Confession, or Why you can’t forgive yourself your sins

Confession, or Why you can’t forgive yourself your sins

Estimated reading time: 1 min.

Yuri Pushchaev

One of the most famous theological works, and indeed works in the history of culture, is Augustine’s “Confession” - in the original language, in Latin it is called Confessiones . It is easy to see that this is the same lexeme as the well-known modern word “confession”. In the Russian language, a confession today usually refers to an association of believers within the framework of one religion with its own characteristics of doctrine, worship and characteristics of the organizational structure. By the way, sometimes the word “confession” is incorrectly applied to Buddhism, Islam or Judaism in general, but this has become a common mistake. A confession is still a separate direction within a particular religion, most often Christianity.

On March 15, Orthodox Christians began Lent—a time of deep repentance. We invite our readers to go through it with “Thomas”. Repentance is a person’s path to God. But what does the Church mean by repentance? Is it possible to learn it? What does the Bible say about repentance? Why is the sacrament of confession needed? How to prepare for it? We have collected answers to these and many other questions. We added personal stories of repentance of saints and our contemporaries. Every day there is new material waiting for you. We hope our project will help you more often remember the main goal of Lent - to prepare your heart for the meeting with the Risen Savior. You can see all materials about repentance here.

Christian denominations include Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism. We are probably already accustomed to hearing the word “confession” as something official and not emotionally colored in any way, something from the realm of primarily statistics. There are so many Catholics in the world, so many Orthodox, so many Protestants... But it is interesting that the synonym for this meaning of the word “confession,” which is simply its translation into Russian, is a confession of faith.

And then belonging to one or another confession, if it is not formal, not just something from the world of statistics on a religious topic, is an open and convinced recognition of one’s faith in God in words and deeds, despite any persecution and suffering, even the threat of death. It is no coincidence that in the Orthodox Church, confessors, that is, those who truly confessed or told the world their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are called saints who for this suffered persecution and terrible torment, although they remained alive.

confessio literally translated into Russian as “consciousness”, “confession” - say, recognition of one’s sins, one’s mistake. It is derived from the verb confiteor - “to be aware of”, “to recognize”, “to clearly show”, “to discover”. And the root of this word is the verb for , which simply means to speak, express, judge, predict (hence the Latin word fate - fatum - as something that is predicted and destined).

And therefore, it is no coincidence that confession as a Sacrament, as confession of one’s sins and repentance of them to God, and confession of one’s faith necessarily imply speaking, expressing one’s thoughts and feelings out loud. True, in the case of confession, this is a one-on-one conversation between a person and God, who is protected from other people by the secret of confession, but in the case of confessional affiliation as a confession of faith, there is no such secret, and it is sometimes done as publicly as possible. However, in both cases this is a kind of conversation, utterance or bringing out what is inside.

You cannot only secretly, without admitting to anyone, belong to this or that religion, but it is also necessary to publicly profess or express your faith. After all, real faith is not just a purely personal, intimate matter of a person, but it is such a personal matter of his that one way or another cannot help but pass into the external, public sphere. Likewise, forgiveness from God and permission from one’s sins can only be obtained through confession as through their open expression and recognition. You cannot simply be ashamed in the depths of your heart and ask God for forgiveness. What is needed is a conversation with God, and not with oneself, and confession is such a conversation of recognition and forgiveness. Otherwise, how will a person even know that he is truly forgiven?

Confessing to yourself and asking for forgiveness only in your heart is easier than ever - you can always somehow come to an agreement with yourself, calm yourself down, at least on the surface. But this is not real forgiveness, but only shadow theater, a pretend game in front of the mirror. This will not simply be a real act, like a real confession - to actually go and openly admit one’s moral mistakes and shortcomings. This requires courage and determination. And only the one to whom you were specifically wrong can really forgive you.

Therefore, for example, having offended another person, you must ask him for forgiveness - openly, out loud. And just as a person sins in relation, first of all, to God as the source of righteousness and morality, so he should receive forgiveness only from Himself - in a conversation with God through the visible mediation of a priest.

In general, an interesting picture emerges if you look at these two meanings of the word confessio (confession itself and confession) and do not separate them, but keep both in mind, mutually project one onto the other. Then you will be able to understand and remember that confession as belonging to a particular religion must be based on a conscious personal choice, come from within and truly be a confession of faith, proven by deeds and life, and not by a statistical certificate from the “department of religion.” And confession as the recognition of one’s sins and the internal desire to cleanse oneself from them must necessarily receive an external form in one way or another; it cannot only be my personal, as if intimate, matter. Confession is a story, a real conversation or dialogue with God, as a result of which only forgiveness can be obtained.

You can read more about the sacrament of Confession in the “Confession” section.

Read about other important concepts for Christians in the “Explanatory Dictionary” section.

The priest told how to use a Telegram bot to atone for watching porn

A bot “Right Time” has appeared on Telegram, thanks to which anyone can atone for their sins for watching pornography. The journalists from Podem were the first to discover it.

“Are you facing a problem with pornography addiction? Is your heart corroded by the feeling of guilt for committing fornication, is your conscience gnawing? This chat bot will tell you how to correctly turn to the Lord so that he can help you forgive this sin,” the description says.

The bot itself works as follows. Initially, you need to answer the question “How much time have you spent on porn now?” by choosing one of the proposed options (5 minutes; 15 minutes; half an hour; an hour or more). Then the bot offers users a special prayer (or several) - the duration depends on the answer to the previous question. So, if you choose the option “an hour or more,” then it will feel like it will take even more than an hour to atone for sin. After reading the prayer, the user must click on the “Amen” button, thereby completing the ritual.

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Telegram bot “Right Time”

This bot was developed jointly with Father Konstantin (Maltsev), a priest from the Krasnodar region, who actively and successfully runs social networks: for example, almost 40 thousand people follow him on Instagram, and 327 thousand on TikTok.

As the priest himself told Gazeta.Ru, his role in creating the chatbot was to advise the direct authors regarding the proposed prayers.

“These prayers are freely available on the Internet. The guys contacted me via the Internet with this initiative and asked me to recommend what prayers would be good to read before I got to the temple. I recommended it to them, and they formed it all into a Telegram bot,” he explained. — Theoretically, these prayers are better read aloud. But practically - you, as an option, can go on the subway and then you won’t read them out loud. Preferably, of course, out loud, but the main thing is that it comes from the heart.”

According to Maltsev, he and some of his colleagues see the Internet as a platform for preaching, but online services in various variations do not replace the classical liturgy.

“The Telegram bot does not replace the church. But I myself have been on the Internet for eight years, I have a reach of 10-15 million people. It's just a platform. Once upon a time, the apostles went to the Areopagus, where pagans gathered to preach. If the apostles were alive today, they would be on the Internet. Because this is also a platform where there are believers. Naturally, this service does not replace the liturgy. But as a small help, this can be accepted,” added Father Konstantin.

Answering the question of what is a greater sin: viewing pornography for the purpose of self-gratification or sex before a legal relationship, the priest emphasized that “both are essentially fornication.”

“But in the second case, a person also leads another into sin. That is, it is not entirely equivalent,” he noted. — Is there a difference between watching pornography exclusively and watching it specifically for masturbation? Why else do people watch these prodigal films anyway? To ignite yourself. Not just like that - out of curiosity, where, what and why. This is a temptation and an impetus to sin.”

About repentance, absolution and the enemy

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

A terrible evil is sin, and the most cruel disease of the soul is a crime of the law; it completely deprives her of strength and plunges her into eternal fire.

***

The evil of man himself is a product of will. And that we truly sin according to our own will, the prophet clearly speaks about this: “I planted fruitful grapes for you, all true; How have you turned into sorrow, strange grapes” (Jer. 2:21)? The planting is good, the fruit is evil: evil comes from the will. The grapes will be consumed by fire. Because it was planted for good fruit, but it brought forth evil fruit of its own accord. “God created man upright,” according to Ecclesiastes, “but people indulged in many thoughts” (Eccl. 7:29).

***

Sin is a terrible evil, but not incurable. Terrible for the one who has it, but conveniently curable in the one who rejects it through repentance. For imagine that someone is holding fire in his hand. As long as he holds the coal, it will undoubtedly burn him, but if he throws the coal, the heat will stop. If anyone thinks that he is not being burned by sin, the Scripture says to him: “Can anyone take fire into his bosom so that his robe does not burn?” (Prov. 6:27). This is how sin burns the strength of the soul.

***

When you forget God, then you only begin to think evil and commit lawless deeds.

What is sin? This is not an enemy attacking you from outside, man, but a worthless industry vegetating out of you. Look with right eyes, and there will be no lust in you; keep your own and do not steal someone else’s, and the tendency to steal will cease. Remember judgment, and neither fornication, nor adultery, nor murder will increase in you. When you forget God, then you only begin to think evil and commit lawless deeds.

***

However, it is not only you yourself who are the culprit of sin, there is someone else who is the most evil instigator of it - the devil. He incites everyone, but does not overcome those who do not obey him.

***

Ecclesiastes says: “If the possessing spirit comes upon you, do not leave your place” (Eccl. 10:4). Shut your door, keep him away from you, and he will not harm you. If you cold-bloodedly allow the thought of lust, then it, turning to your heart, will take root in you, bind your mind and drag you into the abyss of evil. But perhaps you will say: I am faithful, and lust will not prevail over me, even if it is often aroused in my thoughts. Don’t you know that even a root is embedded in a stone from staying on it for a long time? Do not accept the seed, otherwise it will suppress the faith.

***

Uproot evil before it blossoms, so that, having neglected it in the beginning, you will not need the ax and fire later. When an eye disease begins, treat yourself in advance so as not to seek a doctor when you are already blind.

***

The first author of sin and the “father of evil” (John 8:44) is the devil, “because the devil sinned first” (1 John 3:8). No one had sinned against him before. He sinned not because by nature he received the necessary inclination to sin (otherwise the cause of sin would fall on the one who created him as such); he, being created good, of his own will became the devil, and being a good servant of God, he received his characteristic name of Satan, since Satan means the enemy.

***

Adultery, fornication and all other evils come from Satan. Through him, our forefather Adam was expelled, and instead of paradise, which bore wondrous fruits without cultivation, he received a land producing thorns.

***

If you work a little, you will receive little, but if you do a lot, then the reward is great.

Show the recluse in you by the solitude of your heart. Cleanse your vessel so that you may receive greater grace. For the remission of sins is given equally to everyone, but the communion of the Holy Spirit is given according to the measure of each person’s faith. If you work a little, you will receive little, but if you do a lot, then the reward is great. You strive for yourself, see what is useful for you.

***

Well, someone will say, we perished deceived, and is there really no salvation after that? We have fallen - is it really impossible to rise? He who shed His precious blood for us will free us from sin. Let us not despair, brothers, let us not plunge ourselves into a hopeless state. For it is terrible not to have faith and hope for repentance.

***

He who does not hope to be saved, without fear, multiplies his sins, and he who hopes to receive healing, finally, without difficulty, guards himself against them. The robber, if he does not expect pardon, reaches the point of bitterness, and if he hopes to receive forgiveness, he often comes to repentance.

***

And the land that produces thorns, being well cultivated, turns into fruitful land, but for us is salvation really not returned? So, our nature can accept salvation; only our will is required.

***

God loves mankind, and loves mankind unlimitedly. Listen to what the Psalmist says: “How much is the abundance of Your goodness, O Lord” (Ps. 30:20)! All your sins taken together do not defeat the greatness of Divine mercy. Your ulcers do not exceed the experience of your Physician. Only surrender yourself to Him with faith, tell the Physician your illness, say you and David: “Reh, let me confess my iniquity to the Lord,” and the following words will come true on you: “And you have forsaken the wickedness of my heart” (Ps. 31:5).

***

Even if an entire people sins, God’s love for mankind is not defeated

And even if an entire people sins, God’s love for mankind is not defeated. The people of Israel cast a calf, but God did not abandon His love for mankind. People denied God, but God did not deny Himself. Moreover, not only the people sinned, but also Aaron the High Priest. Moses testifies to this: “And the Lord was angry with Aaron, and prayed for him,” he continues, “and God forgave him (Deut. 9: 20,26). “If then Moses, by his intercession for the sinful High Priest, propitiated the Lord, then will Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, not propitiate God with his intercession for us?”

***

Repent in the same way, O man, and grace is not forbidden to you. In the future, show the shameless way of your life. For truly God loves mankind, and no one can worthily express His love for mankind. And even if all human nations united into one, even then they would not be able to even partially convey God’s love for mankind.

***

So, brothers, hasten to repent before the Lord, so that you may receive forgiveness for your sins, and be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, and inherit the gift of heaven together with all the Saints in Christ Jesus. Glory to Him forever and ever. Amen.

DIALOGUES ON BIBLE TOPICS:

WHO CAN FORGIVE SINS

o Let us raise the question regarding the forgiveness of sins. Many people probably know that this teaching, like many others, is explained differently in different Christian denominations.

— The doctrine of forgiveness of sins is a biblical teaching. The Bible itself not only talks about this, but also explains to whom and on what basis sins can be forgiven. But this teaching suffered the fate of many other biblical teachings that were changed and misinterpreted by Christianity from the name.

o I would like to know the true and correct explanation of Holy Scripture on this issue. All Christians will agree that those who enter God's Kingdom must be pure, without sin. Holy Scripture says that nothing unclean will enter there. It is interesting to know when and to what extent this teaching was changed.

— It is known that God created Adam pure and sinless, and if he had not violated God’s law, he would have remained that way forever, having the right to eternal life. But we know that Adam broke God’s law and therefore sinned, for sin is (as the Apostle Paul says) “a transgression of the law.” Thus, he brought death upon himself, which passed on to all his offspring. This is why the Apostle Paul says: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

o Yes, but here, in Rome. 5:18, the apostle also says these words: “Therefore, just as through one transgression there was condemnation for all men, so through one righteousness there was justification for life for all men.”

- These words are very important, and they explain to us what is the basis for forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God and gaining eternal life. Similar words are recorded in 1 Cor. 15:21, 22: “For as death came through man, so through man came the resurrection of the dead. Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

o Does this mean that through the death of Jesus Christ, God has finally forgiven everyone's sins and therefore everyone will be saved?

— Some people mistakenly believe that God will finally forgive everyone's sins and that everyone will be saved, even Satan. But this is not biblical teaching. At the end of the Book of Revelation it is clearly stated that many, that is, Satan and his followers, will go to the second death, will be destroyed forever. Yes, the death of Jesus is indeed the basis for the forgiveness of sins, but it takes more than that to receive that forgiveness and be saved. To prove this, it is worth reading John 3:16.

o Well, we read: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

- Based on these words, it becomes clear that only those who believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Savior can have hope of salvation. And everyone who is saved will have their sins forgiven, for, as has already been quoted from Scripture, nothing unclean will enter there, i.e. sinful.

o Does this mean that sins can only be forgiven by those who believe in Jesus Christ?

- In Acts. 3:19 the apostle Peter, having first explained to the Jews that Christ, whom they crucified, is the Prince of Life, the Messiah, speaks to them like this: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” Here another thing is shown that is necessary for cleansing from sins, namely, repentance.

o What does repentance mean?

- Repentance means regret for the wrongdoings committed, as well as a decision or resolution in the heart not to commit such things in the future. This does not imply exclusively verbal recognition, when someone out loud regrets what they have done. After some time, such a person may again commit the same offense, since he did not decide in his heart not to sin again. It cannot be said about such a person that he truly repented. A truly repentant person will avoid all kinds of sin at all costs—all that which he knows is displeasing to God.

o But who, based on Holy Scripture, has the right to forgive sins?

— The prayer that Jesus Christ taught us makes it clear who can forgive sins and whom we should ask for it. This prayer is addressed to the Father and there are these words: “... and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every debtor.”

o From this it follows that only God can forgive us all our sins, and we can (and should!) forgive those who are guilty before us.

- The way it is. If someone caused me any harm, then only I can forgive him for it. No other person has the right to do this, since the damage was caused to me and not to anyone else. But God can forgive all wrongdoings because He is Lord of all. When Jesus came to earth to give an atoning sacrifice, he said these words: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Hidden in these words is the idea that Jesus also received the right to forgive sins, which is why He said to the sick man who believed that Jesus could heal him: “Your sins are forgiven!” And, turning to the scribes who were surprised by His words, He said: “So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9: 1-6).

o Based on what has been said, it can be understood that only God and Jesus Christ can forgive sins. And now I would like to know why some religious movements invented the so-called “confession”, while claiming that certain individuals specially appointed for this purpose have the right to perform the rite of confession and can forgive sins. I wonder when such a teaching arose and whether it has any basis in Holy Scripture?

“Neither Jesus Christ nor the apostles established confession, and therefore there is absolutely no basis for this ritual in Holy Scripture. Aural confession was approved at the Lateran Council in 1116 AD, and absolution was established in 1195 AD.

o After confession, people begin what is called Communion, that is, they consume bread and wine, which, according to these religious beliefs, turns into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. What can you say about this?

“Usually one misconception is followed by another, which happened in this case as well.” Those who established confession also claim that after a certain ritual called “liturgy” or, in Greek, “Eucharist” (Greek “eucharistia” - thanksgiving), they crucify Jesus Christ again, and He dies once again. Then the wine turns into blood, and the bread into the body of Christ, and those who take communion supposedly drink the blood and eat the flesh of Jesus Christ, who dies during each “liturgy” for their sins. This is how sins are forgiven.

o This seems quite strange. After all, Christ has to die so many times to cover up human sins. Does this teaching have the support of Scripture?

- No, it is absolutely not based on Holy Scripture, but, on the contrary, contradicts it. To prove this, let us read Rome. 6:9.

o We read: “Knowing that Christ, having risen from the dead, no longer dies: death no longer has power over him.”

- Now let’s read Heb. 10:14.

o Okay, let’s read this too: “For by one offering He has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified.”

“Based on what we have read, it becomes clear that Jesus Christ died only once, and no one can kill Him again, although there are many who claim their rights and power to do so. The Apostle Paul explains very clearly that the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient, and what happened on Calvary is quite enough to make “perfect those who are being sanctified” forever. This means that the same sacrifice washes away both original sin (inherited from Adam) and all other sins of those who seek to inherit their Lord. There is no need for any additional sacrifices. Confirming this, Saint John writes: “My children! I write this to you so that you will not sin; and if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world” (John 2: 1, 2).