Confession of Sins reference

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Confession of Sins reference

Forum: Theological Expressions
Re:

Theology and Bible Interpretation (Bill Roth)
Re:

domus Dei (Emmanuel)
Re:

Goals of Interpretation (Bill Roth)
Date: 2001, Jul 13
From: Emmanuel

Dear, Here's a sharing on Confession, WHY DO I HAVE TO CONFESS MY SINS TO A PRIEST? "Any forgiving I have done has been for your sakes, and, before Christ, to prevent Satan -- whose guile we know too well -- from outwitting us."(2 Corinthians 2:10-11) We confess our sins to a priest simply because Jesus said so. He gave the apostles authority to forgive sins in His name. (Jn 20:23) God, of course, does all the forgiving and all the healing, teaching, counseling, feeding, etc. Everything good is done by God's power, but He often works through people, members of the body of Christ, and He has decided to use people as His instruments in teaching, feeding, counseling, etc., and even in forgiving. We are open to God using a person to feed us but when it comes to forgiveness, we are reluctant to involve other people and think we should talk to God alone. But God commands: "Declare your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may find healing." (Jas 5:16) So, Biblically, we are to confess our sins not only to God but also to other human beings. But why a priest? A priest represents the family of God, our community, the local body of Christ. We confess our sins to a representative of the Christian family because our sins hurt others in the family, and to be reconciled fully we must ask forgiveness not only of God Whom we have disobeyed and those immediately affected by our sins but also of the church family hurt by our sins. It's impossible to apologize to each and every one, but at least we can talk to a representative of the family and ask forgiveness. Unless we confess our sins to a priest, we feel like there's something missing because there is something missing: reconciliation with the church family. HOW TO MAKE LIFE-CHANGING CONFESSIONS "All this has been done by God, Who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18) The priest is the minister of forgiveness, which is one part of the process of reconciliation. The Lord has delegated the priest to forgive in His name and on behalf of His body, the Church, but all of us have an important part in the larger ministry of reconciliation. When many parts of Christ's body minister reconciliation, we see many life-changing confessions. There are several steps in the process of reconciliation. These steps build on one another. The priestly ministry of forgiveness is in the middle of the reconciliation process. The lay person's ministry of reconciliation both precedes and follows the priestly ministry of forgiveness. Without the layperson's ministry of reconciliation, few people will receive the priest's ministry of forgiveness, and confession will not be completed by healing and freedom from guilt. Source: http://w3.one.net/%7Epresmin/lit/confess.html