ANNOUNCER: Is there such a thing as unknown sin? If so, should we and is it possible to confess an unknown sin? If confessing sin is saying the same thing as God says, what can a person say about something that is unknown? It’s worthy of discussion and we’ll do that here in the next few minutes on Grace in focus. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. Please go to this website to find our magazine. It’s a free magazine and it comes out six times per year. It is also called Grace in focus. Still a physical magazine with pages, great color, great articles, full-length magazine, and we want you to have it. It’s free all except for postage if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States. Otherwise, it is absolutely free. Get signed up today at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s discussion here are Bob Wilkins and Colin Jackson. 

BOB: Colin, we’re going to be getting a question here from Bert, is that right? Could you read the question? 

COLIN: Yes. His question is, what is your justification for unknown sins? I was taught many decades ago that sins are willful acts of disobedience. And I think this maybe brings up several questions we could address. 

BOB: Yeah, it sounds like he’s saying there can’t be unknown sins because if all sins are willful, therefore you know what you’re doing. 

COLIN: Can I share my legal mind on us? 

BOB: Yes. Colin has a law degree and passed the Texas bar. Yeah. So yeah, tell us about that. 

COLIN: Okay. So first, let me preface. I’m not your lawyer and I’m not giving legal advice, but in tort law, which is basically whenever a person is injured, either their person or their property, you can bring a lawsuit against someone. And often the test for intent, did the person intend to do this, is not did they know that what they were doing was wrong, more that they intended to do the act. And it depends on the tort and sometimes the test for intent is different, but usually it’s did you intend to hit the person with your fist? Was it reasonably likely that you would hit the person with your fist? Not that you bent to injure him, but did you intend to use the force to hit the person? And I think it kind of applies to sins in a sense that while God does look at the intents of the heart, it’s also did you do something that violated his law in a sense? 

BOB: Right, I get the point, the fact that we might say all sin is in some sense willful, but on the other hand, it seems to me that much of what we do is a response to the way we grew up and the mindset we developed growing up. So if you grew up in a home that was dysfunctional and abusive, that’s kind of the style of family that you get used to and comfortable with, and you’re likely to repeat that unless God changes you significantly. 

It doesn’t mean that it’s willful, that you’re willfully choosing to do these things. It’s more like this is a conditioned response that you have. And in order to change, it needs to become willful. It needs to get to the point where you’re thinking before you’re doing. 

If you think of 1 John 1:9, John says, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That verse wouldn’t make much sense unless the all unrighteousness is more than the sins we confess. I confess the sins I’m aware of and then he forgives me of those sins and then cleanses me, not just of those sins, but of all sins. 

In the Old Testament, they had something called the sin of the high hand, you know, like someone shaking their fist against God and going, I’m going to go my own way. And the sin of the high hand, there wasn’t a sacrifice for that. You needed God’s mercy in order to avoid calamity. For example, David committed the sin of the high hand when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered Uriah. Both of those were things that there was no sacrifice for. He had to just fall on God’s mercy. 

There is such a thing as willful sin and intentional sin, but I would argue, based on 1 John 1:9, that the sins we confess are just the tip of the iceberg, the one percent, the ninety-nine percent of the iceberg is below the water line. Let’s say at some point in our Christian life, the Lord dumped on us everything, all the sinful attitudes we have, all the sinful actions we have and everything, all at once, I think we’d have a nervous breakdown. 

COLIN: Well, I would. Yeah. 

BOB: Well, I would too. It’s like I’ve been a believer now for what, about 53, almost 54 years. And during that time, I have gotten more and more and more in touch with wrong attitudes and wrong actions. And I’ve seen God change me bit by bit over time, but I still like that—you ever see those buttons and they say, please be patient, God’s not finished with me yet? That’s me. It’s like, okay, yes, I’ve made some progress in half a century. But if the Lord tarries and I live another 25 years, I hope and expect to make a lot more progress because there’s still a lot of stuff that I’m not aware of. As you become aware of these things, you confess them and acknowledge them. 

ANNOUNCER: You’re invited to subscribe to the Grace Evangelical Society’s YouTube channel. You will find our Monday, Wednesday and Friday videos there enlightening and encouraging, and even probably humorous at times if you like Bob Wilkin’s humor. Indeed you will get Biblical truth about Free Grace themes like faith alone for eternal salvation and why  the Grace Evangelical Society is zero point Calvinistic. We come your way three times a week at the Grace Evangelical YouTube channel. Check it out and tell a friend about the Grace Evangelical Society.

BOB: So, I wouldn’t agree with the idea that all sin is known sin. In fact, I would say, most sin is unknown sin. 

COLIN: Sure. Could we also talk about, you often hear the term, the Sinner’s Prayer, where you ask for forgiveness of known sins and unknown sins. And this is a prerequisite to be born again. 

BOB: Yeah. So the Sinner’s Prayer, first of all, you can’t turn to some verse in the Bible, it gives it to us because there is no such prayer.  

COLIN: No, there isn’t.

BOB: It’s a made up prayer. And secondly, you know, they talk about forgiveness, right, in this prayer and that we’re seeking forgiveness by acknowledging that we’re sinners and acknowledging. Typically, they don’t ask the unbeliever to name all of his or her sins. They just ask them to acknowledge they’re sinner, right? 

COLIN: Yeah, or look at a PDF they have of all the major sins that they think are important or you know.

BOB: So what I would say is that the major problem with that is if you look at the gospel of John, for example, which is the only evangelistic book, what you find out is not once did Jesus say, he who believes in me has the forgiveness of sins. He certainly never said he who confesses his sins has the forgiveness of sins. What He said over and over and over again is He who believes in me has everlasting life. He who believes in me will never hunger, will never thirst, will never die, will never perish, will never be cast out. So he made the promise for the believer, not the confessor, not the one who confesses his sins. And the promise wasn’t forgiveness of sins, the promise was everlasting life. He didn’t mention the forgiveness of sins until he rose from the dead, at least in John’s gospel. In the Synoptics, you do have him talking about forgiveness on some occasions, but never even in the Synoptics does he connect forgiveness with being born again. And in John, it’s John 20 when he says to the disciples, after he rose from the dead, “Whatever sins you retain will be retained and whatever sins you forgive will be forgiven.” Well, this is church discipline he’s talking about. He’s not talking about the new birth. So the problem with the sinner’s prayer is it does not emphasize the fact that when we believe in Jesus, we have everlasting life, but it gives the faulty notion that when we pray this prayer, we have eternal life. 

COLIN: And isn’t it kind of putting the cart before the horse, where we’re trying to establish fellowship with God before we even believe in Him? 

BOB: That’s a good point. You have to have life with God before fellowship with God is an issue. Now, it is interesting, according to Acts 10:43, Peter said, “All the prophets bear witness that whoever believes in Him receives the forgiveness of sins.” That’s referring to the fact that when we start the Christian life, we start in fellowship with God. That’s why the unbeliever doesn’t need to confess his sins to get in fellowship with God. We don’t say to the brand new believer, let’s say someone comes to faith in Christ, we go now, if you want to be in fellowship with God, you need to confess your sins. And that starts with all the ones you’ve committed in the last 20 years. I’d like you to go into the soundproof booth and we’ll give you one week to come up with as many as you can.

No, we don’t do that because you start the Christian life with a blank you’re in fellowship with God. And now, the key is to grow in the faith and to move from being what Paul calls a babe in Christ, a carnal believer, to being what he calls the spiritual believer, the pneumatikois, the spiritually-minded believer. And we do that by regular instruction in the Word of God.

So, in terms of Bert’s question about known sin, no, not all sin is known. In fact, I would say the majority of it is unknown. And we confess what we’re aware of, but we can’t confess what we don’t know. Now, I do know some people who will pray, “And Lord forgive us for the unknown sin,” right? You might even get it in the sinner’s prayer. 

COLIN: Yeah, but isn’t that a little redundant and maybe a a little OCD? Can’t we just say “Lord forgive us our sins?” And that covers what we’ve confessed before Him and then He’ll cover the rest. 

BOB: I think you’re absolutely right. And the Lord knows our heart. That’s the key. Confession is not so much pulling off the road and getting down on the side of the road on my knees by the car and praying. And no, it’s just an acknowledgement that what I’ve done is sin. Now, yes, that can be prayer, but it can be just a sky prayer. It’s like, yeah, Lord, that was wrong. And, I want to please you. I don’t want to be walking in the darkness. I want to walk in the light. 

One of the other things to keep in mind is, if you read 1 John, which is written to mature believers, 1 John 2:12-14 who are walking in the light and who are in fellowship with God, if you’re dealing with mature believers, you find out that 1 John never mentions repentance because the condition for staying in fellowship with God is ongoing acknowledgement of my sins. 

But if you look at Luke 15 with the prodigal son, if we go to the far country, now the condition is repentance. Now, I need to turn back to God. I need to turn away from my sinful ways. So the issue, for the believer in fellowship is just acknowledge the sins you’re aware of. And like you say, if we pray the Lord’s prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses against us.” We don’t have to somehow figure out what everyone of those are. We’re just acknowledging, yes. Great question, Bert. Thank you all for listening. And in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus. Amen.

ANNOUNCER: We invite you to check out our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday five minute YouTube videos at YouTube Grace Evangelical Society. You will love the content and learn a lot. Maybe you’ve got a question or comment or feedback. If so, please send us a message. Here’s our email address: it’s radio@faithalone.org, that’s radio@faithalone.org. Please make sure your question is as succinct and clear as possible, that would be a great big help.

On our next episode: should we pray, “Lord have mercy on me?” Please join us again and in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.