Dedicated Reply to a Comment

QUESTION:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What is wrong thinking about the law of God?":

Is it still important for a child of God to acknowledge when they sin, confess their sin, turn away from sin and ask the Father to forgive us our sin? For the Lord’s Prayer is a framework prayer that states, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Paul states in Romans that God’s Law is not done away with because Paul says that we must uphold the Law. The problem lies with our attitude towards the Law. Are we keeping the Law to be saved or do we still obey it because this is the only way we can show God that we love Him?

ANSWER:

Hi,

TX for your comment. Apologies for answering it as a post, but the blog app disallowed the comment as it was too long. So, I had to reply in a new post. 😊

Question #1:

There is nothing wrong in confessing your sins, but we must know that it is not a requirement for salvation. In other words, to become saved does not balance on the act of confessing your sins. Salvation is 100% only on the faith you place in the cross of Christ. It is placing one's entire trust in the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection that justifies us before God.

Rom 3:21  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 

Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 

Rom 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Faith (simple trust) in the gospel message is the key. There is nothing in the above verses that says we have to confess our sins to receive salvation. If confession was required, it would become a work that would dilute the glory of Christ's cross and provide something that we can boast in. Salvation is by faith ALONE, no works!

Having said that, there is nothing stopping us as believers from confessing sins. As a father, I would expect my natural child to be sorry for being naughty. I would expect him to learn from his mistakes and 'hopefully' not do them again. I would appreciate that he would mature and become responsible. However, even if he is naughty again, he still remains my child. Nothing can change that. It just means I have to spank him again for his own good. Being sorry is more than just words. It is doing something to avoid making that mistake again. In the context of a believer, that "doing something" is to be renewed by the Word of God. It is only the Word working in you that can mortify the flesh, Rom 8:13. This is why Paul writes,

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Once we are saved, our responsibility is to come to a knowledge of the truth; a knowledge of the Son of God. It is Christ formed in us, by the knowledge of the Word, that will help us to walk according to the power and will of God.

The Lords prayer is designed for Israel. It is a prayer that is applicable to the Kingdom program, as is all of Jesus earthly ministry. Notice that it states by condition that one will only be forgiven only if one first forgives. This is contradictory to what a grace believer has today. Today, in grace, a believer is already forgiven, unconditionally. Because we are forgiven, Paul tells us to therefore forgive others. See Eph 1:7; Eph 4:32; Col 1:14; Col.2:13

Question #2

Regarding the law, one must be careful to identify what law is being referred to. Romans 13 is about moral law to authorities. By all means, as responsible believers who represent Christ in the world, we follow the moral law of the land. However, when Paul said the following,

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 

The law here is the law of sin and death. We are dead to this law. We are not under the influence of this law, as we have died to it through the death of Christ. We have been transferred into the ministration of Christ and do not belong to the ministration of Adam, as Rom.7 informs.

So, salvation actually saves us FROM the law of sin and death. We are not under it’s power anymore. As for the law of the land (Rom.13), we adhere to that as responsible citizens. Read Romans chapter seven which clearly outlines our death to the law and the condemnation it brings. From a spiritual perspective, we are now under the law of love, which works out of us naturally as we obey the working of the Word within us and become increasingly renewed in our minds by it. Obey the living word within us causes us to walk after the Spirit, and the result of that is mortification of the flesh, as confirmed here,

Rom 8:12-14  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  (13)  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  (14)  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.