CONFESSION: THE LOST ELEMENT OF CHRISTIAN ATONEMENT

Although rites of confession are in most forms of Christian practice, the heart of confession seems to be lost.  In ancient Israel’s priestly temple of system of atonement (better: “purgation”) for sins, remorse and confession were necessary.  The purgation offering for sin was only provided by God for inadvertent commission of transgressions.  Inadvertent sins were portrayed as symbolically polluting the altar outside the temple building for individual sins and penetrating into the first chamber of the temple for the sins of the community.  When people learned of their inadvertent sin, remorse was expected.  Even for these inadvertencies, reconciliation was not effected by walking through some ritual by rote; it was only efficacious by the gracious response of God.

What about deliberate transgressions?  These sins were portrayed as penetrating into the innermost chamber of the temple, the “Holy of Holies,” which symbolized the immediate Presence of God.  Technically, there was no means provided for cleansing God’s inner sanctuary and restoring a right relationship with God for deliberate transgressions.  The relational covenant with God had deliberately been broken.  However, that is where remorse and confession came in.  Sincere confession of sin was understood to be received by God so that deliberate sins were brought into a state in which their detritus could now be cleansed by the purgation sin offering and symbolically “removed” by the scapegoat ritual.  Confession was necessary as well.  (“And it will be, when an individual feels guilt [remorse] with regard to one of these things, he must confess that which he sinned against it [a command of God], and bring his reparation-offering to the LORD,” Lev. 5:5-6:a).

Interestingly, since the Book of Leviticus is more a guide for what ritual actions to take rather than why, there is no explanation about how confession “reduces” the offense to what is expiable.  But, we do have an older Hittite text that mentions that if a servant confesses guilt to his lord, the lord’s soul might be pacified.*  So, oral, public confession makes sense.  Although “to seek God” is not priestly language, confession involves the same humility and surrender to God as does “seeking God” and entrusting oneself to God.

Moreover, since the NT writers use OT priestly atonement language to describe, in part, the salvific work of Jesus, they would have been well aware of the need for, and significance, of confession for forgiveness and cleansing.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9).

It is presumptuous arrogance on my part – as well as hard-hearted blindness to the gravity of sin – when I take forgiveness for granted.  Or, when in church, I mechanically read a confession of prayer.  Humbly kneeling before God and acknowledging that I have sinned and have no automatic “right” to be forgiven is what confession is about.  The Eucharistic cup of the blood of the new covenant – that is, it is the life of Jesus’ blood as the purgation/sin offering – should remind me how serious my unconfessed state is before God.

Invitation:

Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another.

Prayer:

Most merciful God,
we confess that 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 are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us,
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your name. Amen.

*Page 302 in Jacob Milgrom’s Leviticus 1 – 16 (Anchor Bible, 1991), who mastered a massive wealth of Hittite and Mesopotamian cultic material as background from which the Israelites adopted and adapted their rituals, and from whom I have drawn much of my understanding of the Israelite purgation/atonement system.