Myths about Confession and Absolution

By Rev. Brent W. Kuhlman

Myths abound concerning the practice of private Confession and Absolution in the Church. Below are seven common myths.

(1) Lutherans eliminated the practice of private Confession and Absolution. Therefore, private Confession and Absolution are done only by Roman Catholics.

(2) God forgives me because I confess.

(3) God forgives me because I’m sorry for my sins.

(4) God forgives me because I promise to do better.

(5) A pastor can’t forgive sins because he’s just a man, not God.

(6) My pastor will get on the phone and tell my parents what I’ve confessed.

(7) Private Confession and Absolution is done in a booth.

It’s time to undo some of these misunderstandings. Are you ready? Here goes. The Lord Jesus Christ mandates that the forgiveness of sins be proclaimed in the Church. Jesus said: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven,” (John 20:23 ESV). (See also Matthew 16:19; 18:18.) Forgiveness is not an option. The forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for the world by His Good Friday death is to be applied and given out through the spoken spirited Word of pardon by the called ministers of Christ.

On account of the Lord’s Word, the Reformers kept and extolled private Confession and Absolution with the pastor. Why? For the sake of comforting the troubled conscience with the word of absolution: “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Pull out your Small Catechism. The fifth chief part teaches you how you can go to your pastor individually to confess and to receive Absolution. So does the hymnal. (See page 310 in Lutheran Worship.) Elsewhere the reformers stated: “For we also retain confession [with the pastor] especially on account of absolution, which is the Word of God” (Ap XII 99). In addition, we maintain that the Absolution “is a command of God—indeed, the very voice of the Gospel” (Ap XI 2).

Since the Church is created and lives from the Gospel, we Lutherans happily keep individual Confession and Absolution for sinners who freely choose to use it. Since this is a service of the Church, the rite is normally done in front of the altar at the communion rail, the altar candles are lit, and the pastor is vested.

It’s the Lord Jesus who’s the forgiver. When the pastor speaks the Absolution, it is Christ’s Word. Christ Jesus Himself is there in His Spirit-filled words speaking, doing, and giving what He says and promises: forgiveness. When you hear the Absolution, you hear Christ just as the paralytic heard Jesus say: “My son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5 ESV). The absolution is the viva vox Christi (the living voice of Christ) for you.

God wants you to confess. Please do. Before Him, plead guilty of all your sins, even the ones you don’t know about like you do when you pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” But before the pastor you’re free to confess only the sins that bother you as you examine your life according to the Ten Commandments. What’s more, God wants you to be sorry. He works that in you through the Ten Commandments too. In addition, God wants you to improve. And He’ll see to that too through His Gospel applied to you.

But that’s not why God forgives you. He forgives you only because His Son Jesus died for you. Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 ESV).

Our confidence then is in Jesus and His Word of absolution. We trust what He’s done on the cross and what He says and gives in His spoken Word of pardon. What Christ has forgiven is forgiven. Consequently, your pastor will not divulge your confession to anyone.

The words which absolution give Are his who died that we might live; The minister whom Christ has sent Is but his humble instrument.

When ministers lay on their hands, Absolved by Christ the sinner stands; He who by grace the Word believes The purchase of his blood receives

(“As Surely as I Live, God Said,” LW 235:5–6)

Happy confessing. Happy trusting the Absolution!

Rev. Brent W. Kuhlman, STM, is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Murdock, Nebraska. His e-mail address is bb55841@alltel.net.