MY CONFESSION: I KILLED SOMEONE
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I killed someone. This would be my confession, but it is not true. If you think it’s not true because I didn’t kill someone, you’re wrong. The truth is I have killed many people in my lifetime, more than I care to confess. In the eyes of the Lord, this is the honest to God truth. I realized it was time to confess this after I received a beautiful card from a friend who is literally on death row in prison. So here is the story.
According to Jesus Christ, hatred is murder. And I am sad to say that I have had hatred in my heart, not to mention in my words and actions, countless times throughout my life. This is a sin punishable by death. For the end result of all sin against God is the judgment of God, condemnation, and eternity in hell. But when Jesus Christ, Son of God, died on the cross, He took the death penalty of God’s wrath, death, and hell upon Himself so if we would be genuinely sorry for our sins, confess them and turn from our wicked ways, we would be forgiven and promised everlasting life in heaven instead of forever in hell. I was on death row for decades until I committed my life to the living God. By God’s love, grace, and mercy, I have received His salvation.
“My sin is not as bad as other people’s sins,” someone told me once. But that’s not how God sees it. Sin is sin, and the only way to be redeemed and to come off death row is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead and to live a life committed to Him. My friend who is headed for the executioner’s chair is learning to find freedom in Jesus Christ, the same way I am. In the card my friend on death row sent me, he wrote down the words I had written and sent to him:
I believe true salvation is followed by a life-long commitment to learning to live according to the ways of the Lord instead of the ways of the flesh and the world, and that it involves a personal relationship with God and a life yielded to Him.
Now when I find hatred or some other sin in my heart, thoughts, feelings, or actions, i quickly repent and turn back to God. For I am committed to the utmost to use the freedom I have been given to bring glory to the Lord God almighty who sent His only begotten Son to the cross to set me free.
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (bold added)
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.