Praying Confession

Lenten Midweek Vespers

April 5, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

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Last week, we considered how to pray the Sacrament of Baptism and the significance of living and praying in those waters of baptism on a daily basis.  Tonight, we consider Confession and Absolution which flows directly from the font into the lives of God’s children. This is the point where the significance of Baptism is made specific, the daily drowning of the old man and the new man daily emerge and rise to live before God and righteousness and purity forever. What does this look like? Confession and Absolution. 

While the practice of private confession and absolution has fallen out of use in many Lutheran congregations, it was never the intention of the Reformers that it would be abandoned.  Various factors led to its widespread decline in the 18^th century.  In its place many parts of Lutheranism established the practice of corporate confession and absolution, lest this godly practice be lost. With the decline of weekly communion, these rites were commonly used as preparations for receiving the Sacrament, either as separate service the prior evening or immediately before the Divine Service, which is our current practice.   What the reformers sought to correct was not the practice of Confessing one’s sins to their pastor, but the teaching every sin be recalled and confessed in order for it to be forgiven, and that satisfactions must be made in order to be forgiven to be applied.

In Luther’s day, a person had to confess every sin they committed in order to be forgiven that sin.  No confession to the priest, no forgiveness by Christ. Luther and the reformers rightly freed Christianity from this abuse, based upon Scriptural basis that no one can remember all their sins and that Christ is the only mediator between God and man. Sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ and received by faith in His promise, not because you say you are sorry. Our churches teach that naming every sin is not necessary and that consciences should not be burdened with worry about naming every sin. It is impossible to recount all sins, as Psalm 19:12 testifies: “Who can discern his errors?” ⁸ Also Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” ⁹ If only sins that can be named are forgiven, consciences could never find peace. For many sins cannot be seen or remembered.^[1]  

This is the key. Luther did not want to throw out the practice of private confession and absolution, but filter it through the justification by faith alone, so that purified from its Roman abuses, it may bring consolation to terrified consciences. Private confession is the individual application of the Word of God to a believer and the most effective way of preaching the Gospel to troubled souls.  Face to face, God’s voice pronounced by God’s command (AC XXV) that sins are forgiven freely for the sake of Christ.

This teaching is based off Jesus’ institution of the Office of the Keys, from John 20, Matthew 16, and Matthew 18. This is the power He gives to the whole Church to forgive the sins of the repentant and to bind the sins of the unrepentant, and publicly exercised by His called and ordained servants to deal with His children by His divine command.  The office of the Keys is a special God given way of applying the Gospel to the individual. Luther writes about this in his Smalcald Articles, “God is superabundantly generous with His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world. This is the particular office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren” (SA III IV).

This is simply an exercise in Law and Gospel. Through the Law one is brought to know and repent of sin. Confession is made on the basis of praying the Ten Commandments.  It makes us beggars before God, offering to Him only a broken and contrite heart. To make confession is to pray for God’s mercy in Christ. It is to cease the futile attempts to self justify.  It offers no excuses to God. But it agrees with Him, that He is right. We are guilty.  It embraces the recognition and naming of sins, and the word of God’s forgiveness for the sake of Christ.

This is where we see the radical nature of the Gospel. The emphasis is on the absolution as opposed to the confession.  At the beginning of DS I, we speak these words from 1 John 1:8-9, “But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The purpose is to disclose sin so that it may be forgiven, not to exalt confession.  To disclose sin out loud brings it to light, depriving it of power. Left unconfessed, sin festers, promoting denial, suppression, and even acceptance.  But when we confess our transgression unto the Lord, He forgives the iniquity of our sin.  Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of; before our neighbor we should confess all sins we have committed against him or her; and before the pastor or confessor we should confess those sins which we know and feel in our hearts, especially those that trouble us.

This should not be set aside in name of Christian freedom.  This would be an abuse of the liberty that separates the Christian from the very word that brings freedom from sin, that is, the absolution. The divine forgiveness is not locked away in secret in heaven, and it is not to be sought there. Rather, God locates it here. It is incarnational, in the flesh. In 1536, Luther preached on this saying, “It is true that God alone forgives sins, but how will I get to heaven? There is no need. Go to the pastor; in case of need, tell your neighbor to recite the Absolution in the name of Jesus Christ. Then you have the Word; when they do it, Christ has done it” (LW 69:416).  Because it is Christ’s word, the absolution is sure and certain. 

 It exists for the sake of certainty of salvation.  From the pastor as from God Himself. There is nothing conditional, nothing hypothetical. The pastor does not hold the office of judge or executioner, but is instead called to be Christ’s voice of reconciliation to bestow the Lord’s verdict of mercy in the forgiveness of sins to those who repent and receive this by faith in Christ.  His ears are present to hear confession, his mouth present to speak Christ’s forgiveness.

It is only in the assurance that our sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ that we can call upon God in prayer as our Father. Praying confession of sins speaks the truth to God and one another about who we are and what we have done. Silence is broken, the heart laid bare, and the Word that created all things speaks to you personally.  It does not leave the sinner to deal with things the best he or she can, it isn’t therapy or working through problems. It isn’t left with the blasphemy of pop psychology that one must learn to forgive himself. Self-forgiveness is simply an exercise that leads to despair or pride and causes the sinner to pretend that he or she is God. God alone has the power to forgive sins. This He has done by His own suffering and death to forgive the sins of the world. The forgiveness accomplished upon the cross, announced at Easter, is now contained in the words spoken by the Lord’s servant, “In the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” It is that words which opens hearts and lips for prayer, praise, and thanksgiving,