"Hear What God Has Arranged for You to Be Told"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

An old Scottish proverb says that “an open confession is good for the soul.” Indeed, confession is good for the soul, but only if understood properly. The problem lies in answering the question – What is confession? Is it an old, out-moded ritual where you have to go sit in a box and talk to some priest through a screen? Is it a way for your pastor to stay up on all the good gossip in the congregation? Is it something you have to do because somebody or other says you have to?

Confession is rooted and grounded in the Word of God, beginning and ending in what God says about you in His Word. The word “confession” means “saying the same thing” – when you confess something, you are saying the same thing – agreeing with all others who say that same thing. In the matter of the Sacrament, you confess that you believe the Word of God when it declares you to be a poor, miserable sinner who has failed to keep even the smallest part of the Law. Against the standard of the Law you have been judged, and have been found wanting.

On the basis of this judgment, great terrors of conscience come. You hear the Law, know what it says about you and your sinful heart, and that your sin earns you death and hell. You fear death and hell, and so your conscience is stricken and wishes for relief. Bringing the inborn sin to light is never a pleasant process. The old Adam in you likes the dark, the secret places, the shadows. He would prefer to bottle up and wall off those sins in the recesses of your heart, so that they never come to light. But they will come to light, whether in confession now, or at the judgment on the Last Day. The Lord will lay bare all hearts, and what is found there will be judged accordingly.

Then comes the second part of confession, that is, the Absolution. You should not dwell greatly on your sins or the terrors of your conscience, but you should cling firmly to the holy Word of God spoken to you in the Absolution. Your sins are very light, able to be blown away by the Spirit of God, but His Word of forgiveness stands immovable forever. When those innermost sins and transgressions are brought to light and spoken forth, they are exposed to the light of the Word of God, and, as light obliterates darkness instantly and irreparably, that Word of forgiveness obliterates your sin and blows it away as far as east is from west.

You confess your sins to the pastor so that they are brought out of the darkness of your heart and into the light of the Word of God. You hear and believe the Absolution your pastor speaks because he speaks the Word of God to you and about you and into you. You believe that his forgiveness truly is that of our Lord Christ Himself, because our Lord has sent this man to you to proclaim His Word to you. The Lord of Hosts has commanded a man into the Office of the Holy Ministry with the express purpose of giving you this wondrous gift, that he bespeak you righteous on the authority of, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For an example of how the Word of God deals with sinners in bringing about repentance and forgiveness, let us consider the case of David. In 2 Samuel 12, David had lusted after, despoiled, and impregnated Bathsheba, despite his having access to a harem of other women and an uncertain count of wives. Upon discovering that she was with child, David arranged to have her husband Uriah sent to the front lines of the battle against the Philistines, so that he would be killed in action and unable to contest the claim that the child was actually his.

Therefore, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to call David to repentance. The king's sin could not simply be buried with the battered body of Uriah and forgotten forever. Sin has consequences, both in time and in eternity. So Nathan came to David and spoke a parable about a rich man robbing a poor man of his beloved only ewe-lamb. In anger at the flagrant sin and disregard for his neighbor, David cried out, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” Although beyond the formal requirements of the Law, David was right, because sin, no matter how small, demands death. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22).

However, in that moment, Nathan delivers the kill-stroke of the Law: “You are the man!” In the height of David's anger over the sin of the fictitious man in the parable, Nathan drives the sword of the Law deep into David's heart and cuts him to the quick. On the basis of the Word of God, the prophet convicts the king of his sin and forces him to his knees in repentance. David could not argue with the death sentence he had pronounced upon himself, because he knew that he had done such a thing.

Nathan proclaimed the Word of the Lord to David to make sure that the king could not escape from the righteous anger of God over his actions, but David knew his sin and felt the guilt and shame for his actions. He knew and confessed that he had lusted for Bathsheba, coveted Uriah's wife, sent his faithful servant to his death, and lied to everyone about the whole affair. Therefore, when Nathan proclaimed that evil would arise out of David's house, he knew that he could not stop the consequences of his sin, but simply confessed: “I have sinned against the Lord.”

In like manner, your pastor wields the two-edged sword of the Word of God for you and upon you. He is called by God and sent to you to divide flesh and bone, soul and spirit. He is called to cut you to the heart with the Law, to drive you to contrition and repentance for your sins. He is called to be the instrument by which the Lord puts to death the old evil foe within you. But your pastor wields not a broadsword but a scalpel. He proclaims to you the Word of God for your healing and regeneration. He calls you to repentance for the sins that you confess, the sins that trouble and beseech you in your life.

Notice that directly upon the heels of David's confession comes Nathan's pronouncement of the Absolution. “David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD.' And Nathan said to David, 'The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.'” Without delay or reservation, the prophet proclaims that God's free grace and abundant mercy abound, even for such an adulterer and murderer. The forgiveness comes not from the worthiness of David, or even from the strength or depth of his contrition, but from the grace of God, who desires that all come to salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

Likewise, the Absolution is spoken to you without delay or reservation. The forgiveness of sins is spoken into you for the sake of Jesus Christ. He has been crucified, died, and buried for you. He has been raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father for you. He has sent His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, for you. He speaks through the mouth of His consecrated servant when He says, “I forgive you all your sins.” There is no qualification, no “but” or “if”. As surely as the sun banishes the night, as far as the east is from the west, your sins are forgiven you by that strong Word of Christ.

And yet, as in David's case, it may be that temporal consequences remain. Luther said about David's situation, “God wants to wipe out the sins as far as the forgiveness of their guilt and their power are concerned, but not as far as the thing itself or the nature of sin is concerned. The power of sin is to accuse, condemn, sting, sadden, disquiet the heart, show a wrathful God, hell, and the like. This power of sin is done away with through free mercy, and yet there remain true remnants of this poison.”ⁱ What he means is this: upon your confession of your sins, God bespeaks you righteous for Christ's sake. He removes the guilt of your sin and frees you from the damnation that comes with sin. However, He may not remove the temporal result of your action. In David's case, his sin was taken away, but his son still had to die. To put it another way, suppose you were to go out and shoot a man dead. You could then come to your pastor, repent and confess your sins. He would pronounce the Absolution which frees your conscience, but that Word would not release you from the prison sentence due for your actions, nor would it bring the man you shot back from the dead.

Why should you make confession? Simply put, because you are a Christian, and to be a Christian means to use the Gifts of God to the fullest extent available. If you feel the terrors of a guilty conscience, if you feel sorrow and contrition for sin, come and receive the blessed Absolution. If, however, you do not feel troubled by your sins, Luther suggests that you pinch yourself to see if you still have flesh. If you feel no need to hear the Absolution, then do not come. There is no compulsion, no force of Law to tell you that you must make confession. But there is no promise that the Absolution will be proclaimed to you anywhere else.

You ought to come to confession because God has given this great and wondrous Gift – the pronouncement of the forgiveness of your sins in the Name of Christ Jesus our Lord. In this holy Sacrament, He desires to give a precious gift to you, and to no one else. Here He offers to you forgiveness for your sins, all of them, not just generally but specifically, by name. Come and receive the gift prepared for your by your Crucified Lord and King.

When ministers lay on their hands,

Absolved by Christ the sinner stands;

He who by grace the Word believes

The purchase of His blood receives. (LSB 614.6)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

iLuther, M. (1999, c1955). Vol. 12: Luther's works, vol. 12 : Selected Psalms I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (12:327-328). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.