The Freedom of Forgiveness - The Stories of Jesus Series

This week’s devotional was written by Adele Calhoun and is entitled, Confession: A Practical Guide. Adele Calhoun is a spiritual director and a contributing author at Renovaré. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

Confession may be good for the soul, but it can be very hard to do. We are invested in looking like good moral people. After all, appearing good is one way of dealing with the notion that something is wrong with us. We haven’t murdered anyone or robbed a bank. Furthermore, when we do wrong we try to fix it and make it better. We can put a great deal of energy’ into maintaining the image that we are good moral people. But this very appearance of goodness can be a way we defend ourselves against our sin. For when we can’t see our sin we have nothing to confess. 

The truth is that we all sin. Sin is anything that breaks relationships. Jesus is totally realistic about broken relationships. He experienced them. He was put to death by them. Yet Jesus taught that the damage done through sin was not the last word on life. Sin could be confessed. Sin could be forgiven. And sinful people could be set free. 

Much of Jesus’ teachings and at least a third of his parables are about forgiveness. Over and over again he modeled what it looked like to bless when you are cursed and to forgive when people don’t deserve to be forgiven. Furthermore, one of the central pleas of the Lord’s Prayer focuses on confession and forgiveness: ​“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” 

True repentance means we open the bad in our lives to God. We invite him to come right in and look at our sin with us. We don’t hide by being good, moral people or in neurotic self-recriminations. We don’t pretend to be other than we are. We don’t disguise the truth by carting out all the disciplines we practice. We tell it like it is — without rationalization, denial or blame — to the only person in the universe who will unconditionally love us when we are bad. We hand over the pretense, image management, manipulation, control and self-obsession. In the presence of the Holy One we give up on appearing good and fixing our sin. We lay down our ability to change by the power of the self. We turn to Jesus and seek forgiveness. 

Jesus, the only Son of God, died a violent, unspeakable death so we could know what freedom from sin tastes like. Jesus laid his power down, suffered and became sin so that we would not be condemned. Every time we confess how we have missed the mark of God’s love and truth, we open ourselves up to the mending work of the cross. Jesus’ wounds hold true life-changing power. This is the shocking reality that confession can open up to us. Through confession and forgiveness we live into the truth of being God’s new creation! The old is gone. The new has come.

Reflection Questions

  1. Does your confession tend to be along the lines of ​“Forgive my sins, dear Lord” rather than specifically naming your sins one by one before the face of God? What does the lack of specific confession do to self-awareness?

  2. What experiences have affected your ability to give and receive forgiveness? Talk to God about what this means.

  3. When have you tasted the joy of forgiveness? What was that like for you?

  4. What is it like for you to confess your sins before a friend or confessor?

  5. Which of your sins hurts those closest to you?