Worship Old and New 5: Confession and Repentance  

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dXh-S-7rOGs&si=Fout7LKsMweRB9gR

 Bible readings

Psalm 32

Mark 1:9-15

Acts 19:11-20

James 5:13-16

Preamble

For a consistent Christ-centred approach like I intend, tonight’s focus on confession of sin is especially difficult. Whilst it is quite simple to see our discipleship, prayer, praise etc. as directly flowing out of our union with Christ, Jesus never sinned (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 2:14 etc.) and so he never needed to confess[1]. Nonetheless, we must accept that only the sinless humanity of the Son of God could see sin in its full seriousness as God does[2] and respond in a fully Godly way in voluntary lowliness in our place and on our behalf[3]. To put this another way, the Incarnation of the Son of God means all of salvation is grace from first to last[4].

Introduction

Understanding confession in Christ involves deeply entering, by the Spirit, the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). [By divine design no sinful person was permitted to observe the resurrection event. Thankfully however, in the economy of grace, the invisibility[5] of the resurrection is matched by the public nature of the passions/sufferings of Jesus. Not only do we have the Gospel accounts, but Paul boldly testifies, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” (Gal 3:1). There are therefore biblical, theological, and practical reasons[6] of the profoundest sort urging me[7] to teach on the exaltation of Jesus by the Father as fully and directly as possible (Phil 1:20). This will involve us engaging with the ways of the Lord in beautifying his beloved Bride “by the washing of water through the word” (Eph 5:26). Before I do that, let me share a little of my personal history.  I have been involved in numerous prayer and unity movements in Perth for decades[8], but the greatest transformation of my prayer life happened in the late 80’s when the Lord called me to pray for the first hour of my day, every day[9].]

If the greatest enemy of prayer is self-consciousness[10], the greatest antidote [in God’s all-wise plan of salvation (Rom 16:27)] is the Spirit’s gift of Christ-consciousness (1 Cor 2:16).] This involves being empowered to first see ourselves as we are outside of Jesus (cf. John 15:5) leading into a progressive revelation of our new identity in our union with Christ[11]. Many grasp that the first sign of every genuine and lasting work of the Spirit of Christ is confession[12] but very few appreciate why our happiness in the Lord depends on a life routine of confession and forgiveness[13].

Original Sin

The “original sin”, that hinders prayer (because the first fruit of a move of God is extraordinary prayer[14]) is putting oneself above God, [especially as he has been revealed in Christ]. Adam fell in love with the devil’s publicity[15], “God knows that when you[16]* eat of it (the tree of knowledge) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” (Gen 3:5). This was a promise of a form of self-rule that went beyond God-given dominion over all [external] created things (Gen 1:28). The prospect of self-rule (autonomy) was irresistible, and it still is. In sinning, Eve and Adam forgot (cf. 2 Pet 1:9) they were created in the image of God with a law written on their hearts (Rom 2:15) moving them to seek the obedience to his will and commandments which alone brings true freedom. The modern Church desperately needs a revelation that sin is a contradiction of created nature at the very deepest level[17]. [St. Augustine famously said that “to serve God is perfect freedom”[18].]

The deep power of the drive to “do one’s own thing for one’s own glory” peaks in certain Old Testament prophetic texts that speak of a Satanic figure whose pattern of life imitates that of Jesus. In Isaiah 14:13-14[19], “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”, and in Ezekiel 28 “you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods” (28:1 ff.). [The beast-like ruler in Daniel will “exalt himself and magnify himself above every god” (Dan 11:36).] In the New Testament the final “man of lawlessness… opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God i.e., Church, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess 2:4). Given we all were once those “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,[ the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience]” (Eph 2:2), these texts warn us about the disposition of our own hearts.

The only Person with power to free us from our depraved[20] self-centred fallen desires,[21] is Jesus [who became perfectly free through his sacrificial obedience[22] to the Law by grace imprinted on his human heart (Rom 2:15; Jer 31:33).]

God exalts Jesus as a Human Being

There are two climactic events of supreme saving significance in the life of Jesus. The first is [his Incarnation, his becoming a human being (John 1:14)] where he “emptied himself” of his eternal glory (Phil 2:7). Christ’s self-awareness of his humble position in relation to the Father’s glory grew as he approaches the end. Before he stoops to wash his disciples feet  in John 13 we read, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God” (v.3);  in the great High Priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven”, and said “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (vv1 ff.). Then in Gethsemane the Spirit moves him[23] to testify, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36). As Jesus approached his lowest point, the cross, his sense of his Father’s greatness was (graciously) magnifiesd. How is this connected to confession??

If confession of sin is an open taking of responsibility for the consequences of evil, we can discern that Christ’s great struggle to pray in the Gethsemane, (Luke 22:44), is a struggle to bear responsibility for the consequences of the sin of the whole world (John 1:29)[24]. All this was necessary (Luke 24:26) because in God’s order, humiliation is always for the purpose of exaltation, as Paul proclaims, “therefore God has highly exalted him (the slain Jesus) and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Phil 2:9)[25] Exaltation is the second great saving act of God in Christ.

By submitting to utter humiliation[26] followed by certain divine exaltation[27] Jesus has permanently reversed the course of human history[28] in himself. As he prophesied about his own death, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.” (John 12:32-33). Paul expounds this wonderful exchange[29], “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God… For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 5:21; 8:9). Only by “descending to the lower parts of the earth”, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 4, does Jesus come to “fill all things” (Eph 4:9-10) through “his body (i.e. the Church), the fullness of him who fills all things in every way.” (Eph 1:23). The way into experiencing these final end-time realities involves confession before God and and communion with God.

[The Lord’s isn’t about ever larger congregations, or enlarging your personal sphere of influence, he is about it is extending his sovereign rule over all of reality[30]*]

Only to the degree that we submit to the Lord’s taking us down ever lower can we experience more of the exaltation of Christ. (until recently, every morning one the street I would find myself during prayer prostrate on the ground before the Lord confessing my wretchedness) Though Jesus is one with the everlasting Father (John 17:5), in order to lift our humanity up to its God-ordained status with him in the heavenlies[31], he had to take on our nature in its weakest, most base and lowliest form. His glory as God made man needed to become unrecognisable to carnal/fleshly/sensual eyes[32]. Hence we read in the prophet Isaiah, “he had no form/visible appearance or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa 53:2)[33]. The great U -term (reversal) in Christ’s life history for us finds potent expression in Paul’s declaration “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11)[34]. [That this is a U turn in the saving history of all humanity, is from Pentecost on being revealed before angels and humans by the Spirit of the Lord. Every revival witnesses to this unceasing pattern of humiliation for the sake of exaltation. Every revival puts on display the mystery of how God’s sovereign wisdom is released in humanity by the gospel. Every revival is a revelation that a human being has been graced with a full share in the universal sovereignty of God over all things.] Even the highest celestial creatures closest to the throne of God must conform to this dynamic pattern of lowliness for exaltation, “the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship[35] him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”” (Rev 4:10-11)[36] (cf. 1 Cor 14:25)[37]. [All this has profound implications for the prayer life of the Church as we know it. I heard online the young man (Zach Meerkreebs) whose teaching provoked the recent Asbury revival explaining that if we want to see new wine in new wineskins we need to think in terms of “reverse engineering”. As olive oil and the fruit of the grape comes only through crushing, we need to submit to the crushing of the Lord. Repentance, literally, a change of mind[38], is exactly this.] Lest we fall prey to practicing repentance and confession [legalistically/mechanically/pragmatically/] formulaically, we must understand that repentance as the renewal of life is already given once and for all by God (implicitly at least) at conversion. For a Christian, repentance brings life into line with an already existent state of total forgiveness and justification in Christ. This is much bigger than a mere individual state of affairs.

A Community of Confession 

The Lord showed me some years ago that when those who “bear the marks of Jesus on their body” (Gal 6:17) come together in vulnerable relationships his glory would be seen in Perth[39]. You can imagine my excitement when I asked an old friend about the preaching of a pastor I’d recently reconnected with, and he described it as “transparent”. Seeing this pastor the other day I checked it out with him in person and he told me his preaching team unhesitatingly “hang out their dirty linen”[40]. They have been taught the powerful but rarely grasped secret that mutual confession is an indispensable key to experiencing the power of the washing of the blood of the Lamb.[41]

Once upon a time, when Christians came to church[42] they anticipated/hopefully being led by their shepherd/priest/pastor/elder in a General Confession[43] and to hear from him/her as a representative of Christ himself strong words of absolution i.e., a declaration of their full forgiveness[44]. Absolution from sin is nothing less than a condensation of the gospel (Brunner). [Tragically, the original vision of the great Protestant Reformers of the Church as a “priesthood of all believers” was never realised because they substituted a preaching priesthood for the sacerdotal/mediatorial priesthood of the mass. This error[45] continues to strangle the flourishing of real Christian community amongst Protestants (“many little popes”)[46], [and is generally most visible in Pentecostal circles.]

There has been such a dramatic cultural shift in Western Christianity that General Confession seems totally alien to our [emaciated] individualistic mindset. Churches taken captive by the “seeker sensitive” approach have stripped out of their “services”[47] anything that might indicate that we are “miserable sinners”[48]* in desperate need of divine mercy. We have become conditioned to think of “confession” as something we do in private, whereas the language of confession in scripture, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) is used throughout the New Testament of public acknowledgment[49]. In its abandonment of General Confession, the Church has been robbed of an important means of grace, for it is natural, or “supernatural” if you prefer, for Christians to want to confess, because confession-and-absolution images the life of Jesus portrayed in the gospel of death-and-resurrection.

Confession and the Shape of the Gospel

[Adam fell into sin by exchanging the Fatherhood of God for the fatherhood of the devil[50] so sharing in Satan’s condemnation to endless self-obsession[51]. Whereas Satan aspired to a greater “Godlikeness without God”,] Jesus has revealed access to the courts of heaven comes through selfless sacrifice for others. We can only be exalted around the throne of God through sharing in how Jesus himself was “raised…far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph 1:21). We must be first humbled by God in order to be exalted by his Spirit. The biblical truth, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you…. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (James 4:10; 1 Pet 5:6) is as invariable/unchanging as the gospel because it is a gospel promise.

Prayer for sick Christians is common, but the biblical format for doing this is severely neglected. James tells us, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up[52]. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed[53]. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:13-16).  I have heard v.16 in its memorable KJV form frequently quoted, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”, but I have never seen it used with understanding of its actual context.

The atmosphere enveloping prayer for the afflicted is a gospel atmosphere, for confession is a participation in the lowliness of the cross and the language “the Lord will raise him up” points to healing as a release of resurrection power[54]. [The application of this invariable gospel sequence to the Church and its prayers for revival became fully clear to me as I was preparing today’s talk.][55]

[J Sidlow Baxter was a man whose heart was made alive to God through a journey of prayer when the Spirit cut inside him, as he says, “like a daggers blade”[56]. He testifies against himself by sharing, “at the end of that hour, if you had asked me” “Have you had a good time? I would have had to reply, “No, it has been a wearying wrestle with contrary emotions and a wayward imagination from beginning to end.”….this battle with his emotions continued for between two and three weeks, but Baxter emerged as a man of enduring spiritual vitality.] Confession plunges us  into  obedience to a painful call. In this zone you will see and sense things you don’t want to, things which will “get you into trouble”. (Don Rogers 1993 shrill but very accurate prophecy over JY, and it happened, there was a “church riot” !)

Confession and Absolution

Confession and absolution are indispensable to a holy life. [Through it we come to pray in assured faith as it imparts the presence of Christ way beyond its own time.]  In Psalm 32, David describes how his bones were wasting away and his groaning was perpetual day and night until he acknowledged his sin and uncovered his iniquity through confession. At which point he was made well! Because this psalm is prophetically about the death- and-exaltation of Jesus, it ends with a share in the resurrection victory of Christ, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (v.11 cf. Luke 24:41). Any sin, however small to us, is a spiritual violation of the holiness of God’s Fatherhood (John 17:11) and should call us to cry out for the blessing of forgiveness. (Especially in the company of other believers in Jesus.) Few of us[57] have the courage to pray as David did for the cleansing of the body as the temple of the Spirit, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps 139:23-24)[58][59].

The greatest preacher of the nineteenth century, Charles Spurgeon, unashamedly said, “For a successful season of prayer the best beginning is confession.” (Charles Spurgeon)[60]. Whilst the Church today claims the manifest presence of God whilst failing to commonly confess the sins of humanity, of the wider Body, and of its members, it is living in an illusion.

Conclusion

There is nothing deeper or more intimate than confession and repentance in the presence of a holy and all- forgiving God? Given this is so, which Christian has not been troubled/ tormented by the question. “How can I know if my repentance is deep enough?” The answer is provided by faith, Jesus is ENOUGH for the Father! Humanity’s need for the God revealed in Jesus is total, and Christ’s passionate life is the revelation of that need, a revelation he sovereignly chooses to reveal only to us the Church[61]. The factor which stops us from “proclaim(ing) the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Pet 2:9 cf. Acts 26:18) is our unbelief about what God has already fully and finally accomplished for us in Christ. The sure and certain remedy for our unbelief is to confess it. We have however been convinced by the deceiver (Rev 12:9) that to confess sin is shameful and an acknowledgement of guilt.  Whilst the absence of communities of confession reveals a layer of shame has descended over the pastors/leaders of the Church, in Christ there can be no shame in confessing sins.  Let me use an illustration. I used to ask my theology students, “At the Last Judgement, will all your sins be on open display for the world to see?”[62] The class always went silent. The answer, which will bring to God in Christ the greatest glory, is “All our sins will be revealed, as forgiven sins!”[63] How ecstatically wonderful. The glory of full forgiveness is the lens through which we must zealously embrace confession as the key to revival. Until we return to the classical practices of the Church and the power of the forgiveness and cleansing they confer, we will lack an anticipation of the Return of Christ which is a vital element of every sustainable move of the Spirit of God[64].