Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all.
Father, we confess to You that the world has not yet believed that You raised Your Son from the dead. We confess that though He was crucified by the authorities, and that they posted a guard themselves, the incontrovertible fact of His resurrection is still ignored. Father, You have given all the nations of men a striking and remarkable proof of the right that Jesus has to judge and rule over all of them. And yet, that proof is mocked, ridiculed, or ignored. We confess the folly of our world, Father, and ask You to grant us forgiveness for this sin by giving faith to the world.
We know, Father, that if we in the Church regard iniquity in our own midst, or in our own hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual
. Father, we confess that we in the Church have allowed heretical disbelief in the resurrection to gather in certain parts of the Church, as that we who are orthodox have drifted into a languid affirmation of it. We pray, Father, that You would restore Your people so that we would walk in genuine newness of life.
And so Father, we confess our private sins to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the great name of our risen Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and amen.
Jesus Christ was raised to life for our justification. Because of God’s free justification, and the promises of all Scripture, I am authorized to declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!