Does man have authority to forgive sins?

[YosefHayim]

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. Matthew 9:6​

And the 2 verses later

But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men Matthew 9:8​

 

[LovethroughDove]

This is the closest I can find. Matthew 18:18 " I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

 

[Brother Mike]

Does man have authority to forgive sin? As long as you are not religious, you will understand this.

And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.
(Mat 9:2)

Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
(Joh 5:14)

Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
(Jas 5:14-15)

2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
(Psa 103:3)

Healing and forgiveness of sin are connected. You can't be forgiven, and there be no healing for you also. Sin, and the curse of the law brought physical things like sickness, mold and a whole list of bad stuff.

The curse came for disobedience.

1Jn_5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

So, we have the authority to go to God on someones behalf, and ask the Lord to forgive them, give them a chance, let them have time to see things. Devil, get your hands off them.

Even praying for someone stops the enemy from just killing them outright and they not receiving what they deserve through sin and their disobedience. Jesus understood, that sin and sickness go hand in hand and were no sin was, sickness could not also be there. We keep people alive and safe through our own prayers for them. Prayer works.

So yes, we do have authority to forgive sins. We don't have the right to choose Jesus for someone, that is something they have to do.

 

[Kenny_ms]

At the very least, we have the authority to "Forgive those who trespass against us"

And I think that's pretty much a command from Christ himself in Matthew 8:22.

But I assume you are talking about the power to forgive anyones sins.

In the verse Matthew 9:6 you quoted, was the "Son of man" Jesus talking about himself and not "man" as in you and I?

 

[Kenny_ms]

Does man have authority to forgive sin? As long as you are not religious, you will understand this.


I didn't understand, but I guess you assuming I'm religious is not enough to stop me from asking how you drew the following conclusion...

So yes, we do have authority to forgive sins.

Assuming you mean anyone and everyone's sins, that may be true but I wasn't convinced of it by anything in your post, so only asking you to point out what I may have missed.

 

[Brother Mike]

Assuming you mean anyone and everyone's sins, that may be true but I wasn't convinced of it by anything in your post, so only asking you to point out what I may have missed.

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
(Joh 20:23)

Not everyone's sin. Noticed I underlined the part in the scripture about the person having faith?

 

[Kenny_ms]

I meant "everyone" who wanted forgiveness so the ones you mention that "have faith" would meet that criteria.

I read John 20:23 in context and still don't see it and a minor problem with this is, I don't think I'm religious at all, as you suggest but that doesn't matter a lot right now, just thought you should know.

I assume I can post a link to why I feel the way I do about the verse, if not, someone please tell me otherwise.

http://www.gotquestions.org/John-20-23.html

 

[Brother Mike]

http://www.gotquestions.org/John-20-23.html

Quote from:
they could honestly tell people who believed in that message that their sins were forgiven, and they could honestly tell people that did not believe in the message that their sins were not forgiven

This is just religious nonsense. Man, not wanting to be responsible for anything, none seek God, none walk in his power whom he gave to be the Sons of God.

one more time. Jesus said. In simple Amplified bible form.
And having said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit! [Now having received the Holy Spirit, and being led and directed by Him] if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained.
(Joh 20:22-23)

This is not telling people that if they don't believe in Jesus, their sin remains. This is us, actually by the Holy Spirit retaining their sin.
So instead of having them forgiven, we don't do a thing, and their sin remains.

What examples in the bible do we have? I can think of several.

James said, the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the prayer of faith will forgive them of sin.
Gotquestions.org did not even mention James, because spiritual nonsense has to ignore other scriptures. I already warned in my post that if your religious you would not get it. I tried to help others not waste time with something they could not understand.

This works like I posted above. It's not complicated, but you have to understand what the curse is doing to people, what Satan is doing to people and what our position is.

Be blessed.

 

[Kenny_ms]

James said, the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the prayer of faith will forgive them of sin.
Gotquestions.org did not even mention James, because spiritual nonsense has to ignore other scriptures. I already warned in my post that if your religious you would not get it. I tried to help others not waste time with something they could not understand.

But who is actually doing the forgiving...you? or whoever, when you say that prayer of faith, or God?

Simply because you warn of it, does not make it so, Mike. It could be as simple as I or anyone else simply doesn't understand (that's IF I'm even wrong in this case but I'm really speaking in general with this comment) and has nothing whatsoever to do with one being religious. If you disagree with that then, we disagree...I can live with that.

I appreciate your comments on the issue and await others input. I will also look into it more thoroughly myself. See, sometimes, and I did say sometimes, something just doesn't feel right and no, that in itself is not enough to say it's wrong, but for me to think I can walk out on my front lawn, call those who want forgiveness of their sins over and tell them if they have faith, "I" can forgive you of all your sins. Just a gut feeling but, that doesn't feel right at all.

 

[Kenny_ms]

Another gut feeling and maybe I just don't understand but this worries me:

This works like I posted above. It's not complicated, but you have to understand what the curse is doing to people, what Satan is doing to people and what our position is.

Please explain what you mean by the curse.

 

[Brother Mike]

But who is actually doing the forgiving...you? or whoever, when you say that prayer of faith, or God?

The way Jesus said it, whosoever sins you remit (Remove, say not accountable) are remitted (Not held against, not accountable for)
So our part is just to be the one saying be forgiven, The other part would be on the Lord's end of things.

James said the prayer of faith will save the sick............ God does the rising up then, and the forgiving of sin based on use praying for someone.
We do the prayer part and supply the faith, God then does the remitting part, and the rising up part.

something just doesn't feel right and no, that in itself is not enough to say it's wrong, but for me to think I can walk out on my front lawn, call those who want forgiveness of their sins over and tell them if they have faith, "I" can forgive you of all your sins. Just a gut feeling but, that doesn't feel right at all.

That is good, if something seems off inside, then that protects us from false teaching. Some ignore that, and get in trouble.
So, it could be the person communicating not doing a good job of it, could be we don't have the foundation to understand fully, or it could be just flat out wrong.
Whatever the case, we don't ignore that gut feeling as you call it inside us. It's how God protects us.

Jesus.........
Jesus saw they had faith and believed to be healed. He then said your sin be forgiven and healed them. They already were paying attention to Him, already expecting from him. They had faith that Jesus could do something.

If someone comes to you, says man, my life is messed up, Would you pray for me. They came to you in faith, they believe that something you pray will work for them. So you say, Father, have mercy on them, help them, get them to see the truth.
In effect, your are remitting their sin, by your standing with the Father. So now since you prayed, what the devil was planning and what they deserved is remitted from them. God gives them light, Helps them out, gives them some breathing room to see things.

Check Paul out:
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
(1Co 5:3-5)

Here, Paul is not saying Lord forgive them, Help them out. For some reason this man did not repent though a believer, and Satan had not got his grubby hands on him yet. Paul under power of the Lord Jesus instead turns this guy over to Satan to be killed. To destroy his body until dead. This is not remitting the guys sin, this is letting the guy get what he sowed and in a faster form. The hope is that He will repent before he dies.

Praise God the guy did repent and was spared but with lots of sorrow as we see in 2 Cor.

So it's not going around saying Shazam, be forgiven. It's not imparting eternal life to anyone. It's stopping the things coming due to a persons sins, that they have mercy, and time to get things right.

this is why we see Jesus say go and sin no more least a worse thing comes on you. Why Jesus healed and forgave them, why James said the prayer of faith will save the sick and their sins be forgiven.

We are just going to God, and saying, "Hey Lord, have mercy on them. Give them some time, help them."

Jesus said if we do that, then their sin is remitted, what caused them to get in bad shape is forgiven.

Please explain what you mean by the curse.

read Deut 28. God mentions all the things the curse of the law brings to people who don't serve him. it would take a long post to tie this all in. chunks at a time. We have a right to go before God and ask that a person not suffer fully those things, so they can get help. The curse was designed to destroy fully.

Be blessed.

 

[Kenny_ms]

. God does the rising up then, and the forgiving of sin based on use praying for someone.

We're on the same page.

Thanks for being patient with me.

 

[Brother Mike]

. God does the rising up then, and the forgiving of sin based on use praying for someone.

We're on the same page.

Thanks for being patient with me.

yep

Jesus said whoseover "SIN(S)" we ask God to overlook and forgive.
That could be lots of sins and junk the person has done.

One Sin as mentioned by Jesus, is not something we have anything to do with.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me;
(Joh 16:8-9)

You only get condemned by just that one sin. Not believing on Jesus.

Stephen:
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
(Act 7:59-60)

This is powerful if you see what is working here. Paul was there, gave the order to murder Stephen. Murdering one of God's children is bad, bad, bad. You live by the sword, you die by it. Paul has invoked spiritual laws to cut his life short here.

Stephen though asked the Lord not to count his Murder against them. The Lord said fine, it is done. It won't even be mentioned to them again.

When Paul met Jesus on the way to Damascus, Paul was no longer guilty of Stephen's murder. The Lord never mentioned it to him.

I don't know how powerful yet this is or 100% on how it Works, but it's in Acts for a reason. Did Stephan ensure that Paul get picked? I am just pointing this out.
I don't fully know, but prayer for others works and is important.

blessings.

 

[Michael74]

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthew 19:28 KJV

Some people are delegated more authority than others.

 

[KevinK]

We can forgive, in fact we are required to. Absolving is a different issue.

 

[Michael74]

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:15 NIV

 

[Brother Mike]

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:15 NIV

A whole lot of folks do not believe this is true. OSAS.

 

[Michael74]

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 1 John 2:9 NIV

 

[Stan1953]

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. Matthew 9:6​

And the 2 verses later
But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men Matthew 9:8

If we read John 20:23 in proper hermeneutical fashion, then we see it is NOT the same as Jesus' right to forgive and absolve sins.
This verse in context refers to the law of sowing and reaping in our lives, so when a person sins against you and you do not forgive them, their sins remains an impediment in our lives and his. Once we forgive someone's sin against us, then it no longer affects them from that perspective, and is over with.

 

[Brother Mike]

If we read John 20:23 in proper hermeneutical fashion, then we see it is NOT the same as Jesus' right to forgive and absolve sins.
This verse in context refers to the law of sowing and reaping in our lives, so when a person sins against you and you do not forgive them, their sins remains an impediment in our lives and his.

Welcome StanJ

I am not sure what Hermetical fashion is. Man's methods of understanding what is revealed by the Holy Spirit seems to fall way short into the land of unbelief.

So you understand the Laws of sowing and reaping. whoseover sows to the flesh must reap of the flesh, corruptions.

The context though is when Jesus went to heal. He asked is it more easy to forgive sin or to heal? So we are talking about forgiving someone's sin in connection with Healing.

Can someone sow sin and mess in their life, that causes them to reap of the flesh destruction?

If one of us Goes to God and asks for Mercy, Lord forgive them so no sin or devil is in the way so that they can be healed?

Did not James say the Prayer of faith Saves the sick, and if they committed any sin it's forgiven?

If we prayed for people, and God did not forgive, but what the people did remains on them. Then by right, the devil does have a place to destroy them. They have to fully reap what they have sown.

So what is harder? Say be healed in Jesus name, or Be forgiven, Have mercy on them God?