A be­lie­ving per­son is like a tra­ve­ler jour­ney­ing to­ward the des­ti­na­ti­on of the he­a­ven­ly home. Faith is the on­ly thing that ma­kes it pos­sib­le for us to re­ach our des­ti­na­ti­on.

Eve­ry one of us has fal­len in­to sin and would the­re­fo­re de­ser­ve eter­nal de­ath. If God did not love man­kind, we would not be ab­le to re­ach our he­a­ven­ly home. Our own good works are not suf­fi­cient me­rit to ato­ne for our sins. The on­ly thing that can do this is the re­demp­ti­on ac­comp­lis­hed by Je­sus.

We should not give up faith, which is the most pre­ci­ous thing in our life. Rat­her we should nur­tu­re our faith. God’s word ex­horts us: ”Hold on to faith and a good cons­cien­ce, which some have re­jec­ted and so have suf­fe­red shipw­reck with re­gard to the faith.” (1 Tim. 1:19.)

Gift of con­fes­si­on

The tra­ve­lers are ca­red for by the gos­pel, which pro­mi­ses us the for­gi­ve­ness of sins: You can be­lie­ve all yo­ur sins for­gi­ven in Je­sus’ name and blood. When we be­lie­ve this jo­y­ful mes­sa­ge, all our sins are wi­ped away – not on­ly part of them but all.

Even af­ter that, ho­we­ver, there may re­main an ac­ti­on that bot­hers our cons­cien­ce. We know and feel that we have ac­ted cont­ra­ry to God’s will. We know we have sin­ned, and that know­led­ge is like a bur­den on our cons­cien­ce.

But even then we are in the good care of God’s king­dom. We need not car­ry such bur­dens, be­cau­se we have re­cei­ved the gift of con­fes­si­on. We can share the things bot­he­ring our mind with a re­li­ab­le es­cort on the way to he­a­ven. This per­son is our con­fes­sor fat­her or mot­her and proc­laims the for­gi­ve­ness of sins to us. This proc­la­ma­ti­on me­ans that God al­so for­gi­ves us. When we be­lie­ve that, the bur­den is lif­ted from our cons­cien­ce.

If we have of­fen­ded so­me­o­ne, we al­so feel a bur­den on our cons­cien­ce. The Holy Spi­rit in our he­art ad­vi­ses us to ap­p­ro­ach the of­fen­ded per­son and to apo­lo­gi­ze for what we have said or done.

Con­fes­sor fat­hers and mot­hers are not al­lo­wed to share with any­bo­dy the things they have he­ard in con­fes­si­on. The con­fes­sor’s re­li­a­bi­li­ty me­ans that he or she is ab­le to keep the con­fes­si­o­nal sec­ret.

If, ho­we­ver, a be­lie­ver has done so­met­hing to break the law of their so­cie­ty, the Holy Spi­rit ex­horts them to con­fess their transg­res­si­on even to a gu­ar­di­an of tem­po­ral laws.

On­ly by grace

When we speak about nur­tu­ring our faith, we mean that God ta­kes care of His child­ren in His King­dom. We are as­ked whet­her we want to be obe­dient to God’s Word. We are as­ked whet­her we want to be­lie­ve. We are made righ­te­ous so­le­ly by the re­demp­ti­on ac­comp­lis­hed by Je­sus, not by our con­fes­si­on.

The sal­va­ti­on pre­pa­red for man­kind can on­ly be pos­ses­sed by grace. Tra­ve­lers on the road to he­a­ven need not car­ry bur­dens. Je­sus’ blood was­hes away our sins. Ac­cor­ding to the Let­ter to the Ro­mans, God’s King­dom is ”righ­te­ous­ness, pe­a­ce and joy in the Holy Spi­rit” (Rom. 14:17).

Text: Veik­ko Si­vu­la

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L. L.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä nu­me­ros­sa 15.11.2017