We must never resent or resist the harsh treatment God sometimes gives out as we study His Word or hear it proclaimed from the pulpit. God hates sin. Therefore the Word of God, which reflects His holy character, customarily exposes our sin and calls for our repentance. Comfort? Yes, the Bible contains great comfort, and promises too. But the comfort and promises are only for those who confess their sin, obey God and pursue righteousness.
Perhaps these words have been used of God to bring to mind some distant but unconfessed sin in your life. You may almost have forgotten it. But because it is unconfessed it is offensive in the sight of heaven. God is probing, and He is using words to do it.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Have you put other things, even self, in the place of God?
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” Have you made an idol of a career, another person, a vice, a virtue? Are you god in your own life?
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.” Have you misused God’s name? Have you misused religion itself, as if it were something to advance you rather than express your indebtedness to God?
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
“Honor your father and your mother.”
“You shall not murder.”
“You shall not commit adultery.”
“You shall not steal.”
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exod. 20:2–17).
Have you committed these sins? If you have, God is speaking sharply, not diplomatically, at this point. He is telling you to confess that buried sin or sins. Your spiritual life depends on it.
I can make it clearer than that. If you have not confessed your sin, especially if you have not yet believed on Christ, I must tell you that your sin is the very sin of Joseph’s brothers. You have a brother—He is not afraid to call you brother—who has never been concerned for anything in your case but your good. And what have you done to Him? You have accused Him of being a spy to seek out your hidden sins and destroy them. You have driven Him from your life. In the person of those who have gone before you in history you have reviled Him, spit upon Him, crucified Him. You must come to the place where you plead guilty concerning your brother. That is hard. It is painful to make that confession.
But once you confess the sin, you find that Jesus Christ is most gracious. Indeed, He is so gracious that He has already gone to death before you, enduring the cross, so that you might be saved both for this life and for eternity.