- The Augsburg Confession
- Apology of the Augsburg Confession
- Smalcald Articles
- Small Catechism
- Martin Luther’s Admonishment to Go to Confession
- Luther’s Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
- On Confession and the Lord’s Supper, A Sermon
- The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
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From the introduction:
“Whoever’s’ sin you forgive, they are forgiven.”
Jesus, crucified, buried, and raised, stood before His disciples, breathed on them, blessed them with peace, and then gave them this astonishing authority: to forgive and retain sins.
“Whoever’s sin you forgive, they are forgiven.”
The victory of Jesus over sin, death, and the devil are to be made manifest in the world through the preaching of the Gospel, and most especially through the forgiving of sins. The absolution delivers the victory of the cross. The absolution delivers the victory of the empty tomb. The absolution delivers the victory of Jesus over all our enemies which He made His own. The absolution presses into the ear and heart of the penitent the glorious truth and absolute certainty of the love of Christ for sinners. The absolution is a priceless treasure.
But the absolution has been lost.
Most Christian churches have only a shadow of the gift that Jesus bequeathed to His Bride, the Church.
I remember a time in college when I can with a friend to a Lutheran service. The pastors stood in front of the congregation and spoke the absolution, “As a called and ordained servant of the Word, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” I was offended. “Who does that guy think he is, forgiving my sins? Only Jesus does that.” My faith was an individual matter. Forgiveness was immediate, happening in my heart without any external words or actions. This is the default theological position of much of Evangelical Christianity, and it makes the absolution unnecessary, meaningless, and even offensive.
After the service I asked the pastor, “Hey, why were you forgiving sins?” and he did the most wonderful thing he could have done. He asked for the Bible I was carrying, and he opened to John 20:23, pointed to the text, and read it to me. “Whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven.” No argument. No excuses. No apologies. He let the word stand, and stand it does in stunning simplicity. Jesus gives us the authority to forgive sins, and He desires us to use it for the comfort of sinners and the salvation of the world.
It is not only the Evangelical Church that has lost the authority, certainty, and joy of the absolution. The Catholic Church surrounds the absolution with the conditions of attrition and satisfaction, and limits the absolution to the punishment of the sin confessed. Reformed congregation speak of the “assurance of pardon”, diminishing the absolution from a declaration to a report. The liberalized denominations stopped worrying about individual sin and forgiveness a long time ago. We find in the church at large an absolution poverty.
The situation is not too much better in the Lutheran Church. Confession and absolution are often thought to be “too Catholic.” Private Confession and Absolution has long fallen out of regular practice. The Absolution is thought to be part of the formal liturgical rite of the Church, and not part of the daily, living conversation of Christians. Few Christians have heard the absolution spoken to them outside the Sunday service. Even fewer Christians have pronounced the absolution to a family member of friend.
This is tragic.
The absolution is the Gospel in its full force. It opens the doors to heavenly joy. It delivers the certainty of God’s love. It settles the heart, cleanses the conscience, brings spiritual freedom and life.
Jesus did not speak these words in vain. His death, His resurrection, His work of saving you are brought to you with this promise, “Whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven.”
