The Sacrament of Confession and Absolution

A proper understanding of confession and the Office of the Keys

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy (Proverbs 28:13).

The Lord is merciful and just. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36). Throughout the Gospels, Christ exhorts His people to confess their sins, with full confidence that He will forgive them for His name’s sake. In confession there is abundant blessing. The writers of the New Testament, especially St. Paul, carry this theme throughout their writings, encouraging Christians to confess their sins and receive the absolution God desires to give them. 

God works through means. He establishes tangible, visible means by which His grace is given to us. Through these means, often called sacraments, His grace is offered and received by us freely on account of Christ, whose suffering and death makes these means efficacious. In Holy Baptism, the devil is exorcized from us, and we are reborn of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). There, the Spirit regenerates us and continues to sanctify us in the truth. In the Sacrament of the Altar, our Lord’s Body and Blood are truly present under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins. Though we cannot comprehend such a profound mystery, we receive it faithfully and confidently.

Baptism and Holy Communion both transmit God’s grace through physical means. The water, as well as the bread and wine, with the Word afford the grace that Christ procured through His death. “With the Word” is an important and necessary element, for water, as well as bread and wine, cannot alone transmit God’s grace; without His Word, they are but mere externals, with no salvific power within them.

The idea of the Word as a contingent for the means of grace is also seen in confession and absolution. Though debate rages concerning its classification as a sacrament, even while the Lutheran Confessions clearly teach that it is truly a sacrament, confession and absolution is a required element of the Christian life, as it is one of the principle ways in which God works through external means. 

I will not quibble much on classifying confession and absolution as a sacrament. The Lutheran Confessions speak in clear sacramental terms when discussing confession and absolution, but most important is the understanding that confession and absolution is one of God’s means of grace, along with Baptism and Holy Communion. For this, one must have a proper understanding of the Office of the Keys as Christ established it in the New Testament. 

To the disciples Christ gave the following command: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:23). This is affirmed in the Great Commission—which is itself a commonly misunderstood exhortation from Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a). In order to properly understand confession and absolution, one must first understand the Office of the Keys – that is, the holy ministry – and its institution according to Christ’s Word.

The Keys were first given to St. Peter, where Christ again grants authority to the Apostles to forgive and bind sins: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). Here, Christ reveals the simple purpose for which He gave the disciples, and all pastors, the keys to the kingdom of heaven: to shepherd His people to that kingdom. That is, He gives the Church pastors to point Christians to eternal life through His grace.

Concerning this ministerial office, the Apostle Paul writes, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:11-13a). 

Needless to say, Christ instituted the holy ministry to show everlasting life through His suffering and death, and the means through which He transmits this grace to the Church. In several places, the Lord correlates this ministry to the forgiveness of sins, thereby establishing the ministry to bind and lose sins on earth. Thus, confession and absolution is a necessary function of the ministry, to which all Christians are expected to adhere.

John the Evangelist writes:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:8-10

Confession of sins is not optional. Every Christian must confess their sins before God, and it is exhorted in Scripture that they confess to a pastor. God  also wills this, for He commands the Apostles concerning the ministry in John 20:

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

John 20:23

This also speaks well to the nature of the ministry and its relation to confession and absolution. It is incumbent on pastors to grant absolution to repentant sinners—but they are not permitted to absolve anyone of their sins who is not truly contrite and repentant. Hence why confession is tied so heavily to the Office of the Keys; the pastor must discern whether one is truly repentant and, through prayer and discernment, decide whether he must withhold or grant absolution.

Pastors certainly may err; they, too, are human. James writes in the third chapter of his Epistle that “[we who teach] all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2a). But God is merciful and just, and He forgives anyone their sins who is truly contrite and repentant. But this does not nullify His own institution of the holy ministry. Paul also writes the following in Romans 12: 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Romans 12:2-3

Though Paul is not speaking explicitly of the pastoral office, he appropriately exhorts us to “think with sober judgment,” and that by “testing you may discern what is the will of God.” The sort of testing about which Paul is speaking is not necessarily a test of faith, but rather an examination of character. It involves scrutinization of conduct and inspection of disposition. Through these measures a pastor may discern, in full accord with his office, whether or not to administer absolution to an individual.

A more direct allusion to the holy ministry is found in Hebrews 13:17: “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” It is noted that pastors must give an account for those who are entrusted to their care. Pastors therefore must act within their office diligently. By their prayers and the prayers of those entrusted to their care, pastors are enabled to do so. 

As Christianity became individualized and the theological importance of the ministry dwindled – a deprivation seen throughout American Christendom – confession and absolution fell out of widespread favor among evangelicals. It is commonly thought that confession to a pastor is needless and even iniquitous. Many church bodies have done away with private confession to a pastor, and many have eliminated the practice of confession itself. 

Yet God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness simply cannot be understood apart from confession and absolution. His means of grace have been instituted to bestow that very love and forgiveness—and thereby life—and apart from them, it is distorted. Many are left wondering, others even doubtful. The miraculous means by which Christ offers forgiveness are, according to His institution, the lifeblood of our sanctified life; without them, the Church suffers greatly.

Apart from confession and absolution, all of the means of grace ought to be understood in a pastoral context. The Sacrament of the Altar is administered in the context of the holy liturgy; it is the pastor who administers it. Baptism likewise is almost always a liturgical rite, observed in the Church and performed by the pastor. 

This sacramental theology is not accidental. Neither is it coincidental that this theology is tightly joined to the pastoral office. The pastor, when acting properly in his office, points not to himself, but to the Word made flesh. He points the weary Christian soul to Christ, whose death and resurrection makes the mysterious sacraments efficacious. He bestows life and salvation through the means of grace; thus, it is not his doing, but the work of Christ alone made manifest by the Holy Spirit. This cannot be accidental, but mercifully intentional.

The pastoral office must, as Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). The pastor is commanded to preach, exhort, and rebuke. Preaching leads to exhortation. Exhortation convicts sinners of their sins and leads to rebuke. Rebuke leads to repentance—and repentance leads to forgiveness.

It is the duty of the pastor to preach the Word—and that very Word is life. This life is bestowed not by mere remembrance, but by the actual reception of the means of grace that have been instituted for the sake of the Church. We can see, touch, and even taste the goodness and mercy of our God. The sacraments are not stumbling blocks, but life-giving fountains whereby His love and forgiveness is not only proclaimed but received.