A sneak peek: what "confess" actually means

While on my quest to rediscover God, He will often highlight certain words for me to examine more closely — as if He's rewriting my old glossary of terms one definition at a time.

One morning, the word was confess. Having grown up in church, I would have normally glossed right over it. But when the Lord says pause, you pause.

For me, confession had always been about sin. Speaking out your wrongs to clear the air between you and God. But as I read through scripture, over and over it states that we are to "confess Jesus." Long pause.

According to Strong's Concordance, the Greek word is homologeo — "to assent, agree, covenant, acknowledge." That word covenant took me from pause to a full-on screeching halt.

If I have been brought into covenant with God through the finished work of Jesus — cleansed, clothed in His righteousness, seated with Him — why am I confessing my sins as if the work isn't done?

It's like someone handing you the deed to a gorgeous, fully furnished, paid-off home, and you showing up on move-in day with your bad credit score, acting as if you couldn't possibly live there. But it's already paid off. Your past doesn't matter. This is your life now. Step in and get settled.

This is confession. It's settling into the reality of the life of Jesus inside you. He says you are worthy. You are holy. You are saved — and in Greek, sozo means healed, delivered, set free, made whole. You are more than a conqueror. THIS is our confession. To confess Jesus is to come into full agreement with everything He says about who you are.