Do We Need To Confess Our Sins To A Priest To Receive Forgiveness?
Q: I was brought up as a Catholic and was taught that I had to have all of the sacraments. Do I have to confess our sins to a priest in order to be forgiven? Where does confession fit into evangelical Christianity?
A: I do not agree with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on this topic. I do not believe that priests in the Roman Catholic system, or pastors or ministers in any Christian tradition, have any kind of unique power to pronounce forgiveness of sins. I do think that there’s a very valid principle given to us in James, where he talks about confessing our sin “one to another.” I’m not a scholar in the original languages at all, but I have read from reputable scholars that the sense there in James is confess your sins ones to another. The idea isn’t necessarily an individual confession of sin, though there may be a time and a place for that, but more so it’s about being open about our sinful status and our need in front of other people. When we are confessing our sin and being open about our sinful needs and problems in front of other people, we can receive the gift of the assurance of Jesus’ forgiveness as we hear it from those people based on the promise of God. I would disagree with the Roman Catholic system that makes confession directly to a priest as a sacrament of the church that somebody must receive in order to be assured of salvation. However, the general idea of confessing our sin to God, and to others where appropriate, is an important point for us to look at. I would recommend that you refer to my Bible Commentary on James 5 for a more complete overview of the confession of sin.
Pride is the root of so much sin. The practice of the discipline of confessing and being honest about our sin is one of the ways that we can genuinely be set free from it, to overcome it. One of the most important things we can do as believers is to be honest with others about our need for God’s grace. And confession is a great way to slay pride.
What is the difference between Roman Catholicism and evangelical Christianity regarding the sacraments? I’ll explain it as I understand it. Not all Roman Catholics would explain this exactly the same way, but I do know that at certain times and places, this has been an oversimplified explanation of what the Roman Catholic Church believes regarding sacraments.
In this illustration, Roman Catholics regard the church as being something like a bank of God’s grace. The person you interact with to get things from the bank is the priest. The way that you come and make withdrawals of God’s grace from the church through the priest is by the sacraments. This is in the Roman Catholic thinking. There are seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, first communion or holy communion, confession of sin, holy matrimony, holy orders (ordination of the priesthood), and last rites. Roman Catholic theology says that the way you receive the grace of God unto salvation is exclusively administered through the priest or through the workings of the church.
I disagree with that whole approach entirely. I think the Bible makes it very clear that grace is received directly from Jesus Christ by faith. Now, I’m not saying that things like baptism or communion, in the sense of coming to the Lord’s table, aren’t important or don’t have their place in the church. Absolutely, they do. But I’m even uncomfortable with the idea behind the phrase, “means of grace,” which is used to describe the sacraments. It’s not like God’s grace is contained in the bread of the Lord’s table, as though I can ingest God’s grace. Now, it can be a means of grace if I receive it with faith. The bread and the cup have their place, but the really critical aspect is faith. Those things received without faith transmit no grace. Those things received with faith bring the grace of God.
Most proper theologies teach that faith is the means of grace. Faith is how we receive the grace of God, not through sacraments or directly through the administration of a church. That would be my disagreement with how I see these things working out between classic Roman Catholic theology and my understanding of what the Bible teaches.