Confession, is it biblical?

A frequent objection to the Catholic faith is objection to the need to confess sins to a priest in order to be forgiven. Many objectors will call it an “invention”. I myself used to object to this citing the church’s medieval need to know the private lives of each of their adherents. I would give silly reasons like that but there exist good objections. An objection might be that it doesn’t say anywhere in the bible that we need to confess to a priest.  Let me give my praise to this objection for wanting evidence in the scriptures to back up the practice of confession. So let me quickly comment on this objection, and note, this is not the only objection but perhaps the most common.

Objection: It’s not biblical.

Defense: First, we need to understand that as human persons we are subject to imminent and sometimes frequent sin. Paul tells us in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and in that assumes the need for forgiveness and reconciliation. This need is not arguable. So the question is: do we need to confess to God the Father period? Yes. Jesus, when asked how to pray includes “forgive us our debts (sins), as we forgive our debtors” (Matt 6:12). If that’s not enough, John said “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) which in unmistakable proof that the scriptures require confession of sins.

The plurality of our sins implies the plurality of confessing. Indeed one won’t argue the value in confession to God the Father. But we also know from scripture that Jesus, a separate person of the Trinity has the authority to forgive sins, “but so that you may know that the Son of Man has AUTHORITY ON EARTH to forgive sins” (Matt 9:6). This is a HUGE part of Jesus ministry. Right after the baptism and his temptation, he immediately is doing three things: forgiving sins, healing, and teaching. These are the highlights of his ministry and they did not die with him. Right after his Resurrection he appears to the 11 and says:

“As the father has sent me, so I am sending you … receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained”. (John 20:21-23)

Was Jesus talking about general forgiveness in social interaction or a real authority? The answer is in the words of Jesus. The apostles get there name from this verse which is in “sending” which is apostello, so they are sent from Jesus himself as a commission. Next, we see that Jesus is sending the chosen apostles “as the father has sent [me]” meaning ‘with the same authority.’ The reader also has to understand the difference in “like” and “as” where like shows likeness (similarity) and as shows sameness. I know, SAT/ACT studying nightmares are coming back to haunt me trying to understand analogy and comparison. Not enough on the authority part? I think Jesus makes it quite clear when he says “whoever listens to you, listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:16). And that’s not out of context because there Jesus is talking about the unrepentant towns. There is a clear link between repentance and the authority of the Apostles!

But Jesus died and left us a church to continue his ministry. Remember, that ministry consists of healing and teaching (Matt 9:35), as well as forgiveness of sin (Matt 9:6). So as the church is his body, truly, he must have left a way in which the ministry can be continued for our ultimate salvation. Remember, he had the authority to forgive sins “on earth” and so as the church continues there is an ongoing need to forgive sins, on earth. Paul clearly tells us, “all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION” (2 Cor 5:18), and still later “we are ambassadors of Christ” (5:20). Ambassadors are officials SENT WITH THE AUTHORITY of their higher official.

There is no mistake to be made here. Jesus gave the power to forgive sins to his church, through confession to an apostolic office, generation to generation.   

There is much to discuss further, yes. Further, many see the confession as a sort of punishment. Nothing could be further from the truth! Each time I confess there is an enormous weight lifted and a great encouragement comes forth from the priest. They too confess and are such gentle souls when you come to them to confess.

Thank you for reading, God bless.