We heard an amazing sermon last year that was incredibly solid. We have been blessed with an amazing church where the preaching from the pulpit is the truth of the Bible.
There were a couple of one-liners that struck a cord with me.
Confession is not the same as conversion.
I had lived most of my life without knowing with my heart what conversion entailed. Sure, I had confessed. I had confessed with blind eyes, silent ears, and a proud heart. This is not the confession of the Bible. It is a false confession that was meant to selfishly appease my conscience.
Repentance without Christ is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
My understanding of what the word repent meant had been head knowledge only. It was a false assurance I told myself to satisfy my sinful ways. What I failed to realize was that repentance without Christ is futile. There is no salvation in empty repentance.
We might affirm Christ but do we know Him?
Again, you can't fully repent without Christ, so do you have a right understanding of Christ? Do you know the Savior from the Bible? Have you concocted your own version of Him to meet your needs or justify your sin?
If you are not sure, I would encourage you to start in Genesis 1:1 and begin a read-through plan of the Bible. I'm participating in our church's Bible read-through this year and each book, chapter, verse, and word is weaving together a more complete understanding of who the true Christ is.
In order to repent, you must know to whom you are repenting. In order to confess, you must know the true understanding of repentance.
This standard can also translate to other areas of life, although in a lesser degree of importance. In order to rightly confess, or repent your sin against another, you should know in your heart and mind what you have done; there should be a heart knowledge involved if you are in a situation where an apology is necessary.
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