Confessional Charades

There is no sin so insidious but conscientious sin. This is the sin that has been thought through carefully. It has been analyzed from numerous angles, explained, defended, excused, and usually, at some point eventually renamed with terms of virtue. The whole thing is an elaborate charade, a distraction tactic, but it doesn’t work.

The reason you spend so much time thinking about that sin and trying to explain it, trying to explain why it isn’t really that bad, and why you just have to, and why even if it is a sin, God will forgive you, and the fact that everyone does it, and the fact that it would be too much trouble to deal with, and too humiliating to confess and repent of – the reason you spend all that time working that knot in your mind is because it’s sin. And you cannot explain it away. Sin cannot be explained, cannot be excused, cannot be defended. That’s what makes it sin. It’s evil, it’s shameful, it doesn’t make sense, it’s inexcusable, and it can only be confessed and covered by the blood of Christ. 

But do not miss the fact that there is an even more insidious way that religious types like to try to play games with God. What they do is they confess a sin that they have no intention of actually forsaking, which is not really confessing sin at all. It’s like bringing a gift to God, a box all wrapped up, but inside there’s nothing. And you think because you went through the trouble of getting a box and wrapping it up, because you went through the trouble of getting on your knees or mouthing particular words before God, that counts for something. But it’s completely worthless and deeply offensive to the Living God who sees exactly what you’re doing. He sees straight through your lies. He sees your heart. He knows. 

So here we are after weeks of being apart, weeks of singing in our cars. Here we are assembled before the Lord at last. Do not come in here and pretend anything. Do not come in here to play games with God. He sees it all. He knows it all. So lay it all before Him now. 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash