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Confession

Delivered April 6, 2003,
by Pastor Werner De Jong

Text: 1 John 1:8-9; James 5:16

Main Idea: The discipline of confession helps transform Christians by liberating them from the burden of guilt, by making deeper fellowship possible with one another, and when properly pursued, by giving the impetus to avoid repetition of the same sins in the future.

Purpose: To challenge the listeners to examine their lives on a regular basis for the purpose of confession. To encourage the listeners with the good news of the transforming benefits available to those who practice the discipline of confession.

Introduction: This morning we will look at the spiritual discipline of confession. In preparing this message I have to admit I was surprised that most of my resource books considered this discipline mainly from the perspective of confessing our sins to one another. I usually think of confession in terms of a private conversation between the individual and God.

      I'd like to begin with a story related by Luis Palau, who is a well known and widely respected South American evangelist. "Years ago in Guatemala," he writes, "a man came to me who had dishonoured our Lord's name. He was truly broken and had repented. Yet he was still without joy. It was obvious he needed to be assured that he was forgiven; otherwise Satan would have gained an advantage over him. I did something then which until that day I had never done. I put my arm around him and said, ‘Brother, you've repented; your sins are forgiven. Let me pray with you.' And this broken, humble Guatemalan said, ‘Oh, thank you, thank you. Now I'm free!" With tears running down our faces, we hugged each other. He was so excited, because a fellow brother in Christ had reassured him. But this man should have been reassured earlier by his local church. When someone is obviously broken and repentant, the church must stand up and say, ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus, rejoice! He has forgiven you, and we forgive you too.' The assurance from such corporate forgiveness brings healing and joy to the entire congregation" ("Discipline in the Church," Discipleship Journal, July/August 1983).

      Healing and joy are indeed the fruit of genuine confession. This is what makes it such a powerful and essential discipline. Nothing has a greater capacity to transform Christians from within than the freedom that comes from divine forgiveness. In the story of the broken Guatemalan man, God's forgiveness was mediated through another Christian, through Luis Palau. Palau goes so far as to say that the church has the responsibility to reassure those who confess of God's forgiveness. We must say to those who confess, "God forgives you, and we forgive you too."

Confession: Corporate or Private: This may raise some questions: Should we as Christians be in the business of hearing one another's confessions? Isn't that a private matter between the Christian and God? And should we as Christians be so bold as to declare someone else forgiven after they have confessed? Doesn't the right to forgive belong to God alone? After all, doesn't 1 Timothy 2:5 teach that there is only one mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus? And doesn't 1 John 1:9 talk about confessing directly to God when it says, "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness"? But then again, what are we to make of our other scripture verse: "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed" (James 5:16). And what about Jesus' words to his disciples in John 20:23: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

      If we deal with these verses seriously, they reveal that the NT authors consider confession, and the subsequent extension of forgiveness, as both private and corporate matters. We are to confess our sins to God, and certainly forgiveness only comes through the cross, through the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. But as Luis Palau's story shows, sometimes the actual experience of this forgiveness isn't felt until we humbly admit our faults to one another, and receive a generous giving of support from one another. Yes, it is only through Jesus that we can be forgiven, but Jesus chooses to make this forgiveness come alive in his body, the church. He has given us the responsibility of reassuring one another of his forgiveness. The church is to be a community of grace.

      Sometimes the question is asked: If Jesus has forgiven all my sins, past, present, and future, why do I need to confess at all? John Ortberg provides one excellent answer to that question: "Confession is not primarily something God has us do because he needs it. God is not clutching tightly at his mercy....We need to confess in order to heal and be changed" (The Life You've Always Wanted, p. 129). In other words, confession is a gracious gift of God to us, which if practised wisely leads to our healing. We need it. This is certainly what James writes when he speaks of corporate confession. We confess to one another in order that we may receive healing prayer and support from one another. Listen again to his words: "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed." This healing is the inner healing of forgiveness. But it is also the healing which comes from knowing that someone else knows who I really am and still loves and accepts me. It means I am no longer alone with my sins. Such divine forgiveness and acceptance, as reassured through a fellow brother or sister in Christ, is a powerful means of spiritual transformation.

      Even though James encourages us to confess to one another, many people find it a very frightening prospect. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pinpoints what is probably the main reason for our fear when he suggests that the church seems to have forgotten the fact that it is a fellowship of broken people, united together through the broken body of Christ. We tend instead to put on masks and pretend we have it all together. Listen to Bonhoeffer's analysis: "The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy" (from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

      A church is a much healthier community when her members remember that they are all sinners forgiven by God. It also makes it much easier to engage in the discipline of confessing to one another. Even so, taking such a step will always involve an element of risk. What if the person I am sharing my struggles with does not understand? But the consequences of never taking that risk and remaining alone and unknown in the church community is even greater. How can we grow if we carry a burden of guilt inside that we don't feel free to share with any of our brothers and sisters in Christ? How can our community offer us healing and hope if inside we feel alone and unknown?

      In the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer," we find these encouraging words following the call to self-examination and repentance: "If there be any of you who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein but require further comfort or counsel, let him come to me or to some other minister of God's word, and open his grief." This is a wonderful acknowledgment that God has given us our brothers and sisters to stand in Jesus' place and make God's presence and forgiveness real to us.

      As Mennonites we believe in the priesthood of all believers. Peter tells the church, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). We believe that we are all able to minister to one another. We should feel free to approach each other for various kinds of help whenever we need it. But this doesn't necessarily mean that every believer will have the empathy or the understanding to hear another believer's confession. If we are inwardly burdened and feel a need to confess to a Christian brother or sister, whom should we confess to? Richard Foster gives good advice when he suggests that we simply pray and ask God to reveal a suitable person to us (Celebration of Discipline, p. 153). It may be a pastor, it may be another church leader, it may be a Spirit filled lay person. Surely in every church God has placed people who have gifts of listening, empathy and encouragement, people who will respond with mercy rather than condemnation.

Benefits of Confession: There are certain tremendous benefits that accompany sincere confession, whether the confession is made privately to God or corporately to other Christians. First of all, we think of the removal of a heavy burden. There is no more miserable person than the one who carries around a heavy load of guilt. And likewise, there is no more joyful person than the one who by the grace of God has been forgiven and liberated from that guilt. In the movie The Mission Robert De Niro plays a man named Mendoza who is guilty of unspeakable cruelty and selfishness. But somehow he comes to grieve his past actions, and as an act of penance literally carries a heavy burden tied to his body by a rope wherever he goes. In one scene he is accompanying a group of South American tribesmen on a desperate climb up a sheer rock face, next to a waterfall. He exerts himself to his absolute physical limit, but the heavy weight attached to his body works against him, and he constantly fights to keep his balance. Slowly he realizes he is not going to make it: he is too far up to go down, and not close enough to the top to find safety there, and in addition he is endangering his fellow climbers. Suddenly, one of the tribesmen flashes a knife, and Mendoza fears he will be killed. But instead, the tribesman slashes through the rope and the burden falls away and disappears down the mountain and out of sight. Initially the audience wonders how Mendoza will react, because he has insisted on carrying this burden. He is a tough, rugged character. But he soon is sobbing for sheer relief, and it becomes apparent that this is a moment of great release leading to overwhelming relief and joy. His sins have been removed, they have tumbled down the mountain, never to burden him again. That is the way it is with those who confess their sins: when they truly understand that Jesus died on the cross to remove their sins, they are free to live and love again. Sometimes that experience occurs in private confession, sometimes it occurs when a brother or sister reassures us of God's love.

      One more benefit of confession is that it removes our loneliness and makes deeper fellowship possible with God and with one another. As Bonhoeffer once put it, "He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone" (In Life Together, p. 110). There are so many deeply lonely people in our world and in our churches. But when we open up our inmost being, whether directly to God or to a member of God's family, we allow ourselves to be more fully known both by God and by our brothers and sisters. In this way the discipline of confession brings an end to pretense. It means we don't have to try and hide parts of ourselves from others. Confession enables our relationships with God and one another to move beyond a superficial level to a rich intimacy. The deepest healing occurs when others know and accept us for who we really are, and especially when we realize that the same is true of God.

Practising Confession: These are some of the benefits available to those who engage in confession. But we've not yet looked at the practical question of what it is we do when we practice confession. What constitutes a good confession? How do we incorporate the discipline of confession into our lives in such a way that leads to our healing? Throughout church history the great teachers of the spiritual life have pointed out the fact that healing confession is much more of a process than it is a single act. They speak of the need for preparation and self-examination before the actual act of confession as we know it:

1. Preparation: Ask God to Search us: First of all, the most important act of preparation is to invite God to move upon our hearts. In this step we ask the Spirit of God to help us, to point out any things in us that truly need confessing. There is a perfect example of this at the end of Psalm 139, when the psalmist prays: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (vv. 23-24). Without God's help, we have a tendency to gloss over certain sins, they may not seem like a big deal to us, but in God's eyes they may be truly ugly and need our attention. But conversely, some of us are prone to false guilt and self-condemnation. We may be beating ourselves up over matters than are not in any way an offense against God or others. In this step we ask God's Spirit to lead us to confess all those things, and only those things, which grieve God.

         Charles Steinmetz was a renowned electrical engineer who worked for General Electric. One day after his retirement, a complex of machines broke down, and the other engineers couldn't diagnose the reason why. So they invited Steinmetz to come back to see if he could pinpoint the problem. He spent several minutes walking around the machines, and then took a piece of chalk and made an X-mark on one particular piece of one particular machine. The other engineers were amazed when they disassembled that part and found it was indeed the precise location of the breakdown. But a few days later they were shocked when they received a bill from Steinmetz for $10,000. This seemed extremely overpriced, so they returned it to him with a request that he itemize it. A few days later they received the itemized bill. It was broken down like this: Making one X-mark: $1. Knowing where to put it: $9,999 (From The Life You've Always Wanted). When it comes to confession, knowing where to put the X-mark is God's specialty. The process of confession starts by placing ourselves under God's protection, asking him to search us, and test our hearts, and point out any sinful ways in us.
   
   

2. Self-Examination: The Prayer of Examen: The counter point to asking God to search us is to examine ourselves. Having prayed for God's discernment, and trusting that God will guide us, we are in a much better position to consider whether or not there are any matters we need to confess. It is the standard practice of many Christians to do this at the end of every day. Historically this was known as the "prayer of examen," in which we examine the state of our conscience. In this step we examine specific areas of our lives, under the gaze of God, and ask God to impress upon our conscience areas where confession is needed. Many Christians find it helpful to use the seven deadly sins as a guide to self-examination. In the prayer of examen they ask themselves: "Where do I stand in regard to pride, anger, lust, envy, greed, laziness, and gluttony?" Others like Martin Luther use the 10 commandments. Such a discipline may sound strange to modern ears, but in many eras it was simply taken for granted that followers of Jesus knew how to examine themselves. For example, Francis De Sales once wrote, "As to the examination of conscience...everyone knows how it is to be performed."

         When God impresses certain things upon us that need to be confessed, it is important to name them as specifically as possible. A generalized confession such as "I wasn't as truthful as I could have been" may save us some inner pain, but to be more specific and confess "Today I lied to my boss in order to avoid getting into trouble" holds out much greater potential for inner healing. The people who came to Jesus came with obvious, specific sins, and they were forgiven for each one.

         A helpful part of this step of self-examination is to consider how our actions have affected others. Humans have a remarkable capacity for self-deception, and when we've done wrong we often justify ourselves by minimizing in our minds the consequences of how what we have done have affected others. Therefore it is often very helpful to try to see through the eyes of the person or people whom we have hurt. When sincere Christians realize the pain they have caused others, they will resolve to do their best not to repeat their sin. In this step we ask God therefore to show us our sin through a new lens.

         When we examine ourselves specifically like this, there is one caution to be aware of, the opposite danger of trying to remember every little mistake we've made throughout the day. We don't want to become neurotic by a never ending introspection. This again is why we ask God to put the X on the right spot. Confession, properly practised, should lead to reconciliation and joy, not a morbid inwardness.
   
   

3. Resolution: Determine to avoid repeating the same sin: Finally, a vital part of confession is the resolution to do our best not to repeat the same sin in the future. Confession is not just about naming what we have done in the past. It involves our intentions about the future as well. We resolve that, with God's help, we will change. This step is a step of repentance. Repentance properly understood isn't only about feeling bad for what we've done; it is about turning and embracing a new way for the future.

         In 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul makes a distinction between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow goes no further than regrets. We may feel bad, but our bad feelings lead us to nothing more than an attempt at damage control. For example, if we have stolen something, worldly sorrow may lead us to bring it back simply because we don't want to get into serious trouble. But godly sorrow goes much deeper, its ultimate goal is not self-preservation, but reconciliation and restitution. We see a perfect example of a man experiencing godly sorrow when we consider Zacchaeus. After his encounter with Jesus the chief tax collector proclaimed: "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house'" (Lk. 19:8-9a). A vital part of what it means to be a Christian is to determine not to do wrong, it is to resolve to die to our sinful natures, and the discipline of confession provides us with an avenue to reinforce, with God's help, such an important determination.

      Even the painful burdens we feel when we have done wrong are an act of grace. These burdens cause pain and hardship, but God gives them to lead us back to him. His greatest desire is to remove these burdens from us and restore us to joyful fellowship with him. Let us therefore embrace the discipline of confession, and make it a regular part of our lives. This will always mean confessing our sins to God, who is faithful and just, and promises to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sometimes it will mean the extra step of confessing to one another, for God has given us our brothers and sisters to reassure us of his acceptance, forgiveness and love. So let us humble ourselves and engage in confession, and we will find our inward beings transformed by the healing and joy of God's grace.

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