In this lesson, students learn how we forgive sins as Jesus commands.
Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, 1565 by Pieter Bruegel, Oil on panel, 24cm x 34cm
Psalm 51:3-9 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.
There are two parts to confession. One is that we confess our sins—and believe me, we’ve sinned. If we say that we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Don’t deny it. Don’t shift the blame onto unruly family members or neighbors, unfortunate circumstances, or the devil himself. If you sin, that is YOUR problem. Someone must pay for the wrongs you committed. You did them, and God knows. You can’t get around that, so admit it: you sinned!
Now receive absolution, for that’s the other part of confession. Receive forgiveness for your sins, for that’s been given to you by Christ Jesus. Someone had to pay for your wrongs, and so Jesus Christ did that very thing, offering His innocent life and perfect blood as payment. He atoned for you and has given you eternal life. Because of this you have been absolved, you have been forgiven. There, it has been pronounced to you. Go in peace. Yes, it’s that simple. Hear this message from a fellow Christian as from God Himself and do not doubt. Firmly believe that your sins are forgiven in this way before your Heavenly Father.
Devotion
Matthew 16:18-19ESV And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
It was a long time ago, but when I attended grade school, I was impressed with the ring of keys that hung from the janitor’s belt. If there was a door that could be locked, the janitor had a key to unlock that door. In my young mind, keys meant freedom to go wherever you please.
Some years later, I learned about the Ministry or Office of the Keys in Confirmation Class. The pastor didn’t have as many keys as the janitor, but he told us about the keys that had been given to every Christian. Naturally, we wondered if we would receive these keys when we were confirmed.
We call it the Ministry of the Keys because Jesus used the word ‘key’ in Matthew 16:19. In that passage Jesus speaks to Simon Peter following his important, God-given confession of faith (cf. Matthew 16:16-17), that Jesus is ‘the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’ Jesus told Peter that He will build His gathering of believers with that same confession and the gates of Hell will never defeat it. He also tells us all how we enter that assembly, through the forgiveness of sins purchased and won (with Jesus’ blood).
Jesus gave the authority to forgive sins or unlock the door to heaven to those who believe in Him, beginning with Peter. He was to lock heaven to those without the same confession or who were not sorry for their sins. He was to unlock heaven to those who shared his confession and were sorry for sins. If the door was unlocked on earth, it would be unlocked in heaven; and vice versa.
But let’s never forget that the authority to use the keys comes to us from Jesus, through His Resurrection.
Now He bids us tell abroad
How the lost may be restored,
How the penitent forgiven,
How we, too, may enter heaven.
Hallelujah!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 190:6)
Psalm 19:12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
When it comes to Almighty God, the answer to our title question is simple: plead guilty of all sin! No, you don’t have to keep a dirty laundry list about yourself. It’s simple enough to plead guilty of all sin, even those you don’t know you’ve done. Your heart is open for God to dissect. Your words and actions, even those done in private, God sees and knows. He knows all the sins you’ve committed. Even the sins you’ve forgotten about or didn’t realize you committed; He knows those too.
Yet, He has forgiven all these sins. Every one of them was paid for by Jesus’ suffering and death. When you pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses,” you acknowledge that Your Heavenly Father has through His Son forgiven you all your sins even those unknown to you.
Can we and should we also confess our sins to our neighbor? Once again, you don’t need to lay out your dirty laundry list before your fellow Christian or your pastor. Only those sins which we know and feel in our hearts is how the catechism puts it. Those sins which are troubling our hearts and conscience, bring those before your fellow Christian friend or pastor. Why? As Christ has taught them, “as we forgive those who trespass against us,” these trusted fellows and disciples of Christ will offer the one thing needful for your grieving conscience, “Christ has forgiven you!” To hear the words spoken to you, to hear that blessed grace given through the means of God’s Word which says that Jesus has taken away your sin, to hear those words of objectivity said from God’s messenger is nothing but sweet comfort and firm hope for the listener.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Far too easily do we fall into the temptation to think that we have not sinned, or even more so fall into the temptation that our sinful flesh no longer exists. Pinch yourself. Are you real? Yes. Is there flesh when you pinch yourself? Yes. And if your answer is yes to these questions, then you have a sinful flesh that falls under the law. All mouths ridden with excuses will be put to silence, for all are found guilty before God.
Therefore, take God’s law and examine it. Put your life into the context of the ten commandments and see how nasty the sin-stained color streaks of your life stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the beautiful backdrop tapestry of God’s holy will. We have not been faithful in our life stations, we have been disobedient and lazy, we have injured others by what we have said and done, we have stolen, neglected, been careless, and damaged. All this reveals that your life is sinful.
How then shall we be saved? Where we failed to do our duty in each station of our lives, Christ Jesus kept perfect holiness in His life, and He did so in our behalf. Christ lived a perfect life for each one of you so that the tapestry of God’s holy will shall no longer be smeared with the stains of your sin. Every sin against the ten commandments of God is a disrespectful travesty, like a chocolate cupcake smeared into a handwoven, artisan rug; and Christ has taken those stains out completely. When you see the magnitude of your life’s sins, know that that mountain has been cast off you and into the sea by your LORD.
Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
This is the absolution, which is nothing but the sweet announcement that your sins have been forgiven. It’s a simple thing to be said, even after all the evil that King David had committed. King David had a man killed, and then stole his wife. His sins and their consequences were very heavy, and the prophet Nathan confronted David about this. As soon as David acknowledged that he sinned before the LORD, the rest was simple: “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”
The same simplicity is demonstrated when Jesus said to the lame man lowered through the roof, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." Jesus was ridiculed for blasphemy, but Jesus corrected His scoffers by asking, “which is easier, to say, `your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? Jesus then demonstrated His power and healed the man of his paralysis. Through Jesus are sins forgiven. When your brother or sister in Christ confesses their sins to you, simply say that their sins are forgiven. It’s that simple.
One would think that receiving forgiveness would be more stressful and work oriented, but that’s simply not the case, for the hard part was done for you. Jesus Christ did the hard part: living a perfect life amidst temptation, enduring the sufferings of hell, dying on the cross, all of this constitutes the hard part. Calvary is where your sins were paid for, and the empty grave is the stamp of approval that your sins truly are paid for. This is divine, salvific history. The rest is simple. Simply absolve one another by saying, “Jesus has forgiven you.”
8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning, he came back into the temple courts. And all the people kept coming to him. He sat down and taught them.
3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and had her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him, so that they might have evidence to accuse him.
Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 But when they kept on asking him for an answer, he stood up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground.
9 When they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning with the older men. Jesus was left alone with the woman in the center. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, Lord,” she answered.
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore."
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were together behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you! Just as the Father has sent me, I am also sending you.” 22 After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caNJjD_HQY4
Questions.