Confession - Good for the Fellowship (2 of 4)

This is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I've been turning some of his writings over in my head, influencing this series of posts.

I know a family whose child was diagnosed with a mild case of Cerebral Palsy. Seeing the look on the faces of the child’s parents, the doctor offered these comforting words: Nothing has changed since yesterday. You’re still the same people; your child is the same child. CP is just a name for what you already know is going on.

Confession doesn’t make real what we’re confessing. It's there whether we confess it or not. Confession is just agreeing with God. It gives our brothers and sisters the opportunity to assure us, Yes, God has forgiven you. You are loved just as you are; enjoy the fellowship of others who have found the same forgiveness that you’re enjoying now. You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come, as the sinner that you are: He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone . . . He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. [1] Read this.

Paul writes: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

According to Paul, if I boast about (confess) my weaknesses (sins, shortcomings) I can expect Christ’s power to rest on me (I can expect help).

What’s that mean for me if I refuse to confess?

How have you experienced Christ’s help through confession?

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1954), 111.