Over the last year or so I've had several difficult conversations with friends and acquaintances who had found themselves overtaken in some fault or another. For whatever reason, they seemed to want to unburden themselves on me. Now, I don't object to being their sounding board: to the extend they think that's something they think they need, it's fine by me. But it seems to me there's a danger of which we should be aware: the danger of allowing repentance to become penance.
It seems to me there's a link between repentance and faith, and another between penance and unbelief. Repentance (at least, godly repentance) hinges on seeing ourselves as we are, and God as He is. Notice how Job 42:5–6 describes getting a right view of God, and how that drives Job to repentance.
Penance on the other hand, is an attempt to earn some sort of righteousness with God. Really, it boils down to unbelief: God has already told us we have no righteousness but Christ. God has already told us that Christ has borne our sins. God has already assured us that when we confess, He forgives. Looking for some sort of assurance outside of the word of God is not faith. Looking for some sort of merit in my own works – no matter how big or how small – is not faith. These things are the opposite of faith. They are unbelief.
So I suppose I would say the difference between repentance and penance is faith. Repentance comes from believing God, penance results from unbelief. Of course that doesn't help us very much in terms of identifying when someone has gone from the one to the other. But it might help me individually know when I've done so: "is this faith? or is it doubting God's word?" That's the real question.
I'm a little less dogmatic on the whole idea of absolution. There are certainly times when we need to seek forgiveness from someone other than God: we might have sinned against someone, for example, and need to seek their forgiveness too. And unlike with God, we might find ourselves needing to make some sort of amends to that person. But that's not really what absolution is.
Absolution is more about confessing my sins to someone else, and receiving from that person assurance of God's forgiveness. Is absolution something we need? No, we have the word of God to assure us that God has forgiven. But what do we do when someone comes to us, looking for assurance from us that God forgives? The more I think this over, the more I think there is value in a true believer assuring someone of God's forgiveness, as long as he or she is pointing them to the word of God. One friend of mine says we should be quick to say, "Jesus loves you, Jesus has forgiven you." I think that's good advice, but I'll add the caveat that we shouldn't ever say that as though we have authoritative knowledge in ourselves. It's not that I know that God has forgiven you because on my spiritual state or insight; no, it's that I know God has forgiven you based on His word, and we can look at it together.
So I think there's a place for absolution, as long as it's grounded in God's word, not in some presumed authority.
And let's be clear about something here: we can't talk about this sort of thing in the abstract. It's not very useful to talk about what a Christian should do in an ideal world. When a true believer comes to us with a guilty conscience, we're not dealing in the hypothetical. We who have sinned really big – so big that our standard evangelical faith collapsed under the weight of our own guilt – know there's a desperation that hypothetical Christianity doesn't really address. But when someone comes to us with that sort of guilt, we ought to lead him or her to the Cross, to God's grace, to Christ's having borne our sins. It's not the time to lecture, it's the time to lead with compassion to the One who is gracious to both of us.
It's important for us to realize that God forgives based on the death of Christ (Romans 3:21–26). Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1–8), and it is this – and only this – that enables God to forgive us. It's easy to lose sight of this when we deal with the question of confession: we're tempted to think that confession is an act of merit, and God forgives us because we confess our sins. That's not true at all. It's true that when we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9), but it's not our confession that makes God forgive. In fact, even as we are sinning, Christ is advocating for us with the Father. I don't know another way to understand 1 John 2:1–2.
Christ doesn't wait for us to confess, repent, or even acknowledge our sins before He takes action on our behalf. We all need to meditate on this. We all need to let this one sink in.
So why do we confess our sins? The simplest reason is our own peace of heart: we need to know that God has forgiven us. That assurance is as simple as confessing our sins, and then believing God.
It's important, too, to realize that when we have sinned – when we are at our lowest – we are seeing ourselves exactly like God has always seen us. In fact, no matter how low your opinion of yourself is, God's opinion of you is worse. We have a tendency to evaluate ourselves based on our performance, usually our current or very recent past. But God knows all things: on our best days, He knows what our worst days will be, and He sees what we will do. So on our best days, we should be humble. On our worst days, we should remember God's view of us is no different than it was on our best days. God knows what we are.
And this brings us back to repentance. Repentance is a gift from God (Acts 11:18). It is the correct response to understanding that we have sinned (Acts 17:30–31). But it goes much deeper than our understanding of what we have done: it goes to our understanding of what we are (see Isaiah 6:5, Luke 18:9ff). Job repented when he saw who God really is. It's noteworthy that scripture doesn't tell us Job sinned. The closest thing we get to sin on Job's part is Job 32:1–3.
Job 32:1–3 gives a brief summary of the book up to that point. Job's friends "found no answer, and yet condemned [him]" (Job 32:3), but Job was also wrong, because "he justified himself rather than God" (Job 32:2). It seems to me this is a danger to us, particularly when we are doing something right: that we would justify ourselves rather than God.
Philippians 3:8ff tells us that to be "in Christ" is to have "no righteousness of my own." This means we give up (or have given up) any merit we have. Even the questionable merit we might associate with confessing our sins. Any merit that comes our way from confession or repentance is something we need to give up if we want to be "in Christ."
I know I've offended people in the past by saying that there is a danger of our being no longer "in Christ." I don't mean that God ever sees us as anything other than "in Christ." We are accepted by God always and only "in Christ." I don't mean we can cease to be "in Christ" in God's eyes. I mean that our spiritual health and growth and progress are based on our seeing things the way God sees them (cf. Romans 6:1–11). That's what Philippians 3:8ff is talking about: it's not saying "I hope I can attain being in Christ," it's saying, "I want to see myself in Christ, just as God sees me in Christ." And the key there is to understand that we have no righteousness of our own.
We cease to be "in Christ" in our own minds – not in God's eyes – when we start to think we have righteousness of our own. We need to be very careful here.
One last note: it would be wrong not to mention a wonderful article by J. N. Darby here, "Cleansing by Water: and what it is to walk in the light." I can't recommend it highly enough.
4 comments:
Your comments on “absolution” remind me of something that Francis Schaeffer says in “True Spirituality”:
“What is needed in a time of psychological disturbance, whether it is temporary or more prolonged, is that we should help each other to act upon the total unified Christian teaching.” “We must talk to each other, we must help each other to think in the light of the truth of the total unified Christian system.”
Though there is not a ministry of absolution, this is a ministry much needed among believers: to help one another realise what being “in Christ” means to our personal lives and difficulties and failures. Whatever else we may call “Pauline,” this surely is characteristic of Paul’s ministry:
“Know ye not, brethren…”
“But God be thanked, that ye were…”
“For ye see your calling, brethren…”
“Wherefore remember…”
“ye are complete in Him” Philippians 2:10
Any man can pray, ' O Lord, pardon mine iniquity.
Only a man after God's heart, a man who truly understands God, would pray 'For thy name's sake..for it is great'. Psalm 25:11
Mark.. I think I have to add a few things here just for consideration
When you write this "I don't know another way to understand 1 John 2:1–2." in my view you destroy your own point you posted in the article about "IF".. The text has "IF" in it.. but you say "IF" is not important in the text. I do believe God forgives us not because of our confession. But if one does not realize his sins, how can he come to the Savior for forgiveness?
Then there is another question: If somebody badly sinned AND that person is illiterate (like many in Asia and Africa now) who can assure them of forgiveness? We always tend to think boxed into the triangle : “written word - believer who can read and understand - believer who knows doctrines”. But who can provide assurance in the situation where there is no written word around? Or if a person who sinned can not read? Or a person can not think clearly enough due to physical, emotional or psychological issues?
3d point is: genuine experience of a “true repentance” in at least one sin ( or all sins) is life changing experience. It not only makes you seek for the Savoir. Repentance changes a person that way, where a person becomes capable of confessing or admitting sins and wrongdoings in the future. This is why Lord Jesus taught his followers to pray “ and forgive us our trespasses”
Alex, you bring up some good points. Your third point, especially, deserves some mulling over. I hadn't really thought about repentance in those terms, but you're right. Repentance changes us, not merely with regard to whatever specific sin is on our conscience, but it goes deeper and affects all areas.
As far as the two passages in 1 John (1 John 1:9 and 1 John 2:1-2), there are some other points we should consider. First, Romans 4:8 is a quote from Psalm 32:2, "blessed [the] man to whom [the] Lord shall not at all reckon sin." The entire context (Romans 4:1-5) is a discussion of justification by faith. That is, the Lord counts as righteous those who do not work, but believe (Romans 4:5). The passage expands on this in v. 8, and adds that those who do not work (v. 6) are those to whom God will not reckon sin.
Colossians 1:9-16 makes a similar point, claiming that we have "the forgiveness of sins" (v. 14). It's not something we attain to, it's not something we achieve: the forgiveness of sins is the present possession of the believer in Christ.
So when we come to 1 John 1:9, we have to ask what "if we confess our sins" means. Does it mean that if we don't confess our sins, then God doesn't forgive us our sins? I've known people who claim that, but I don't think they've thought it all the way through. At a minimum, that flies in the face of Romans 4:1–8. Also, that would mean that if we forget about some sin (and therefore can't confess it), then we can never be forgiven for it.
That would mean that a mental or physical illness could potentially undo salvation: a believer who comes down with some form of dementia could sin without being capable of repenting and/or confessing. This isn't a hypothetical, by the way: I know and have known true believers afflicted in that way.
There are several ways we can reconcile the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith (such a pretentious description! I read that in Darby and have wanted to use it for a while) with 1 John. It seems to me the simplest is to understand the Paul is addressing our standing before God, while John is addressing our practical walk. So Paul is saying, "we who believe cannot be accused of sin before God: He will not hold sin to our account;" while John is saying, "true believers still sin: they have sin (v. 8), they do sin (vv. 9-10), and those sins defile our conscience and prevent us from enjoying fellowship with God." And so John is offering us a practical remedy to the defilement of our consciences: confess those sins, and you are assured of God's forgiveness.
That understanding compliments 1 John 1:1-2 as well. There we have, "if any one sin, we have a patron with the Father." Notice that Christ's advocacy begins not when we confess, but when we sin. Long before our conscience is burdened by what we have done, Christ has been dealing with that sin before the Father. He is not waiting for us to confess, but takes immediate action. This is why I said above that we confess because of Christ's advocacy, not the other way around.
Most of the Christians I have known have understood these two lines of truth (Paul vs. John) to mean something like, Paul is dealing with God as Judge, while John is dealing with God as Father. So God as Judge will not condemn those who believe, but we still can interfere with our relationship with God our Father when we sin. So 1 John 1:9 is dealing with sin as it affects our relationship with the Father, while Romans 4:1-8 is dealing with our relationship with the Judge of all men. I think this understanding has merit, but it leaves some questions around what happens with sins we don't confess. Are they actually forgiven? I haven't ever heard a complete explanation from someone who holds this view.
I do think your comments on repentance touch on this question, and I think that's why you made them. Again, those were very helpful, thank you.
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