Our reaction to the guilt and shame of sin has remained unchanged since our first parents beheld, with shame, their nakedness. Adam & Eve took their skill and wove aprons to cover themselves. The fall introduced into the emotional and mental life of human experience an inescapable sense of shame. Along with that has come a restless hunt for something to cover our sin.
God, of course, graciously corrected Adam & Eve by demonstrating that only by the blood of another could their sin be covered. And so on through Scripture God showed His people that there must be a covering of their sins. Noah was commanded to cover the ark with pitch, and later on the same word is used by the Lord to describe how the animal sacrifices provide a covering for the sins of Israel. God provides blood to cover our sin and our shame.
We, however, continue to try to cover it some other way. The most common evidence of our lame attempts to cover our shame is in our accompanying excuses. “I was tired.” “They deserved it.” “No one need know.” “Everyone does it.” The excuses we tell ourselves and others, are always a vain attempt to cover our sins, without confessing them.
Which is why confession of sin is so potent. It’s refusing to go along with the established rules that everyone plays by. No more excuses. No more hiding. No more dodging the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If you wronged your brother, make it right with him and with God. If your sin has left you exposed in shame, confess it to God, so be covered by the unearned favor of His grace and forgiveness. After all, you can either cover your sin with excuses, or have your sins covered by blood.
God has given us His Spirit to work in us to shed the light of the Word both to convict us of sins and to comfort us with the Good News of forgiveness. Your excuses are insufficient to atone for sins, or cover them in any meaningful way. Stop making excuses instead of obeying and confessing our sins to God and to those against whom you’ve sinned. Bring your sins into the light, and have them washed white as snow with the blood of Christ. Every excuse you make for your sins only prolongs your shame, and only further tangles you up in it. When you confess your sin to God, it is forgotten, it is cleansed, it is covered.
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