When Jesus was brought a paralytic by his four friends, he told the man “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus proclaimed this truth over this man because of the faith of his friends (though the man obviously had enough faith to be carried by them to Jesus). Now, the scribes knew that no one except God Himself has the authority to forgive sins. Thus they accused Jesus (in their hearts) of blasphemy.
However, Jesus did this “so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” The man was healed to show that Jesus spoke the truth. This miracle served to show that what Jesus was saying was correct. The man’s sins were forgiven him that very moment. The miracle was the verification.
Mark records this in his gospel because it bears witness to his main theme, “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). This event testified to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. Thus, Jesus has the inherent authority to do as He pleases. If Jesus desired to forgive someone, He could do it. His authority came directly from Himself—He needed no other (and His authority was also directly from the Father as well—John 5:26-27).
Now, believers are the priesthood of God (1 Peter 2:9-10). We are the representatives of God, in Christ, in this world. This comes with great privilege and responsibility. We have received the Holy Spirit and so are able to walk in the Spirit and judge appropriately. We do not have any inherent authority in and of ourselves, as Christ does, but our authority is from Christ (He has all authority (Matthew 28:18) and gives His authority to us (though we do not have the final authority, but God does)).
Thus, Christ tells His disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained” (John 20:23). This means that believers, given the authority from Christ, can (and must) forgive other believers. We cannot forgive those who are not in Christ, for they have not received Christ as the propitiation for their sins and still have sin ruling over them. But what we do is as a brother/sister confesses to us his/her sins (in confidence) (or vice versa), we have the authority to forgive them their sins, and so it is forgiven by God. If they need to make reconciliation before we forgive them, we must tell them to do so, and then forgive them. If they do not seek reconciliation, then we must retain their sins against them—and so their sins are retained in heaven (Matthew 18:18-35). This is serious business and not to be taken lightly at all, but with great discipline and discernment. Thus, when a brother/sister confesses their sins to us, they are confessing them to God; and we know that He is faithful and righteous to forgive them their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). As you have been forgiven, so forgive freely.
6 Comments:
In light of what you and I have been talking about, how do you think this relates?
-Danny
I loved reading this post and it was very edifying. I have been thinking about this very thing these past weeks.
One side-question: Where do you get your thoughts on inherent authority?
“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me." -John 8:28
It seems as though to me that Jesus was NOT exercising his inherent authority (inherent in his person, because it is inherent in his deity) when he forgave and healed, etc. Rather, he was acting with the authority that the Father had given Him, via the Holy Spirit, in his humanity...
Would love to hear your thoughts on this and talk later about it!
Yes, the authority with which Jesus acts is that given Him from the Father. However, let us not forget that He and the Father and One. All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. All authority is His: first by His Being and then by His victory (He has authority because He is the Son of God and He has authority because He is the Son of Man). We cannot effectually separate the deity and humanity of Christ. They together (and only together) constitute the person: two natures, one person. He has all the qualities of both. This must be held as a tension. He has the inherent authority as God and the granted authority from the Father. To separate this we must separate the natures of Christ and say that one takes precedence over the other either always or at given times. We cannot do this, for such a conclusion is the 4th century heresy of Nestorianism (separating the person of Christ).
"All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son."
All that the Son has was given to him.
"We cannot effectually separate the deity and humanity of Christ."
We have to separate them in the sense of distinguishing between the two natures, or we become monophysites, acting as though Jesus had one nature and not two. We can't separate them from the same person, of course, which is what Nestorius was falsely accused of (although the heresy of Nestorianism stands).
When we speak of Jesus as exercising his divine attributes, we must necessarily be speaking with regard to his divine nature. When we speak of Jesus as learning and growing, we must necessarily be speaking with regard to his human nature. This does not divide him into two persons. It is not folly to make distinctions of certain things in the person Christ with regard to a particular nature. These distinctions are necessary lest we gravely err.
Surely Jesus--the one person--had inherent authority, as he was God. But do we have reason to believe that he ever exercised this authority in his earthly carreer? Did he not "empty" himself completely? Was he not completely dependent, in his humanity, on the Father to give him everything? Including the authority to forgive sins?
This is all geared around the appropriate, practical question: "Did Jesus ever forgive sins on earth by exercising immediate, inherent authority?"
Christ did not empty Himself of His deity. He emptied Himself of the glory He had with the Father and took on flesh. He became completely submissive and did become completely human, obedient to God even to the point of death. All that the Son has was given Him by the Father (though it cannot be essentially taken from Him, as it is His eternally). He did not flex His divine right. However, though the divine cannot suffer, on the cross He had to be 100% human and 100% divine in order to bear the sins of the world. The Holy Spirit, is both the Spirit of the Father and of the Son (and is a unique person). Christ in doing these things (such as calming the storm, forgiving sins, etc) "so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."
As we established, only God can forgive sins. All sins are against God. As king David said in Psa 51 "against you only have i sinned". To infer a kind of delegated authority here is a very dangerous thing, because that is not what the scriptures teach. Whether the perpetrator of the sin is a Christian or not. In John 20:23, it is the apostles who are being spoken to, and their commission was to go out and teach the conditions for forgiveness by God. This verse is referring to them establishing whose sins will or will not be pardoned, not Jesus giving them authority to do it themselves.
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