Other Perspectives on Confession
Other Posts in this Series
- Confess to God
- Why Should I Confess?
- What Should I Confess?
- When Should I Confess?
- How Should I Confess?
- Other Perspectives on Confession
Continuing the practice I started last week, I took some time this weekend to see what others out there in the blogosphere are writing about “confession.” I find it rewarding to find people who think like I do, and I find it challenging when I come across those with a different perspective that stretches me. Here are a few thoughts I liked.
Father Martin Fox says:
Again, to some degree, it is good to arrive at a point where you can see yourself with some clarity, both for good and bad. God wants us to acknowledge our sins, but he also wants to know when things are getting better, too.
Too often we beat ourselves up over and over. Reflecting on our lives should lead to confession where necessary, but it should also lead to joy over the ways we are changing and growing.
Join Me On the Journey shares a thought-provoking perspective about our need to confess at all.
I finally realized that God forgave my sin over 2000 years ago when Christ died for me on the cross. Technically, all the sin I ever did or will do is future-tense sin and it is already forgiven. My “confessing” wasn’t doing anything to help God forgive me more than He’s already forgiven me.
I’m so thankful for that realization. It doesn’t give me license to sin, it gives me freedom to come before God knowing that when He looks as me, He sees my righteous and holy spirit. He sees what Jesus did, not what I did. Praise God Forevermore!
Ben Sternke, like me, also talks about the importance of corporate and personal confession, except he focuses on the linking of all our sins into a corporate whole rather than a corporate blame that filters to personal responsibility.
Confession of sin ought also to be both personal and corporate, and speak of sins against God and against our fellow human beings. It’s also important to recognize that when a local Body of Christ confesses their sins together, they are not simply isolated individuals who come together to confess their individual sins, but they as an alive Body confess their sins together. We are linked together with others in the Body of Christ in a symbiotic relationship, where my supposedly “private” sin actually does have ramifications for the entire congregation I worship with.
Also, in my search, I came across several “web confession” sites that encourage people to confess their failings and sin to the world. It appears that thousands use these sites to unburden themselves from the ways they have wronged others. I found it disturbing on two levels. First, that so many believe the way to forgiveness is public apology rather than direct apology to the individual. Second, that so many people are burdened by guilt and don’t know that God is ready to forgive.
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