“The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:15-16, ESV

“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” James 5 19-20, ESV

We’ve all heard it and done it—confess, when our sins are brought to the light of day publicly. Sometimes, we confess when we have exhausted all other ways of blaming others.  We confess when we become weary of trying to hide our sins while spinning lies attempting look good. We produced cover statements in our pretense and deception while our arrogant pride builds and takes over our being.  Finally, when we come to the end of our resources and we sit clinging to the end of rope we created; we confess.

The phrase “confession is good for the soul” that we often hear from believers and nonbelievers alike originates from an old Scottish proverb, “Open confession is good for the soul,” suggests that admitting wrongdoing brings psychological relief (catharsis) and a spiritual cleansing easing guilt.  But this is light twist on what the Bible truly teaches about confession.

James brings confession into the light of day with much deeper meanings for anyone truly seeking God for life.  In fact, today we will learn that confession goes much deeper when we read our passage in Nehemiah and parallel his teaching with the teaching of James.  James, stepbrother to Jesus as most theologians think, was one who didn’t believe in Jesus as Son of God as well as Son of Man until after Jesus died and rose again!  James saw Jesus, scars and all, with His own eyes and believed.  James then became a passionate, tenacious follower of Jesus who was then his Savior and His Lord.

James confessed his sins knowing that Jesus was the once and for all sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus, Lamb of God, without blemishes of sin, was the perfect sacrifice and the only Way back to a relationship with God. Real confession of sins in the Name of Jesus includes true repentance—a turning from sin to God.  

James is adamant about going deeper in confession that includes an agreement with God to not go back to the sins that hold us in bondage.  James also gives us another word— “healing.”  Our sins affect our health and the health of others around us in all kinds of ways. We easily pray healing for those with physical afflictions.  James teaches us that we must pray for each other’s spiritual sicknesses.  “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”  Healing is an ongoing process from God with power to help us avoid going back into sins.  We must pray with and for each other asking for God’s healing and restorative power, the same power that brought Jesus back to life!  THAT power is available to us.

Confess, repent (turn around and face God), agree with God (to not look back but to humbly walk forward with God) and be healed.  What follows is the beauty of forgiveness as we live the abundant life of redemption.  Redeemed people are fully alive, resurrected from sins, brought to life with a new heart, renewed mind, and a filled soul—filled with the goodness of God!  What a blessed assurance to know Jesus who reconciled us to our loving compassionate and always faithful God!  God is faithful even when we are not.  We don’t deserve God; But He supplies our need of Him by His grace.

Confessing our sins to God, with humbled repentance, in the Holy Name of Jesus, with agreement to never go back to the sins that held us in bondage comes with the power of healing from God. Our sins are miraculously removed in the healing process “as far as the east is from the west” to be “remembered no more.”  There is no one like our God!

Therefore, as Nehemiah teaches us in his diary of faith, confession is much more than merely relieving our guilt and shame. It is turning from sin to look fully into the face of God who is faithful.  It is a time to remember who He is in relationship to us. We are His created, made in His image.  God loves us and He wants us to love Him back.

Nehemiah 9

The Israelites Confess Their Sins

On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. ² Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. ³ They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. ⁴ Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. ⁵ And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

⁷ “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. ⁸ You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.

⁹ “You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. ¹⁰ You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. ¹² By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.

¹³ “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. ¹⁴ You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. ¹⁵ In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.

¹⁶ “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. ¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, ¹⁸ even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

²² “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. ²⁴ Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. ²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.

²⁶ “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. ²⁷ So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.

²⁸ “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.

²⁹ “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. ³⁰ For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. ³¹ But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

³² “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. ³³ In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. ³⁴ Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. ³⁵ Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.

³⁶ “But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. ³⁷ Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.

The Agreement of the People

³⁸ “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We learn that the this will be continued!  In Chapter Ten, Nehemiah continues to outline the details of the covenant between God and His People along with noting the leaders who signed and sealed it to make it binding before God—The One and Only Most High and Almighty God of all creation!

Remember when Nehemiah first heard of the crumbling walls of Jerusalem along with the discouragement of God’s people?  He wept—then confessed.  He repented of the sins of the past and now. Immediately following Nehemiah’s first response, God gave Nehemiah a plan that would bring restoration of the physical walls of Jerusalem that would again protect them from enemies. Even as the enemy tried to stop them with slander and humiliation tactics; they carried on the work. We they continued the work; their faith was being built to protect their hearts from the enemies of our hearts.  Yes, upon confession, repentance, and agreement with God; God provided spiritual healing as He restored the relationship between God and the people He loved.

We don’t deserve what God so graciously and generously provides for us daily! We learn that God is faithful, even when we are not. We learn that there is nothing that our God won’t forgive.  His grace is unlimited and His mercies last a lifetime!  God loves to heal and forgive. It is not God’s desire that anyone perish but have eternal life so He gave us Jesus.  We must not take advantage of God’s goodness but fully rely on His wonder working power.

Confession, repentance, agreement and healing is serious business! In the time of Nehemiah, physically putting a seal on their agreement was a serious matter because it meant taking a solemn oath before the Lord. Mosaic law governing vows and oaths is found in Numbers 30; “If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” Since an oath involved the name and possible judgment of God, it was not to be taken lightly. Jesus also warned against using empty oaths (Matthew 5).  So, confess, repent, agree, and allow God’s healing power to restore and build the relationship we all desire to have with God by believing in Jesus and what He did to save us from our sins. The peace, love, and joy that we seek is found in God alone—seriously!

Lord,

The wisdom you demonstrate through your faithful leader, Nehemiah is greatly appreciated, convicting and affirming. To know the greatness of your love and the beauty of your complete forgiveness is almost beyond our thinking. However, even though undeserving, I will continue to believe what you say while standing firm Your promises to love us forever.  Thank you for making a way for us confess, repent, agree, and be healed of our sins then and now. Thank you, Jesus.  To you be the glory!

In Jesus Name, Amen