Says the apostle: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” This scripture has been interpreted to sustain the practice of going to the priest for absolution; but it has no such application. Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another. If you have given offense to your friend or neighbor you are to acknowledge your wrong, and it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness of God because the brother whom you wounded is the property of God, and in injuring him you sinned against his Creator and Redeemer. The case is not brought before the priest at all, but before the only true mediator, our great High Priest, who “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” and who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” and is able to cleanse from every stain of iniquity. {5T 639.1}

Men også denne lignelse, ømhjertet og betagende som den er, er heller ikke nok til at udtrykke den himmelske Faders medlidenhed. Herren erklærer ved profeten: »Jeg elsked dig med evig kærlighed, drog dig derfor i nåde.« Selvom synderen endnu er langt fra sin faders hus, bortødsler sin rigdom i et fremmed land, ynkes faderens hjerte over ham; og al sjælelængsel (633) opvækket i ham for at han kan vende tilbage til Gud, er blot hans Ånds ømhjertede bøn, idet han bejler og drager vandringsmanden til sin faders kærlige hjerte.