What does it mean to walk with Jesus Christ? If we believe that Jesus came to take away sin, as the Apostle John put it, then walking with Jesus must have something to do with the sin he addressed on the cross. Christians are forgiven people. Yet, even as forgiven people, we still sin. Sometimes sin burrows into the recesses of the heart and carries out guerilla warfare on the soul. What has the Lord given to the Christian and the Church to deal with this kind of spiritual burden? In Unburdening the Soul, longtime pastor and mentor Phil A. Newton unpacks the biblical teaching on confession of sin. Seasoning his work with insights from several generations of pastors, Part I answers questions including, What is confession? Why is confession important? What does it do? Why is it a daily discipline? In Part II, Newton provides fifty-two Scripture passages for meditation, then models how Scripture leads us toward healthy confession of sin. Each exercise in confession concludes with a biblical assurance of pardon. The book has a two-fold aim: to lead Christians into deeper devotion to Jesus through ongoing confession of sin, and to provide models for churches to incorporate confession of sin in the church’s weekly worship liturgy. As Pastor Josh Manley writes of Unburdening the Soul, “With the heart of a pastor and the wisdom of a friend, Phil shows us that we don’t need to hide when we sin. We can run to Jesus.” Confession is God’s gracious invitation to do just that — to run to Jesus and experience the unburdening of our souls.
