I’ve always been a “good” person. My sisters will disagree, of course, but that’s because they could see me when I wasn’t in public. That’s where I always behaved and did the right thing.
Mostly I did that because I didn’t want to pay the consequences. Get caught cheating on a test and there are repercussions. Snagged for hacking the college’s mainframe, who knows what would happen?
I’ve done both, BTW. Never got caught cheating, but one day I was told I needed to talk to the system administrator. He referred me to the department head. His office was across campus.
That was a long walk.
What did I do? I lied to him.
That’s what I mean when I tell you I was a “good” person. “Good” only because my faults so rarely came to light. In the instance of computer hacking I have no idea if they believed my lies.
Of one thing I am most certain: God wasn’t fooled for an instant.
The Bible teaches that God is omniscient. He knows e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Do you think you can successfully lie to Him? You’ve got another “think” coming.
The Bible also teaches that we should confess our sins (I’ve covered what that means in an earlier message) and we’ll get forgiveness. But do you think you’ll say anything God doesn’t know? Do you think He’ll be shocked? He’s the one who flooded the Earth because of what He saw back in the days of Noah. Do you actually think you can say or do anything He hasn’t seen or heard before?
The point of confessing is your acknowledgement of your faults, not informing God you messed up. He’s holy (set apart) and you are not, and it’s important you admit that to yourself. Without that admission you cannot sufficiently rely on the saving grace of Jesus’ sacrifice.
We need to confess our sins before we can receive forgiveness.
It doesn’t matter how much of a “good” person you are, without that confession you’re just a lonely college student walking across campus to have a meeting with the head of the computer sciences department.
BTW, he went to my mom’s church. I’d known him for years.
And I’d known God for years.
Guess which one made my sins white as snow?
