The blessing: Who can forgive sins?
When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can break it down into two facets. The first is salvation accomplished, and the second is salvation applied. When we refer to the former, we are speaking of Christ’s crosswork in which He died for the sins of His people under the justice of God, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Most people who identify as Christians are in agreement here. The latter aspect is where our understandings of the gospel differ, and it pertains to how a person receives the benefits of Christ’s sacrificial work. For instance, how do we receive the forgiveness of sins which Jesus purchased? Is it through works? Is it through sacraments or ceremonies? Is it through faith? Is it through a combination of these things? Is forgiveness administered to us through priests? Other Christians? Straight from God Himself? These differences are significant enough, and are such an integral part of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, that they actually break off into different gospels.
The question in mind in this brief article is whether or not men and women have the authority and ability to savingly forgive another person of their sins (i.e. through confession and absolution). Has God ordained that He forgives sins through the avenue of human beings?
To begin, we must acknowledge that in all of the New Testament, indeed in all of Holy Scripture, we do not find an explicit recording of a man forgiving another of a sin that was not committed against him. The only circumstances laid out have to do with temporal judgment for civil order or church discipline. In fact, confession and absolution did not become an official ordinance in Christendom until the thirteenth century by Pope Innocent III. Did nobody receive forgiveness and salvation throughout the first half of Church history? Did nobody in that first one thousand years make it to heaven? Of course many did; Christ was building His Church all the while, even without a decree of absolution.
There is certainly a biblical charge for us to pardon wrongs done against us, and to not tire of that pardon; but there is not an account of a transgression against the holy God being absolved by men (even men of the noblest offices). For instance, it was never written that Ananias forgave Saul his sins; neither when Paul recounted his conversion experience in Acts, nor in his epistles. On the contrary, in Acts 22 when Paul is retelling what happened that day, he says he received his sight through Ananias, and after that (three verses later) was directed by Ananias to call out to the Lord for his forgiveness: “And now why tarriest thou? arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Since it is nowhere recorded that Ananias forgive Paul of his trespasses, and since Paul actually testifies that this was not so, we ought not to assume things that evidently never happened (and surely that God Almighty did not see a need to record in His revelation for man’s salvation).
Not only are the apostles never recorded as absolving anyone, they never instructed others to do so either. Not once was forgiveness unto salvation taken into the hands of any saint in the pages of Scripture. On the contrary, sinners who were cut to the heart were exhorted (as Ananias did Paul) to “call upon the name of the Lord.” This way of receiving forgiveness was certainly the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel regarding how the Christian Church would be built: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).
Is there, then, a passage in the Bible that spells out a principle for man-administered absolution? What of the “Office of the Keys” (Matthew 16 and 18) and the authority given to the disciples that “whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven?” The earliest Church writers saw the keys as being the gospel proclamation – declaring to people the good news of the saving work of Jesus Christ. The gospel message awakens people to repentance and faith (i.e. Romans 1:16-17, 1 Peter 1:23-25) and is the means by which the Lord calls people into His kingdom. It is the gospel message, not a declaration of absolution, which builds the Church of Jesus Christ.
Also, it should be acknowledged, the terms “binding and loosing” for the ancient Jews meant that one was declaring things as unlawful or lawful. They were common phrases used in determining whether something was allowed or forbidden, clean or unclean. For example, when pertaining to the gathering of wood on the Sabbath, it would have been said, “The school of Shammei binds it” (forbids it) or “the school of Hillel looses it” (allows it). Thus, as Christ is in these passages in Matthew establishing His Church, He is giving the authority to these future apostles to formulate (by the Holy Spirit which He would later promise) the foundational teachings of that new institution (the Church becoming the true holy nation of God). As the New Testament records in Acts and the epistles, the apostles would determine whether to bind or loose such things as circumcision, various foods, and other teachings of the Mosaic Law.
It must also be noted that, especially in Matthew 18, we are charged to forgive the sins of a brother (a believer who is already in Christ) for the wrongs they did against us (not for their trespasses against God) – something that is reiterated in the surrounding context. No longer under the judicial regulations laid out in the Law, order in the Church is to be kept through the means that Christ is laying out. Just as the priests were to determine whether or not a leper was unclean or clean (bound or loosed), and therefore unfit or fit for joining the assembly, the Church is to determine if a brother is fit or unfit for Christian fellowship by the state of his heart and life. It should be recognized that the priests had no authority to cast the leper clear out of the nation, and so also no Christian has the ability to unite or disunite a person to Jesus Christ. This is not a salvation/conversion issue; it is a matter of purity of the Church, and the peace and restoration between brothers and sisters in Christ. The epistles speak to this while they are silent on absolution, which causes one to further believe that the Lord Jesus did not teach that He uses His people to administer divine pardon.
And what of John 20:21-23 where Jesus commissioned His disciples, breathed on them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained?” We ought to see two things here. One: these phrases of remitting and retaining are more fully expounded by the Lord in Matthew 16 and 18. Thus, we must turn to those passages (which we just did) in order to have the more expansive texts help in our understanding of the more limited text. Two: again, if this is speaking of absolution unto salvation, we would expect to see it practiced as the disciples went out after being filled with the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts is that account of the Great Commission being carried out “in Jerusalem, and to all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth,” yet in the places we would expect absolution we instead see people exhorted to call straight out to the Lord. And all the epistles are in line with the truth that people have direct access to God with regards to their sins and His forgiveness.
The apostle Paul proclaims that “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Note: the Word does not say “the body of Christ Jesus” or “the Spirit of Christ Jesus,” but “the man Christ Jesus.” While the Spirit of our Lord abides in us and fills His Church, Christ ascended bodily and is at the right hand of the Father as a man making intercession – He is not mediating pardon on earth through His Church. “Wherefore he is able to also save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). The second Person of the Trinity became a man in order to be the sole arbiter between sinners and their God. And no one is to step between men and Christ the mediator.
Also, Paul is using a parallel with God and Christ Jesus here in 1 Timothy. Just as there is one God with no sub-gods to which He delegates His responsibilities, so also there is one mediator with no sub-mediators to whom He delegates His mediatory responsibilities. Note also: the role of mediator is much more than doling out forgiveness. The mediator is the bridge between God and man, appeases God on behalf of the people, intercedes for the people in prayer, communicates to the people on behalf of God, and much more. Jesus alone carries out these duties.
The God-man, Jesus Christ, is the priest who goes to the Godhead on behalf of the people. He is able to represent us, being truly man; and He is able to bring us pardon, being very God of very God. The entire book of Hebrews labors to show the excellency and sufficiency of Jesus’ position as high priest. He is plainly shown as the only true and worthy priest, and the only one to whom we are to turn and rely on. He is perfect in every office He holds, and completes His duties with a faithful accomplishment. Men should fear the thought of putting themselves in the place of Christ our God by having others come to them instead of running to Him. This was one of the great errors of Roman Catholicism (sacerdotalism) from which the Protestant reformers fled.
Penitent sinners are not to entrust themselves to feeble (albeit redeemed) men for the eternal state of their souls, but they are to cast themselves directly upon their Maker. They are to cry out to Him rather than seek justification through their fellow creatures. If someone commits a horrendous offence against my neighbor, the offender is not to come to me for pardon. He is to go to the one he harmed in order to make amends. Likewise, I have no right to forgive someone for their offence against a holy God. God has been sinned against, and people have to seek pardon directly from the One they have wronged.
So, are there examples of men going straight to God for forgiveness – whether for salvation or for on-going confessions of a burdened conscience? The publican did so in Luke 18. The Lord Jesus instructed us to do likewise in the Lord’s Prayer. Men, women, prophets, and kings cried out straight to God for mercy throughout the Old Testament as well. The narratives are full of such repentance. The same is true in the psalms, Psalm 51 and Psalm 86:5 being such examples. The Almighty has His ear toward the sinners of this earth, listening for those who would pray to Him for mercy and pardon. Have no man turn the voice of a broken heart in need of justification over to fickle and fallen human beings. Their eternal destiny does not rest in our hands.
Forgiveness lies in the hands of God. The gatekeeper to liberty is none other than the great King Himself. The Lord alone will receive the credit for the salvation of mankind, both in its accomplishment as well as its application. Let the leaders and congregants in Christian churches do like John the Baptist (who pointed his followers to the Lamb who took away the sins of the world) and have others be pointed to the great Redeemer. Let men decrease, and let Jesus Christ increase. To Him alone be the glory for ever and ever.
John Kastamo