Sin, Confession, and Forgiveness
Sin, Confession, and Forgiveness
Philip Yancey is my all-time favorite author. His books have deepened my theology and helped shape my ministry for years. His incredible, The Jesus I Never Knew, won both the Gold Medallion Book Award and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Book of the Year in 1996. Yancey blew up my preconceptions about Jesus and rebuilt my understanding of who he is. Two years later, Yancey did it again: his 1998 book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, challenged what I believed about God’s mercy and won the same two awards.
Every Yancey book I have read forced me to reexamine what I thought I knew and made me think more deeply. I have been a grateful fan of Philip Yancey for decades.
This is why I was deeply saddened last week to learn the 76-year-old author is retiring from speaking and writing. Although he has been married for 55 years, he had an affair. What follows are excerpts of his confession. “To my great shame, I confess that for eight years I willfully engaged in a sinful affair with a married woman. My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage. It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families… I realize that my actions will disillusion readers who have previously trusted in my writing. Worst of all, my sin has brought dishonor to God. I am filled with remorse and repentance, and I have nothing to stand on except God’s mercy and grace.” He went on to say he is committed to professional counseling and to an accountability program.
Because Yancey’s books have profoundly shaped my beliefs, I was tempted to downplay his moral failure. However, he was right: what he did was wrong. Thankfully, in Yancey’s confession, he offered no excuses and acknowledged his sin.
Let me offer several relevant Biblical truths: First, sin is always wrong. Second, we all sin, though in different ways. Third, confessing to God and those whom we have hurt is proper. Fourth, God is eager to forgive when we acknowledge our sin. Fifth, while God forgives, sin always has painful consequences.
Yancey’s confession seems genuine, but I realize only God knows his heart and whether he is genuinely repentant or just sorry it became known. While we can never fully understand someone else’s heart, this does not change what the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:1, “…if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” (NLT) We should be eager to help people back onto the right path, yet we must also realize this does not erase the consequences of sin, whether others’ sins or our own.