Sometimes in church we hear a lot about confessing our sins, usually with 1 John 1:9 referenced or sometimes a little James 5:16 thrown in. Often we’re asked to examine ourselves to see if there is anything we need to confess and even encouraged to come to the alter to confess either to God alone or possible a friend or prayer partner and ask for forgiveness.

So what does this look like through a grace perspective? I do believe there is a place for confessing and examination, but I don’t think it looks much like what we tend to see in church.

First and foremost, I think a continual state of self-examination for the purpose of locating sins to confess fixes our eyes on the wrong thing. When we understand grace our eyes are naturally fixed on our Heavenly Father. If we are in a constant state of self-examination ours eyes will only be fixed on one of two things, ourselves or sin, with only two possible results, pride or condemnation.

Also, I think the verses I referenced tend to be misapplied. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I actually believe this refers to salvation, not to an ongoing situation. I believe forgiveness comes in totality at salvation. Jesus took all sin upon him on the cross, Colossians 3:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

When we “believe and receive” (Romans 10:9) we are reconciled to Him.

Colossians 1:19-22 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him (Jesus) and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”

I believe the James verse means what it seems to, but in a particular application, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Then we have a couple “examination” verses written in Corinthians (I’m only going to deal with New Testament verses about this subject because under the covenant of the law examination was key, but being under grace these verse no longer apply unless they point to grace).

One is 2 Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test?

This one is pretty easy to deal with because it deals with being in the faith. Are you in the faith? If you say yes, then you’ve passed, congratulations, test over.

The nest one is a little trickier and it’s found in 1 Corinthians 11: 27-32 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”

This one makes it sound like we better get ourselves right before we take communion, but let’s be honest it couldn’t mean that or else all of us are in a lot of trouble. So if that’s not it, what is it? We have to look back contextually starting in verse 17. The church was divided. They were also being selfish and getting together to eat and get drunk while members of their own body were going hungry. Paul clearly says they were not getting together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. So, he lays out instructions for them. When he says examine yourself, He doesn’t mean hurry and confess everything that comes to mind before the bread and juice get to you, he means remember grace. Remember what God didn’t for you. Actually the Greek translation of “examine” in this verse means test to see if something is genuine. So, it almost applies the same way the previous verse does. Additionally this is also the chapter dealing with head coverings and the length of women’s hair, so clearly we’re dealing with some contextual teaching.

So, now that we’ve dealt with all of that what does a Biblical model of examination and confession looks like? I think Psalm 139:23-24 gives us an idea: “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, 
And lead me in the way everlasting.”

Examination is done by God and brought to our attention as He sees fit. Our eyes stay on Him and if there are things in us He wants to deal with He does it through us. He decides the timing, the method, etc. Which also leads into the confession piece. If we need to confess something to someone else and get prayer for the matter He will tell us that. Is He God or is He not? Is He supernatural or not? Or, if we just need to acknowledge something to Him and tell Him that we recognize that a particular behavior is not in line with our identity as a saint, then we can do that. After all, the Holy Spirit convicts believers of their righteousness not their sin (John 16:8-10).

Sometimes it won’t even manifest a as confession, but more of an attitude of repentance, which by New Testament definition means changing one’s mind or turning away (and does not mean either confession of sin or asking forgiveness, although is seems to be hopelessly intertwined with both in church). It is completely Biblical to tell God after losing your temper that you recognize that that action is coming out of your flesh and not in keeping with your purchased righteousness and then ask Him to help you depend on Him in that area so that you behavior will match your identity. Sometimes I even ask Him to expose the root of what’s getting me upset, which for me is often an insecurity that needs to be dealt with by understanding more of His love.

So, if we’re in church as the pastor asks us to examine ourselves and comes up to alter to confess our sins and be forgiven what do we do?

First, we remember that we’re already forgiven. Then, if we want to we can pray what the Psalmist did, but while God’s timing in dealing with an issue in our lives may coincide with an alter call it certainly doesn’t have to, and if it doesn’t it definitely doesn’t mean that we haven’t examined ourselves properly, because after all the only right way to examine is to let Him do it.