Confessing Your Sins

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
According to recent news reports, only 1 in 4 American Catholics goes to Confession as much as once a year. Hoping to reverse this trend, the Archdiocese of Baltimore recently launched a campaign called, “The Light Is On For You.”

Whatever the Protestant/Catholic divide on the theology of confession, it appears at a practical level, the Protestant confidence sins need only be confessed to God has won the debate. That’s not an altogether good thing.

No, I’m not lobbying for a Baptist version of “The Light Is On For You,” with folks required to recite their sins to a sympathetic priest or pastor in a ritualistic way. But there are times when confessing our sins to another person can break the cycle of secret and shame that holds us in bondage. As the book of James has it, “Confess your sins to one another . . . that you may be healed” (1:16).

Baptists and other Protestants delight in the New Testament confidence Jesus Christ is our perfect high priest (Hebrews 4:14-16). There is “one mediator” between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5), so no earthly priest is required. Further, Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to confess our sins directly to our heavenly Father: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

On the other hand, Jesus also gave his disciples authority to forgive sins: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23; Matthew 16:19). To my knowledge, this is the basis of Catholic teaching that “only” priests can forgive sins.

Rather than get caught up in the either/or thinking so typical in Protestant/Catholic debates, how ‘bout a both/and? Yes, as a matter of course, one can and should confess one’s sins directly to God. But there are times when a “priest” is needed to powerfully convey the grace and forgiveness at the heart of the Gospel. In other words, Jesus’ teaching about “retaining sins” is not a threat but a painful fact of life: sometimes our sins are “retained” until and unless a brother or sister in the family of faith becomes the welcoming, forgiving love of God to us.

Thus, the real difference in Baptists and Catholics is not whether a priest is ever needed. The real difference is that Baptists believe any Spirit-filled person can be a priest, not just those ordained to the office. Thus, the most radical Baptist mantra is not the “Priesthood of the Believer” (singular) but “The Priesthood of All Believers” (plural).

Choose your “priest” wisely. But if you are caught in a self-destructive cycle of secrets and shame, find someone you can trust to hear your confession and become the Good News to you. As Jesus warned, sometimes that’s required for his truth to set you free.

For March 1, 2009)