An open letter to every sinner who has ever recited the confession (especially Sydney Anglicans 😘 )
Martha Mackay was trapped in an abusive relationship. Most nights her husband would come home drunk and he would beat her. And he would blame her: You make me act this way. Yeah, I might have hit you a couple of times, but you’re so dramatic, you always blow things out of proportion. Half of those stories you tell your friends about me aren't even true, I bet they don't know how crazy you actually are.
Martha Mackay tried to escape multiple times, but he would find her and manipulate her into coming back. One day Martha Mackay’s friends found her lying, unconscious and bloody on the stairs to her apartment. After a brutal beating she had tried to leave, but she hadn’t been able to make it out of the building. Her friends took her to hospital and the police arrested her husband and locked him up. Martha Mackay had escaped death, and she was finally free from her abusive relationship.
Eventually Martha found someone who loved her and treated her well and helped her heal. They got married and she took a new name. She is now Martha Freeman. She still suffers trauma, she hasn’t fully healed, but she has a new identity. Even her friends say she is a changed woman. She is never going back to her old life. And her friends never… ever… refer to her by her old name.
*******
you shall be holy to Me, for I Yahweh am holy; and I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine [1]
After God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt, and the tyrannical Pharaoh who held them captive, He called them into a covenant relationship. And He gave them His Name; so they in fact ‘bear His name’.[2] Leviticus describes what it looked like to live in this new covenant family, so one way Bible scholars interpret the verse “be holy for I am holy”[3] is not as a command to become more holy, rather it is a statement that, now that you are Mine, now that you have become part of My covenant family, you are by default holy because I am holy.[4]
That was Israel’s identity, but what is our identity? Paul says our old self is dead
our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin… So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin[5]
We used to be slaves to sin, but we are to consider that part of us dead. We don’t associate with sin anymore. Sin is dead to us. That thing that used to boss us around, we’ve blocked their number, we don’t talk anymore. Ok, so that’s who we were. But who are we now?
consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus[6]
We are alive “in Christ”. We have been united with Christ and we are now “one body in union with Christ”.[7] And if Christ has indeed united himself to you, take that union with Christ seriously, because since we have been united with Christ, what is true of Christ is true of us. This is who we are.
sin shall not be master over you…
you were slaves of sin[8]
Sin was our old master, but we have been freed from sin.[9] The good news is we have a new master now. Don’t go back! Because sin brings death. In fact Paul says “sin deceived me and killed me”.[10] What if Israel wanted to go back to their old master? What if Israel said something dumb, like we were better off in Egypt, let’s go back.[11] No! what if Israel said “we are Egyptians. We deserve their fate.” No! They were rescued from slavery in Egypt, and given God’s name to wear. They became a new nation. And we too are in fact a new creation.
And this is where we have to decide who our master is. Do we, like the Israelites, desire to return to slavery, to march back to our old master? Or do we run. Running as though we have just been released from an abusive tyrant. Running into the open arms of the One who has obtained freedom for us.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.[12]
As I read Paul, I get the overwhelming sense that he is pleading with us: get rid of your old self. Throw it far away. Throw it as far as God has thrown it, as far as East is from West. Don’t even mention its name among you. Because your new self is the likeness of God, righteous and holy and pleasing to God.[13]
Here’s the thing…
If we have “been freed from sin and enslaved to God”[14]
If this is true…
Why when we meet together do we constantly remind each other of who we were?
People regularly remind me, almost proudly, that we are sinners. I remember one conversation I overheard; a new mother had brought her beautiful baby to church and all her friends were gathered around. “What a little angel” said one of them lovingly. “No,” the minister proudly interrupted. “She is a little sinner”. They marvelled at his profound wisdom.
That conversation stuck with me, like a bit of sand in my sock. And it kept bothering me until one day when I read through Romans in one go, and as I read, I got the overwhelming sense that when we gather together Paul wants us to remind each other of who we are, and not who we were.
Who do we identify as when we meet together?
Like Martha, I hope we don’t remind our friends of who they were. When we gather together do we publicly identify as sinners? Are we proudly wearing our old master’s name as a badge of honour? Should we not rather remind each other, with pride and joy, that we have a new master now - we bear His name.
Our sense of self, our character, is formed by our habits and regular patterns. Ask a psychologist; the words we say to our loved ones are vitally important. If you tell your children every morning “you are hopeless, your life will never amount to anything” they will believe it. They will grow up believing they are worthless. Your loved ones will believe what you say about them - whatever the regular affirmation is, whether negative or positive, will become their inner monologue, sometimes sticking with them for their whole lives.
Instead, within our family if we want to foster a healthy identity and sense of self, we should be intentional about our language: tell your kids, and your spouse, “I love you. No matter what you do, you are loved.” Like Yahweh told His people, His covenant family, I am holy, and so you too are holy.
Today, when we gather together as God’s people do we tell our church family we are hopeless or holy? That trusted person in the pulpit, do they speak words of condemnation or hope? What we say and hear in our church family, our liturgy if you like, it represents - no, more - it reinforces our core beliefs. Especially if it is recited each week. When thinking about group identity, what you affirm becomes who you are. And who you are affects how you act.
In my church, while we have let go of much of the Anglican liturgy some of it remains. This is what I hear every week
We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed and in what we have failed to do.
We deserve your condemnation.[15]
Have we sinned? Of course we have! All have sinned.[16] Do I sin? Of course I do. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.[17] So the statement is true. Do we deserve condemnation? Sure. Although Paul seems to be past all that. He would rather remind us of our new identity, hurriedly stepping over the dead body of our old self with a resounding “therefore”
Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.[18]
Bear with me. I’m not suggesting the statements aren’t true, but I’m still struggling with some sand in my sock; if the only thing we recite to each other each week is that we are sinners who deserve condemnation, that is exactly who we will start to identify as. The good news is there is a whole liturgy of words we can say to each other that would remind us of who we are in Christ.
Let’s look at liturgy…
Wait. Phil, I need to interrupt you. It clearly says in the Bible “confess your sins to one another” [19]
You’re right. James does say this. and that’s not all. In the Gospels when people got baptised, they also came “confessing their sins“.[20] For what purpose do you suppose God would want us to confess our sins to one another? In the Bible, the word confess carries the idea of acknowledging openly; not leaving it covered up, declaring out loud. In Phillippians the CSB says “every tongue will confess…” while the NIV has
every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord[21]
So if we confess our sins to each other, we are not hiding them. We are uncovering them, declaring them out loud. For what purpose? To reinforce the fact that we are sinners? (Notice James does not say confess you are sinners.) No, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”[22]
The hope is for healing. To be made whole. To realise the fullness of who we are as a new creation. When people were baptised they came “confessing their sins”. Why? They were being washed and renewed, emerging from the water as a new creation in Christ. The old had been washed away.
If I were to declare to you, acknowledge out loud, that I had a problem with porn, what would I expect you to do? Affirm me? Yes Phil, you are a sinner. Condemn me? Phil, you deserve condemnation for this sin. No. I would want you to help me heal. The very reason I am opening up to you is because I know that what I am doing is not in line with who I am. I would want you to remind me: Phil, that’s not you. That's your old self. Your identity is now Christ. Leave that old stuff behind.
I belong to Christ. And therefore I confess Christ; I openly acknowledge and declare out loud with my mouth, Jesus is Lord. I do not wear the badge of my old master, nor am I called by that name. I am not a sinner. I am a Christian. I wear the badge of my new master, Christ, who has set me free from sin. Do I sin? Yes. But that doesn’t define who I am. Christ has defined who I am. My identity is “in Christ.”
Wait. Phil. Sorry, that was beautiful, but again, I need to interrupt you. Paul himself says he is a sinner. He actually says he is the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).
Why would Paul say that? Doesn’t his statement seem to contradict everything else he has been saying? I mean, Paul opens his letter to the Romans “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints”. And closes by telling them to receive Phoebe “in a manner worthy of the saints” and to greet “all the saints”. Saints not sinners. This seems oddly contradictory. A few translations think Paul is saying he is the worst of sinners or chief among sinners, NIV being one of them
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.[23]
But a simple word search reveals something puzzling. Almost every other time this word appears in the Bible it is translated as first. Many scholars and Bible translators therefore prefer to stick with first or foremost rather than worst. Young's Literal Translation demonstrates this literal approach
Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners -- first of whom I am[24]
Someone who wrote extensively on this subject is Dudley Lai, who gives a great summary
Paul is not saying ‘I am the worst sinner’, then ‘I am’ what? What Paul is saying in 1Tim 1:15 is this: ‘Jesus came to the world to save sinners, and I belong to this group, and I am the first case of that group to be saved.’[25][26]
Dudley’s interpretation makes a lot of sense, especially when we notice in the very next verse this same word shows up again, and here as expected, many translators choose to stick with first
However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.[27]
Christians have been corporately reciting a confession for 2000 years or so, so I am not proposing we start mucking around with a 2000 year old tradition. (To that point, the line “we deserve your condemnation” is only recited by Sydney Anglicans as far as I can tell, recently appearing in a 2001 modification of the Sunday Service published by the Sydney Diocese.[28]) Nor should you hear me suggesting repentance is redundant. On the contrary, I think we should repent daily as we seek to draw ever closer to God, and to become more and more like Christ.
A confession should be a part of our Sunday service, and there are countless confessions to choose from,[29] and the choice is an important one, because what we say or hear every week will form part of our identity, as habits generally do. One article I read entitled Psychology of Habits, claimed
40 percent of your actions are not conscious decisions but habits. So habits are a big part of your life - and a lot of the time you don’t even notice it![30]
The article went on to show how habits are our brain's way of increasing efficiency. Our brain takes whatever we do regularly, and learns it, turning it into a habit, so we can do it without thinking. Therefore, like it or not, what we recite each week at church will become part of our subconscious identity. This in fact is what liturgies and church calendars were designed to do; to give us a healthy weekly habit to help form our character in Christ.
I said before that confession should be a part of our Sunday service, and so it should, but how does our confession contribute to the overall tone of our service? What weekly reminder will we hear? This Sunday, will we hear a condemning voice, telling us who we were? Or will we be reminded of who we are? This Sunday, what habit could we start that might lift the tone from condemnation to exaltation?
It could be something you say to yourself each day. It could come from the Book of Common Prayer. It could be spoken liturgy. It could be a daily recited prayer. I found a few options you might like, and I didn’t have to search very hard; the Church has a rich collection of confessions and prayers.
There’s a benediction that’s still in the Australian Prayer Book, and has been in prayer books for thousands of years; it’s taken straight from the book of Numbers. It’s how God commanded Aaron to bless the people, and it’s utterly beautiful. It has become one of my favourite passages to recite to myself, and it’s definitely something I would love to have ringing in my ears as I leave a Sunday gathering.
This is how you are to bless the Israelites. You should say to them,
“May the LORD bless you and protect you;
may the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
may the LORD look with favor on you
and give you peace.”[31]
There are 10 more benedictions in the New Testament alone,[32] all with a tone of hope and peace and blessing and comfort.
Perhaps the prayer Jesus taught us to pray? And yes, this also is in the liturgy (although sadly in my church while we hear a confession each week we almost never recite the Lord’s prayer). Say it to yourself now. Does it sound condemning? Or does it sound encouraging? One of the oldest liturgies still in use today is the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great (which may have been used as early as 370 AD). At one point, just before the Lord’s prayer is recited by all the people, the people hear the word “condemnation” recited by the priest. But hearteningly, it shares Paul’s sentiment about condemnation: there is none.
Priest: And make us worthy, Master, with confidence and without fear of condemnation, to dare call You, the heavenly God, Father, and to say:
People: Our Father, who art in heaven…
When we are gathered together, are we gathered as a bunch of sinners? I think Paul would reply with an emphatic, no! Yes, we have sinned, and we will continue to sin, but that is not who we are anymore. We are not defined by our old self. Rather, and especially when we are gathered together, we are the people of God, holy and pleasing to God.[33] This Sunday when we leave to go out into the world what reality will be ringing in our ears? You’re a sinner deserving condemnation? Or you are a new creation, for whom there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ.
Amen.
Footnotes:
[1] Leviticus 20:26 LSB
[2] 2 Chronicles 7:14
[3] Leviticus 19:2, 20:26
[4] Most of these ideas came from John Walton’s book The Lost World of the Torah - Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context.
[5] Romans 6:6, 11
[6] Rom 6:11
[7] Rom 6:5; 12:5
[8] Rom 6:14, 17
[9] Rom 6:18
[10] Rom 7:11
[11] Exodus 14:13; Numbers 14:4
[12] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[13] Rom 6:6; Eph 4:24; 5:3-5; Col 3:9-10; Rom 12:1
[14] Rom 6:22
[15] Here’s the full prayer of confession:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father we have gone our own way, not loving you as we ought, nor loving our neighbour as ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed and in what we have failed to do.
We deserve your condemnation. Father, forgive us.
Help us to love you and our neighbour, and to live for your honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[16] Romans 3:23
[17] John 1:8
[18] Romans 8:1
[19] James 5:16
[20] Mat 3:6 and Mark 1:5
[21] Philippians 2:11 NIV
[22] James 5:16
[23] 1 Tim 1:15 NIV
[24] 1 Timothy 1:15 YLT
[25] Dudley wrote a 3 part article on this verse which I highly recommend reading. Dudley’s Blog: In 1Timothy 1:15, Paul said ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost’, is Paul viewing himself as a sinner? Part 2. July 10, 2022. https://ordinarychristian.home.blog/
[26] Here is Dudley’s translation:
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the first, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience, forming a pattern of those who are about to believe in him for eternal life.
[27] 1 Timothy 1:16 NKJV
[28] Sunday Services: This contemporary liturgical resource was published by the Sydney diocese in 2001, and while the services found within follow a Prayer Book structure, they are quite changed and modified, containing the line “we deserve your condemnation” which I could not find in any other liturgy anywhere. (You might sense my disappointment.) See the next footnote to compare this confession with some others.
[29] A list of confessions can be found here http://bettergatherings.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid=93
[31] Numbers 6:23-26 CSB
[32] (Rom. 1:7)(Rom. 15:33)(Eph. 6:23-24)(2 Thess. 3:16)(1 Tim. 1:2)(2 Tim. 4:22)(Heb. 13:20-21)(1 Pet. 5:14)(2 Pet. 1:2)(Rev. 1:4-5)
[33] Rom 12:1
I love your ending: go in peace to love and serve the Lord.