Confession, Penance, and Absolution
Protestants teach repentance and forgiveness in Christ. Lutherans retain private confession and absolution; other churches emphasize corporate confession, pastoral prayer, or direct confession to God. Its sacramental status varies.
Historical context
Didache 14 connects confession and reconciliation with the Lord's Day assembly. Tertullian, On Repentance 9-10, describes an outward, public penitential discipline involving presbyters and the community's intercession. These witnesses establish ecclesial repentance, but are not descriptions of every feature of later repeatable private confession.
Tradition note
The Augsburg Confession's practice of absolution does not describe every Protestant church.
Avoid overclaiming
James speaks of confessing to one another, not only to a priest. John 20 gives a ministry concerning forgiveness but does not specify the full later penitential procedure. Historical public penance must not be silently equated with modern private confession.
Strongest alternative reading
Orthodox and Catholic Christians understand John 20 as foundational for sacramental absolution. Lutherans also retain an authorized ministry of absolution; the Apology XIII.4 calls it a sacrament under its stated definition. Other Protestants emphasize the gospel's proclamation, church discipline, mutual confession, and direct confession to God.
Scripture
- John 20:21-23 — The risen Christ sends the apostles, breathes the Spirit, and speaks of forgiving and retaining sins; traditions differ over the institutional implications.
- James 5:16 — Mutual confession and intercessory prayer appear in a passage about illness, forgiveness, and community.
- Matthew 18:15-20 — Correction, communal discernment, binding and loosing, and gathered prayer provide a context of reconciliation and discipline.
- 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 — Paul urges forgiveness, comfort, and reaffirmed love for a disciplined person, so that sorrow does not overwhelm him.
- 1 John 1:8-2:2 — Confessing sin, God's forgiveness, and Christ's advocacy belong together. The passage does not prescribe one later form of confession.
- Psalm 51:1-12 — The psalm asks for mercy, cleansing, and a renewed heart; it supplies a biblical language of repentance rather than a complete sacramental rubric.
- Romans 10:17 — Faith comes from hearing the message of Christ. The Lutheran Apology XIII.4-5 compares the heard Word and visible rite as means that move hearts to trust God's promise; Paul is not enumerating sacraments here.
Primary sources
The Orthodox Church in America explains:
The OCA's catechetical account says forgiveness belongs to God and is given through Christ in the Church.
only God can forgive sins, that he does so through Christ in the Church
Passage context and translation
The same paragraph ties forgiveness to repentance and confession; the priest is not an independent source of forgiveness.
Before the excerpt
the teaching of the Bible that
After the excerpt
that his conditions are genuine repentance and the promise of change which are witnessed by confession
Didache 14 directs:
Early Sunday assembly is connected with confession and reconciliation.
But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned.
Passage context and translation
The community is instructed to assemble on the Lord's Day, reconcile through confession, and give thanks together.
Before the excerpt
of money (silver) and clothing and every possession, take the first-fruit
After the excerpt
For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice
His description includes:
Tertullian describes repentance involving presbyters and the community's intercession.
to bow before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones; to enjoin on all the brethren to be ambassadors to bear his deprecatory supplication (before God).
Passage context and translation
Tertullian describes exomologesis, a demanding outward discipline of post-baptismal repentance with fasting, mourning, presbyters, and the community's intercession. Chapter 10 acknowledges reluctance because it is a public exposure.
Before the excerpt
to groan, to weep and make outcries unto the Lord your God;
After the excerpt
All this exomologesis (does), that it may enhance repentance;
The Apology states:
The Lutheran Apology explicitly calls Absolution a sacrament.
Therefore Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and Absolution, which is the Sacrament of Repentance, are truly Sacraments.
Passage context and translation
Section 3 defines sacraments by God's command and an attached promise of grace. Sections 11-12 also allow sacramental language for ordination when understood as the ministry of the Word. The argument is not simply a competing fixed numerical list.
Before the excerpt
Therefore signs instituted without God's command are not sure signs of grace,
After the excerpt
For these rites have God's command and the promise of grace, which is peculiar to the New Testament.