The Alphabet Soup of Sin

Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XV, Section V. "Men ought not to content themselves with general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent his particular sins, particularly."

Confession of sin begins with the sin that is in you. Confession of sin begins when you take a plain account of your own life. There is a saying, "You cannot manage what you cannot measure." This is true in business, marketing, sales, but it is also true of spiritual things. How do you know what sins need to be confessed unless you are actively identifying and measuring where the sin is in your own life?

The tragedy is that oftentimes we are too lazy to take a plain account of our sin. How can you set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth (Col. 3:2) if you are too lazy to know what earthy things, i.e., sins, have your affections wrapped around their sticky fingers? Oftentimes we don't confess sins because we're just too plumb lazy.

The Devil, methinks, rejoices over this type of laziness. Why do I think that? Well, because oftentimes if we lazily handle our own life it is because we are too busy attempting to handle the lives of other folks, e.g. we spend our time pointing out how other folks have this or that "sin" issue that they need to attend to. Sin is the alphabet soup that fallen man swims in. What we need is some wisdom by way of a cliche saying: "To begin, mind your own sinful P's and Q's" (Matthew 7:1-5). Confession of sin begins with the sin that is in you.

Conviction of Sin

"In all genuine conviction of sin, the great burden of pollution and guilt is felt to consist not in what we have done, but in what we are--our permanent moral condition rather than our actual transgressions [i.e. our estate of sin and misery]. The great cry is to be forgiven and delivered from "the wicked heart of unbelief," "deadness to divine things, alienated from God as a permanent habit of soul." "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24; Ps. li. 5, 6. It hence necessarily follows that original sin, as well as actual transgressions, deserves the curse of the law. Everything condemned by the law is under its curse" (A.A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith, 116-117).

Also see Question XXVIII from The Shorter Catechism:

Question: Wherein consists the sinfulness of the estate whereinto man fell? 

Answer: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Special Rules for Young Men by J. C. Ryle

Special Rules for Young Men

• For one thing, resolve at once, by God's help, to break off every known sin, however small.
• Resolve, by God's help, to shun everything which may prove an occasion of sin.
• Resolve never to forget the eye of God.
• Be diligent in the practice of your Christianity.
• Resolve that wherever you are, you will pray.

*From J. C. Ryle's Thoughts for Young Men (pp. 65-84).

Repentance Leads to Strength

Beautiful, this. George Herbert on repentance and confession of sin, from The Temple - The Church (the 1st and 36th stanza):

Lord, I confess my sin is great;

... 

Fractures well cured make us more strong.