Confession and Accountability

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Confession plays an important role in the Christian life. It’s how we begin our life in Christ, but it’s also part of our daily progression in sanctification. Obviously, it begins with us recognizing and admitting that we’re sinners in need of a Savior, but also the recognition that our sinning is not eradicated at the moment of salvation. As believers, we go on sinning and must deal with our sin by confessing it to our Heavenly Father daily. But how much of the Christian life should involve confessing our sins to others and being held accountable by them or to them? Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed. So, we can see that the Scriptures teach us that confession and accountability are pretty important. But does this mean we need accountability partners or groups that hold each other accountable for dealing with our sins and growing in our sanctification? Join us this week on the Straight Truth Podcast to hear the answers to these questions as Dr. Richard Caldwell and Dr. Josh Philpot discuss the subject of confession and accountability before God and others.
Dr. Caldwell says that at the very outset of our walk with Christ, we’re turning from a life of sin to embrace a new life in Jesus Christ. Our faith in Christ is a penitent faith. It has practical effects even at the beginning of our Christian lives, where we are turning away from a life of sin, putting away our sins. But, there are also things we are turning from. Dr. Caldwell shares an example from Acts 18, where those who believed kept coming forward and confessing and disclosing their previous practices, some bringing things with them that needed to be removed and destroyed from their lives. These people publicly displayed the abandonment of their past lives with transparency and humility through their words and actions. Why? Because the Lord had changed their hearts, they desired a new life in Christ and were putting away their sin. James tells us that we are to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other. Our proper understanding of these texts will help us to see the ongoing nature and importance of confessing our sins to one another in the Christian life. Which, in turn, is part of the larger emphasis in the New Testament on forgiving each other. As Jesus says, if your brother comes to you seven times a day asking for forgiveness, we are to forgive him. This involves us having an attitude that’s necessary to everything in the Christian life, and that is humility. The number one reason we struggle to confess our sins to one another is pride. We don’t want to admit we are wrong. We’ll confess our sins to God. We’ll privately tell God we have sinned against another, asking Him to forgive us. But are we then willing to go to that person and tell them we’ve sinned against them, being specific, saying what we’ve done wrong, and asking for their forgiveness? When it comes to the issue of confession, we need to forsake our pride and confess our sins in a way that reflects true humility. But there also needs to be that same kind of humility on the other side, where the person whom we have sinned against is really willing to forgive and release us from our debt. We must be willing to sacrifice pride by putting it on the altar, putting it to death in both our confession of sin to others and in forgiving others when they sin against us. Confession and accountability are vitally important to the Christian life. They begin at the moment of conversion and will continue throughout the Christian life.
Dr. Caldwell says that one of our temptations as believers is to make artificial, formal, or structured, in some cases, what God designed to be organic, natural, or familial. He doesn’t believe we need an accountability group. Instead, we need a life of accountability. Our connection to Christ, being in His body, the church, means we’re organically connected to other Christians. And many New Testament Scriptures teach us about the responsibility and accountability we have to one another. Therefore, we want to live our lives daily with an openness, transparency, and humility that allows a brother or sister to come to us when they see us living in a way that dishonors God and in ways that would destroy us.

[@WaynoGur]

Make Accountability Great Again!

[@paulasueInChrist]

Thank you from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. That was very helpful.