Father and God, we confess to You now that we have gone about, as the Jews of old, to establish a righteousness of our own. We confess to You that as a nation, we have not wanted to be clothed in the righteousness of another—we have wanted to stand or fall on our own account, and we confess that we have fallen. We acknowledge to You now that mankind apart from Your grace cannot stand, and we pray that You would grant repentance to our nation, and that You would raise her up. We confess this sin on behalf of our people.
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.
Â
Father, we have neglected the proclamation of living by the righteousness of another. We have failed to preach this as we ought to have. We have failed to live it out. We pray, Father, that You would established us as an obedient people, cleansed from sin, and rooted in the obedience of another.
Father, we confess our own sins to You now—and Selah . . . We do this in the name of Jesus, the one who bound the strong man, and amen.
You have called on the name of the Lord as He has invited you, and you have confessed your sins. As a minister of a gospel that cleanses all the way down, I now declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!