For a long time, I have carried a belief that a regular part of almost any worship service - the Confession - is mostly superfluous. My logic on this went as follows: Since Jesus died for our sins, that act of sacrificial grace was a once-and-for-all watershed in human history. From that moment on, all sin falls under grace. So my internal question has been: why go through the motions of confessing when it's already forgiven (and forgotten). Many in the pews may ask that same question using my logic or some other rationalization. But this is something that I've been rethinking.
I've been lost for a couple of weeks in two different theological books. The first is Ralph Martin's The Fulfillment of All Desire. The other book is Ann LaForest's Therese of Lisieux.
The Primacy of Grace
Martin makes a strong case that the Christian faith is held and glued together by grace, the completely unmerited love of God. We can't earn salvation. However, grace does need to be accepted, and there are "terms" attached to that acceptance. Most notably, we are signing into a relationship. All relationships have boundaries and terms that sustain their quality. For instance, household chores are almost universally something that has to get negotiated (and renegotiated!), or there's trouble.
Yes, grace is freely offered. However, it is not a license to be an awful human being or to use it as a permanent 'get out of jail free' card and carry on the bad behaviors that hurt ourselves and others. That is using God to salve whatever guilty conscience we might have and go on, without reflection, sinning freely.
So, confession calls us to consider where we are abusing the relationship we have with God. St. Therese says it this way, "The only grace I ask of You is that I never offend you." Turning it on us personally, "How might Jesus take offense at your behavior today?" I would hazard to say that the vast majority of us could always find ways we let Jesus down or could show our devotion to him better. That is the crux of purpose in confession. For some, myself included, keeping up on confession daily is a spiritually healthy practice to adopt.
