Digital Logos Edition
Confession is a powerful part of Christian life. Confession brings forgiveness and forgiveness brings reconciliation. In this brief volume, Stott examines how confession and forgiveness are central to Christianity and how it must be a forgiveness of love and mercy rather than mere sentimentality.
“As soon as David uncovered his sins, God covered them, for God can only cover with his forgiveness the sins which we uncover in our confession.” (Page 11)
“The rule is always that secret sins must be confessed secretly (to God), and private sins must be confessed privately (to the injured party).” (Page 20)
“One of the greatest snares to which Christians are exposed in the contemporary world is the tendency to grow accustomed to sin.” (Page 12)
“What is at stake, we are told, is our spiritual prosperity, whether we receive or forfeit the mercy of God. Many of us are not prospering in our Christian lives. We are making little or no progress. We have got stuck and do not appear to be enjoying the mercy of God. Is the reason partly or wholly that we have neglected the plain teaching of this Scripture about the secret confession of our sins to God?” (Page 7)
“It may indeed be that, by the grace of God, there are days when no actual transgression stains the conscience or memory of the Christian. But still there are sins of omission to confess, for no man has loved God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength; and there is the infection and corruption of our fallen nature to mourn, as we acknowledge that ‘there is no health in us.’” (Pages 8–9)