Prayers of Confession

In the Bible confession refers to three different but related things. The first has to do with admitting sin and asking to be forgiven. This kind of confession may have been a prayer spoken by all the people in worship (Ps 103:1-12; Isa 59:12,13), or it may have been a prayer spoken by an individual who was sorry (Ps 51:1-11; Pr Man). It was during the time after the people returned from exile in Babylon that the individual confession of sin became an important part of religious life. In the New Testament, John the Baptist emphasized the importance of confessing sin when baptizing people (Matt 3:5,6; 1 John 1:8,9). Jesus spoke of the importance of confessing sins in his parables (Luke 15:18; 18:10-14) and in the prayer known as the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:12). The early Christian writers also emphasized confession of sins as a way to receive God’s forgiveness. The writer of 1 John put it this way: “If we say that we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn’t in our hearts. But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away” (1:8,9).

A second understanding of confession has to do with the stating of one’s strongest beliefs about God. Perhaps the oldest form of confession in the Bible are the songs and prayers of thanksgiving offered by the Hebrew people when God saved them from slavery in Egypt
(Exod 15; see also Ps 77:11-20). Many examples of prayers confessing the power and wonder of God can be found in the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament; Ps 8:1; 93:1-5). While the Old Testament focuses on God’s saving acts on behalf of Israel, the New Testament focuses on the saving love of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus is described as the one who has come to set people free from their sins so that God can freely accept them (Rom 3:23-26).

A number Jesus’ followers confessed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God
(Mark 8:27-30; John 1:20, 29-34; 11:27). To be Christian meant recognizing Jesus as Lord. The apostle Paul put it this way: “You will be saved, if you honestly say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death” (Rom 10:9,10). Other early prayers or hymns of confession in the church include 1 Corinthians 15:2-7 and
Ephesians 4:4-6.

Finally, confession also is closely connected to giving thanks and praise to God. Such prayers of praise declare trust in God and thanks for God’s help (Ps 117:1; 145:1-5; Isa 38:16-20; Heb 13:15). Those who sang the great hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 were both declaring their personal belief that Jesus is Lord and praising him, bringing together both elements of confession: “Christ was truly God … So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord!’” (Phil 2:6, 10-11).