Results 1 - 6 of 6
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Retain or forgive sins? | John 20:22 | flinkywood | 204631 | ||
Dear Tamara, It does appear that Jesus gave such authority to the apostles in His name as a continuation of his ministry of mercy and reconciliation: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2Co 5:18-20 ESV) Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (Jas 5:14-15 ESV) In the former verse, Paul explains that Jesus has entrusted "...to us the ministry of reconciliation...", which, in context, indicates the authority to carry out the forgiveness of "trespasses". Int the latter, the word "elders" translates the Greek "presbuteros", whence the English "presbyter" or "priest". It appears such "priests" were empowered for this anointing. Elsewhere the power to "forgive and retain" sins in Jesus' name is described as "binding and loosing": "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Mat 16:19 ESV) "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Mat 18:18 ESV) And there is this: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--he then said to the paralytic--"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Mat 9:6-8 ESV) Matthew is clear that this authority "to forgive sins" comes from Jesus "to men". You could argue that in context the people were confused, not yet realizing that Jesus was not only a man, but also God; but Matthew employs the plural form of man, which gives this account a decidedly ecclesiastical meaning. It's logical to ask why Jesus would not give the authority to forgive sins to those He entrusted to build His Church on earth. I like your spunky curiosity, btw. |
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2 | Retain or forgive sins? | John 20:22 | Tamara Brewington | 204728 | ||
Dear Flinky, I think that only Jesus had the power to forgive sins as a man because the Bible elsewhere says that the Pharisees were disgruntled becuase Jesus was saying He had the power to forgive sins and the author of the passages notes that only God could forgive sins. This is why they put Him to death, He kept making claims to deity. I think the concept of the message of reconciliation is the key here, that an apostle would know who was saved based on if they accepted the message, and then declaring who was saved and who was not based on that. That passage you mention where the power was given to men to forgive sins could only be applying to Jesus because other men are not God. Yeah I got a lot of inquisitiveness, but I gotta watch it doesn't make me lose my way too. Happy 4th of July to you. Tamara |
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3 | Retain or forgive sins? | John 20:22 | flinkywood | 204759 | ||
Dear Tamara, I disagree with the meaning you take from the Pharisees’ statement in Matthew 9:3: “…This man is blaspheming.” Matthew employs the Pharisees’ accusation of blasphemy against Jesus as positive, not negative, testimony of His divine authority to absolve sin, authority which He received from the Father. (In the Old Covenant, such forgiveness came only via the Temple sacrificial system). And because the Pharisees certainly saw Jesus as a mere man, Matthew deliberately contrasts their condemnation with the crowd’s simple acceptance of Jesus’ declaration through the verifiable sign of healing: “…they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men…” With a simple literary device, Matthew underscores how divine authority has indeed been granted to mortal men and emphasizes that the glory is not to man himself, but to God alone. Since the Gospel was also written to edify and instruct the Body of Christ, e.g. His Church, we have in these verses a vivid ecclesial proclamation that God is working through man, in this case through the Person of Christ, to effect His reconciliation with man; thus any man given authority to forgive sin would be doing so in the Person of Christ. Elsewhere, the Apostle John illustrates how this works in practice: Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), (4:1-2) In Verse 4:2 Jesus oversees His apostles as they Baptize in His name, in His Person, as it were, so that any authority conveyed, and any sin forgiven thereby, is in the Person of Christ through His anointed “presbuteros” or “priest”. This is illustrated in James: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (Jas 5:14-15) Here the elder, or “priest”, speaks a “prayer of faith” which effects both healing and the forgiveness of sins. We assume, as James assumes, that these sick are believers who have sinned post accepting Christ and being baptized in His name. Have you read any early Church history on this question? Colin |
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4 | Retain or forgive sins? | John 20:22 | Tamara Brewington | 204769 | ||
Dear Flinky, In Mathew 9:6-8 there is definitely a literary device in which Mathew speaks of how the divinty of God has been conferred to men in the person of the Son of Man, Jesus the man, not to all men in the form of other men. We all know it was not a good thing for the Pharisees to say that Jesus was a blasphemer and that it was a positve testimony of Jesus ability to forgive sin, I did not say otherwise. I said the Pharisees were disgruntled which they were and that the reason they ended up putting Jesus to death, becuase of His repeated claims to deity, like the forgiveness of sins. Which we see, according to the Bible, only Jesus had the power to do;Luke 5:20-24 Jesus forgives the sins of the same paralyzed man and the Pharisees say, only God has the power to forgive sins. Then Jesus says so that you may now that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, etc. Jesus never tells them they are wrong, He says to them see I have the authority to forgive sins, meaning He was God. You said; thus any man given authority to forgive sin would be doing so in the Person of Christ. Men are not a substitute for Christ forgiving other men in His name, there is only one sacrificial subsititute for sins and He is Jesus. The only thing men have the power to do as mere men and not God, is to be witnesses of whether or not God has forgiven the sins of men. That is why I got shook up about John 20:22,23, men, nowhere in the Bible have the divine power of God to forgiven sins because they have not completed the holy sacrifice that Jesus did complete by shedding His blood for sins. There is only one advocate with the Father, and He is Jesus Christ, I John 2:2, no other person from earth is the advocate, only Jesus. more to come, Tamara |
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5 | Retain or forgive sins? | John 20:22 | flinkywood | 204775 | ||
Tamara, in John 20:23 Jesus expressly gives the apostles authority to forgive or retain sins. Matthew corroborates this by citing the plural form "to men", where he could have said, "to a man." John 20:23 is pretty literal. And you're right to be shaken up; this particular verse got to me as well. Colin |
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6 | Retain or forgive sins? | John 20:22 | Val | 204786 | ||
Colin, there is a principal that states when studying the bible let the obvious passages explain the difficult passages. We know that only God can forgive sin. We know that because He is our judge. This is in several obvious passages in the bible. This passage in John is a difficult passage. In understanding its meaning we consider the obvious passages: that only Jesus can forgive sins. So we must dig deeper to discover what the meaning is. |
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