One of the greatest failures of the modern church in the last 150 years is the emphasis on the love of God to the exclusion of His justice. That´s why we don´t talk about sin or judgment or hellfire and brimstone. It is a deception of the Devil.
One of my teenage students and I were talking about God and forgiveness and eternal life and he asked me a good question. “Why doesn´t God just forgive everyone and be done with it? He is good and full of love, he could just wait until we all die and then forgive people and welcome them into heaven. There would be no need for hell and everyone would be happy.”
It´s a good question and one that many people in the church, even the leaders, would share. There are good answers to that question as well (which we will discuss another time). The point for today is that many Christians don´t really know what to do with sin. They are embarrassed by the wrath of God and don´t want to talk about hell with anyone. Better to just forget those unpleasant parts of the Bible.
But if there is no theology of sin, no reality of judgment, no fear of hell, then there is also no room for confession of sins.