Confession Is A Blessing

Well friends, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Christians do this weird thing, don't we? We confess our sins, and we do it all the time. It might seem strange to someone unfamiliar with this practice, constantly pointing out our wrongdoings and asking for forgiveness. But for Christians, it's a way of life. God tells us to confess our sins, as we see in Psalms, like Psalm 32, a penitential psalm confessing our sin and need for forgiveness to God. We are taught to confess because we believe confession is a blessing.

I want to focus on how confession is a blessing and what Psalms like Psalm 32 teach us about it. Psalm 32 shows us what happens when we don't confess our sins. Verses 3 and 4 say, "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer." You can almost feel that, can't you? The feeling of your bones being dried up and the scorching heat. When you feel guilty and don't express it, you hide your guilt, and it sits heavy within you.

What happens when we don't confess our sins? Spiritually, those who are unrepentant have hell to pay. But even for those who trust in Jesus, unconfessed sin can affect our bodies. Have you ever felt so guilty that your body felt it, making you feel unwell? Our souls also feel the weight, causing unease and worry about God's and others' perceptions. We feel exposed. Furthermore, our relationships suffer when we don't acknowledge our sins and apologize. This can lead to breakups and hatred. We might also have experienced the other side, feeling hurt when someone won't admit their wrongdoing. Our bodies, souls, and relationships all suffer from unacknowledged sin.

This suffering stems from the terrible alternatives we try instead of confessing. We try to cover up our sins, like Adam and Eve. We try to hide our guilt, ensuring no trace of our actions remains. We also try to blame others, shifting focus away from ourselves. We might even justify our actions by claiming others provoked us or that circumstances forced our hand. At its worst, we might even celebrate sin, contradicting what God calls wrong. We make excuses for our thoughts, purchases, viewing habits, and tempers. Satan loves to perpetuate the lie that confession is merely uncomfortable and not a blessing, that owning up to sin will worsen our lives.

But that's a lie. We began our service by acknowledging that if we claim to have no sin, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Confessing is telling the truth. Any attempt to cover up or justify our sin is a lie to ourselves, preventing us from receiving the blessing of confession. Psalm 32:2 says, "Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no deceit." Confessing is being truthful about ourselves.

It's important to remember that when we confess, we always do so imperfectly. No one can name all their sins, not even from the past week. We are often unaware of the ways we've hurt others, even unintentionally. The curse of our sin is deeper than we can comprehend. Even when we try to confess completely, we can't fully grasp the extent of our depravity. Therefore, we always confess imperfectly, needing Jesus entirely. Confession acknowledges that Jesus is our only hope. If we believe we can be saved by perfectly enumerating and confessing every sin, we are deceiving ourselves. Salvation doesn't come from a perfect confession.

We confess imperfectly, trusting that Jesus is our only hope. Verse 5 says, "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord'—and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." Notice the three words for sin: sin, iniquity, and transgressions. "Sin" refers to missing the mark, failing to do what is right. We are complete failures in this regard. "Iniquity" describes our crooked status, our disordered nature. We are not who we should be, and we cannot fix ourselves. "Transgressions" refer to our broken relationship with God, a violation of trust, a betrayal. We break this trust whenever we sin. God invites us to confess because it's a blessing for our benefit.

The rest of verse 5 says, "and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." At least right here, the word "forgave" in Hebrew comes from the word "nasa", which means to bear guilt or to bear the punishment, and so because you have sinned, when you confess, you are saying you "nasa", you bear guilt. But what does verse 5 say? "You nasa the iniquity of my sin!" Forgiveness is when God bears your guilt, your punishment for your sin. 2 Corinthians 5: 21 says, "For our sake God made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Luther calls this The Great Exchange where you give all your sin, all your iniquity, all your transgression, all your guilt to God; He takes it, "nasa", for you so that you no longer have to "nasa" your guilt and sin yourself. He gives you his righteousness, his peace, his Holiness. It's The Great Exchange.

Verse 7 says, "You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance." God not only makes that great exchange for us on the cross, taking our sin, iniquity, and transgression, but He also delivers that forgiveness to us. We know we are forgiven and no longer bear the guilt of our sin. Luther said that the work of redemption is accomplished, but it needs to be proclaimed so that the treasure is received and enjoyed. God surrounds us with shouts of deliverance. If Jesus died for us but we never knew it, what good would it be? He died and made it known, giving us forgiveness so we might have peace. When we confess our sins to God, we always hear forgiveness. Confession is a blessing.

You might ask, aren't we already saved and always forgiven? Why does God teach us to ask for forgiveness repeatedly? Yes, you are already saved and have forgiveness. But Jesus teaches us to confess regularly. The Lord's Prayer includes, "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Jesus wants us to pray this repeatedly, teaching us to confess our sins, our transgressions, over and over. Confessing our sins is a way of life because we are still sinners. If Satan accuses you of your sin, you need to confess again and again. When you confess, forgiveness follows. Jesus also teaches us to forgive regularly, as Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." When you confess your sins, you receive forgiveness repeatedly, bringing comfort and peace even amidst your sins, giving you a clear conscience even as a sinner.

Psalm 32 and other penitential Psalms invite us to confess our sins and pray for forgiveness. When we confess, we acknowledge our sinfulness, but because it's always followed by forgiveness, it's also an invitation to believe the gospel. Sometimes, it's harder to believe that we are forgiven than that we are sinful. Our Lord Jesus invites us to believe in our forgiveness is as real as our sin. As real as our sins are, our forgiveness is even more real.

I also want to extend an invitation, something not always common in Lutheran churches but available: to come and see me privately as a pastor to confess your sins. This is voluntary, for those burdened by a particular sin, needing to hear the Lord's forgiveness directly. What you confess remains private. The ears of a pastor are a tomb. It's a way to hear the Lord's forgiveness for specific sins that Satan uses to trouble you.

I also invite you to speak forgiveness. Jesus gives you, dear Christian, the keys to Heaven, the authority to speak His forgiveness on His behalf. You have the power to change someone's eternal destiny. If someone confesses their sin to you and needs to hear forgiveness, you can say, "In Jesus' name, who died and rose for you and takes all your sins, you are forgiven." You have the authority to say this on Jesus' behalf. Forgive people, using the words Jesus and forgiveness. John 20:22-23 says that Jesus 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." If you have the Holy Spirit, and you forgive sins, God is forgiving their sins. So friends, heed the invitations: forgive people their sins, believe the gospel, and confess your sins, because confession is a blessing. In Jesus' name, amen.