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I choose to follow Christ.

The Prayer Of Confession

Many Christians have found the acrostic ACTS helpful for structuring their personal prayers. Thus far, we have considered the A of the acrostic—adoration. Throughout the Scriptures, we find that God-honoring prayers include adoration of the Lord God (Pss. 34:3; 104; Rom. 11:33). Today we will move on to the C of the acrostic—confession. Another vital aspect of God-honoring prayer is our confession of our sins.

We have already seen that remembering who we are when we pray requires us to confess our sins and ask the Lord for forgiveness. But we need to say more about what true confession and repentance look like. Historically, Christian thinkers have made a distinction between attrition and contrition. In both attrition and contrition, sorrow for sin is expressed, but the nature of the sorrow expressed differs. Essentially, attrition is sorrow for the consequences of sin. Those who display attrition are sorry that they got caught, are sorry that they will be punished, and might even be sorry for the harm that they caused. But there is no sorrow for offending the most holy God. Judas is the classic example of one who had attrition but not contrition. He was sorry because he knew that betraying the innocent Christ put him under a divine curse, but he felt no sorrow for sinning against the holiness of Christ and of the Father (Matt. 27:3–10). In Judas’ case, attrition drove him to su***de. Instead of confessing his sin to God and pleading for God’s mercy and discipline, he decided to put the consequences of his sin in his own hands, and he hanged himself.

Contrition, on the other hand, is sorrow not merely for the consequences of sin but for acting against the holiness of God. Contrite individuals recognize that the fundamental problem is their violation of God’s law, and they tremble at the thought of holiness. But because contrition can only be brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit, contrite people know God and recognize that He is also sovereign and merciful. They do not try to put the consequences of sin in their own hands, but they cast themselves on God’s mercy, not demanding divine pardon but humbly asking for grace. They willingly submit to any of the just consequences of their wickedness. Today’s passage describes the godly grief that is true confession and repentance (2 Cor. 7:9–10), but we also find it modeled in Psalm 51. In both cases, the sinners are sorry chiefly for sinning against God.

CORAM DEO Living before the face of God

The dividing line between contrition and attrition can be hard to discern. It is therefore vital that we know the holiness of God, because the better we know His holiness, the more we will be cognizant that the greatest offense in our sin is against the Lord Himself. When we confess our sin, let us be concerned first with how we have broken God’s holy law and have acted against His majestic character.

I get asked a lot about churches. I am not a divinely-appointed apostle, so it is not my calling nor authority to play judge and jury about individual churches. However, when assessing a church for me and my family I would consider the following (aside from the obvious criteria all of orthodoxy would agree upon):

1) Has this church preached through Romans in recent times, or could I see them having the courage to do that? I'm trying to determine how seriously they take discipleship, because Romans doesn't allow you to water it down.
2) Does this church specifically engage and equip its men?
3) Does the pastor love his congregation enough to confront them? And remember, confrontation isn't a tone but an action. I'd listen to several random message to discern this one.
4) Is the pastor the kind of man the young men would look at and look up to?
5) If/when it goes down, is this the kind of church/pastor that knows what time it is and would have your back, or not? Do they support mature and engaged believers like they do seekers?

I hope this helps. Feel free to add your own considerations in the comments.

Steve Deace

Adversarial circumstances are just a normal part of living in this fallen world. Stop asking for easy and get into a fighter’s frame of mind. In our fallen world we look to our Risen King!

“We are raising a generation on the spiritual junk food of religious videos, movies, youth entertainment, and comic book paraphrases of the Bible. The Word of God is being rewritten, watered down, illustrated, and dramatized in order to cater to the taste of the carnal mind. That only leads further into the wilderness of doubt and confusion.”

Dave Hunt

A century before Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, John Huss was speaking against the church’s selling of indulgences to parishioners. In 1406, Huss helped publish a Czech translation of the Bible called the St. Mikulovsky Bible, which included the New Testament, the Psalms, and the Wisdom literature. Under a guise of safety, Huss was ultimately called before the Holy Roman Emperor to account for his doctrine. Instead he was arrested and condemned as a heretic. He was commanded to recant or be burned at the stake. On July 6, 1415, as his sentence was about to be carried out, he was given one more chance to recant. He refused. “I pray thee to have mercy on my enemies!” According to one account, as the flames engulfed him, John Huss was heard reciting the Psalms.