Small Catechism:  Confession and the Keys                                                              W 5^th Lent Midweek

The Keys to the Kingdom

In the name of him in whom we have life and salvation through the forgiveness of our sins, dear friends in Christ:  Last week in our continuing series of devotions on the Small Catechism, having already completed those portions that treat the barest essentials of the faith, namely the Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, we began to consider the second portion that introduces the Sacraments that the Lord Jesus has given to his Church.  And because we were making something of a broad transition, we spent a little time discussing the concept and purpose of the Sacraments in general.  What we discovered (or better to say rediscovered) is that the Sacraments are divinely prescribed gifts in which the Lord unites his powerful Word to humble earthly elements in order to convey to us in a tangible and more concrete way the promises of the Gospel – that for the sake of Christ who suffered and died for our sins and who was raised to life, we are forgiven, redeemed, sanctified, and we will be raised to eternal life in heaven.  And because God’s Word is at work in the Sacraments, they actually deliver what they promise.  That is to say, they do something—or rather, that through them, God is doing something.  So, in stark contrast to what many other Christians believe and teach, we saw that the Sacraments are not merely symbolic rites; but rather active means through which the Lord sends his Holy Spirit to create and sustain in our hearts the faith that apprehends and holds fast to the promises of God. 

With this understanding of Sacraments in general, then, we considered Holy Baptism.  And what we saw was that Baptism is the Church’s Sacrament of initiation or beginning in which the Word and Promise of God is combined with water that is applied directly to the person.  And in this water combined with his life-giving Word, Christ our Lord touches the person and claims him as his own; he grants the person his Holy Spirit who works faith in the heart thus giving spiritual birth to a new believer; and he cleanses the person from sin by his atonement on the cross. For these reasons, Baptism has rightly been called the Gospel in liquid form.  But Baptism is something you do once.  Like birth, it’s a one time event.  However, its significance and power continue on because thereafter it serves as the anchoring event that happens in the life of the believer that connects him directly and physically to the passion and death of the Lord Jesus. To the question, “How do you know that what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago applies to you in any way?” the believer can always respond, “I know because I was baptized; and in Baptism God joined me the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ my Lord.”

Very well, then; having now considered the precious gift of Baptism, tonight we turn our attention to Confession and the Office of the Keys, which, as we reviewed a bit ago, is that special authority that Christ has given to his Church to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, and to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.  And let me say at the onset that we Lutherans really haven’t understood this to be a Sacrament in its own right.  You may be aware that in Roman Catholicism and its system of seven Sacraments, Confession is numbered among them; but we haven’t looked at it that way.  And one of the big reasons for this is that though it has the Command and Promise of God, there is no physical, earthly element involved like the water in Baptism or the bread and wine in Holy Communion.  Therefore it doesn’t quite fit the definition.  So rather than think of Confession as a Sacrament by itself, we look at it as an extension or revisiting of Baptism.  That is to say, it’s a means by which Baptism and its saving promises are renewed in the present.  We see this idea expressed clearly in the Catechism’s explanation of Baptism, specifically the fourth part, which asks the question:  “What does such baptizing with water indicate?” The answer given says, “It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”  So there it is:  the person who is already a baptized believer daily takes time to examine himself in light of God’s holy Law.  When he does, he sees in himself many sins, and he is sincerely sorry for them.  So he repents and confesses his sins; but at the same time, he also trusts in the promises of the Gospel – promises first given him in Holy Baptism – that for the sake of Christ his sins are forgiven. Leaving then his own failures behind where they belong, dead and buried with Christ, he rises with the resurrected Lord and lives before God in faith and the righteousness attained for him by Jesus.

Now, this can and should be done every day by believers in their devotions and prayers.  It’s the way we live by faith in Christ.  But because the Lord knows our many weaknesses and how Satan works on us from many angles to cause us to doubt God’s grace and forgiveness, he has given to the Church the Keys to exercise in his name and by his authority. By these keys the penitent sinner hears again the assurance of his forgiveness in Christ.  This is important, first because, as the Scriptures say, “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God”.  By this we know that the Holy Spirit works through the spoken Word of God to create and reinforce faith in Jesus, so there is power in hearing these Words.  But secondly, actually hearing the Words of forgiveness moves them from the subjective (something internal, that I think about within) to the objective (something that has a reality outside of me).  So I’m not left just to struggle with my thoughts – which are always being assaulted by Satan’s accusations of my guilt and unworthiness.  No, instead, in confession and absolution I can hear from the Lord himself through his own duly appointed spokesman that the forgiveness of Christ is mine.  It’s mine despite my doubts, my worries, my fears, and all of Satan’s tricks and lies because it isn’t just something that exists here in my head; no, it’s something real and concrete, out there, already achieved by Christ.

This is why confession and absolution is an integral part of our Divine Service.  When we gather here for worship, it’s fitting that we use this gift of grace that the Lord has entrusted to us for the benefit of his Church.  And because it is in its essence a return to Baptism in which we were first brought to repentance, given faith, and made God’s children and heirs, you’ll notice that I always stand at the Baptism Font when we do it.  I want to tie visually the Word you hear of Christ’s renewing forgiveness to the waters in which you were first renewed.  And I want you to see that though I am speaking, it’s not me granting you forgiveness. I’m acting in the stead and by the command of Jesus.  In the same way that these hands get wet, but Christ uses them to baptize, so also it’s my voice you hear, but it’s God who speaks to you when I say, “I forgive you all your sins”.

Now, you may know that most of our Protestant friends object to the way we do and say these things.  Part of the reason for that is that they don’t understand Baptism like we do.  They think of it as a work of men rather than of God.  So they object when we say that Baptism saves.  In the same way, it really gets under their skin when they hear one of our pastors say, “I forgive you your sins”.  To them it sounds blasphemous.  “What makes you think you have this right that belongs only to God?” The answer, of course, is that in the same way that Christ commissioned his disciples to baptize in his name for the forgiveness of sins, he also commissioned them to declare his forgiveness. To Peter and the disciples he said, “I’m going to give you the Keys to the Kingdom”; and after the resurrection he did just that.  We read it earlier:  “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’.”  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard Bible teachers try to explain that away in order to prove that Jesus didn’t really mean what he said there. And it’s so sad, because in so doing they deprive the people listening to them of the objective assurance of forgiveness that God wants them to have.  He gave us the keys to put to use for him to give his people absolute confidence that their sins have been taken away.

But with these keys comes the responsibility to use them properly.  When I give my daughter the car keys, it’s so that she can drive to work or school; not go drag racing.  Similarly, the keys that Christ has entrusted to the Church are for releasing repentant sinners of their guilt before God, not for recklessly forgiving the sins of those who are clearly not repentant.  The same key that releases the one must be used to tell the other, “No, as long as you remain unrepentant and in sin, you must bear your guilt.” This must be done for the benefit of the person who is in sin.  If he remains unrepentant in sin, but I keep telling him not to worry about it and that his sins are forgiven anyway, I’m proclaiming a damnable lie that will only make the person secure in his sin and lead him to hell.  He must be warned of the spiritual danger he’s in.  Failure to do so also undermines the assurance that I intend to give to those who are repentant.  If the pastor proclaims blanket forgiveness to everyone whether they repent or not, those who do repent are left asking the question, “Since he obviously doesn’t mean it when he says it to that guy who’s living in unrepentant sin, how can I be sure that he means it for me?”  Therefore the church’s practice of confession and the use of the keys to free people is always tied to church discipline.  You cannot have one without the other.

Now, what I’ve been talking about up until now is mostly the public expression of our exercise of the Keys; but before we wrap up, I want to mention what is perhaps the most underutilized aspect of it, and that is the special gift and assurance that we have in private confession and absolution – a gift which is too often neglected to the detriment of God’s people.  Unfortunately, when this is mentioned, most people think of those little curtained booths in Catholic churches where people are required to give their priest a long list of all the sins they committed since their last confession and then be assigned what’s called a satisfaction, which is some kind of task they have to perform in order to remove the temporal penalty of their sins.  That’s a misapplication that grows out of a number of serious theological errors that I don’t have time to go into; but it’s also not what we’re talking about here.

If you’ll turn to page 310 of your hymnal, you’ll see an example of what I am taking about.  Here we have a formal rite that can be helpful to organize thoughts and provide a framework; but it’s really not necessary to use it.  Private confession and absolution can be a lot more informal that this.  But this does lay it out nicely and has all the parts I want you to see now.  The idea is this:  there are times when all of us struggle with sins and doubts that weigh especially heavy on us.  And for such times as those we have this tool of individual attention that allows a believer to privately and completely confidentially confess his sins to God through the pastor and to be assured in a very personal, one-on-one way of the forgiveness and grace he has been given in Christ Jesus.

There are a couple of real benefits in this.  One is that there’s something to be gained in actually naming the sin that’s troubling you, and putting it right there on the table and saying, “This is my problem.”  We have such a hard time doing this.  Maybe we’re reluctant to face the real problems.  Or perhaps it’s because there’s a lot of shame there, and you’d rather that no one else know about it – least of all the pastor.  (But just to let you know, I guarantee that your pastor already knows that you are a sinner.)  But I think the biggest reason that people don’t want to put their sins out there – and I’ll certainly include myself here – is that we don’t really want to get serious about getting them out of our lives.  We love our pet sins and don’t want to give them up.  Naming them and facing them and speaking them aloud for someone else to hear means that we actually want to change – and all too often, that’s not really the case.  (And just an aside here, I think another reason people are reluctant to bring their sins and mention them in private confession is the fear that they’ll be grilled and asked for a lot of personal and embarrassing details.  I can assure you that as a confessor, I really don’t want or need all the details; besides, God already knows them.)

But that doesn’t mean that your confessor might not ask some questions; not to elicit sordid details, but to help you better understand yourself and your sin in the light of God’s Word.  This is another one of the benefits of private confession.  We know that our hearts are corrupt and they can deceive us. Speaking candidly about our sins and shortcomings with someone who has been called to study and proclaim God’s Word can help us see ourselves more clearly and truthfully than we might be able to do on our own.  It’s like when I’m sick and I go to the doctor.  I might think I know what’s wrong – but the doctor is trained to find out for sure.  And by finding the real problem, it can be treated more effectively.

So with all that, I commend to you this tool we have of private confession and absolution, and I encourage you to use it.  It is, with the public exercise of the same, a precious gift that Christ has given to his Church to assure us with absolute certainty that as we live our lives and stumble into many sins, that the blood of Christ covers us and atones for all of our guilt.  May we, using the Keys as Christ intended, live for him and in his righteousness all our days.  In his holy name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!