To Abhor or Not To Abhor? That Is The Question - Part 1

The Pharisee and the Publican

The 3rd membership vow of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church reads as follows:

(3) Do you confess that because of your sinfulness you abhor and humble yourself before God, that you repent of your sin, and that you trust for salvation not in yourself but in Jesus Christ alone

Abhor... such an antiquated and negative word, at least as many understand it today. I submit that we moderns really need to refresh ourselves with a biblically and theologically sound understanding of the word abhor. It isn't a word commonly used anymore. Today, the shorthand definition or synonym is "to hate." Yet the word abhor classically understood, in a theological sense and as used in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church 3rd membership vow, does not mean "to hate" (i.e. to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; to detest). And why, you ask, is this the subject of a blog post? Because in some corners of the OPC the third membership vow is indeed controversial because the understood meaning is that to abhor myself means to hate or detest myself, which I agree is a somewhat negative and extreme position to take as a Christian. And, as the thinking goes, for a Christian to abhor himself because of his sinfulness is to deny that God loves him as he is now in Christ and therefore the use of the word abhor in the vow should be rejected.

My purpose in this post is limited to showing that a believer abhorring himself as a sinner doesn't deny God's love, grace, and redemption in Christ, but rather more clearly affirms it. Or put another way, to abhor oneself because of one's sinfulness and at the same time to affirm God's love in Christ are not inconsistent positions.

From what can easily be found, consulting various dictionary sources, Abhor essentially is defined as "to regard with horror or loathing" and comes from the Latin word *abhorrre* which means to shrink. 

Let's look at a verse from the early Christian hymn (Ambrose), Te Deum Laudamus: 

When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man : thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb

And the Christmas carol, O Come, All Ye Faithful:

God of God, light of light, Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb

Let me ask a question or two with the synonym hate in focus. Are we to understand that prior to the incarnation God hated or detested the Virgin's womb? That would not make sense since children, the fruit of the womb, are a blessing of God (Ps. 127:3). Scripture teaches that God, in the person of his Son, did not abhor taking humanity upon himself (Luke 1:26-38; Matt. 1:20). Are we to understand that prior the incarnation God hated and detested  humanity? Certainly the answer is no.

In the beginning God created humanity and saw that man, along with all creation, was very good (Gen. 1:31). Yet after the Fall with the introduction of sin into humanity God shrank back and separated from man, i.e. He removed His immediate presence and communion from sinful man so much so that in the Old Testament sinful man was threatened with death if certain rituals of cleansing from sin were not followed by the Israelites when approaching God in Temple worship. It wasn't because God hated humanity or the Israelites. But God, who is Holy, abhorred or looked upon His once holy but now sinful couple with an holy horror and separated from or shrank back from them. There were two reasons for this separation. First, an holy God and sinful man could not continue to dwell together face to face without the resultant death of man. Secondly, God, though abhorring Adam and Eve as sinners, yet already had a plan for their redemption born of His love (Eph. 1:4-6). God's protection, care, and love for man and his abhorrence of man as a sinner therefore were not inconsistent with one another.

So we see that after the Fall and because of man's sinfulness, God abhorred the sinner in that He looked upon the corrupted man and woman with horror in what they had done and become. He separated Himself or shrank back from sinful humanity (Gen. 3:22-24) as He drove Adam and Eve from the Garden. He did this because of man's sinfulness. And yet God also did this because He had, and has, in His eternal plan a caring and providential love for mankind and a redemptive love specifically for Adam and Eve and their children of promise (Gen. 3:20-21). To stay in God's immediate presence would have meant death for them. In a true sense we can say that for God to abhor the sinners Adam and Eve didn't exclude for God to love the sinners Adam and Eve. And we can thus deduce that if God had not abhorred sinful man by separating from Adam and Eve, then mankind would have died (in them) as can be understood by the warning God gave to Moses, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Ex. 33:20). So God's abhorring or shrinking back from the sinner did not and does not exclude His love for the sinner.

Now looking again at the OPC 3rd membership vow -

(3) Do you confess that because of your sinfulness you abhor and humble yourself before God, that you repent of your sin, and that you trust for salvation not in yourself but in Jesus Christ alone

My focus is the question: Is it unbiblical for the Christian, because of his sinfulness, to abhor and humble himself before God? Some would say yes. Why would someone think that? Well, as the thinking goes, to hate ourselves as Christians is to deny that God loves us! If God loves us and we are now His children it would be an act of unbelief on our part to hate that which God loves as well as a nonacceptance on our part of what Christ has accomplished on the cross to remove our sin and sinner-status before God. We are now children of God, new creatures! In short, the thinking is that to abhor ourselves because of our sinfulness and to be loved by God are exclusive of one another. We should not hate that which God loves. This conclusion is erroneous and based upon an insufficient knowledge of holiness of God and knowledge of the sinfulness of man.

Now back to the third membership vow. How are we to interpret the first clause of the third vow? It says that being sinners who have sinned against and do still regularly sin and offend our Creator's holiness, we should have a certain regard or attitude toward ourselves when it comes to salvation. The attitude we are to have is that because of our sinfulness, we should completely shrink back from or separate from any perceived ground of goodness or righteousness in ourselves. Why? Because even our righteousness are as filthy rags before God (Isa. 64:6; Rom 3:10-1, 7:18-19; Phil. 3:9a). And that we, remaining sinners in this life, should regard ourselves with a kind of self-separation, loathing, or horror of ourselves as sinners who have and still do rebelliously sin against God (Ez. 36:24-32), especially in light of the mercy and grace lavishly bestowed upon us in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian acknowledges a truth that is based on a biblically revealed knowledge of self:

That which is OF me produces no good or righteousness IN me. In other words, nothing OF me can move me toward an acceptance with God. Rather what I am in and of myself as a sinner can only move me away from God.

Thus the only ground, source, and hope for forgiveness and righteousness that secures everlasting fellowship with God, and indeed eternal salvation, lies in 1) abhorring oursleves (judging our sinful selves as completely wanting of any righteousness and shrinking from or turning away from ourselves), 2) in repentance humbling ourselves before God, and 3) trusting alone in the One who abhorred not the Virgin's womb. God in Christ Jesus, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, ended the separation between Himself and sinful man by uniting Himself with our humanity. Jesus took upon Himself our sins and judgment in order that we should be counted righteous and without sin unto eternal life solely on the basis of His work of the cross (Phil. 2:1-11; 2 Cor. 5:21; John 3:16).

In a word, there is a Gospel necessity, that because of our sinfulness we confess our self-abhorrence and humble ourselves in repentance before God as an integral part of placing our complete trust in Christ and his finished work alone for our salvation.

Confession: Loathing Our Sins and Ourselves - the Sinner...

Confession of sins (see Here, Here, and Here) entails more than just listing and condemning our sins but also zeroing in on ourselves the sinner whose thoughts, words, and deeds always fall miserably short of the holiness required of us by God and so should always indict us. Indeed, amazingly we have been given the grace and mercy of God so that we can flee to Christ and there find our comfort and our remedy. Yet, our inherent fallen condition with which we daily struggle should always and increasingly humble us.

"We must know that our old state, with its evil principles, continues still in a measure, or else we shall not be fit for the great duties of confessing our sins, loathing ourselves for them, praying earnestly for the pardon of them, a just sorrowing for them with a godly sorrow, accepting the punishment of our sins and giving God the glory of His justice, and offering to Him the sacrifice of a glory and contrite spirit, being poor in spirit, working out our salvation with fear and trembling...

"You must make a good use of the whole matter and all the manner of prayer, as ordinary and extraordinary exigencies may require, to stir up grace in you by wrestling, and to bring your hearts into a holy frame. As in confession, you must condemn yourself according to the flesh, but not as you are in Christ. You must not deny that grace that you have, as if you were only wicked before, and now to begin again - which hinders praise for grace received in those that are already converted. In supplication, you must endeavour to work up your heart to a godly sorrow (Ps. 38: 18), and a holy sense of your own sin and misery, and lay before you the aggravations thereof (Ps. 51:3; 102). Complaint and lamentation are one great part of prayer, as the Lamentations of Jeremiah."  Walter Marshall. The Mystery of Gospel Sanctification 

From Calvin's Hosea commentary: 

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou art pleased to invite us daily to thyself, we may respond to thy call in the spirit of meekness and obedience; and do thou also so seriously impress our minds, that we may not only confess our sins, but also so loathe ourselves on account of them, that we may without delay seek the true remedy, and, relying on thy mercy, may so repent, that thy name may hereafter be glorified in us, until we shall at length become partakers of that glory, which thy Son has obtained for us by his own blood. -- Amen. (John Calvin)

Calvin: The Confession of Sins and The Right Hand that Rescues...

How are we forgiven of our sins? Or put another way, what is entailed in the confession of

our sins that effects our pardon? We have been addressing this topic of confession (Here and Here) by highlighting John Calvin's thoughts on the matter. In the passaged below, Calvin refutes the Roman Catholic teaching of the requirement to confess (list) all of one's sins to a priest in order to be forgiven of those sins. 

As for the fact that they impose a law of listing all sins and they deny that sins can be forgiven unless one has the firm intention of confessing; and they say that the entrance to paradise is closed to those who have scorned the opportunity to confess: those things must not be tolerated at all.

How is this not a sort of "forgiveness through works?" The question isn't whether Christians should or shouldn't confess individual sins. But to focus solely on specific sins is to miss the core corruption which is us, the sinner who sins, the sinner who deceives himself, the sinner who is all too blind to his own weaknesses and trespasses of the moral law. 

For how do they think one can list all sins? Since David who, I believe, had very well thought about the confession of his sins beforehand, nevertheless could not do otherwise than cry: "Who grasps his sins? Lord, purify me of my secret sins!" (Ps. 19:12). In another place he says: "My iniquities have gone over my head, and have overwhelmed my strength like a heavy burden" (Ps. 38:4). Certainly he understood how great was the abyss of our sins and how many kinds of crimes there are in a person, how many heads this monster of sin has, and how long a tail he pulls behind hind him. He did not set himself then to make a full recounting, but from the depth of his sins he cried to God: "I am submerged, buried, suffocated, the doors of hell have closed around me; let your right hand draw me out of this pit in which I am drowning, and from this death into which I have fallen!" Who now will think that he can keep account of his sins, when he sees David could not discover the number of his?... 

... For in occupying themselves completely with listing their sins, they meanwhile forget the secret abyss of vice which they have in the depth of the heart, their inward iniquities and hidden filth. In order to have the knowledge of the latter they have to think chiefly about their wretchedness. On the contrary, this is the right rule of confession: to confess and recognize such an abyss of evil in us as overwhelms our senses. We see that the confession of the publican was composed in that form: "Lord, be favorable to me, a sinner" (Lk. 18:13), as if he said: "All that is in me is only sin, such that my thought and my tongue cannot grasp the greatness of it. So let the abyss of your mercy swallow up the abyss of my sins!" [emphasis added]
- John Calvin. Institutes of the Christian Religion: The First English Version of the 1541 French Edition

"Let your right hand..." One can easily overlook this phrase employed by Calvin. Yet to do so would miss the import of his final sentence, So let the abyss of your mercy swallow up the abyss of my sins! In Scripture and especially the Psalms the right hand of God is a metonym for the mercy and authority of God, i.e. the Messiah (Psalm 17:7; 18:35; 60:5; 63:8; 108:6; 138:7; 139:10). It is by and in the Messiah Jesus Christ that God pardons sinners. It is Christ who offered himself up once for sins who is the abyss of God's mercy, who alone provides complete cleansing of the sinner and all his sins (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12) - known or unknown - which mercy is received freely by all who look to him. As the New Testament writers teach, this Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of God in the heavenly places. He has been given all power and authority (Matthew 28:18) and he is the Savior of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). By faith let us flee to him...

Confess Your Sins to One Another...

Our topic is confession of sins and forgiveness which began with Calvin's encouragement to readily come to Jesus Christ who is our Physician in order to find healing for our infirmities, peace for our troubled consciences from the guilt of our sins. Christ shed his blood for this very purpose. But is private confession made alone to God the only kind of confession of sins? A while back, my wife observed that one never feels more like a Christian than when he or she has confessed their sin to and asked for forgiveness from someone they've offended. Amen. All who have done this know the difficulty with which this is accomplished, one involving the struggle against our stubborn pride and self-justifying rationalizations. Yet when we follow through - as James writes, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed - we find ourselves refreshingly humbled and renewed, having arrived at a simple and godly stance - that of thankful, forgiven sinners at the foot of the cross, resting solely in Jesus's sacrifice for us. Calvin continues...

Moreover, scripture commends to us two other kinds of confession. One is made for our own sake. That is what St. James' saying is directed toward, that we confess our sins to each other (Jas. 5:16). For he means that, making known our weaknesses to each other, we may mutually help each other with counsel and comfort. The other kind of confession is done for the love of our neighbor who has been offended by our sin, to reconcile and find peace with him. Christ speaks about that in St. Matthew, saying: "If you present your offering at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there and go, reconcile yourself with your brother first, and then you will present your offering" (Matt. 5:23-24). For we must reunite love/charity, which has been cooled and weakened by our offense, by recognizing our sin and asking for pardon. 

As for the first kind of confession, although scripture does not assign a person to whom we may unburden ourselves and leaves us free to choose among the faithful whoever seems good to us as the one to hear our confession, nevertheless because pastors ought to be fitting above others for that, it is better for us to go instead to them. Now I say that they are more suitable than others since, on account count of their office they are established by God to instruct us how to overcome come sin, and to certify God's goodness in order to comfort us. That is why, when he feels in such perplexity of conscience that he cannot help himself without the help of another, let each faithful person prudently not neglect the remedy which he is offered by God; that is, in order to relieve and free himself from scruples let him confess individually to his pastor and receive comfort from him, since it is the pastor's office to comfort God's people with the teaching of the gospel individually as well as in public. However, we must always hold to this mean: that consciences must not be bound and brought under some yoke with regard to things which God has left free.John Calvin. The Institutes of Christian Religion, The First English Version of the 1541 French Edition

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Isaiah 55:6-7

'As For The Confession of Sins...' - Calvin

There are so many admonitions in the Bible for Christians to confess their sins. Certainly one of the reasons is that we don't readily do so, no? There is this inherent stubborn resistance we find within to readily humble ourselves and not only confess individual sins by name, but also own and present ourselves before our Lord as rebellious and unfaithful servants. For us he died and yet we all too often callously sin, that is we reject the righteousness that Christ won for us.

Below is John Calvin on the confession of sins: to whom and in what manner we confess. As is always the case, there is much to mine in this short excerpt. But one major take away is Calvin's pastoral call for the redeemed to avail themselves of the blood of Christ shed for them for forgiveness of sins and cleansing of troubled consciences.

"As for the confession of sins, scripture teaches us thus: because it is the Lord who forgives, forgets, and wipes out sins, let us confess to Him to obtain grace and pardon. He is the Physician so let us show Him our wounds and sores. It is He who has been offended and wounded so let us ask of Him mercy and peace. It is He who knows the hearts and sees all the thoughts so let us open our hearts before Him. It is He who calls sinners so let us withdraw to Him. 

"David says: "I have made known to you my sin and I have not hidden my iniquity. I said, `I will confess against myself, I will confess my unrighteousness to the Lord, and you have pardoned the iniquity of my heart"' (Ps. 32:5). Another confession of the same David is similar: "Have pity on me, Lord, according to your great mercy" (Ps. 51:1). Such is likewise the confession of Daniel: "We have sinned, Lord, we have done what is perverse, we have committed impiety and have rebelled against your commandments" (Dan. 9:5). There are enough other similar ones which are seen in scripture. "If we confess our sins;' says St. John, "the Lord is faithful to pardon us" (1 Jn. 1:9).  

"To whom do we confess them? To Him certainly. That is, if with an afflicted and humbled heart we bow ourselves before Him; if in true sincerity, rebuking and condemning ourselves before His face, we ask to be absolved by His goodness and mercy. Whoever makes this confession of heart before God will also no doubt have a tongue ready to confess, when there is need to proclaim God's mercy among the people. And this not only to disclose the secret of his heart to a single person, once, in the ear, but freely to make known his poverty as well as God's glory, more than a few times, publicly and with all the world hearing. In this way, after having been rebuked by Nathan and being pierced with a goad of conscience, David confessed his sin before God and before people. He says: "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam. 12:13), that is, "I do not want to excuse myself anymore, or equivocate so that everyone will not judge me to be a sinner, or so that what I wanted to hide from God might not be clear even to people." This is the way we must take the solemn confession which is made by the whole people at the admonition of Nehemiah and Ezra [Ezra 10:1-17; Neh. 9:1-37]. All churches ought to follow this example when they ask pardon from God, as is certainly the custom among churches which are well ordered." [emphasis added]

John Calvin. The Institutes of Christain Religion, The First English Version of the 1541 French Edition 

John Calvin on Confessing Sins

"As for the confession of sins, scripture teaches us thus: because it is the Lord who forgives, forgets, and wipes out sins, let us confess to Him to obtain grace and pardon. He is the Physician so let us show Him our wounds and sores. It is He who has been offended and wounded so let us ask of Him mercy and peace. It is He who knows the hearts and sees all the thoughts so let us open our hearts before Him. It is He who calls sinners so let us withdraw to Him. David says: "I have made known to you my sin and I have not hidden my iniquity. I said, `I will confess against myself, I will confess my unrighteousness to the Lord, and you have pardoned the iniquity of my heart"' (Ps. 32[5]). Another confession of the same David is similar: "Have pity on me, Lord, according to your great mercy" (Ps. 51[1]). Such is likewise the confession of Daniel: "We have sinned, Lord, we have done what is perverse, we have committed impiety and have rebelled against your commandments" (Dan. 9[5]). There are enough other similar ones which are seen in scripture. "If we confess our sins;' says St. John, "the Lord is faithful to pardon us" (i Jn. 1[9] ).

"To whom do we confess them? To Him certainly. That is, if with an afflicted  and humbled heart we bow ourselves before Him; if in true sincerity, rebuking and condemning ourselves before His face, we ask to be absolved by His goodness and mercy. Whoever makes this confession of heart before God will also no doubt have a tongue ready to confess, when there is need to proclaim God's mercy among the people. And this not only to disclose the secret of his heart to a single person, once, in the ear, but freely to make known his poverty as well as God's glory, more than a few times, publicly and with all the world hearing. In this way, after having been rebuked by Nathan than and being pierced with a goad of conscience, David confessed his sin before God and before people. He says: "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam. 12[13]), that is, "I do not want to excuse myself any more, or equivocate so that everyone will not judge me to be a sinner, or so that what I wanted to hide from God might not be clear even to people." This is the way we must take the solemn confession which is made by the whole people at the admonition of Nehemiah and Ezra [Ezra 10:1-17; Neh. 9:1-37]. All churches ought to follow this example when they ask pardon from God, as is certainly the custom among churches which are well ordered."

John Calvin. Institutes of the Christian Religion: The First English Version of the 1541 French Edition

"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead..."

OK, to grasp the condition of our fallen estate in this life is just way beyond us. This is especially true if we attempt the impossible task of comprehending the incomprehensible holiness of God. How immense is that chasm between our "righteousness" and God's! How far short of the glory of God have we fallen, even due to one sin? Think of Adam... With this in mind I wonder what would be our reaction if we ever came face to face with our glorified Lord in this life?

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. [ESV]
 (Rev 1: 9-18)

These words are of the Apostle John - the disciple whom Jesus loved - near the end of his life after eighty-plus years of faithfully following the Lord. Years of the Holy Spirit's refining work in his life. He probably had as good a handle as anyone on the reality of the sinful nature and also the forgiveness of sins that was his in Christ. And yet when face to face with the glorified Lord, his instinctive reaction, the only thing he could to do, was to fall at Jesus's feet as though dead! He, a saved sinner, had come face to face with Righteousness. 

I'm sure it's no coincidence that John in his first letter exhorts believers to regular acknowledgment and confession of sin. Certainly that and more is needed to disabuse us of the tempting delusion that we in our own persons and works are becoming more acceptable to God.  Do we think we are acquiring a measure of inward holiness that commends us to God? Indeed, as those effectually called and regenerated [we] are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in [us] (WCF 13.1). And yet the only holiness and righteousness that commends us to God is that of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the hand of God, by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come; and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom, by them, we can neither profit, nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins, but when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants: and because, as they are good, they proceed from his Spirit; and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment.

Notwithstanding, the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblamable and unreprovable in God's sight; but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. (WCF 16.5-6)

When coming to God even our best works are stained with sin. If our best was all there was for us to bring then we would be as dead men. But we come to God calling on the Lord Jesus our Mediator and Advocate who continually intercedes for us with his blood and righteousness - washing away our sins, cleansing our stained consciences, and clothing us with his moral perfection.  He reaches out his right hand putting it on us and says, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore..."  

King David's Repentance...

From Dr. Michael Horton’s systematic, The Christian Faith, page 578

Referring to Psalm 51 Dr. Horton writes:

First, we recognize that David is not ashamed of his behavior but guilty.  Second, although he has sinned cruelly against Bathsheba and plotted the death of her husband, he recognizes that his sin is first and foremost against God.  Repentance is not only remorse for having wronged our neighbor, but is a recognition that God is the most offended party.  Third, David does not try to atone for his sins or pacify God’s just anger by his remorse.  David confesses that before God’s throne he is condemned, and he does not try to justify himself.  Fourth, David acknowledges not only his sinful actions but his sinful condition from the hour of conception.  Repentance pertains not only to certain sins; pagans can be remorseful for their immoderate behavior.  Rather, it is the revulsion of the whole soul toward its alliance with sin and death. 

A Church or a clean club?

[A companion to this post from March 2012: Word and Sacrament - Gospel Sanctification]

I have a friend, an elderly English gentleman, who left the Anglican Church back in the 1960s.  He said that he finally had come to the conclusion that the Church of England was basically a clean club.  I don't think that was necessarily an accurate assessment of every parish in the Church, but what did he mean by that?  Maybe that the Church seemed to be made up of pretty decent people who, more or less, were doing pretty well with this Christian life thing.  That all was pretty good in the lives of the flock.  No big struggles with sin.  No bouts with doubts.  And that just didn't describe his life which was fraught with struggles and weaknesses.  The Church, in his eyes, seemed to be the place for the mostly-together-good people, a clean club.

So, what is wrong with that?  Well, there's nothing wrong with people doing OK.  But there is something wrong with the idea that the Lord's house is a place for people who are not that bad, people who are pretty good.  My friend's description of his church is a picture of how Christians, and people in general, tend to look on the surface.  Yet it's this surface image of a clean club which we protectively hold that minimizes the reality of our sinful natures and the sins that beset us.  Being a card-carrying member of a clean club short-circuits the need to hear God's unvarnished Law which exposes and magnifies our sin, leaving one with little thirst for the cleansing comfort of God's amazing grace declared in His Gospel.

Think of the incident found in Luke 7:

³⁶ Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, ³⁸ and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.”

Parable of Two Debtors

⁴⁰ And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” ⁴¹ “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” ⁴⁴ Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. ⁴⁷ For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” ⁴⁸ Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” ⁴⁹ Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Which debtor are we?  The one who owes a small amount or the one who owes an enormous debt?  Well, if you're like me, you do think of yourself as a sinner, but not that big of a sinner!  It's especially so because, hey, we've been Christians for quite a while.  We've made progress.  We've grown.  I've improved and am more acceptable than I use to be.  We think what we mainly need is, not the blood of the cross, but more grace and help to live as we ought.  The emphasis can become less and less on what our Savior Christ Jesus has done for us sinners and more on how we can grow to better live for God.

The Reformers were on to something; and that something was that we Christians are indeed very big debtors, in their words - miserable sinners.  They preached the Law in order to do much more than just inform Christians on how they were to live.  Rather, the Law was presented in order to reveal, within the hearers, sin as utterly sinful.  They also boldly proclaimed the reconciliation of sinners in Christ Jesus.  And sinners/saints having heard, looked with renewed faith to Christ alone as those reckoned righteous by God's grace.

In the incident above, Jesus was teaching what it means to be a Christian, not just what it means to initially get saved.  In other words, we are great sinners who have mercifully received a great salvation.  And, I don't think the apostle Paul was merely waxing eloquent when he declared near the end of his life to Timothy, Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief (1 Tim. 1:15). We loses sight of this since part of what it means to be a sinner is to be one who denies or obscures his sin, in a clean-club sort of way.  Therefore, it falls to the Church, through the ministry of Word and Sacrament, to perpetually call believers to not dissemble nor cloak our [sins] before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but acknowledge and confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by His infinite goodness and mercy in Christ Jesus (Morning Prayer 1662 BCP).

So let's be done with clean clubs and take direction from Martin Luther who, in a letter to Spalatin, wrote:

Therefore my faithful request and admonition is that you join our company and associate with us, who are real, great, and hard-boiled sinners.  You must by no means make Christ to seem paltry and trifling to us, as though He could be our Helper only when we want to be rid from imaginary, nominal, and childish sins.  No, no!  That would not be good for us.  He must rather be a Savior and Redeemer from real, great, grievous, and damnable transgressions and iniquities, yea, from the very greatest and most shocking sins; to be brief, from all sins added together in a grand total.

Jesus Christ gave Himself to die on the cross to save real sinners with real sins.

Reformed Liturgical Confession of Sin and Absolution (3)

Concerning the forgiveness of sins and the keys of the kingdom, the last two posts (Here and Here) show that the power of forgiving or retaining sins is in the power of the gospel preached and as Calvin noted, strictly speaking "Christ did not give this power to men but to his word, of which he made men the ministers."

So then, when the Lord's people publicly gather for worship, is it necessary to have a public confession of sin and absolution apart from the hearing of the Gospel in the sermon preached?  Isn't hearing the gospel and believing enough?  And, if there is to be a confession and absolution, how is it to be worded in order to reflect the biblical truth that forgiveness of sins comes through repentance and faith in Christ Jesus alone as proclaimed in that gospel and not by the word of man, even that of a godly minister?

Here's John Calvin addressing that first question concerning public confession of sin:

Seeing that in every sacred assembly we stand in the view of God and angels, in what way should our service begin but in acknowledging our own unworthiness? But this you will say is done in every prayer; for as often as we pray for pardon, we confess our sins. I admit it. But if you consider how great is our carelessness, or drowsiness, or sloth, you will grant me that it would be a salutary ordinance if the Christian people were exercised in humiliation by some formal method of confession. For though the ceremony which the Lord enjoined on the Israelites belonged to the tutelage of the Law, yet the thing itself belongs in some respect to us also. And, indeed, in all well-ordered churches, in observance of an useful custom, the minister, each Lord's day, frames a formula of confession in his own name and that of the people, in which he makes a common confession of iniquity, and supplicates pardon from the Lord. In short, by this key a door of prayer is opened privately for each, and publicly for all. (Institutes 3.4.2)

and...

Our first entrance into the Church and the kingdom of God is by forgiveness of sins, without which we have no covenant nor union with God. For thus he speaks by the Prophet, "in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle, out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies (Hos. 2:18, 19). We see in what way the Lord reconciles us to Himself by His mercy. So in another passage, where he foretells that the people whom he had scattered in anger will again be gathered together, I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me (Jer. 33:8). Wherefore, our initiation into the fellowship of the Church is by the symbol of ablution, to teach us that we have no admission into the family of God, unless by His goodness our impurities are previously washed away.

Nor by remission of sins does the Lord only once for all elect and admit us into the Church, but by the same means He preserves and defends us in it. For what would it avail us to receive a pardon of which we were afterwards to have no use? That the mercy of the Lord would be vain and delusive if only granted once, all the godly can bear witness; for there is none who is not conscious, during his whole life, of many infirmities which stand in need of divine mercy. And truly it is not without cause that the Lord promises this gift specially to his own household, nor in vain that He orders the same message of reconciliation to be daily delivered to them. Wherefore, as during our whole lives we carry about with us the remains of sin, we could not continue in the Church one single moment were we not sustained by the uninterrupted grace of God in forgiving our sins." (Institutes 4.1.20)

I doubt there are many who would argue against Calvin's reasoning here.  Certainly the practice had a long tradition in church history and was found in all the confessional churches of the Reformation - Lutheran, Reformed, and Presbyterian.  The thing I really want to look at, though, is how the reformers worded the confession of sin and absolution in their liturgies.  Or put another way, how did the reformed ministers of the gospel exercise the keys of the kingdom when it came to public confession of sin and assurance of pardon?  

As you'll see below, the power of forgiveness was anchored in the Gospel and not the minister.  One of the striking things in the following examples is that the minister offers absolution not to just anyone sitting in the pew, but only to those who repent and believe in the gospel.  Absolution is not merely a word proclaimed by the minister.  Rather, it is a sure and certain pardon offered and proclaimed by the minister to all who repent and believe in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.  By the hearing of the Good News offered in Christ Jesus via the words of God's ordained minister of the gospel, the faith of the sinner/saint is engaged.  And it is through faith in Christ that forgiveness and mercy are received by the grace of God.

Martin Bucer's 1539 Liturgy:
Public Confession of Sins

Make confession to God the Lord, and let everyone acknowledge with me his sin and iniquity:  Almighty, eternal God and Father, we confess and acknowledge unto You that we were conceived in unrighteousness and are full of sin and transgression in all our life. We do not fully believe Your Word nor follow Your holy commandments. Remember Your goodness, we beseech You, and for Your Name's sake be gracious unto us, and forgive us our iniquity which, alas, is great Amen.

Public Absolution of Sins

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Tim. 1:15)

Let everyone, with St. Paul, truly acknowledge this in his heart and believe in Christ. Thus, in His name, I proclaim unto you the forgiveness of all your sins, and declare you to be loosed of them on earth, that you be loosed of them also in heaven, in eternity. Amen.

From 1539 used by John Knox in Scotland and John Calvin in Geneva -
Confession of Sins:

Almighty God, eternal Father, we acknowledge and confess to you that we were born in unrighteousness. Our life is full of sin and transgression; we have not gladly believed your Word nor followed your holy commandments. For your goodness’ sake and for your name’s sake, be gracious unto us, we pray, and forgive us all our sin, which is very great. Amen.

Let each of us come before the face of the Lord, confessing our own faults.

Silent Prayer of Confession

Assurance and Absolution

This saying is true and we should believe it: that Christ Jesus came into the world to rescue sinners. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good. To all those who repent, therefore, I proclaim to you the forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Strasbourg Liturgy of 1545
Public Confession of Sins

My brethren, let each of you present himself before the face of the Lord, and confess his faults and sins, following my words in his heart:

O Lord God, eternal and almighty Father, we confess and sincerely acknowledge before Your holy Majesty that we are poor sinners, conceived and born in iniquity and corruption, prone to do evil, incapable of any good, and that in our depravity we transgress Your holy commandments without end or ceasing; therefore we purchase for ourselves, through Your righteous judgment, our ruin and perdition. Nevertheless, O Lord, we are grieved that we have offended You, and we condemn ourselves and our sins with true repentance, beseeching Your grace to relieve our distress. O God and Father, most gracious and full of compassion, have mercy upon us in the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And as You do blot out our sins and stains, magnify and increase in us day by day the grace of Your Holy Spirit; that as we acknowledge our unrighteousness with all our heart, we may be moved by that sorrow which shall bring forth true repentance in us, mortifying all our sins, and producing in us the fruits of righteousness and innocence which are pleasing to You, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Public Absolution of Sins

Let each of you truly acknowledge that he is a sinner, humbling himself before God, and believe that the heavenly Father wills to be gracious unto him in Jesus Christ.

To all those that repent in this way, and look to Jesus Christ for their salvation, I declare that the absolution of sins is effected, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1662 (same as 1552) Book of Common Prayer -

Holy Communion

General Confession:

ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Absolution:

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him.

COME unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. St. Matth. xi. 28.

So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. St. John iii. 16

Hear also what Saint Paul saith. This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Tim. i. 15.

Hear also what Saint John saith. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins. 1 St. John ii. 1.

1662 (same as 1552) Book Of Common Prayer -

Morning Prayer

DEARLY beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us, in sundry places, to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought, at all times, humbly to acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice, unto the throne of the heavenly grace, saying after me;

A general Confession to be said of the whole Congregation after the Minister, all kneeling.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The Absolution, or Remission of sins, to be pronounced by the Minister alone, standing; the people still kneeling.

 ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, and live; and hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins : He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him, which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure, and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The people shall answer here, and at the end of all other prayers,

Amen.

How are sins forgiven? (1)

Over at the Jason Stellman thread at Green Baggins, I was asked by a Roman Catholic commenter, "How do you know God forgives your sins?"  Why the question?  Not being Roman Catholic and thus not availing myself of a priest in order to confess my sins and receive absolution, he truly wanted to know how I could be sure that my sins were forgiven. The whole thing hinges on the difference between the Protestant and Roman Catholic understanding of John 20:21-23 which reads,

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

From these verses it's taken by Roman Catholics that Jesus gave the apostles the sole authority to hear the confession of sins and to forgive those sins.  And that that power has been transferred from the apostles through the laying on of hands, solely, to ordained Roman Catholic bishops and priests down through the centuries.  Thus, no confession given to an ordained Roman Catholic priest, no absolution of sins.

So in reference to the apostles, the question is, are Jesus' words referring to confessors who hear and absolve sin or to those who preach the gospel for the forgiveness of sins?  In other words, how are sins forgiven?  In order to be forgiven of one's sins by God, must one confess his sins to a priest?  Or does God grant forgiveness to those who approach Him directly, believing in Christ alone for forgiveness, trusting solely in the mercy of God proclaimed in the gospel?

In verse 21 Jesus says, "as the Father sent Me, I also send you."  He, the Apostle and high Priest of our confession, connects His sending by the Father with the sending of His apostles.  Their mission is to be a continuation of the apostolic, redemptive mission of Christ by being, not confessors, but witnesses of Jesus' finished work of the cross.  Looking at Luke 4:16-21, we see the inauguration of Jesus' ministry:

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰ And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus says He came to "preach the gospel... to proclaim release to the captives," i.e. bring good news.  How?  By the proclamation of Himself as the Son of God and in His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave.  The proclamation of that Act is how captives, believing that good news, are released from the bondage of sin's guilt and shame.  But again considering the sending of the apostles, is the role of confessor previewed in Jesus?  To answer that, it's helpful to look at Luke 24:45-49, since this passage immediately precedes the events that unfold in the Acts of the Apostles:

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

In those last days before His ascension, Jesus opened up the Scriptures to the apostles in order for them to understand the good news of his death and resurrection of which they would speak and point to.  They were witnesses to His death and resurrection and were being sent by Jesus to preach that witness, and those two things uniquely qualified them to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His name.

Now turning to Acts 2:37, where we find the first mention of forgiveness of sins after the coming of the Holy Spirit:  Peter said unto them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."  A few verses later we read that "all those who believed were together..."  So the first example of forgiveness of sins being offered by the apostles is Peter preaching the gospel for the forgiveness of sins.  Forgiveness of sins is connected to repentance, belief, and baptism.  No mention of confession to a priest or an apostle!

In Acts 3, we again see Peter as he preaches the gospel.  In his message he declares (verses 19, 26), 'Therefore repent and return, so that your sins might be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord... God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.'  A few verses later in Acts 4:4, Luke writes 'But many of those who had heard the message believed...'  Sins are "wiped away" as sinners repent and believe the gospel message they heard.  Peter's role is that of a preacher of the gospel.

A little later in Acts 5:27-32, standing before the Council, Peter and the apostles give a defense of their preaching Christ as Messiah:

When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.  The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.  And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.

The apostles stated that they must obey God rather than man.  And that obedience was to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ who died on the cross, whom God raised and exalted as Savior, by Whom repentance and forgiveness of sins be granted to Israel.

Finally, in Acts 10:43 we read Peter addressing the household of Cornelius, "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."  While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message.  Peter is bringing forgiveness of sins by proclaiming th gospel of Christ.  And that gospel includes the promise of forgiveness of sins to everyone who believes!

I could go on, but the point is clear.  We see no examples in Acts wherein the apostles present themselves as confessors for the forgiveness of sins or that forgiveness of sins is dependent upon a sinner confessing to an apostle.  If in John 20:23, Jesus' final mandate to the apostles was that sins were to be forgiven through them as confessors, then one would certainly expect some apostolic example of that in what followed.  Rather, what we see is that the power of forgiving or retaining sins is in the power of the gospel preached by the apostles.  To those who received and believed their message of Jesus crucified and risen, their sins were forgiven.  To those that rejected their gospel, their sins were retained.

[As a side note, the binding and loosing passage in Matthew 16:13-19 can be understood similarly, as it is consistent with the above.]