MATTHEW: 9: 2b, 4-6a; KJV.
“Jesus seeing their faith said to the sick man of the palsy; Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee.”
“And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,”
Here we see Jesus demonstrating his power as the Messiah, the Son of God to forgive sin. Though the scribes and Pharisees in the crowd decried Jesus as a blasphemer, but the rest of the crowd following Jesus, glorified God for giving such power unto men.
JOHN: 20: 23; KJV.
“Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained.”
JOHN: 20: 23; NRSV.
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
These are the words of Jesus Christ spoken to his apostles (minus Thomas) after his resurrection the first time he joins them in a house where they had gathered. What Jesus is telling the apostles is: I died for the forgiveness of the sins of man, all sins, therefore you can forgive or not forgive the sins of others, depending upon the circumstances. The right to forgive lies with man, the power to forgive lies with Jesus and only Jesus.
For some unknown reason, the Roman Catholic Church took this verse of JOHN: 20: 23; and created the “Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation” stating that a priest and only a priest can hear the confessions of sins from another, and that the priest and only the priest has the power given the apostles to either forgive or not forgive the sins of the repentant one.
In other words one must go running to only a priest to confess one’s sins and then only the priest can decide whether or not you should be forgiven those sins. This removes the power of forgiveness from God from Jesus, and gives it to the priest. I don’t think so!
It is not the priest you sinned again so you don’t need his forgiveness and furthermore the priest is not Jesus. The first words out of the priest’s mouth, are “I absolve you.” The priest seldom ever asks if you have taken steps to apologize or correct your sin, he simply absolves you. One must ask themselves the following: If a priest has the power to absolve you of your sins without ensuring that you are totally repentant and have taken steps to correct the wrongdoing, what good is his absolution? Furthermore one needs to ask one’s self. Why did Jesus have to die, because his death is for the remission of sin, all sin, past, present and future.
Doesn’t this negate what Jesus tells us at JOHN: 3: 17-18; “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Jesus is telling us with this scripture that he and he alone has the power of forgiveness given him by the Father at Jesus crucifixion, and that the forgiveness of all sin, flows through Jesus grace.
If I willfully sin, I must turn to Jesus for forgiveness, as only Jesus, God, has the power to forgive me my sin, and Jesus forgiveness is depending upon the forgiveness of that whom I have sinned against first forgiving me for sinning against them. Without their forgiveness, my repentance is worthless, because it is not sincere.
For example, if my wife and I argue about something, I cannot as Jesus to forgive my fit of temper, if I do not first ask my wife to forgive me for it. That is true repentance.
In the quote of MATTHEW, Jesus grants unto man, the rite the power to forgive the sinfulness of one’s brother or sister, which we all have the right to do. If a brother or sister wrongs us, we have the power the right to forgive the sin, or not to forgive it. This is also related to us in the prayer Jesus teaches us to pray; “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us,”.