Confession
Have you ever been part of a small group that has been “stuck”? The kind of “stuck” where conversation never penetrates much beyond the surface of things? You might worship together, pray together, serve together, study the bible together—you may have even been meeting for years—and yet still feel like you don’t really “know” each other.
A twentieth-century German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wisely pointed out that “the pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.” Christians lack deep fellowship, he argued, when we fail to gather as “the undevout”—as sinners. And when we are afraid to be seen as sinners, we conceal sin from others and even from ourselves—living instead in lies and hypocrisy. Here’s how the Apostle John describes it:
1 John 1.6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Perhaps you’ve never thought of it this way, but confession of sin is a means of grace. And while there is a place for private confession before God, the predominant witness of the New Testament is that confession is a grace to be experienced with others. James 5:16 calls us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, in order that you may be healed.” Sin demands to have a man by himself. But when we confess our sin to one another, the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. Sin is brought out into the light. We are freed from its bondage.
Confession also poisons our pride. “Confession in the presence of a brother,” Bonhoeffer writes, “is the profoundest kind of humiliation. It hurts. It cuts a man down. It is a dreadful blow to pride.” When we confess our sin, we cannot be seen as strong, or capable, or righteous. Instead, we admit that we are sinful and that we have no hope for salvation apart from the mercy to be found at the cross of Christ. Confession is trusting Jesus to justify us rather than justifying ourselves. The Cross of Jesus Christ destroys all pride.
And confession also is the path to true community. Because concealed sin isolates us, it separates us from true fellowship with other Christians. Our relationships stay superficial. Unless we know one another as saints and sinners, as believers and unbelievers, we really don’t know one another at all. But when we confess our sin to one another, we are reminded that the ground is level at the foot of the Cross. We acknowledge our true fellowship as sinners desperate for a savior.
We have been given to one another for this very purpose. Our brother or sister stands before us as a “sign of the truth and grace of God.” Our friend has been given to us by God to help us—to hear the confession of our sin in Christ’s stead and to assure us of the forgiveness of sin in Christ’s name. As fellow heirs of Christ, we say to one another, “dear friend, in Christ Jesus, your sins are forgiven.”
Confession is part of our liturgy on the first morning of the week to remind us it is needed every other day of the week. We are confronted with the holiness of God. We recognize our meager faith, our selfish hearts, our proud self-protection. We remember the grace of God in putting us in fellowship with others—fellow sinners and fellow saints—to war against sin, to confess our sin, to assure one another of the forgiveness of sin. Friends, make this your practice: confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
Let’s turn now, together, to him, to seek his mercy, in this time of silent confession.