Today is our third and final day experiencing the simple yet transformative practice of confession. While confession is fundamental to growing in piety (one of the three life-areas Jesus focuses on in his Sermon on the Mount), during these three days were are experiencing the ways in which our confession to God also brings compassion and humility into our relationships with others. The more honest and real we are with God regarding our own flaws, the more we will act with grace and mercy in the presence of the flaws of others in our lives.
In order for confession to have this radical impact, it must involve true transparency. Mark Buchanan writes that “Confession is presenting our real self to God. It’s bringing before God not the person we hope to be, but the person we actually are…Confession is when we quit all the deal making, the sidestepping, the mask wearing, the pretense and preening, and we get bone-deep honest before God.”[1] The more bone-deep honest we are with God the better. The level of transformation our hearts will experience in this practice will be directly correlated to the level of our truthfulness. The less pretense and preening, the greater that internal change.
It is important to approach confession with the right view of God in mind. John Ortberg writes, “Confession is not primarily something God has us do because he needs it. God is not clutching tightly to his mercy, as if we have to pry it from his fingers like a child’s last cookie. We need to confess in order to heal and be changed.”[2] Confession is not something God needs. Confession is something we need. And God is willing to grant what we need through it. He is not clutching tightly to his mercy. He’s ready to let go of that mercy at the slightest movement of our contrite lips.
When we explored the discipline of service earlier, we noted that there was a difference between authentic and inauthentic service. The same is true regarding confession. Marjorie Thompson writes “Genuine confession is marked by humility, while the counterfeit is riddled with anxiety and pride. Whenever we become fascinated by our sins or sucked into despair over our weaknesses, we may be sure that false humility is at work…Authentic humility keeps us facing God. It teaches us to accept the fact that we will falter and fail.”[3] The challenge with confession is that it can lead to one of two destructive fruits: anxiety or pride. The more our own attention is drawn toward our failings, the more easily we might fall into anxiety. We can begin to worry and fret that we are so unworthy of God’s love. Once the habit of confession starts, and we truly see how flawed we are, we may become filled with despair. Alternatively, confession can lead to pride. We may become proud at our piety, proud at the way we’ve learned to be honest with God (Look at me God, I’m so good, I admit my flaws to you readily. I’m not like that Pharisee who could only see the flaws of others!). We may also become proud, in a strange way, of our sin. It can become a kind of badge of honor (No one struggles with this as much as I do. No one has such a burden of sin to bear like I do). True confession, however steers clear of these two destructive paths.
Take ten minutes today and be bone-deep honest with God about who you truly are, not who you hope to be. Receive his lightly held mercy. And having experienced God’s grace in the face of your flaws, go and do the same for others.
[1] Mark Buchanan, Your God is Too Safe (Multnomah, 2001), 166-167.
[2] John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Zondervan, 1997), 122.
[3] Marjorie Thompson, Soul Feast (Westminster John Knox, 1995), 96-97.
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