James 5:16
Confess your faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
While faults, sins, trespasses, offenses and transgressions appear as synonyms in the Bible, this particular verse is not addressing willful rebellion against God, but harm done to a fellow man, and concerns people who have been redeemed from bondage to sin (saved).
What's important to remark is that the prayers of the brethren are not a substitute for the genuine repentance that God requires of all of us if we have committed sin out of rebellion against God and his ways (ex: knowing right from wrong and choosing to do wrong). Technically, that's sinning willfully against our knowledge of the truth (Hebrews 10:26). The apostle John made a point that the response to such sins leading to death in particular is not prayer:
1 John 5:16-17
16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
These sins leading to death are those listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:3-5, Colossians 3:5-6 for instance. They need to be addressed with genuine repentance in complete submission to God. Then forgiveness will be granted and the ex-sinner will have peace with God in Christ, being called righteous or a saint of the Most High, not given a way forward to continue to sin "under grace." Such understanding of continuing to sin as a "new creature in Christ" in whose life old things are supposed to have passed away and all things are supposed to have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17), shows a perversion of God's grace to accommodate ongoing sin (Jude 1:4 warning).
The same apostle James, in the same chapter of our verse under consideration, has addressed rebellion against God by a brother or sister another way than exhorting to confession to one another and praying for one another:
James 5:19-20
19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Wandering from the truth (Jesus) is heading towards destruction, walking on the broad way that leads to destruction, not the narrow/difficult way that leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:13-14). That's a life and death matter, where "sin leading to death" is clearly involved. What a brother/sister can do then is to minister a correction in truth and love to the brother/sister who has wandered from the truth. There is no Once Saved Always Saved to count on in that scheme (Jude 1:5 warns us, 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 and 2 Peter 2 likewise).
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James 4:7-8
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.
These scriptures call people to repentance or describe God's disappointment in how people are living and what He expects:
Isaiah 1:16-18
16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson,They shall be as wool.
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
Jeremiah 8:6
I listened and heard, But they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle.
Ezekiel 14:6
"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God: Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.'"
Ezekiel 33:11
11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Acts 8:22-23
22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”
James 1:21-22
21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
See also:
Freedom From Sin
Is Repentance Just a Change of Mind?
Are We All Sinners?
Repentance According to the Bible
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