After completing the lesson, the student will be able to:

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  Describe two reasons why forgiveness is an important concept for Christians to understand.

  
  


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  List the three Means of Grace

  
  


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  Define Confession and Absolution

  
  


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  Explain how confession and absolution is not a good work that we do, but a gift that God gives.

  
  

Forgiveness

As Christians, forgiveness is an important concept for us to understand for a couple of reasons. First, because God forgives our sins. This forgiveness was accomplished on the Cross as Jesus took our sin upon Himself, suffered, and died. Forgiveness is delivered to you as the Holy Spirit applies the Gospel to you personally, both at the beginning of your spiritual life, but also daily and continually. Without forgiveness of sins, the only thing awaiting us as sinners is punishment and judgment. But with forgiveness, God is covering and removing our sin from us, and promising us life in Christ.

Second, forgiveness is important for us as believers, as it is something we have been called to do to others when they sin against us. As the Holy Spirit forgives our sin, He is sanctifying us, that we might forgive all those who sin against us.

Read the following passages, and write down what each teaches us about forgiveness.

Means of Grace

I think we can agree that without Jesus’ forgiveness, we are all lost.  So how do we receive Jesus’ forgiveness?  The answer to this question is: the Means of Grace. Through the means of Grace, God reaches down to us and grants to us His forgiveness and promise of eternal life in heaven. One illustration that might help you understand the means of Grace is to picture God’s forgiveness as a power plant. Electricity is produced at a power plant, just like Christ “produced” our forgiveness on the cross.  Now how does that electricity get to you?  Through power-lines and transformers. They actually carry the power to you personally. In the same way, God uses the Means of Grace to actually bring His forgiveness to you. 

The Word of God

The Word of God is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and it is often called the primary means of Grace. It’s called the “primary” because all of the other means of Grace come from the Word. Without God having revealed the purpose and institution of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, we would have no knowledge or understanding of these blessed promises of God.

Baptism

As a means of grace, baptism works for the forgiveness of sins, delivers us from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to those who believe as promised in the Word of God. It’s through the water and the Word of God where we are able to enter into fellowship with Christ and are thereby joined together in His death and resurrection.

Read the following passages of scripture, and write down how each connects baptism to forgiveness or salvation.

The Lord’s Supper

The third means of Grace that we will address in this lesson is the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper also works for the forgiveness of sins, delivers us from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation. To those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, the Lord’s Supper grants the forgiveness of their sins.  Just as baptism is a means of Grace offered through the water and Word, forgiveness is granted through the bread and wine as well as the Word of God in the Lord’s Supper. 

Confession & Absolution

The last topic we will discuss in our study on forgiveness is confession and absolution. Confession is a time that we tell, or confess, our sins to someone else. Sometimes, we do this in our worship services when we confess to everyone else in the congregation, and they confess to us, the fact that we are all sinners. Other times, we might confess our sin privately to someone else, like a parent, another Christian we respect, or someone like a pastor. 

Whether we confess our sin as part of the whole church, or we confess our sin privately to someone, it is good for the person you confess your sin to, to give you Absolution. Absolution is a declaration of God’s gracious forgiveness that is offered by someone else (either a pastor or another believer) speaking on behalf of the Lord. Through someone else giving us Absolution for our sin, we are then assured that we have been forgiven by God Himself, and are free from the guilt and punishment for our sin. (Note: in the worship services at Faith, we usually call the Absolution “Words of Grace” ... The word "absolution" and the phrase "words of grace" mean the same thing). 

It is important we see confession and absolution not as a good work that we do, but a gift that God gives us to forgive our sin and heal our conscience. Just like God works through a pastor to teach us His Word and help us grow in our faith, in Confession and Absolution God is working through someone else to remind you that God really has forgiven you, and is forgiving you, all your sin.

Students and Parents, read through the explanation of the Third Article of Sanctification (the section titled “What does this mean?”) out loud together, then answer the following questions. (You can find it on p.10-11 in your catechism)

This section describes one thing the Holy Spirit does for believers is “daily forgives abundantly all my sins….”.