Confession, as practiced in the Catholic church, is something that developed over centuries. Evangelicals don’t follow the Catholic pattern. But the New Testament does speak of confession in more general terms. For example, we should confess our sins to God.
In the Lord’s prayer, we say “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
I John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
We should confess our sins to each other.
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
There’s nothing to suggest that confession needs to be a sacrament or a formal practice. In reality, perhaps it just means that we’re honest with one another about our faults and failings. But there might sometimes be circumstances, where we should go to church leaders and open up to them about our sins. This might be to seek advice, but in some cases our sins might impact the church. For example, a person might need to be disciplined by the church. Examples include serious disputes, which the church is asked to settle (Matthew 18:15-17), someone committing a particularly serious sin (1 Cor 5:1-3), or false teachers (Gal 1:6-9). A church, or any organization, can be damaged by bad behaviour, so in that sense, a person might be asked to come clean early.
One verse often mentioned in the context of confession is the following:
John 20:21-23
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
This teaching has been abused over the centuries, with Popes deciding to excommunicate kings etc. for political reasons. But when we look at the context, Jesus was sending out his disciples to preach the gospel to the nations. He was assuring them that he would be with them, as would the Holy Spirit. Their work would be effective. He was not saying that they could arbitrarily decide whether or not sins would be forgiven.
We evangelize by explaining the conditions that God lays down for forgiveness; repentance and faith in Jesus. God is the one that forgives, but in a secondary sense, we are delivering forgiveness. We have the authority to tell the person that they are forgiven if they accept our message. Now, suppose someone says, “Well I’m happy to trust in Jesus, but I don’t want to repent. I don’t see myself as a sinner.” Then, we can say that they are not forgiven, and they won’t be, unless they change their minds. Like many verses, it might be interpreted in different ways.
For example, if a church decided to exclude someone because of a serious sin or heresy, and they thought it through prayerfully, they could feel confident that God is with them on the basis of that verse. And, if the person repents, the church might well accept them back into the fellowship, if they believe that the person is sincere. If they are seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they can be confident that God is with them, whether they choose to forgive or not forgive.
But it’s always possible that they could have made a mistake. And of course, we must remember that the apostles (who Jesus spoke to in John 20), as witnesses of the resurrection, had special authority. So they could be more confident about their decisions than we can be. But even in the New Testament, the apostles debated issues and sometimes disagreed among themselves. Though we consider their writing to be infallible, where it’s part of the Bible, they clearly didn’t have a perfect hotline to heaven for all their everyday decisions.
Why did Jesus give the impression that the church can forgive sins? It’s a little like saving someone’s life by telling them which number to ring to call an ambulance. Your information did save them in a sense, but really, their life will have been saved at the hospital. An evangelist is declaring the gospel as information, although if the Holy Spirit is with him, it’s more than merely giving information. Not everyone who hears will respond, but God does draw people to himself. Evangelicals are reluctant to speak in terms of forgiving sins on behalf of God because of the way this teaching has been abused over the centuries. But we can bring forgiveness by preaching the gospel. And we can save them by pointing to the Saviour.
Hibernia Gospel 