to a troubled soul! Now Christ is Christ indeed, and mercy is mercy indeed. Until the heart is full of compunction,2 it is not fit for Christ. How welcome is a surgeon to a man who is bleeding from his wounds!
(2) To drive out sin. Sin breeds sorrow, and sorrow kills sin. Holy sorrow is the rhubarb to purge out the ill moods of the soul. It is said that the tears of vine branches are good to cure leprosy. Certainly the tears that drop from the penitent are good to cure the leprosy of sin. The salt water of tears kills the worm of conscience.
(3) To make way for solid comfort: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalms 126:5). The penitent has a wet seedtime but a delicious harvest. Repentance bursts the abscess of sin, and then the soul is at ease. Hannah, after weeping, went away and was sad no more (1 Samuel 1:18). God’s troubling of the soul for sin is like the angel’s troubling of the pool (John 5:4), which made way for healing. But not all sorrow evidences true repentance. There is as much difference between true and false sorrow as between water in the spring, which is sweet, and water in the sea, which is briny. The apostle speaks of sorrowing “in a godly manner” (2 Corinthians 7:9). But what is this godly sorrowing? There are six qualifications for it:
1. True godly sorrow is inward It is inward in two ways:
(1) It is a sorrow of the heart. The sorrow of hypocrites lies in their faces: “they disfigure their faces” (Matthew 6:16). They make a sour face, but their sorrow goes no further, like the dew that wets the leaf but does not soak to the root. Ahab’s repentance was an outward show. His garments were rent but not his spirit (1Kng 21.27). Godly sorrow goes deep, like a vein which bleeds inwardly. The heart bleeds for sin: “they were pricked in their heart” (Acts 2:37). As the heart bears a primary part in sinning, so it must bear a primary part in sorrowing.
(2) It is a sorrow for heart-sins, the first outbreaks and stirrings of sin. Paul grieved for the law in his members (Romans 7:23). The true mourner weeps for the stirrings of pride and lust. He grieves for the “root of bitterness” even though it never blossoms into action. A wicked man may be troubled by scandalous sins; a real convert laments heart-sins.
2. Godly sorrow is sincere
It is sorrow for the offense rather than for the punishment. God’s law has been infringed, and his love abused. This melts the soul in tears. A man may be sorry, yet not repent, just as a thief is sorry when he is captured – not because he has stolen, but because he has to pay the penalty. Hypocrites grieve only for the bitter consequence of sin. I have read of a fountain that only flows on the evening before a famine. Likewise their eyes never pour out tears except when God’s judgments are approaching. Pharaoh was more troubled for the frogs and river of blood than for his sin. Godly sorrow, however, is chiefly for the trespass against God, so that even if there were no conscience to strike, no devil to accuse, no hell to punish, yet the soul would still be grieved because of the prejudice done to God. “My sin is ever before me” (Psalms 51:3); David does not say, “The sword threatened is ever before me,” but “my sin.” O that I should offend so good a God, that I should grieve my Comforter! This breaks my heart!
Godly sorrow shows itself to be sincere because when a Christian knows that he is out of the gunshot of hell and will never be damned, he still grieves for sinning against that free grace which has pardoned him.
3. Godly sorrow is faithful
It is intermixed with faith: “the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe’” (Mark 9:24). Here was sorrow for sin checkered with faith, as if we have seen a bright rainbow appear in a watery cloud.
Spiritual sorrow will sink the heart if the pulley of faith does not raise it up. Just as our sin is ever before us, so God’s promise must ever be before us. Just as we greatly feel our sting, so we must look up to Christ, our bronze serpent.3 Some have faces so swollen with worldly grief that they can hardly look out of their eyes. The weeping which blinds the eye of faith is not good. If faith sinks in the soul, then it is not the sorrow of humiliation but of despair.
4. Godly sorrow is a great sorrow
“In that day there shall be great mourning, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon” (Zechariah 12:11). Two suns set that day when Josiah died, and there was a great funeral mourning. Sorrow for sin must be boiled up to such a degree. Pectore ab imo suspiria.4 Question 1: Do all have the same degree of sorrow?
Answer: No, sorrow recipere magis em minus (produces greater or lesser [sorrows]). In the new birth all have pangs, but some have sharper pangs than others.
(1) Some are naturally of a more rugged disposition, of higher spirits, and are not easily brought to stoop. These must have greater humiliation, just as a knotty piece of timber must have greater wedges driven into it.
(2) Some have been more heinous offenders, and their sorrow must be suitable to their sin. Some patients have their sores opened with a needle, others with a lance. The more wicked sinners must be more bruised with the hammer of the law.
(3) Some are designed and cut out for higher service, to be eminently instrumental for God; and these must have a mightier work of humiliation pass upon them. Those whom God intends to be pillars in his church must be more hewn. Paul, the prince of the apostles, who was to be God’s ensign-bearer to carry his name before the Gentiles and kings, was to have his heart more deeply lanced by repentance.
Question 2: But how great must sorrow for sin be in all?
Answer: It must be as great as for any worldly loss. Turgescunt lumina petu.5 “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn as for an only son” (Zechariah 12:10). Sorrow for sin must surpass worldly sorrow. We must grieve more for offending God than for the loss of dear relations. “In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping, and baldness, and girding with sackcloth” (Isaiah 22:12): this was for sin. But in the case of the burial of the dead we find God prohibiting tears and baldness (Jeremiah 22:10; Jeremiah 16:6), to intimate that sorrow for sin must exceed sorrow at the grave; and with good reason, for in the burial of the dead it is only a friend who departs, but in sin it is God who departs.
Sorrow for sin should be so great as to swallow up all other sorrow; when the pain of the gall stone and the gout meet, the pain of the stone swallows up the pain of the gout.
We are to find as much bitterness in weeping for sin as ever we found sweetness in committing it. Surely David found more bitterness in repentance than ever he found comfort in Bathsheba. Our sorrow for sin must be such that it makes us willing to let go of those sins which brought the greatest income of profit or delight. The medicine shows itself strong enough when it has purged our disease. The Christian has a sufficient measure of sorrow when the love of sin is purged.
5. Godly sorrow in some cases is joined with restitution
If someone has wronged others in their estate by unjust and fraudulent dealing, in conscience he ought to recompense them. There is an express law for this: “he shall recompense for his trespass with the principal taken, adding a fifth to it, and giving it to the one he wronged” (Numbers 5:7). This is how Zacchaeus made restitution: “If I have taken anything from any man by fraud, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19:8). When Selymus the great Turk6 lay upon his deathbed, being urged by Pyrrhus to put to charitable use the wealth he wrongfully gained from the Persian merchants, he commanded rather that it should be sent back to the rightful owners. Should not a Christian’s creed be better than a Turk’s Koran? It is a bad sign when a man on his deathbed bequeaths his soul to God and his ill-gotten goods to his friends. I can hardly think God will receive his soul. Augustine said, “Without restitution, no remission.” And it was a speech of old Latimer, 7 “If you do not restore goods unjustly gotten, you shall cough in hell.”
Question 1: Suppose a person has wronged another in his estate and the wronged man is dead. What should he do?
Answer: Let him restore his ill-gotten goods to that man’s heirs and successors. If none of them is living, let him restore them to God, that is, let him put his unjust gain into God’s treasury by relieving the poor.
Question 2: What if the party who did the wrong is dead?
Answer: Then those who are his heirs ought to make restitution. Mark what I say: if there are any who have estates left to them, and they know that the parties who left them their estates had defrauded others and died with that guilt upon them, then the heirs or executors who possess those estates are bound in conscience to make restitution. Otherwise they entail the curse of God upon their family.
Question 3: If a man has wronged another and is not able to restore, what should he do?
Answer: Let him deeply humble himself before God, promising to the wronged party full satisfaction if the Lord makes him able, and God will accept the intent for the deed.
6. Godly sorrow is abiding
It is not a few tears shed in a passion that will serve the turn. Some will fall weeping at a sermon, but like an April shower, it is soon over, or like a vein that is opened and quickly stopped again. True sorrow must be habitual. O Christian, the disease of your soul is chronic and frequently returns to you; therefore you must continually dose yourself by repentance. This is sorrow that is “after a godly manner.”8 Use: How far from repentance those are who never had this godly sorrow! Such are:
(1) The Papists, who leave out the very soul of repentance, making all penitential work consist in fasting, penance, and pilgrimages, in which there is nothing of spiritual sorrow. They torture their bodies, but their hearts are not torn. What is this but the carcass of repentance?
(2) Carnal Protestants, who are strangers to godly sorrow. They cannot endure a serious thought, nor do they trouble their heads about sin. Paracelsus9 spoke of a frenzy that some have which makes them die dancing. Likewise, sinners spend their days in mirth; they fling away sorrow and go dancing to damnation. Some have lived many years, yet never put a drop in God’s bottle; nor do they know what a broken heart means. They weep and wring their hands as if they were undone when their estates are gone, but they have no agony of soul for their sin.
There is a twofold sorrow: firstly, a rational sorrow, which is an act of the soul by which it has a dislike of sin, and chooses any torture rather than admit sin; secondly, there is a sensitive sorrow, which is expressed by many tears. The first of these is found in every child of God; but not all have the second, which is a sorrow running out at the eye. Yet it is very commendable to see a weeping penitent. Christ considers those who are tender-eyed as great beauties; and sin may well make us weep. We usually weep for the loss of some great good; well, by sin we have lost the favor of God. If Micah wept for the loss of a false god, saying, “You have taken away my gods, and what more do I have?” (Judges 18:24), then well may we weep for our sins which have taken the true God away from us.
Some may ask whether our repentance and sorrow must always be alike. Although repentance must always be kept alive in the soul, there are two special times when we must renew our repentance in an extraordinary manner:
(1) Before receiving the Lord’s Supper. This spiritual Passover is to be eaten with bitter herbs. Now our eyes should be fresh-broached with tears, and the stream of sorrow should overflow. A repentant attitude is a sacramental attitude. A broken heart and a broken Christ well agree. The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we taste in Christ. When Jacob wept he found God: “And he called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face” (Genesis 32:30). The way to find Christ comfortably in the sacrament is to go there weeping. Christ will say to a humble penitent, as he said to Thomas: “Reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side” (John 20:27), and let those bleeding wounds of mine heal you.
(2) Another time of extraordinary repentance is at the hour of death. This should be a weeping season. Now is our last work to be done for heaven, and our best wine of tears should be kept for such a time. We should repent now, over having sinned so much and wept so little, that God’s bag has been so full and his bottle so empty (Job 14:17). We should repent that we repented no sooner, that the garrisons of our hearts held out so long against God before they were levelled by repentance. We should repent that we did not love Christ more, that we have fetched no more virtue from him and brought no more glory to him. It should be our grief on our deathbed that our lives have had so many blanks and blots in them, that our duties have been so fly-blown with sin, that our obedience has been so imperfect, and that we have gone so lame in the ways of God. When the soul is going out of the body, it should swim to heaven in a sea of tears.
Ingredient 3: Confession of Sin
Sorrow is such a vehement passion that it must vent. It vents itself at the eyes by weeping, and at the tongue by confession: “The children of Israel stood and confessed their sins” (Nehemiah 9:2). “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense” (Hosea 5:15); it is a metaphor alluding to a mother who, when she is angry, leaves the child and hides her face till the child acknowledges its fault and begs pardon. Gregory Nazianzen10 calls confession “a salve for a wounded soul.”
Confession is self-accusing: “Look, I have sinned” (2 Samuel 24:17). Indeed, among men it is otherwise: no man is bound to accuse himself, but he desires to see his accuser. When we come before God, however, we must accuse ourselves: me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum.11 And the truth is that, by this self-accusing, we prevent Satan’s accusing. In our confessions we tax ourselves with pride, infidelity, and passion, so that when Satan, who is called “the accuser of the brethren,” lays these things to our charge, God will say, “They have accused themselves already; therefore, Satan, your lawsuit is dismissed; your accusations come too late.” The humble sinner does more than accuse himself; as it were, he sits in judgment and passes sentence upon himself. He confesses that he deserves to be bound over to the wrath of God. And hear what the apostle Paul says: “if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31).12 But have not wicked men, like Judas and Saul, confessed their sin? Yes, but theirs was not a true confession. So that our confession of sin may be right and genuine, these eight qualifications are required:
1. Confession must be voluntary
It must come like water out of a spring, freely. The confession of the wicked is extorted, like the confession of a man upon a rack. When a spark of God’s wrath flies into their conscience, or they are in fear of death, then they will fall to their confessions. Balaam, when he saw the angel’s naked sword, could say, “I have sinned” (Numbers 22:34). But true confession drops from the lips as myrrh from the tree or honey from the comb, freely. “I have sinned against heaven, and before you” (Luke 15:18): the prodigal charged himself with sin before his father charged him with it.
2. Confession must be with compunction The heart must deeply resent it. A natural man’s confessions run through him like water through a pipe. They do not affect him at all. But true confession leaves heart-wounding impressions on a man. David’s soul was burdened in the confession of his sins: “as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalms 38:4). It is one thing to confess sin and another thing to feel sin.
3. Confession must be sincere Our hearts must go along with our confessions. The hypocrite confesses his sin but still loves it, like a thief who confesses to stolen goods, yet loves stealing. How many confess pride and covetousness with their lips but roll them like honey under their tongue.13 Augustine said that before his conversion he confessed sin and begged for power against it; but his heart whispered within him, “not yet, Lord.” He was afraid to leave his sin too soon. A good Christian is more honest. His heart keeps pace with his tongue. He is convinced of the sins that he confesses, and he abhors the sins that he is convinced of.
4. In true confession a man particularizes sin A wicked man acknowledges he is a sinner in general. He confesses his sin wholesale. His confession of sin is much like Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: “I have dreamed a dream” (Daniel 2:3), but he could not tell what it was: “The thing is gone from me” (Daniel 2:5). In the same way a wicked man says, “Lord, I have sinned,” but he does not know what the sin is; at least he does not remember; whereas a true convert acknowledges his particular sins. As it is with a wounded man, who comes to the surgeon and shows him all his wounds (here I was cut in the head, there I was shot in the arm…) so a mournful sinner confesses the several diseases of his soul. Israel drew up a particular charge against themselves: “We have served Baalim” (Judges 10:10). The prophet recites the very sin which brought a curse with it: “Nor have we listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name” (Daniel 9:6). By a diligent inspection into our hearts, we may find some particular sin has been indulged; point to that sin with a tear.
5. A true penitent confesses sin in the fountain
He acknowledges the pollution of his nature. The sin of our nature is not only a privation of good but an infusion of evil. It is like rust to iron, or stain to scarlet. David acknowledges his birth-sin: “I was shaped in iniquity; my mother conceived me in sin” (Psalms 51:5). We are ready to charge many of our first sins to Satan’s temptations, but this sin of our nature is entirely from ourselves; we cannot shift it off to Satan. We have a root within us that bears gall and wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18). Our nature is an abyss and a seminary of all evil, from which those scandals that infest the world come. It is this depravity of nature which poisons our holy things; it is this which brings on God’s judgments and makes our mercies stick in the birth. Oh confess sin in the fountain!
6. Sin is to be confessed with all its circumstances and aggravations
Those sins which are committed under the gospel horizon are doubtless dyed in grain.14 Confess sins against knowledge, against grace, against vows, against experiences, against judgments. “The wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them. For all this, they still sinned” (Psalms 78:31-32). These are killing aggravations which accentuate and enhance our sins.
7. In confession we must so charge ourselves as to clear God
If the Lord is severe in his providences and unsheathes his bloody sword, still we must acquit him and acknowledge that he has done us no wrong. Nehemiah in confessing sin vindicates God’s righteousness: “Even so, you are just in all that is brought upon us” (Nehemiah 9:33). Maurice the emperor, 15 when he saw his wife slain before his eyes by Phocas, cried out, “Righteous are you, O Lord, in all your ways.”
8. We must confess our sins with a resolve not to repeat them
Some run from the confession of sin to the committing of sin, like the Persians who have one day in the year when they kill serpents and after that day allow them to swarm again. Likewise, many seem to kill their sins in their confessions, but afterwards let them grow as fast as ever. “Cease to do evil” (Isaiah 1:16). It is vain to confess, “We have done those things we should not have done,” and still continue to do them. Pharaoh confessed he had sinned (Exodus 9:27); but when the thunder ceased, he fell to his sin again: “he sinned still more, and hardened his heart” (Exodus 9:34). Origen16 calls confession the vomit of the soul by which the conscience is eased of that burden which lay upon it. Now, when we have vomited up sin by confession we must not return to this vomit.17 What king will pardon a man who, after he has confessed his treason, practices new treason?
Thus we see how confession must be qualified.
Use 1: Is confession a necessary ingredient in repentance? Here is a bill of indictment against four sorts of persons:
(1) It reproves those that hide their sins, as Rachel hid her father’s idols under her (Genesis 31:34). Many would rather have their sins covered than cured. They do with their sins as they do with their pictures: they draw a curtain over them; or as some do with their bastards, smother them. But though men have no tongue to confess, God has an eye to see; he will unmask their treason: “I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes” (Psalms 50:21). Those iniquities which men hide in their hearts will be written one day on their foreheads as if with the point of a diamond. Those who will not confess their sin as David did, so that they may be pardoned, will confess their sin as Achan did, so that they may be stoned. It is dangerous to keep the devil’s counsel: “He that covers his sins shall not prosper” (Proverbs 28:13).
(2) It reproves those who indeed confess sin, but only by halves. They do not confess all; they confess the pennies but not the dollars. They confess vain thoughts or bad memory but not the sins they are most guilty of, such as rash anger, extortion, and uncleanness, like the man in Plutarch18 who complained his stomach was not very good when his lungs were bad and his liver was rotten. But if we do not confess all, why should we expect God to pardon all? It is true that we cannot know the exact catalogue of our sins, but the sins which come within our view and cognizance, and which our hearts accuse us of, must be confessed if we are to hope for mercy.
(3) It reproves those who mince and extenuate their sins in their confessions. A gracious soul labors to make the worst of his sins, but hypocrites make the best of them. They do not deny they are sinners, but they do what they can to lessen their sins: they indeed offend sometimes, but it is just their nature, and it has been such a long time. These are excuses rather than confessions. “I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord: because I feared the people” (1 Samuel 15:24). Saul blames the people: they would have him spare the sheep and oxen. It was an apology, not a self-indictment. It runs in the blood. Adam acknowledged he tasted the forbidden fruit, but instead of aggravating his sin he shifted it from himself to God: “The woman you gave me, she gave me from the tree and I ate” (Genesis 3:12). That is, if I did not have this woman to be a tempter, I would not have transgressed. Inscripsere deos sceleri (Ovid).19 It is a bad sin indeed that we can make no excuse for, just as it must be a very coarse wool which will not take dye. How apt we are to pare and curtail sin, and look at it through the small end of the telescope so that it appears to be only “a little cloud, like a man’s hand” (1Kng 18.44).
(4) It reproves those who are so far from confessing sin that they boldly plead for it. Instead of having tears to lament it, they use arguments to defend it. If their sin is passion, they will justify it by, “I have reason to be angry” (Jonah 4:9). If it be covetousness they will vindicate it. When men commit sin they are the devil’s servants; when they plead for it they are the devil’s attorneys, and he will give them a fee for it.
Use 2: Let us show ourselves to be penitents by sincere confession of our sin. The thief on the cross confessed his sin: “we are indeed condemned justly” (Luke 23:41). And Christ said to him, “Today you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). This might have been the occasion for Augustine’s speech that confession of sin shuts the mouth of hell and opens the gate of paradise. So that we may make a free and sincere confession of sin, let us consider that,
(1) Holy confession gives glory to God: “My son, give, I pray you, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to him” (Joshua 7:19). A humble confession exalts God. What a glory it is to him that out of our own mouths he does not condemn us? While we confess sin, God’s patience is magnified in sparing us, and his free grace is magnified in saving such sinners.
(2) Confession is a means to humble the soul. The one who describes himself as a hell-deserving sinner will have little heart to be proud. Like the violet, he will hang down his head in humility. A true penitent confesses that he mingles sin with all he does, and therefore he has nothing to boast about. Uzziah, though a king, had leprosy on his forehead; he had enough to abase him (2 Chronicles 26:19). So a child of God, even when he does good, still acknowledges there is much evil in that good. This lays all his feathers of pride in the dust.
(3) Confession gives vent to a troubled heart. When guilt lies boiling in the conscience, confession gives ease. It is like lancing an abscess which gives ease to the patient.
(4) Confession purges sin. Augustine called it “the expeller of vice.” Sin is bad blood; confession is like opening a vein to let it out. Confession is like the Dung Gate through which all the filth of the city was removed (Nehemiah 3:13). Confession is like pumping at the leak; it lets out that sin which would otherwise overflow. Confession is the sponge that wipes the spots off the soul.
(5) Confession of sin endears Christ to the soul. If I say I am a sinner, how precious will Christ’s blood be to me! After Paul has confessed a body of sin, he breaks forth into a congratulatory triumph for Christ: “I thank God through Jesus Christ” (Romans 7:25). If a debtor confesses a judgment but the creditor will not exact the debt, and instead appoints his own son to pay it, will not the debtor be very thankful? So when we confess the debt, and confess that even if we were to lie forever in hell we could not pay it, but that God must appoint his own Son to lay down his blood to pay our debt, then free grace is greatly magnified and Jesus Christ is eternally loved and admired!
(6) Confession of sin makes way for pardon. No sooner did the prodigal come with a confession in his mouth, “I have sinned against heaven,” than his father’s heart melted towards him and he kissed him (Luke 15:20). When David said, “I have sinned,” the prophet brought him a box with a pardon, “The Lord has put away your sin” (2 Samuel 12:13). The one who sincerely confesses sin has God’s bond for a pardon: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). Why does the apostle not say that if we confess our sins, he is merciful to forgive our sins? No; he is just to forgive them because he has bound himself by a promise to forgive them. God’s truth and justice are engaged in the pardoning of that man who confesses sin and comes with a penitent heart by faith in Christ.
(7) How reasonable and easy this command is to confess our sin!
(a) It is a reasonable command. For if one has wronged another, what is more rational than to confess that he has wronged him? Having wronged God by sin, how equal and consonant to reason it is that we should confess the offense.
(b) It is an easy command. What a vast difference there is between the first covenant and the second! In the first covenant it was, “if you commit sin, you die;” in the second covenant it is, “If you confess sin, you shall have mercy.” In the first covenant no surety was allowed; under the covenant of grace, if we but confess the debt, Christ will be our surety.
What way could be thought of that is more ready and facile for the salvation of man than a humble confession? “Only acknowledge your iniquity” (Jeremiah 3:13). God says to us, I do not ask for sacrifices of rams to expiate your guilt; I do not bid you to part with the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul; “only acknowledge your iniquity;” if you will only draw up an indictment against yourself and plead guilty, you will be sure of mercy.
All this should render this duty amiable. Throw out the poison of sin by confession, and “this day salvation has come to your house.” 20
There remains one case of conscience: are we bound to confess our sins to men? The papists greatly insist on auricular confession; one must confess his sins in the ear of the priest or he cannot be absolved. They urge, “Confess your sins one to another” (James 5:16), but this Scripture little serves their purpose. It may as well mean that the priest should confess to the people as well as the people to the priest. Auricular confession is one of the Pope’s golden doctrines. Like the fish in the Gospel, it has money in its mouth: “when you have opened his mouth, you shall find a piece of money” (Matthew 17:27). But though I am not for confession to men in a popish sense, yet I think in three cases there ought to be confession to men:
(1) Firstly, where a person has fallen into scandalous sin and by it has been an occasion of offense to some and of falling to others, then he ought to make a solemn and open acknowledgement of his sin so that his repentance may be as visible as his scandal (2 Corinthians 2:6-7).
(2) Secondly, where a man has confessed his sin to God, and yet his conscience is still burdened and he can have no ease in his mind, then it is requisite that he should confess his sins to some prudent, pious friend, who may advise him and speak a word in due season (James 5:16). It is a sinful modesty in Christians that they are not more free with their ministers and other spiritual friends in unburdening themselves and opening the sores and troubles of their souls to them. If there is a thorn sticking in the conscience, it is good to make use of those who may help to pluck it out.
(3) Thirdly, where any man has slandered another and by clipping his good name has made it less influential, he is bound to make confession. The scorpion carries its poison in its tail; the slanderer carried it in his tongue. His words pierce deep like the quills of the porcupine. The person who has murdered another in his good name or, by bearing false witness, has damaged him in his estate, and ought to confess his sin and ask forgiveness: “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you; go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). How can this reconciliation be effected except by confessing the injury? Till this is done, God will accept none of your services. Do not think the holiness of the altar will privilege you; your praying and hearing are in vain till you have appeased your brother’s anger by confessing your fault to him.