WHO HAS THE POWER TO FORGIVE SINS

The question is asked “Who has the power to forgive sins?”.  Did God give a religious organization the ability to forgive an individual’s sins by having that person confess their sins to a priest, who is a sinful human being, and having that priest say that he has the power to forgive their sins?  Or, can we as individuals go directly to God in prayer and ask Him for His forgiveness?  In the days of the Children of Israel, God gave instructions to Moses to build a Sanctuary which would be a type of the heavenly Sanctuary.  The people would bring their different offerings to the sanctuary and the priest would offer them on the altar to God on behalf of the individual.  Once a year, the high priest went into the Most Holy Place so that he could offer sacrifices for the whole camp before God’s presence on the Ark of the Covenant. This type of worship continued up to the crucifixion of Christ.  When Christ was on the cross and He said “It is Finished”, the veil in the temple was torn apart from top to bottom.  This symbolized that there wasn’t any need to have offerings brought to the temple because the true Lamb of God had given His life as the ultimate offering for the world.  It also meant that an individual could now go directly to God in their worship.  Let’s go to the scriptures and read a few verses of this account. “Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”  Matthew 28:50-53  * “And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  Now when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’” Mark 15:37-39  * “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.  Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.  And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit’.  And having said this, He breathed His last.  Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God saying, ‘Certainly this was a righteous Man!’”  Luke 23:44-47  * *New King James Version