How Does Individual Confession and Absolution Work?

Individual confession and absolution is often mis-named "private" confession and absolution because it is done "in private" between an individual Christian and his or her pastor.  But it's not truly "private" because the pastor is there to hear the individual Christian's confession.  It's private between those two, but it's not truly private.

There is a prepared set of words that a pastor and parishioner can use for individual confession and absolution in the Lutheran Service Book (our hymnal) on pages 292-3.

The key differences between corporate confession and individual confession, though, are:

1.  Who is present (i.e. individual and pastor)
2.   The words on page 292 that say: If you wish to confess specific sins that trouble you, continue as follows:  "What troubles me particularly is that..."  Confess whatever you have done against the commandments of God, according to your own place in life.  The pastor may gently question or instruct you - not to pry or judge - but to assist in self-examination.

That last part about the pastor "gently questioning or instructing" is how individual confession and absolution usually happens.  Most often, a Christian comes to the pastor to talk something over and in the course of the conversation, it becomes increasingly clear (often to the individual) that there are sins he or she needs to confess.  At that point, whether the individual requests it or the pastor suggests it, the conversation transitions smoothly into confession and absolution without using the "formal, printed rite."

Do you want to know how it "works"?  Well, it "works" just like corporate confession and absolution.  Through God's Word (sometimes as guided conversation with the pastor, though not necessarily) we become conscious of our sin and say "I am sorry for all of this and ask for grace.  I want to do better."

The printed rite continues like this:  [Pastor]  "God be merciful to you and strengthen your faith.  Do you believe that my forgiveness is God's forgiveness?"  [Individual]  "Yes."  [Pastor]  "Let it be done for you as you believe.  In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The Word of God convicts the sinner through the Law, but the Gospel promises grace and mercy in the form of forgiveness.  The repentant sinner trusts God's promise and receives the forgiveness that He has promised.

How Does Corporate Confession Work?

At St. Paul - Annapolis, we practice corporate confession (and absolution) at the beginning of every service.  After a period of personal meditation on our own sins and sinfulness, we give voice to our general sinfulness in unison(-ish):

"Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.  We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.  We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment.  For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.  Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name.  Amen."

After this, I (as the pastor) speak these words back to the congregation:

"Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins.  As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Now how does this work?

Through the Word of God taught or heard prior to confession, we Christians confess our sinfulness, or inability to save ourselves, and our need for God to save us.  We lay hold of the salvation God HAS worked for us in Jesus Christ by asking Him to forgive us "for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ."  That is asking God to do what He has promised to do.

Then the pastor (in this case, me) speaks for God according to His divine command (John 20:19-23), announcing the forgiveness He has already promised us.

Three Kinds of Confession

I've made reference to different ways that Christians confess their sins and that they receive the absolution (i.e., the announcement of the forgiveness of their sins).  They are:

1.  Corporate Confession and Absolution

2.  Individual Confession and Absolution

3.  Private/Personal Confession and Absolution

If you are participating in New Beginnings after gathering with St. Paul Lutheran Church - Annapolis, MD, then you've already seen corporate confession, since this is a part of the liturgy every week.  If you've been a Christian for some time, you probably also know about the last one (i.e., private/personal confession and absolution).  But precious few Protestant (i.e., non-Roman Catholic) Christians know about the second kind of confession and absolution.

In the next three posts, I want to briefly review these three types of confession and talk though "how they work"... so unless you have a lingering question about confession and absolution more generally, hold your questions for another day or so.

Why Do YOU Forgive Me?

Perhaps the last post begs a question:  "1 John 1:8-9 says that GOD will forgive sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness.  Why does the PASTOR forgive sins?"  It's a good question.  

First of all, recognize that God is always the one who forgives sins.  And He always (and only) does it for Jesus' sake.

But, second, recognize that our God often prefers to work through created people and things to accomplish His purposes.  In John 20:22-23, Jesus appears to His disciples after His resurrection and "breathed on His disciples and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'"

Now these words are directed to the disciples as Jesus' followers - that is, the church.  As the Reformers wrote it in the Catechism, we Lutheran Christians believe that "the Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent."

"But I'm asking why do YOU forgive me. If God gave the keys to the whole church, why can't I come to anyone in the church for confession and absolution?"

I'm going to give you two answers to this, and the first one might get me in trouble with some of my fellow pastors.

The first answer is this: You can. God gave the Office of the Keys to the church, and every member of the church is gifted with the Holy Spirit to carry out the Gospel ministry of the church. BUT BUT BUT...

The second answer is also true: The exercise of the Office of the Keys is not a "power" exercised by an "individual." It is given to the whole church. Just imagine the chaos that could result if every member of the congregation heard a person's confession and then, for any number of reasons, half of them absolved that persons' sins and the other half refused to do so. And so it is the case that God, through the church, calls men into the pastoral office to speak His Word to His people, including this word of forgiveness in absolution.

For this reason, you as an individual Christian may (and should) forgive sins committed against you. And you may (and should) announce the good news of the Gospel to the people around you. But you should NOT take it on yourself to speak for the Church to announce absolution, since God has seen fit to call a pastor to do this in His stead within the congregation already.

Why Do You FORGIVE Me?

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, God Who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (1 John 1:8-9)

Basically, we Lutheran Christians believe that "confession" is given us for the sake of the forgiveness that follows.  Without the announcement of God's mercy on you for Jesus' sake, confession is either a one-way ticket to despair as we admit our failure to keep God's Law OR it's a self-indulgent enumeration of our brokenness for personal cathartic purposes.  Unless the announcement of forgiveness follows the spoken confession, nothing good can ultimately come of it.

Once again, "being forgiven" is always about God's mercy on us for Jesus' sake.  We are forgiven because we trust that what God said is true.  We trust that He will do what He says He will do:  He says He will forgive us for Jesus' sake.

So when we confess our sins, we aren't "hoping against hope" that God will forgive us.  We confess our sins KNOWING God will forgive us for Jesus' sake.

In the Catechism, the Reformers put it this way.  The question is "What is Confession?"  The answer is: "Confess 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."

What Sins Should I Confess?

"Pastor, what sins should I confess?  Are there some that I should keep quietly between me and God and others that I need to tell you directly and out loud?  And what about the sins that I've forgotten?  Or never knew about?  How does confession and absolution 'work'?"

I'm actually going to talk about the "how" of confession and absolution in later posts.  But the Catechism gives a good answer to this basic question: "Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of, as we do in the Lord's Prayer; but before the pastor we should confess only those sins which we know and feel in our hearts."

In other words, because we know that we're sinners even after our sins have been forgiven, we always need forgiveness for that.  And then there are the sins we're not aware of and for which we have never asked for forgiveness:  We need forgiveness for those, too.  So we approach God to confess sins we know, sins we don't and the fact that we are still sinners.

Sometimes you will want to speak your sins aloud to the pastor and hear the words of absolution spoken (more on why and how later).  In those cases, you don't necessarily confess your general sinfulness (though you can) or the sins you don't know (though you can).  In those cases, you focus on the sins that are weighing down on you and that have caused you to seek out the word of absolution privately.

Why Do We Confess Our Sins Every Week?

It's interesting to consider this question: "If we don't RE-baptize since we believe God 'got it right the first time,' then why do we confess our sins every week?  Didn't God get the forgiveness thing right the first time, too?"

When it comes to forgiveness, Jesus got it right 2000 years ago when He won the forgiveness of sins for us on the cross.  Now our forgiveness is a guarantee.  Every time we turn to God seeking His mercy for Jesus' sake, we receive it.  

In fact, THAT is the faith we are baptized into!  When we are baptized, God sets us aside for a life lived according to THAT story, a story where we: 1) strive to walk according to his way; 2) fall into sin because we are born sinful and cannot save ourselves; 3) hear the call of the Holy Spirit through the Law's accusation and the Gospel's promise of forgiveness; and 4) trusting those promises, we ask for forgiveness and begin to walk in God's ways again (i.e., we repent).  That is the shape of a Christian life.

A person who feels that they have "fallen from the faith" and needs to be RE-baptized has missed the fact that they are living their life in EXACTLY the shape that they were baptized into.  They fell away for one reason or another, but God faithfully called them back to Himself, and now they are responding to that call.  That is the faith of their FIRST baptism at work, whether they realize it or not!

And that is also why we confess our sins in our services every week:  We are sinners and we need to hear the good news that we are forgiven for Christ's sake!  "Absolution" is nothing more (and definitely nothing less) than the Holy Spirit doing His work of calling, gathering, enlightening, sanctifying and keeping us in the Christian faith.

But don't think that confessing your sins once a week is "enough"! We don't "store up" our sins for a once a week absolution. You can confess your sins to God anytime you realize that you've fallen into sin. (And if you come to see me to confess privately, you will also hear the words of absolution (i.e., forgiveness) spoken to you. Some people need to hear the absolution spoken in the middle of the week, and that's one of the reasons God gave us pastors. More on this later.)

Every individual Christian's life will vary in its details, but many Christians come to services on Sunday and their consciences aren't burdened at that moment by any particular sin. So what are they confessing? Most are simply confessing that they are still sinners (generally speaking) and are constantly in need of forgiveness. When I speak the words of absolution (e.g., "In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins..."), that forgiveness covers the sins you are aware of, the ones you aren't, and even your general sinfulness. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was "once, for all," we just need to hear about it more than once!