In a chapter on confession and communion in Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that “he who is alone with his sin is utterly alone.
. . . But it is the grace of the gospel, which is so hard for the pious
to understand, that confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come as the sinner you are, to the God who loves you.”
I’m sure that most of us agree with Bonhoeffer that the confession of
sin, grounded in the gospel, is a vital component of our personal
spirituality. But we get a little uncomfortable when it comes to
corporate dimensions of confession. It’s not too threatening to engage
in silent confession when the liturgy calls us to do so in the weekend
service, but when it comes to times of confession in small-group
settings, we often settle for less-indicting statements like “I’m
struggling with . . .” Even then, we have the gnawing sense that our
vague, toothless non-confessions aren’t fulfilling the exhortation of James 5:16, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” Continue at Ryan Griffith
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