Confessions Study Articles 11, 12, 13

Article 11: Concerning Confession

1 Of Confession they teach that Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches, although in confession

2 an enumeration of all sins is not necessary. For it is impossible according to the Psalm: Who can understand his errors? Ps. 19:12.

What are your thoughts on private confession?

How is it different from what we think about in the ?

Article 12: Concerning Repentance

1 Of Repentance they teach that for those who have fallen after Baptism there is remission of sins whenever they are converted

2 and that the Church ought to impart absolution to those thus returning to repentance. Now, repentance consists properly of these

3 two parts: One is contrition, that is,

4 terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of

5 the , or of absolution, and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven, comfort

6 the conscience, and delivers it from terrors. Then good works are bound to follow, which are the fruits of repentance. 7 They condemn the Anabaptists, who deny that those once justified can lose the Holy Ghost. Also those who contend that some may attain to such

8 perfection in this life that they cannot sin.

9 The Novatians also are condemned, who would not absolve such as had fallen after Baptism, though they returned to repentance.

10 They also are rejected who do not teach that remission of sins comes through faith but command us to merit grace through satisfactions of our own.

For the following dogmas are clearly false, and foreign not only to Holy Scripture, but also to the Church Fathers:-

17 I. That from the divine covenant we merit grace by good works wrought without grace.

18 II. That by attrition we merit grace.

19 III. That for the blotting out of sin the mere detestation of the crime is sufficient.

20 IV. That on account of contrition, and not by faith in Christ, we obtain remission of sins.

21 V. That the power of the keys avails for the remission of sins, not before God, but before the Church.

22 VI. That by the power of the keys sins are not remitted before God, but that the power of the keys has been instituted to commute eternal to temporal punishments, to impose upon consciences certain satisfactions, to institute new acts of worship, and to obligate consciences to such satisfactions and acts of worship.

23 VII. That according to divine right the enumeration of offenses in confession, concerning which the adversaries teach, is necessary.

24 VIII. That canonical satisfactions are necessary for redeeming the punishment of purgatory, or they profit as a compensation for the blotting out of guilt. For thus uninformed persons understand it. [For, although in the schools satisfactions are made to apply only to the punishment, everybody thinks that remission of guilt is thereby merited.] 25 IX. That the reception of the of repentance ex opere operato, without a good disposition on the part of the one using it, i.e., without faith in Christ, obtains grace.

26 X. That by the power of the keys our souls are freed from purgatory through .

27 XI. That in the reservation of cases not only canonical punishment, but the guilt also, ought to be reserved in reference to one who is truly converted.

Article 13: Concerning the Use of

1 Of the Use of the Sacraments they teach that the Sacraments were ordained, not only to be marks of profession among men, but rather to be signs and testimonies of the will of God

2 toward us, instituted to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them. Wherefore we so use the Sacraments that faith be added to believe the promises which are offered and set forth through the Sacraments.

3 They therefore condemn those who teach that the Sacraments justify by the outward act, and who do not teach that, in the use of the Sacraments, faith which believes that sins are forgiven, is required.

*Read the book of Galatians and track how Paul talks about faith. Faith as opposed to…

What is the role of faith?

How do we understand faith?

What is faith?

How do we get it?