Yahweh God called to the man and said to him,
“Where are you?” …
“Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
(Genesis 3:9, 11)
Sin is nothing other than a violation of our relationship with God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4). Immediately after our first parents committed the first sin, God called them into his presence to confess their sins as part of the process of redemption and restoration to fellowship. The brokenness of our relationship with God (which is our own fault) must be addressed if we’re going to continue in God’s presence. This is why we confess our sins early in the liturgy.
Fear prevents us from confessing our sins. We suspect that, if our sins become known, we will suffer rejection. Adam and Eve tried covering themselves with fig leaves, hiding from God among the trees, and shifting the blame—and God’s unwanted attention—anywhere but themselves. In fear, they chose hostile self-protection rather than vulnerable honesty before God and each other. The extreme defense against the confession of sin is pride, self-righteousness, self-justification; if I can convince myself and others that there’s nothing much wrong with me, that I have no sins to confess, then I’ll be safe. (Fear is still at the root here.)
Ultimately, it is the grace of Jesus Christ that frees us to confess our sins. Think of Peter, after Jesus had blessed him and his companions with a miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11). Think of Zacchaeus, after Jesus visited his house (Luke 19:1-10). “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).
So, the call to confess sins is an act of God’s love, a gracious work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). The Triune God of love works reconciliation, and the confession of sin is a part of that process. The way to encourage confession is not with threats of judgment or punishment, but with promises of mercy, forgiveness, love, and acceptance—credible promises reinforced by a history of love’s evidence. God frees us from the fear of rejection so that we drop our defenses and become truly vulnerable before him. This only happens when you are convinced that God loves you in spite of your sin. Before you confess your sin, you must believe that God forgives you.
Jesus Christ has divine authority to forgive your sins (Luke 5:24). He took our sins upon himself, confessed them on our behalf, and prayed for our forgiveness on the cross (Luke 23:34). He suffered the divine judgment we deserved in our place, in order to spare us in his mercy, and now we can be assured that we are forgiven, because of his sacrifice (Ephesians 1:7). As foreshadowed when God clothed Adam and Eve with garments of skins (Gen. 3:21), God has clothed us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 61:10), covering our shame. Now, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). He has “cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). Even though you’ll never be able to know or confess all your sins, they have all been forgiven by the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the eternal guilt of them is irretrievable.
You need to hear the Good News of this forgiveness frequently, which is another reason this is a regular part of our liturgy. As your appreciation for the grace of Jesus grows, so will your awareness of your own sinfulness and your freedom to truly confess your sins. In turn, this will lead to yet greater celebration of the glorious grace of Jesus. And, as you hear yourself and others confessing sins aloud together, you will grow in your own ability to forgive and love. You won’t be surprised to hear of the real sins of others; of course they sin! We admit as much together every week! And together we receive the assurance from God’s very Word that, in Christ, we are forgiven and welcome in his presence.
“The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody 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. The fact is that we are sinners! …
“Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ? Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together—the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pp. 110, 28).
Why do we fear that the confession of our sins will lead to our rejection? Can you think of times you have been reluctant to confess your sins? Can you think of times when you have felt freed to confess your sins? Have you known the power of God’s forgiveness in Christ? Has this power translated into your ability to forgive others? Why and how would you call others to confess their sins to God?
