Confession is good for the soul. You don’t need to take my word for it. Consider the words of our God from Genesis 3.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. What changed? This had never happened before. Ever! Had Adam and Eve ever felt fear? Nope, not until now. Now they are afraid of the one person, the only one who could help them. Confession is good for the soul, but they don’t know that yet. They are not free from guilt; they are filled with shame.
I want to submit to you that guilt is not all bad – we are sinners. What happens when there is not guilt or shame for our sin? Let ask an easier question. What happens if the body cannot feel pain? Have you ever been to the dentist before? You have a cavity or worse and they need to drill. The little bee sting – that was the party line at my dentist – the little bee sting of Novocain hits and everything goes numb around the shot including your tooth, we hope. You can still feel the drill but there is no pain. What happens when after the trip to the dentist you go to a pizza buffet for lunch only your lip, and the lower part of your face for that matter, is still numb. You might start to chew on your lip. I did this. It wasn’t pretty.
The Apostle Paul talks about people who don’t feel guilt or shame anymore – as if their consciences have been seared with a hot iron. They sin and they feel no pain, no guilt, no shame. Have you ever gotten to that point? Wow, is that dangerous for the soul! Understand that the danger of sin is obviously the physical consequences to your body if we’re talking about drugs, alcohol or sex – the consequences to the people you love, now consider the consequences to your soul.
Want to hear more? I end the sermon this week with the story of Mr. Hawkins who confessed his sin of murder decades later after finding faith in Jesus. Please click HERE to read his story.
You can watch the whole sermon from Genesis 3 – Good for the Soul.
Book(s): Genesis
Tag(s): Confession
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg