All exorcists have a common practice before beginning an exorcism; they every one confess their sins. Before going into battle they want to make sure that there is nothing between themselves and their God, no distraction, no thought or action an unclean spirit might use against them. They understand the importance of penitent prayer. Some Christians, however, wonder why we ask for forgiveness when God already forgave us our sins when we came to trust in Him in the first place.

When we are saved we ask God to forgive us our sins and to allow us to enter eternal life. We are told that he does exactly this, that all the sins we have committed, are committing and ever will commit will no longer be held against us. He has removed them from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103.13). So why should we berate ourselves, and drag God and us through the mire of remembering our sins before him? It seems so unnecessary. At least it does until you realize what its all about.

What exorcists know and many Christians have yet to discover is that confession isn’t about penance as much as it is holiness. It is true that our sins are forgiven – all of them – when we first came to faith in Jesus. God sees us as righteous because Jesus paid the penalty for those sins. Yet sin, from the very beginning of its existence, always brings death with it. For Adam and Eve, sin first brought spiritual death and eventually physical death. In our lives sin still causes separation between us and God. Not enough to break that relationship, but enough to drive a wedge between ourselves and a holy God.

Being close to God means paying attention to personal holiness. A holy man or woman does not permit sin to linger in their lives. When sin lingers, it is often repeated; when sin lingers we drift further from holiness and further from our God. So the holy person deals with sin quickly, they go to the Holy One and admit their actions, agree with God about its ugly nature, and make the changes necessary so the sin is not repeated.

Sin is an ugly master. God warned Cain that sin itself was crouching at the door and its desire, as always, is to master the man (Genesis 4.7). Not all sin can be dealt with quickly. We may identify it, confess it, and strive to never commit it again but somehow we fail. The important element of holiness isn’t that we live perfectly, but that we battle the sin in our life. Over time, it may be over a lifetime, we will find that our favorite sin has less pull than it once had. There are longer periods of time between our acts of ungodliness. Mastery over all sin is impossible in this life, but the harder we fight the more victories we gain and the more our personal holiness draws us nearer to God.

Should we allow sin to go unconfessed and unchecked, that sin becomes a foothold for the devil (Ephesians 4.26-.27). This causes our trouble to increase, for now we not only have sin in our life, but our most dangerous adversary as well. Do not let the sun go down before confessing your transgressions before God. Knowing all our sinfulness would do nothing but lower our self-esteem, but because we have the power of God – his Holy Spirit living in us – that knowledge instead pushes us to strategize how to live a more holy life. As Solomon wrote over 2,000 years ago:

“The one who covers over his transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy.” --Proverbs 28.13