Your Sins Are Forgiven Through Christ
Lord's Day Exhortation
This morning, I’d like to explain one part of our worship service, what you see in your bulletins as the “Assurance of Pardon.”
Each week following this exhortation and our time of confession, the minister calls you to rise and declares that “Your sins are forgiven through Christ.” For those new to our church or liturgical worship, this part of the service may be quite surprising at first, with the kneeling to confess our sins and then a minister pronouncing a pardon. You might wonder, isn’t this creeping Roman Catholicism? How can a man so boldly declare that my sins are forgiven?
There are two explanations for the appropriateness of this liturgical act.
First, the assurance of pardon you receive after confessing your sins is grounded in the promise of God found in His Word. We read in Proverbs that “he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (Prov. 28:13). Likewise, 1 John 1:9 reads, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Therefore, the assurance you receive here each Lord’s Day is the same kind of assurance you ought to have whenever you sincerely confess your sins to the Lord and one another.
Second, as a minister called by God and this congregation, it is my great duty to proclaim the gospel and the free forgiveness found in Christ, especially to His people. Christ has committed the keys of the kingdom to His ordained officers, saying, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (Jn. 20:23). In this act, Christ is speaking through the minister in the same way that He does in the preaching of the Word. The pastor does not have any special power in Himself to extend forgiveness, but rather, in the office he holds, he is called to authoritatively proclaim God’s forgiveness to all who repent of their sins and turn to Christ.1
And when you hear these words, your simple duty is to receive them in faith, as coming from our gracious Lord Himself, who delights to cleanse you from all sin.
This exhortation was given on May 3, AD 2026, at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.
WCF XXX.II: To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed, by virtue whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, both by the Word and censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the gospel, and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require.