“Got Change For A Life?”

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

I am wondering: if for a person to get saved, is confession the only thing that a Christian would have to do in order to seek forgiveness from God?  Do they have to rectify or make amends with their wrongs, too?  What if someone is in the process of being evil because they have committed a crime that someone else is receiving the punishment for (such as sixty years in prison) and they won't confess that they were in the wrong.  Do you think the Lord will forgive them when they had every opportunity in their life to confess their wrong and let the other person go free but failed to use the opportunity?  Shouldn't we be confessing our sins when it’s not convenient for us?  What do you think?  Please get back to me.

Sincerely,
Walk The Walk

Dear Walk The Walk,

God does require more of us than just to confess our sins.  God requires us to do several things to become a christian:

1. Hear God’s Word (Rom 10:17, Rom 1:16)
2. Believe God’s Word (Mk 16:16)
3. Confess Christ as Savior (Matt 10:32)
4. Repent of our sins (Acts 3:19, Acts 17:30)
5. Be baptized for salvation (Acts 2:31, 1 Pet 3:21)

Only after you have done all five of those things are you forgiven of your sins.  See our post “What Must I Do To Be Saved?” for more details.  Now back to your question.

One of the things God requires of us is repentance.  Repentance is more than just confessing your sins; repentance means ‘to change your mind’.  When someone repents of something, they not only feel sorrow, but they also do what they can to change their life.  In your example, a truly repentant person would confess their sin to the proper authorities, so that the innocent person could be set free from jail, and they could shoulder the burden of their own punishment.  When we repent, we “turn again” to start a new life (Acts 3:19).  Repenting doesn’t mean we will never sin again, but it does mean we have a different attitude toward sin.  When we repent of wicked behavior, we change our lifestyle to no longer include that behavior (Acts 8:22).  Repentance always involves works that are “worthy of repentance” (Acts 26:20).  Serving God is not merely lip service, but action (Jas 1:22).

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