What is to be done if a Christian sins? The Apostle John gives the answer:"If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John
1:9). Confession is the means by which the conscience is to be kept clear.

God has been perfectly satisfied as to all the believer’s sins in the cross of Christ. Our sins can
never come into God’s presence inasmuch as Christ, who bore them all and put them away, is
there instead. But if we sin, the conscience will feel it, for the Holy Spirit will make us feel it. He
cannot allow so much as a single foolish thought to pass unjudged. Our sin cannot affect God’s
thoughts about us, but it can, and does, affect our thoughts about Him. It cannot hide the Advocate
from God’s view, but it can hide Him from ours. It cannot affect our relationship with God, but
it can very seriously affect our enjoyment thereof. God has already judged our sins in the Person
of Christ, and in the act of confession, we judge ourselves. This is essential to divine forgiveness
and restoration. The very smallest unconfessed, unjudged sin on the conscience will entirely mar
our communion with God. By confession the conscience is cleared, our communion is restored,
and our thoughts concerning God and our relationship to Him are set straight.

There is a great difference between confession and praying for forgiveness. It is much easier to
ask in a general way for the forgiveness of our sins, than to confess those sins. Confession
involves self-judgment; asking for forgiveness may not, and in itself does not. By merely asking
for forgiveness, we tend to lessen the sense of the evil; we may be thinking we are not completely
to blame. Or we may be motivated by a desire to escape the consequences of the sin, rather than
by an abhorrence of the sin itself. God wants us not only to dread the consequences of sin, but to
hate the thing itself, because of its hatefulness in His sight. If it were possible for us, when we
commit sin, to be forgiven merely for the asking, our sense of sin, and our shrinking from it,
would not be nearly so intense; and as a consequence, our estimate of the fellowship with which
we are blessed would not be nearly so high. The effect of all this upon our spiritual condition, and
also upon our whole character and practical career, must be obvious to every experienced
Christian.

(From "Sin in the Flesh and Sin on the Conscience" in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 2.)