Is it possible for someone to forgive sin? This is the question that we discussed in my Bible study this morning. I guess that I have really never thought about that question before. As a follower of Christ, I always put my trust and faith in him to forgive sin. What does the Bible say about forgiving sin? Can we forgive the sin of others? I think that what the Bible says may surprise you. There are several places in the Bible that we discussed where the passage talked about forgiving sin. Let me show you what passages that I am talking about, my perspective on those verses and the conclusion that we came to.
If you look at the chapter of Matthew 18, I will start, there. For background context it is important to know what kind of Bible that you are reading. I have several blogs explaining the difference between Bibles and I also speak about the topic in my book as well. Some Bibles intentionally word manipulate so understand that if your Bible isn’t following what I say. Often it is because of the Bible version that you are using, not something that I am making up out of thin air. I only trust word for word Bible translations when getting down to the nitty gritty. Many thought-for-thought Bibles are fine as well. Sometime there are some important parts that don’t align with word-for-word Bibles, and we can have a conversation about those if there is a variance. I highly discourage using paraphrase Bibles.
Matthew 18:21-22 New American Standard Bible
Forgiveness
21 Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me, and I still forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy-seven times.
In this set of verses, we can clearly see that Peter asks the question about forgiving sin. Jesus replies that Peter should forgive sin seventy-seven times, basically stating that we should forgive our brothers no matter how many times they sin against us. The question that I pose is it the same when we forgive sin vs when Jesus forgives sin? I would say yes and no. We are only qualified to forgive sin that is against us. Being filled with the Holy Spirit makes us unique in the fact that we have God dwelling within us. God gives us the tools needed to forgive others. The attributes of Jesus and the fact that we are Christ-followers more than equips us for forgive someone when they sin against us. However, sin is a separation from God. We are not qualified, nor do we have authority to forgive sin where someone is separated from God.
Forgive sin as a Christ follower.
Let’s again look back at Matthew 18 for further explanation.
Matthew 18:15-18 New American Standard Bible
Discipline and Prayer
15 “Now if your brother sins[a], go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that on the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
If you look at the foot notes for the first verse, “sins” is noted as add “against you”. In the context of these verses, Matthew 18 is specifically speaking about forgiving others who sin against us. If you look at a paraphrase Bible, the same sentence will read as “hurts” not “sins”. This is a huge and dividing translation. Replacing the word “sin” with “hurts” changes the context of the passage and completely misses the mark. Here is the full context including the same verses from The Message Bible.
Matthew 18:15-20 The Message
15-17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.
18-20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
Comparing the two texts, one can clearly see that the impact is not the same. This is why I highly advise not using paraphrase Bibles when digging into challenging issues.
Clearly, we can forgive sin when the sin is made against us. Jesus speaks to the issue and how tells us how we are supposed to respond to sins against us. However, we do not possess the ability to forgive sin on behalf of others. I have read the Bible many times and have not found any passage that even so much as insinuates that we have that power or authority to do so. I know that this will go against the grain with some of you. But in all sincerity and truth, no man or woman can forgive sin on your behalf no matter what your church doctrine says. You cannot be forgiven by man through confessing your sins to them.
God is the only one who can make whole a person who has separated themselves from him. The restoration is made by confessing our sins to Jesus, seeking repentance for our sins and asking for forgiveness of our sins. As Christians we should forgive the sins of brothers and sisters against us as the Holy Spirit leads us. We should not however pretend like our power to forgive sin is equal to that of Jesus. The forgiveness of sin through Christ is made through the blood that he shed on the cross. That is the power that will forgive sin. Anything other than the blood of Christ cannot wash sins away.
John 20:22-23 New American Standard Bible 1995
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”