What does the Bible say about confessing sin to a priest?

The concept of confessing sin to a priest is not taught anywhere in Scripture. First, the New Testament does not teach that there are to be priests in the New Covenant. Instead, the New Testament teaches that all believers are priests. First Peter 2:5–9 describes believers as “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood.” Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 describe believers as “a kingdom of priests.” In the Old Testament, believers had to approach God through priests. Priests were mediators between people and God. Priests offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. That is no longer necessary. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can now approach God’s throne with boldness (Hebrews 4:16). The temple curtain that was torn in two at Jesus’ death symbolized the destruction of the dividing wall between God and humanity. We can approach God directly, alone, without the use of a human mediator. Why? Because Jesus Christ is our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-15; 10:21) and the only mediator between us and God (1 Timothy 2:5). The New Testament teaches that there are to be elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9), deacons (1 Timothy 3:8-13), and pastors (Ephesians 4:11)—but not priests.

Regarding confession of sin, believers are told in 1 John 1:9 to confess their sins to God. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we confess them to Him. James 5:16 speaks of confessing one’s faults “one to another,” but this is not the same as confessing sins to a priest, as taught by the Roman Catholic Church. Priests/church leaders are nowhere mentioned in the context of James 5:16. Furthermore, James 5:16 does not connect the forgiveness of sins with confessing sins “one to another.”

The Roman Catholic Church bases its practice of confession to a priest primarily on Catholic tradition. Catholics point to John 20:23: “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they are retained.” From this verse, Catholics claim that God gave the apostles the authority to forgive sins, and that authority was passed on to the apostles’ successors, i.e., the bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic Church. There are several problems with this interpretation. (1) John 20:23 nowhere mentions the confession of sin. (2) John 20:23 nowhere promises or implies that apostolic authority of any kind would be passed on to the apostles’ successors. (3) The apostles never once in the New Testament acted as if they had the authority to forgive a person’s sin. Similarly, Catholics point to Matthew 16:19 and 18:18 (binding and loosing) as evidence of the Catholic Church’s authority to forgive sins. The same three points made above apply equally to these Scriptures.

The ability to forgive sins belongs only to God (Isaiah 43:25). A Better Understanding of John 20:23 is that the apostles were entrusted with the responsibility of declaring with the utmost certainty the conditions under which God would forgive sins. When the church was founded, the apostles declared that those who would believe the gospel would be forgiven (Acts 16:31) and those who would not obey the gospel would face judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17). When the apostles preached salvation in Christ (Acts 10:43) and administered church discipline (1 Corinthians 5:4–5), they were exercising the authority that Christ had given them.

Again, the concept of confessing sin to a priest is nowhere taught in Scripture. We are to confess our sins to God (1 John 1:9). As New Covenant believers, we do not need intermediaries between us and God. We can go directly to God because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. First Timothy 2:5 says: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.