The Sacraments in Worship 3 - Confession

In previous posts, I have discussed how God gives us his Grace and Mercy through the Word and Sacraments. This post I will discuss Confession. Some churches today consider it a sacrament and some a pseudo-sacrament because it does give us forgiveness of sins. In Martin Luther’s Large Catechism, he states that if you define sacraments as “rites which have the command of God, and to which the promise of grace has been added”, then Confession is the third sacrament. However, in other documents he does not regard it as a sacrament because it did not meet the criteria of having an earthly element. With regards to this, he states “No intelligent person will quibble about the number of sacraments or the terminology, so long as those things are kept which have God’s command and promises” At any rate, it is clearly and important part of the Christian’s life.

So then, what is confession? In Luther’s Small Catechism, he explains, “Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.” Luther continues to explain how we should confess all of our sins, even those we are unaware of. Of course we can, and should, always confess our sins directly to God, but God also instituted Confession as another means of receiving forgiveness, and one in which we can hear the Lord’s servants (our Pastors) verbally forgive us.

There are, and should remain, two forms of this Confession.  First is corporate confession, which is what we do in the Divine Service.  This is done as a public profession and so that we can all hear our pastor absolve all of our sins.  It also done in the service before the Lord’s Supper to prepare us to partake of it worthily.  The second is private confession, which should be done for sins that we are acutely aware of and that are troubling us the most. In the article XI of the Augsburg Confessions we learn that, “It is taught among us that private absolution should be retained in the churches and not be allowed to fall into disuse.”

The more I learn the more I realize how Gracious God is to give us so many ways in which he forgives our sins. Since we are poor, miserable sinners we are in constant need of forgiveness.  Through what God has instituted, he promises forgiveness in His Word, washes our sins away, let’s us hold and eat His body for our forgiveness, and has his under-shepherds forgive us directly and verbally. Praise be to God!