The General Confession, Humility, and Healing
The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we will taste in Christ.
Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Banner of Truth, 1663, 2020 ed.), 25
Many modern Christians are presented with the sweetness of Christ but understand little of the bitterness of sin. Therefore, they do not truly grasp the sweetness of Christ. They are like someone who has only experienced sugar substitutes but never tasted sugar. They resemble someone who has seen photographs of a majestic sunset but has never actually experienced one. The result is that many Christians’ faith is severely underdeveloped in their hearts. They hope to be saved, but saved from what? They speak the language of redemption but lack any genuine sense of what that really means. They go through the liturgy with great rigor and faithfulness but miss its personal implications and applications in their lives.
We need to think intentionally and honestly about sin with fresh eyes. This is not merely an exercise for a penitential season of the Church Year such as Lent; it is crucial for every follower of Jesus every single day of their lives. Until we recognize our great need, we will never appreciate our great Savior. We must embrace the bitter truth about sin before we can savor the saving sweetness of the Lord. Few things are as necessary today in the Church as true sorrow and contrition for sin, recognition of its offense to God, and its death-inducing effect on us. We must repent of our lack of repentance. The General Confession we say each Sunday helps us do just that.
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The General Confession Redux
Each week, in the Anglican liturgy of Holy Communion, we say the General Confession (a different version of this exists in our Daily Office liturgy). Part of that confession states,
We acknowledge and lament our many sins and offenses, which we have committed by thought, word, and deed against your divine majesty, provoking most justly your righteous anger against us. We are deeply sorry for these our transgressions; the burden of them is more than we can bear.
2019 Book of Common Prayer, 113
Do we really mean this? Are we paying attention to the words we are saying? Let’s examine a few key phrases in this confession and the Biblical passages that inform them.
Acknowledge and Lament
We acknowledge and lament our many sins and offenses.
To “acknowledge” means to be aware of and willing to admit, which implies knowledge of God’s commandments and the guidance found in the Bible and proclaimed by his Church. However, it is more than that. The old term that described awareness of one’s sin and guilt before God was conviction. Conviction is a work of the Holy Spirit; it is God opening our eyes to the truth about ourselves. When Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in John 16, he states that one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit will be to “convict the world concerning sin” (John 16:8). Repentance cannot occur without acknowledgment and lament of our many sins and offenses—without conviction.
This phrase provides no qualification. It is not “if” we have sinned but “that” we have sinned. And we have “many” of them! Do we dare to acknowledge this truth? Do we allow our pride to take such a significant hit? More importantly, however, we claim that we “lament” our sins. Do we genuinely grieve them? Are we truly sorrowful for them?
For many years, I could admit that I was a sinner—in principle. However, I didn’t truly feel sorrow. It was like having a wart; it’s ugly, but it’s just there. It’s a fact of life that I can’t change. My understanding of sin was similar and deeply lacking. As I grew as a Christian, I became more aware of my sin and its offense to a Holy and Sovereign God. The General Confession shows us that acknowledgment and lament are inextricably tied together.
Thought, Word, and Deed
Which we have committed by thought, word, and deed:
Here, we confront the depth of sin. The Confession comprehensively understands the sin we commit, which has permeated the nature and actions of our entire being. Sin is at work in each of these—our thoughts, words, and deeds! Jesus emphasizes this connection in Mark 7:20 when he states, “Out of the heart of man come evil thoughts…” and from those evil thoughts arise evil actions.
We often focus on our deeds and consider them as the measure of our obedience and faithfulness. However, the Bible states,
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
Where do our wicked deeds originate? Our thoughts. Where do our wicked words arise? Our thoughts. Where do our wicked thoughts stem from? Our sin-saturated natures, the temptations we entertain, and our own disordered pride and ego. Sin manifests in every aspect of our lives!
Provoking Righteous Anger
Provoking most justly your righteous anger against us
What then is the result of our sin? If we are truly honest —if we truly understand sin —then, of course, his “righteous anger” is the most logical answer. It is he whom we have offended. They are His laws we have transgressed. It is against his Word we have rebelled.
Many people today—many Christians, in fact—bristle at this phrase. However, it conveys a fully scriptural idea. Romans 1:18 states, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” (Romans 1:18). Notice that it says against “all” ungodliness and unrighteousness. Sin is no light or laughing matter to God. This is why it is purely self-deceptive (not to mention dangerous) for us to wink at, minimize, or rationalize sin in our lives.
God’s anger or wrath is not like ours. It is not thoughtless, reactive, or uncontrolled. It is, like the rest of God, perfect. J.I. Packer states in his book Concise Theology, “His wrath, that is, his active judicial hostility to sin, is wholly just in its manifestations.” Our sin indeed provokes most justly your righteous anger against us.
Our only salvation from the wrath of God is the blood of Christ. The famous verse John 3:16 reminds us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Yes, there is gracious, long-suffering, and patient love in God. However, John infers that Jesus was given to actually save us from perishing. Apart from Christ, that’s where we are headed because we are, in fact, guilty. As Paul reminds us, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23).
Sorrow & Surrender
We are deeply sorry for our transgressions the burden of them is more than we can bear:
The acknowledgment of sin, the realization of our predicament, and the understanding of our offense should naturally lead to sorrow. This doesn’t mean being overly emotional, but rather embracing a sin-sick sobriety. The General Confession helps us avoid the self-deception which, as described by Bishop J.C. Ryle in his book Holiness, manifests in the tendency of people to try to convince themselves that sin is not quite as sinful as God says it is and that they are not as bad as they truly are.
Our sorrow for our transgressions leads to a painful awareness of helplessness. We cannot bear the weight of our sins. We are powerless to undo our sin, make amends for our rebelliousness, or be reconciled with God. With St. Paul, we cry, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). A genuine understanding of sin compels us to raise the white flag of surrender.
But this surrender becomes our victory. We win by losing. It is only here, having admitted our sin and our inability to correct it, that we are ready to seek and accept the saving work of the cross.
Pardon Assured
Here, the tension of the General Confession is resolved. After confessing our sins and pleading for the Lord’s mercy, the priest stands and proclaims,
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who in His great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins to all those who sincerely repent and with true faith turn to him, have mercy upon you.
2019 Book of Common Prayer, 113
In this brief confession of sin, we have journeyed with the Psalmist to uncover the truth about ourselves: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” We are also led to acknowledge the truth of the grace that is offered:
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4). Repentance is not merely a journey downward; through Christ, it is also a lift. Sinclair Ferguson states, “Only when we turn away from looking at our own sin to gaze upon the face of God, to find his pardoning grace, do we begin to repent. Only by seeing that there is grace and forgiveness with him would we ever dare to repent and thus return to the fellowship and presence of the Father.
Sinclair Ferguson, The Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 2023), 69
We hear this same assurance in Article XVI of the Thirty-Nine Articles: “We may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again.”
A proper understanding of sin is no more morbid than an accurate diagnosis from a doctor. When we are sick or injured, it serves no purpose for the doctor to tell us anything other than the truth about our condition. We also need to know the true remedy for what ails us.
The same holds true for the health of our souls. We need the truth about ourselves and must understand the true remedy for our predicament. The General Confession and the Assurance of Pardon (Absolution) provide us with biblical and true answers to both sides of this equation. As we kneel to confess each week, let us do so with a sober examination of our lives and a grateful heart for Christ’s saving work of redemption. As Bishop Ryle once noted, “Awful and tremendous as the right view of sin undoubtedly is, no one need faint or despair if he takes a right view of Jesus Christ at the same time.”
Photo by kokophoto from Getty Images, courtesy of Canva.
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