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When you look through the pages of Scripture, a pattern begins to emerge in regards to how God relates to His people. It becomes very clear that God deals with us both as a "me" and a "we."
What do I mean by this?
Well, the Bible teaches that God loves us, died for us, forgives and adopts us as individuals. Each of us must believe that Jesus is Lord and respond to His love in a personal way. It has been said that God has no grandchildren, just children--no one is adopted into the family of God by way of another--we all must have a personal relationship with God. We see Peter preach this in Acts 2:37-38:
"Now when they heard this [Peter's preaching] they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' And Peter said to them,'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"
If we are to believe in God as individuals, it follows that we must also confess and repent of sin as individuals. David penned these memorable words:
"Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment." Psalm 51:2-4
It is clear that God deals with us as individuals. I think the American church, with all of its cultural rugged individualism, understands this concept very well.
However, it is equally evident throughout the Scriptures that God loves us, died for us, forgives and adopts us as a covenantal community. He sees us as a people with a corporate identity in Him. First Peter 2:9-10 calls us a "chosen race, a royal priesthood." And this extends to the issue of confession and repentance from sin, as well. Jesus taught His disciples to pray the Lord's Prayer which states "forgive us our debts [sins]." We see this corporate confession unfold in Daniel chapter nine when Daniel stands in solidarity with the nation of Israel, stating that "we have sinned" and "we have rebelled" even though he has personally remained very faithful to God. It is clear that Daniel recognizes that he is in a covenantal community and that God deals with His people corporately. Here is just a portion of his prayer:
"I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets." Daniel 9:4-10
It is interesting to note that both Nehemiah and Ezra pray in the same way (see Nehemiah chapter 1 and Ezra chapter 9).
The concept of a covenantal community and corporate confession is what I think we struggle to understand in the West. We must understand that as the church, we share in a corporate identity as the people of Christ and we must be aware of corporate sin in the church and stand ready and eager to confess this sin--even those we have not personally committed.
A poignant example of an issue that needs corporate confession would be racism within the church. There have been centuries-worth of racial prejudice and mistreatment in most majority-white denominations and churches in America (see this post for more information about this). But, like Daniel and others, we mustn't stop there. We must also seek to confess the sins that are committed by our nation--sins such as abortion, materialism, consumerism, lust, greed, fornication, and a host of others. Do we come to God on a regular basis and pray "we have sinned" or "we have rebelled against you"...or are we content to only confess the sins that we personally commit?
Let us be challenged today as we consider the truth that God deals with His people, both as a "me" and as a "we." I pray this would be a transformative truth for us as it impacts how we view the world around us and our lives of prayer for a hurting church and a broken nation.
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