Thursday, June 16, 2016
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness....
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS--THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFT (4)
Again we quote from Luther's Catechism: "Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we don’t know we have done, as we do in the Lord's Prayer. However, before one another we should confess only those sins which we know and feel in our hearts."
"Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). With those words David confessed not only his sins of thought, word, and deed, but also his inherited sinfulness ("original sin"). Inherited sin is the bottom-line cause for all other sins, as Jesus says, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man" (Matthew 15:19f).
The sins mentioned by the Savior are the more public or open sins. It is such sins we might want to talk to our pastor (or another trusted Christian) about to receive the assurance of God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
While still in the ministry, I recall a couple instances where young people--one a young man, another a young woman--came to confess shop-lifting. I was able to comfort these individuals with the good news of the gospel, and at the same time help them work through their weaknesses.
The words which absolution give Are His who died that we might live;
The minister whom Christ has sent Is but His humble instrument.
All praise to You, O Christ, shall be For absolution full and free,
In which You show Your richest grace; From false indulgence guard our race.
(Lutheran Service Book, 614:5, 7)
