By David McClister

Sometimes someone will tell me that they have done something they think is wrong, and they then ask me "should I go forward for that?" Let's examine this business of public confession.

The Bible teaches quite plainly that if a child of God sins, he or she must confess their sin to God before God will forgive them. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confession is necessary for a couple of reasons. First, it is an expression of our humility before God. When we sin we act on our own, proudly and arrogantly, against the will of God. In order to be right with God once again, God demands that we throw off our pride and renew a humble attitude before Him. Second, it is part of repentance. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in action (see the parable in Matt 21:28fl). In order to be forgiven we have to quit sinning and acknowledge in our minds and with our mouths that what we did was wrong. When we confess our sins to God we are expressing our desire to be right with Him.

This leads us to consider for a moment what is necessary in confession. Confessing that we have done wrong is a difficult thing to do, and sometimes we want to soften the difficulty by cutting corners. For example, I have seen many people "come forward" at worship services to say, "I have sinned." Well, that is a step in the right direction, but it does not capture all of what confession involves. There are two elements in a proper confession: (1) acknowledging that a particular thing is wrong, and (2) acknowledging that you did that particular thing. That is, confession of sin is not simply confessing that you are a sinner, it involves identifying exactly what is wrong in your life.

This leads us to another aspect of this study, namely, the public confession of sin. The Bible says "confess your sins to one an- other" (Jam 5:16). To say it plainly, however, not every sin we commit needs to be confessed publicly before the church. We need to confess our wrongs to those we have sinned against. If we have sinned against God only, then we only need to confess to Him (someone may wish to confide in another and confess their sins to them to ask for encouragement and prayer, but that is not required in the Bible). If we have sinned against others, or the church, we need to confess to God (for all sin is against God) and to whomever else was affected by our sin. Furthermore, public sins bring public shame upon the church. When we sin before others, we are damaging more than just our personal influence and reputation. We are also damaging the reputation of the Lord's church. Our public sins hurt other Christians in that they cast aspersions on the whole church. Furthermore, when someone sins and it is known by others, that action sends a message to all who know about it. That message is "I have decided to do something contrary to the will of God."  How can one repent of this and correct it?  By confessing that sin publicly as well. The one who has sinned in public and who wishes to again be right with God must send another message to the public. That message is "I have repented of my sin and wish everyone to know it." That's what public confession is all about. This restores honor not only to the one who sinned, but to the Lord's church as well.

There is a practice among us that, quite frankly, concerns me a little bit. It is not that I mind helping people who are wishing to confess their sins, not at all. In stead, it makes me wonder if we have developed a denominational attitude toward the public confession of sin. A practice I have observed for a long time is that one who wishes to confess their sin publicly will "go forward" at the invitation and will relate their confession to the preacher, who then in turn relates it to the church. Now that practice is useful in some cases, but the thing we have to be careful of is that we do not lose sight of how a Biblical confession really works. Roman Catholicism teaches that the priest is the mediator between a Christian and the church, and the church provides forgiveness from the Lord. Thus, in order to be forgiven in that religion, you have to confess your sins to the priest. I am afraid that we may be guilty of thinking in these terms when we come to the subject of public confession. For all our talk against it, some people still think (it seems to me) that the preacher is the equivalent of the Catholic priest or the denominational pastor, and that matters that concern the church must go through him. Now again, I don't mind helping someone who makes a public confession of sin. But my point is that there is nothing in Scripture that says that you have to tell the preacher in order to get forgiveness. There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to walk to the front of the meetinghouse at an invitation song in order for your confession to be valid. These are simply conventions we may use expediently, but they are not rules from God.

There are many ways a person may confess his/her sin before the church. A person could send a letter to every member of the congregation expressing their confession, or call everyone on the phone. Or a person could stand before the church and make their own confession, or read a prepared statement of their confession. Or they could ask someone to read it for them. Or they could speak to someone and express their desire to have their confession publicly known, and then that someone could make an appropriate announcement to the church on their behalf. They could post a statement on the bulletin board or some place where all would see it. The important thing is that the confession is done, and there is no one right way to do it. "Going forward" and relating a confession to the the preacher at the invitation is not "the" way to do it, it is not even a better way than those mentioned above. Remember that we must confess to those we have wronged. Telling the preacher about it does not get you "better" forgiveness.

I have known people in the past that sinned publicly. Sometimes someone will ask me "did they ever go forward for that"? Well, what they needed to do was confess their sin. Whether they did it by "going forward," by a letter, etc. makes no difference whatsoever. What is more important is that the person actually confesses their sin. Which is better: "going forward" and saying to the preacher "I've sinned," or preparing a letter to the church in which you identify what you did wrong and express your repentance from it? By Biblical standards, the latter is a confession. I'm not sure about the former. When we get to the point that we turn "going forward" into some kind of sacrament and we fail actually to confess our sins, we are in serious trouble in our thinking.