The Advantage of Confession

I John 1:9

From the website of St. James Orthodox Church, Beaufort

Some friends asked me recently, “Do Orthodox have to go to confession?” to which I unapologetically replied “Yes…” and before I could go further one of them jumped in and said, “Well, see, that’s the advantage of being [their denomination]—you don’t have to confess and all that.”

I am constantly reminded at every turn how different this Orthodox Christian faith is from what is around me, the water from which I was drawn. Certain dogmas are deeply embedded in our American Christian culture, even though there are innumerable expressions of Protestant faith. One of these dogmas is that a Christian need only confess his sins directly to God in prayer, or to another Christian, if he feels that will help him lighten the burden of guilt and shame. Regardless, the role of an ordained priest in the tradition of apostolic succession is nowhere present in the mix.

To the majority of American Christians, Roman Catholics are in a group by themselves and are seen as something of a curiosity—a “Christianity” of sorts but one that is severely marred, rife with superstitious and syncretistic oddities, and possibly void of any salvific value. The unfortunate notion of confession in the Protestant’s mind is shaped by this distorted understanding of Catholicism. It is the image of a man behind a screen, faceless and detached, bored of the profane and dispensing Hail Marys as penance for sins insincerely confessed. But this is a projected image. It is a judgement upon all who are involved and in many cases, it is made without understanding. For the Protestant, there is no “box” in which to place the Orthodox, so ignorance places them in the confessional with Catholics, shuts the door and says, “Well that’s all I needed to hear.”

Generally speaking, this is the response from Protestants and ex-Catholics who encounter Orthodoxy. In the past I would have also considered it an advantage not to confess to a priest. I didn’t believe that the priest had any greater authority than the guy sitting next to me in a pew because I believed in the “priesthood of all believers,” so to my Protestant mind it was an abuse of the authority that he held—one-upmanship, so to speak. For instance, a friend who was formerly Roman Catholic asked if confession was required in Orthodoxy. When I told her that it was, there was a pause, and she said with an air of suspicion, “And what does the priest do with that information?” When I relayed this account to my pastor, he raised his eyebrows and said, “We forget.” Thank God!

On the other hand, authentic inquirers of Orthodoxy look at the sacrament of confession and begin to understand that it is something to be desired. We come to learn that confession has some important functions in the life of a Christian.

1. It is the unburdening of a heart and conscience that has been convicted of sin by the prompting of the Holy Spirit or by my own knowledge that I have strayed from the path of righteousness.

2. It is coming before a witness who stands with me before Christ to hear my repentant confession and pray for me.

Once I began to understand the importance of confession to a priest, who stands with me as a witness (not a judge!) before Christ, I looked forward to my first confession even though I knew it would be hard. At times I still look forward to the opportunity to confess, because true absolution is a liberating event. In confession, the playing field is suddenly leveled. When I arrive at the confession line and my husband or friend goes to confess before me, I know that whatever they are confessing and whatever I am confessing has the same outcome—absolution before God and healing of the soul. The temptation to judge melts away. God has forgiven them just as he has forgiven me. We are all beneficiaries of his mercy, and we can all approach the Holy Mysteries and partake of communion with clean consciences. All of us come to Church broken, sickened, and weighed down by sin and this fallen world. Through confession, this burden is lifted.

James 5:14-16

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. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

When James writes his epistle, he is writing as the first bishop of Jerusalem, unanimously appointed by the apostles. He was also the author of the first Divine Liturgy. Since he reposed in A.D. 62 or 63, it establishes that both liturgy and church hierarchy was present from the beginning of the Church.¹ The apostolic office of bishop and elder was bestowed for this purpose, and that is to stand for the people of God as Christ’s representative and to pray for them. When James says, “confess your sins to one another” he is not referring to an accountability partner from your small group (though that can be cathartic.) He means the elders of the church, who are the presbyters (priests) and bishops. Through the authority of apostolic succession, priests and bishops of the Church have been vetted, align with the teachings of the Church, confess the faith of the Church, and have been commissioned by the Church for this very work. Fr. Stephen Freeman articulates clearly the reasons why we believe that Church hierarchy, as opposed to the “priesthood of all believers” is important in his article “The Priesthood that Never Was.”

The order of the Church is hierarchical, in the original sense of the word: “holy ordered.” The fulfillment of the Old Covenant by the New does not make priesthood obsolete, nor remove the need for hierarchy. The order of heaven and earth are themselves reflections of the truth of creation and the truth of God Himself. There is an order within the Godhead. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, etc. There is an appropriate subordination within the Godhead. The Father is the arche, the “source” of the Godhead in Orthodox language. The New Testament bears witness to the order of the early Church. There are Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, etc. There are Bishops and Elders (Presbyters) Deacons and Deaconesses. The pages of the New Testament are replete with exhortations regarding this proper order.²

The importance of this properly ordained elder in the life of the penitent cannot be underestimated. It is so often said in Orthodoxy that the Church is a hospital for the sick, and it is in confession that this reality is most frequently realized. The fact that I cannot fully discern the depth of my sins, nor can I in my human wisdom draw them out and look at them in light of the Truth, I come to the Church. It is with my Father confessor that I can reveal what has troubled me, receive Godly counsel and if needed, correction. Even recently I experienced the Grace that is bestowed in the confessional when I admitted that I didn’t know how to articulate what was troubling me, though I knew I needed to confess. After discussing the issue with my Father-confessor, I was able to find the words, received absolution and blessing, and went about my day with a lighter spirit than that with which I had gone in. This is the advantage of confession!

I recently read a lengthy facebook post focusing on an important concept when considering sin and confession. The author, Steve Robinson explains an important paradigm shift that he experienced concerning sin, and it led me to further thoughts about confession.

"The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

It's amazing how a "framework" can constrain how you understand a piece of text. For example, 2x4 is either 8 or a piece of lumber depending on whether you are a mathematician or a carpenter. The "juridical/accounting/transactional" framework always told me that St. Paul meant "Jesus paid the debt to God for our sins, and the zero balance of the ledger was our free gift from Christ".

Over the years the "substitutionary" framework (as it is usually preached) made less and less sense as "the gospel" in light of what I read about God in the Gospels. One day I read the text exactly as it is written: It said SIN pays the wage of death. Not God. God doesn't kill us because we sin. We serve sin and sin pays us what it promises: separation from God who is Life. We die apart from Life.

And yet God still offers a free gift, Himself, Life, not "wages". He always has from the beginning. There is no death in God, only in us. (emphasis mine)³

As I turn this over in my mind I begin to understand that now more than ever, Life is mine to embrace or reject. Rather than being a sinner in the hands of an angry God, a concept that is so available in the American consciousness, I am a sinner in the hands of a merciful and loving God. His justice is not juridical, but medicinal. His mercy is his justice.

In baptism I was washed clean of my sins and received the Holy Spirit through chrismation. Though these gifts of Life were conveyed to me, I am still able to choose to sin, and sadly, sometimes I do and the consequences have not changed. It is a spiritual law—sin yields death, and sin, being the opportunistic parasite that it is, will find every opportunity to drag me away from the source of Life and into its grip. My newfound membership in the Body of Christ is a bigger prize, a bigger target for the enemy of our souls. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ and to claim that gift I must continually embrace the healing that the sacraments bring.

I John 1:8-10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

It is incumbent upon me to be vigilant and maintain a short list of offenses so that I can be constantly moving toward Life. Here is the great mystery, the greatest advantage of confession: I can confess my sins and and be healed! Every sin, what is done or left undone, by will or by neglect, can be confessed and the wages of sin revoked.

As a Protestant, the struggle with sin is felt differently because there is this tension in the theologies present in the non-sacramental churches that I am either eternally secure and cannot lose my salvation (Calvinism), or I have free will and can lose my salvation (Arminianism). I have to pick one side or the other to live by. If I decide that Calvin is right and I cannot lose my salvation, then I have to beat down my sins and master them because a follower of Christ shouldn’t sin.

But let’s say I side with Arminius and agree that mankind has free will. What if I can lose my salvation? How is that accomplished? It can be lost because of my choice to go on sinning, because the wages of sin is and always will be…death. Then if James 5 is true and I am healed by confessing my sins, to whom shall I confess? My small group? My accountability partner? My pastor? To God alone? Who has the authority to pray for me that I may be healed?

If “Protestant me” replies with doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers” in response to my questions, “Orthodox me” will redirect to Fr. Stephen Freeman’s article once again. That doctrine was initiated by the Protestant Reformation and was not present as a teaching of the early Church. It is true that we as the people of God have priestly responsibilities because we are a “Royal priesthood and a holy nation.” (I Peter 2:9) As such we carry the presence of Christ to the world, but the office of priest is not given to us all, and this is clear in scripture (Ephesians 4:11-16).

So what is the “advantage of confession?” It is the daily practice of self-examination and humble acknowledgement that I am a sinner in need of the mercy of God. It is the constant awareness that the sacrament of the Holy Mysteries is a powerful, transforming, and renewing presence in my life, and I need to approach carefully. It is the practice of humbling myself before God with the help of my spiritual father. It is continually returning to the hospital for my soul to receive the healing balm of absolution. It is Life. Before we make a confession, the priest will say these words which succinctly and beautifully capture the essence of the experience.

Behold, my child, Christ stands here invisibly and receives your confession. Wherefore be not ashamed or afraid and conceal nothing from me, but tell without hesitation all things which you have done, and so you shall have pardon from our Lord Jesus Christ. Lo, His holy image is before us, and I am but a witness, bearing testimony before Him of the things which you have to say. But if you shall conceal anything you shall have the greater sin. Take heed, therefore, lest having come to the physician, you depart unhealed.

1. James Lillie, Pemptousia, “Apostle James the Brother of our Lord, First Bishop of Jerusalem,” October 23, 2016. https://pemptousia.com/2016/10/the-holy-apostle-james-the-brother-of-our-lord-first-bishop-of-jerusalem-23-october/

2. Fr. Stephen Freeman, Glory to God for all Things, “The Priesthood that Never Was,” October 9, 2013.

3. Steve Robinson, Facebook post, For the Feast of the Cross, September 12, 2022.