Brad,
To piggyback on what
Pilgrim stated:
The problem I have with the author's statement is that it lends itself to a faith + works (confession) = justification situation. If God ONLY forgives those sins which are confessed, then of necessity, those sins which are not confessed are held against the individual and added to his "account" for which offenses he will have to pay for at a later time. This would mitigate against that which was actually accomplished and merited by Christ for the elect and applied to them at the time they believed on Christ; their justification.
The very concept of an equivalent correspondence between confession and applied forgiveness--in which
only sin actually confessed can be forgiven--inevitably diminishes the holiness of God, the pervasiveness of indwelling sin, the glory of Christ incarnate, tempted, sinless, righteous, crucified, dead, buried, risen, ascended, interceding, returning, and consequently, any assurance of the Gospel; in short, it is merely another form of self-righteousness, purchasing salvation through incremental merit. Those who put themselves under such a system (the early Dr. Luther comes to mind) put themselves under the curse of Galatians 3:10, since our remaining corruption would make even our prayers of confession--
apart from the pre-imputed righteousness of Christ--sinful, and we would
never obtatin forgiveness, rather we would actually be increasing our guilt every time we confess our sin!
E.g. I sin, then I confess that sin, but in so doing I am sinning more, so then I confess the sin of my impure confession, but in so doing I am sinning again ... (and I am also not engaged in loving God and my neighbor, which I should be doing, and consequently sinning more) ... where does it stop?
Here's the example I use in Sunday School:
A few years ago I was engrossed in a condensed volume of the
Institutes and kept reading while I walked down the block to the bodega to get a snack. At the corner I came within inches of being pancaked by a bus whose driver
really wanted to get through the yellow light. If I had not been spared, I know I would have died without having time to formulate a prayer of confession for having broken at least the 6th commandment ("
...requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life..."). Where would be my hope? It is not for nothing that 'last rites' and 'purgatory' were contrived as last resorts under such a legalistic system.
The heart is desperatly wicked ... even in its crucified remnants in the new man, and no amount of confession
as a legal requirement can obtain enough forgiveness to cleanse it.
Should we not confess then? No, this is the opposite error, because, as Pilgrim stated above, true confession is not a magic key to forensic appropriation of otherwise-begrudged forgiveness, but rather a marvelous means of ongoing sanctification through which we increasingly grow in our appreciation of the work, and our love for the person, of our sovereign Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Father has accepted his sacrifice once and for all, and has imputed it to us in justification. Either Christ paid for all my sins--including the sins of forgotten or wrongly-motivated confession of sins!--or I am not forgiven at all.
