Corporate Repentance in Pastoral Prayers

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Resting Together in the Forgiveness of Sin in the Lord Jesus Christ

Good Morning,

In thinking through how to handle the next part of the Directory on the subject of public prayer I don’t want to short shrift the importance of each step. If the writers of the DPW thought it mattered I’m not sure it’s wise for me to ignore it. Yet, the next section is quite long. I went back and forth as to whether or not to include the whole thing and as you can tell by looking down, I did. The main reason is that one of the weaknesses of modern Christianity is that we don’t focus enough on our sin, our odiousness to the God of Heaven and Earth, and because of it we often miss just how majestic and how grand the grace of Jesus Christ is in His taking our transgression upon Himself, the just for the unjust.

Read slowly below as we consider these things together:

“To acknowledge our great sinfulness, First, by reason of original sin, which (beside the guilt that makes us liable to everlasting damnation) is the seed of all other sins, hath depraved and poisoned all the faculties and powers of soul and body, doth defile our best actions, and (were it not restrained, or our hearts renewed by grace) would break forth into innumerable transgressions, and greatest rebellions against the Lord that ever were committed by the vilest of the sons of men; and next, by reason of actual sins, our own sins, the sins of magistrates, of ministers, and of the whole nation, unto which we are many ways accessory: which sins of ours receive many fearful aggravations, we having broken all the commandments of the holy, just, and good law of God, doing that which is forbidden, and leaving undone what is enjoined; and that not only out of ignorance and infirmity, but also more pre sumptuously, against the light of our minds, checks of our consciences, and motions of his own Holy Spirit to the contrary, so that we have no cloak for our sins; yea, not only despising the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, but standing out against many invitations and offers of grace in the gospel; not endeavouring, as we ought, to receive Christ into our hearts by faith, or to walk worthy of him in our lives.

Continue here.