“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:8-9).
Confession of sin is a vitally important part of being a Christian. There is no such thing as faith without repentance from sin, and the first step towards repenting of our sins is confessing them. If we want to be forgiven of our sins, we must confess them (Lev 5:5, 16:21, 26:40-45; Num 5:5-7). As long as we refuse to acknowledge and to name our sins, we keep ourselves under sin’s power, and cut ourselves off from God’s grace. It is only when we acknowledge and name our sins that we allow God’s mercy and grace to take away our guilt, forgive us, and heal us. “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Prov 28:13).
Most Christians understand the necessity of confessing their sins very well. But most Protestant Christians think of confession of sin only in terms of privately confessing their sins in prayer to God. They regard the idea of confessing their sins to another person to be superfluous, or even deeply problematic, since it is associated with the Catholic practice of requiring Christians to confess their sins to a priest. If we have already confessed our sins to God, many argue, then there can be no need to confess them to another human being. Yet, God’s word commands us, “Confess your sins to one another” (James 5:16). God has commanded this, and we must obey.
Why is it important to confess our sins to one another? As theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer comments, “Why is it often easier for us to acknowledge our sins before God than before another believer? God is holy and without sin, a just judge of evil, and an enemy of all disobedience. But another Christian is sinful, as we are, knowing from personal experience the night of secret sin. Should we not find it easier to go to one another than to the holy God? But if that is not the case, we must ask ourselves whether we often have not been deluding ourselves about our confession of sin to God–whether we have not instead been confessing our sins to ourselves and also forgiving ourselves. . . Who can give us the assurance that we are not dealing with ourselves but with the living God in the confession and the forgiveness of our sins? God gives us this assurance through one another. The other believer breaks the circle of self-deception.”[1]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 5 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), pages 112-113. Private confession of sin to God in prayer is no replacement for confessing our sins to one another.
The church is a community of truth, committed to the values of honesty and integrity. But where confession of sin is lacking, hypocrisy and self-righteousness easily come in and supplant these values. Christians are not sinless; they are a community of forgiven, repentant sinners. True pursuit of holiness, of Christian virtue, requires that we give up the pretense of being sinless and instead be honest about our sins. Only by doing this can we truly participate in the process of repenting from our sins and growing in Christ. This is what being a holy community truly looks like.
Without confession of sin, genuine Christian community remains elusive, as we pretend sinlessness and are not honest with our brothers and sisters. Through confession, we make ourselves vulnerable and known to one another as we really are, allowing for genuine Christian community. Confessing our sins to a fellow Christian can be difficult, even humiliating. But doing so is necessary so that our old self, our prideful self, our sinful self, can be crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6). Only then can we truly find new life in Christ. By acknowledging our sins, we can, as a body, then truly begin to walk the path of being conformed to the image of Christ.
Many churches have a time for general, communal confession of sin in their worship liturgy. There may be some value in this, but this is no substitute for actually confessing our concrete sins. Communal, liturgical confession of our sins in general easily becomes a vague gesture that does not actually strike at our actual, particular sins.
We do not need to confess all our sins to all our fellow Christians. There is sin that leads to death, and there is sin that does not lead to death (I John 5:16-17); not all of the latter type of sin needs to be confessed. In fact, it would be quite absurd if we all confessed every tiny, slight sin we commit to our fellow Christians. But every serious sin should be confessed.
We do not need to confess our sins to every member of our church community. If there are multiple members of our church community who are aware of or have been affected by our sin, then we should confess it to them. Otherwise, confession to one fellow Christian is sufficient. The one Christian stands as a representative of the body of Christ, and thus a representative of Christ Himself. When we confess our sins to our fellow Christian and receive their word of forgiveness, we receive God’s forgiveness (Matt 18:15-20; John 20:22-23).
Confession is a difficult and rarely practiced Christian spiritual practice. Yet it is an important practice that facilitates the development of Christian virtue. It is important that the Church acknowledge and value this practice, so that it may more faithfully carry out its mission of visibly being the body of Christ in the world.
Notes
| ↑1 | Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 5 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), pages 112-113. |
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