Does a believer have to confess his or her sins to another believer for forgiveness? Most evangelicals would say no, but sometimes I wonder if our practices say otherwise.

With resurging interest in ancient spiritual practices, confession to a priest is becoming more common, even among non-Catholics. Or consider accountability partnerships. While they can be healthy and helpful, there is a subtle danger that a believer's conscience will feel bound to confess to his or her accountability partner.

Those who promote this kind of confession often quote James 5:16: "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." They argue that it is psychologically important to disclose our sins to a human being because our experience (if not the fact) of forgiveness will be lacking if we do not.

They would further argue that since fellow believers powerfully represent Christ to us, confessing our sins to them and hearing their assurance of pardon brings Christ's grace in an audible and visible way. For example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose writings I love, says,

"Christ became our Brother in the flesh in order that we might believe in Him.... Now our brother stands in Christ's stead. Before him I need no longer dissemble. Before him alone in the whole world I dare to be the sinner I am.... Christ became our Brother to help us. Through him our brother has become Christ for us in the power and authority of the commission Christ has given to him.... When I go to my brother to confess, I am going to God."[1]

Christ As Great High Priest

Although I understand these arguments, I'm concerned that they quietly undermine the gospel. Wondering how the Reformers handled the issue of auricular confession, I pulled Calvin's Institutes off my shelf--and I'm glad I did.

Calvin strongly argued against believers confessing their sins to a priest to receive forgiveness. He noted that "all priestly offices have been transferred to Christ and are fulfilled and completed in him,"[2] and he passionately contended that confessing to God alone is sufficient:

"Since it is the Lord who forgives, forgets, and wipes out sins, let us confess our sins to him in order to obtain pardon. He is the physician; therefore, let us lay bare our wounds to him. It is he who is hurt and offended; from him let us seek peace. He is the discerner of hearts, the one cognizant of all thoughts [cf. Heb. 4:12]; let us hasten to pour out our hearts before him. He it is, finally, who calls sinners: let us not delay to come to God himself."[3]

Most moving to me were Calvin's quotations attributed to Chrysostom.[4] He says,

"Tell your sins that you may wipe them away. If you are embarrassed to tell anyone what sins you have committed, recite them daily to your own soul. I do not tell you to confess them to your fellow servant, who may upbraid you. Recite them to God who heals them. Confess your sins upon your bed that there your conscience may daily acknowledge its misdeeds."

"Now, moreover, it is not necessary to confess in the presence of witnesses. Examine your sins in your own thought. Let this judgment be without witness: let God alone see you confessing."

"I do not lead you onto the stage before your fellow servants. I do not compel you to uncover your sins to men. Betake your conscience to God's presence and lay it open before him. Show your wounds to the Lord, the  most excellent physician, and seek remedy from him. Show them to him, who does not reproach but most gently heals."

"Surely, you should tell no man, lest he upbraid you; for you should confess nothing to a fellow servant, who may make it public. But show your wounds to the Lord, who takes care of you and is your kind physician. [Afterward he has God say,] 'I do not compel you to come on mid-stage before many witnesses. Tell your sin privately to me only that I may heal your sore.'"[5]

When Confession Is Good

Calvin did agree, however, that James 5:16 enjoins us to "lay our infirmities on one another's breasts, to receive among ourselves mutual counsel, mutual compassion, and mutual consolation."[6] In fact, he acknowledged several occasions when public confession might be necessary or helpful:

1. To publicly acknowledge, in a general way, that we are sinners
2. To remove an offense and reconcile a relationship (Matt. 5:23-24; 2 Cor. 2:6-7)
3. To privately confess sins to a pastor in cases where we are "troubled and afflicted with a sense of sins, so that without outside help [we are] unable to free [ourselves] from them"

With this last form of confession, Calvin urged that we should always observe this rule:

"That where God prescribes nothing definite, consciences be not bound with a definite yoke. Hence, it follows that confession of this sort ought to be free so as not to be required of all, but to be commended only to those who know they have need of it. Then, that those who use it according to their need neither be forced by any rule nor be induced by any trick to recount all their sins. But let them do this so far as they consider it expedient, that they may receive the perfect fruit of consolation."[7]

Calvin's teaching strikes me as both balanced and biblical.

The Trap to Avoid

Of course there are occasions when confession is necessary for repairing a broken relationship or acknowledging a public offense, and sometimes it may be uniquely helpful to confess our sins to a fellow believer. But we should beware of falling into the trap of thinking public confession is necessary to obtain God's assurance of pardon.

Christ alone is our great High Priest, and He invites us to come to the throne of grace with confidence that we will be heard (Heb. 4:14-16). He has once and for all taken away our sins (Heb. 9:26, 28), and His blood alone can purify a sinner's conscience (Heb. 9:14).

This doesn't mean we should be soft on sin. But it does remind us that our true hope for forgiveness and assurance lies not in the words of a confessor or well intended accountability partner, but in Christ alone.

Endnotes

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1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. John W. Doberstein (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993) 111-112.
2. John Calvin, John T. McNeil, ed., Ford L. Battles, trans., Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1960) 627.
3. Ibid., 634.
4. The editor, however, indicates that only the last two quotations actually come from Chrysostom.
5. Ibid., 632-33.
6. Ibid., 630.
7. Ibid., 637.