Confession is the acknowledgment of a crime, fault or something to one’s disadvantage. It involves an open declaration of guilt, failure, debt, or accusation.

Restitution refers to the act of returning or restoring to a person a material object or right of which he or she has been unjustly deprived.

Can God forgive someone who has confessed his or her sins while retaining the properties, money, or items which he or she unjustly acquired from others? Can mere confession make such person acceptable to God?

What about people who tarnish others’ image by misrepresenting them to others, misstating their words, bearing false witness or injuring their influence? Is their confession accepted by God if they confess without going back to those whom they misrepresented and without taking back their words?

Before quote from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, let me share this brief story with you.

Close to where I was working two years ago, there is a very big hospital. One day, a childless woman (who desperately wanted a baby) successfully stole a two-day-old baby girl who was born in that hospital, while the infant’s mother was fast asleep. The kidnapper then traveled, along with the newborn, back to her home over 800 km away from the hospital. When the mother woke up, she cried and searched for her baby everywhere but could not find her. The case was reported to the police, efforts were made to recover the baby but in vain. Eventually the case died off since there was no suspect.

This thing happened in the year 1993. So in the year 2007 the same woman returned to the same hospital with a 15-year-old teenage girl and explained to the doctor in the hospital what she did 15 years ago. She admitted that, from the moment she stole the baby, she never had peace of mind. She said, “For 15 years now, I have been confessing the same sin over and over to God, but the 15 years of confession could not give me peace. A still voice always comes to me, telling me ‘If you want peace, return this baby,’ and that is why I am here.”

Police were consulted, the real mother of the 15-year-old teenage girl came, and the girl was handed over to her mother. The other woman said, “Without a child, I am going home very happily; my heart is at peace! Thank You, Jesus!”

“If we have injured others through any unjust business transaction, if we have overreached in trade, or defrauded any man, even though it be within the pale of the law, we should confess our wrong, and make restitution as far as lies in our power. It is right for us to restore not only that which we have taken, but all that it would have accumulated if put to a right and wise use during the time it has been in our possession.”1

“As those thus united in Christian fellowship offer prayer to God and pledge themselves to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, great blessing comes to them. If they have wronged others they continue the work of repentance, confession, and restitution, fully set to do good to one another. This is the fulfilling of the law of Christ.”2

“Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live” (Ezekiel 33:14-16).

“Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house” (Luke 19:8, 9).

This passage above explains to us that every other thing Zacchaeus was doing - whether building a place of worship, fasting, praying, confessing - was totally unacceptable to God without restitution. It was only when Zacchaeus made restitution to those he had wronged that Christ said, “This day is salvation come to this house.”

Before Zacchaeus made restitution, he was probably engaged in many religious services, but salvation could never be possible until he first performed the act of restitution that was necessary.

“Zacchaeus had heard of Jesus.

. . . In this chief of the publicans was awakened a longing for a better life.

. . . He felt that he was a sinner in the sight of God. Yet what he had heard of Jesus kindled hope in his heart. Repentance, reformation of life, was possible, even to him. . . . Zacchaeus began at once to follow the conviction that had taken hold upon him, and to make restitution to those whom he had wronged.

“Already he had begun thus to retrace his steps, when the news sounded through Jericho that Jesus was entering the town. Zacchaeus determined to see Him. . . . In the presence of the multitude, ‘Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house.’

“There are those who have had very meager opportunities, who have walked in ways of error because they knew no better way, to whom beams of light will come. As the word of Christ came to Zacchaeus, ‘Today I must abide at thy house,’ so the word will come to them; and those who were supposed to be hardened sinners will be found to have hearts as tender as a child’s because Christ has deigned to notice them. Many will come from the grossest error and sin, and will take the place of others who have had opportunities and privileges but have not prized them. They will be accounted the chosen of God, elect, precious; and when Christ shall come into His kingdom, they will stand next His throne.

“No sooner did Zacchaeus yield to the influence of the Holy Spirit than he cast aside every practice contrary to integrity. No repentance is genuine that does not work reformation. The righteousness of Christ is not a cloak to cover unconfessed and unforsaken sin. . . .

“Every converted soul will, like Zacchaeus, signalize the entrance of Christ into his heart by an abandonment of the unrighteous practices that have marked his life. Like the chief publican, he will give proof of his sincerity by making restitution. . . .

“To Zacchaeus the Saviour said, ‘This day is salvation come to this house.’ Not only was Zacchaeus himself blessed, but all his household with him. . . . They had been shut out from the synagogues by the contempt of rabbis and worshipers; but now, the most favored household in all Jericho, they gathered in their own home about the divine Teacher, and heard for themselves the words of life.”3

Many who are deceived in thinking that confession has reconciled them to God while they still have another man’s property in their possession shall be bitterly disappointed in the last day.

“If we have in any manner defrauded or injured our brother, we should make restitution. If we have unwittingly borne false witness, if we have misstated his words, if we have injured his influence in any way, we should go to the ones with whom we have conversed about him, and take back all our injurious misstatements.

“It will not be long before probation will close. If you do not now serve the Lord with fidelity, how will you meet the record of your unfaithful dealing? . . . If you have refused to deal honestly with God, I beseech you to think of your deficiency, and if possible to make restitution. If this cannot be done, in humble penitence pray that God for Christ’s sake will pardon your great debt. Begin now to act like Christians. Make no excuse for failing to give the Lord His own. Now, . . . while it is not yet too late for wrongs to be righted, while it is called today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”4

Confession and restitution are for those who want to enjoy eternal life with their Saviour Jesus - therefore it is a matter of being honest with one’s conscience. It should not be necessary for a pastor or a brother or a sister to ask you to do this; confession and restitution are between you and your God. Many who call themselves Christians and who are waiting for the Lord’s coming feel free to say or write false messages, thus misrepresenting others. Some keep with them items or goods that belong to the church organization or to others and still go to church thinking that confession has justified them before God. How mistaken they continue to be! The pen of Inspiration also tells us that unless those who have damaged the reputation of others go back to those whom they have misrepresented and take back their statements, restoring and making restitution, there is no hope of eternal life for them. Even though they have confessed to God, restitution is obligatory.

This explains how much believers should be careful in their daily living. Many who will find restitution very difficult tend to avoid anything that will mandate them to make restitution.

In our house-to-house evangelism, a man who was touched by the word of God said, “Some years back I ran away with someone’s money, but now the man is dead. He asked, what can I do now, because I want to return the money?”

We asked him if the man had wife and children. He said he would find out. In cases where no family dependants exist, the following message tells what to do:

“You could at least have made efforts to correct your acts of injustice to your fellow men. You cannot make every case right, for some whom you have injured have gone into their graves, and the account stands registered against you. In these cases the best you can do is to bring a trespass offering to the altar of the Lord, and He will accept and pardon you. But where you can, you should make reparation to the wronged ones.”5

The inspired message above makes us understand that such money should be brought to the house of the Lord to be used for the advancement of the gospel. Thus the Lord will accept and forgive you. But before this step is taken, sincere and necessary efforts must have been put forth to make amends to the ones that have been wronged. It is only when this is really impossible that such money can be forwarded to the church. And the elders of the church should know about it and pray for you.

A young man went a far distance to confess his wrongs to one family he injured a long time ago. Before he left, however, he asked us to pray for him because he did not know what the outcome would be. The family knew him as a very wicked fellow. When he sincerely righted every wrong; the family asked him, saying, “Where is your church that we may worship with you? The church that tells you to do this must be God’s church on earth!”

“Had the unbelievers with whom you have associated seen in you the transforming power of the truth, they would have had an argument in favor of Christianity which they could not controvert.”6

“Whenever true repentance exists, it will be revealed in doing justice, in loving mercy, and in walking humbly with God. Wherein the least wrong has been done to others, it will lead to a full restitution, that the soul may be cleared from guilt.”7

If you have restitution to make, ask the Lord for grace and He will surely give you such grace.

“Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:6-12).

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36, 37).

The answer is: Nothing!