The short answer is that only Jesus has the authority to forgive sin.

A slightly longer answer is that only He has laid the foundation in divine justice to forgive sins.

An even longer answer is that only Jesus can save us from the Penalty of sin, the Power of sin, the Pollution of sin and finally from the Pleasure and Presence of sin.

His name is “Jesus because He shall save His people from their sins” Mat 1:21.

As you can imagine, this answer could be much longer, explaining each of these points. However, the point of this blogpost is that only Jesus Christ has the ability and authority to save sinners.

God and man

We need both a divine and a human Saviour to do this. Jesus is both. The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, explains the need for this, but many people do not read it. The Bible shows us that only God can save sinners, but at the same time it prepared mankind for the arrival into this world of the man Who would do so. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved” Jn 3:17. Jesus is the God-man – God and man in two distinct natures, but one Person, the Son of God.

We need a divine Saviour, because no-one else can save so many people. Besides, most people understand that only God can forgive sin against God, so where does God fit into your thinking on this subject? What about sin against other human beings 1Sam 2:25? Who forgives this, and how?

Forgiveness of sin and Justice

Many people think that the forgiveness of sin is easy, but it is not. If you have not discovered this personally, you may have seen it in other people who cry out for justice, but often it is vengeance they want. However, God says, “Vengeance is Mine” Rom12:19.

Many people think that God should just forgive their sins. However, if God does not uphold justice, then who will?

An illustration

The “butcher of Lyon” Klaus Barbie thought people should just forget about his war crimes when he was arrested 40 years after the Second World War. Even after WWII he continued his torture and killings in Bolivia and Peru.

Understandably, people want justice. But what about justice against your own sins?

No-one can justify themselves Ps 143:2. Personally, we need mercy and grace. Mercy is favour towards those in a miserable condition and grace is favour towards who do not deserve it. If we do not deserve it, then justice is against us.

The Bible tells us how justice and mercy can meet each other.

Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Psalm 85:10

The Bible also tells us how justice and grace meet each other. 

“The wages of sin is death (what sinners deserve in justice) but the gift of God (what we do not deserve) is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:33.

Justice, grace or mercy, or all of them together?

Justice, mercy and grace meet in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Multitudes cry out for Justice, whereas it would be better to learn to cry to God for Mercy.

Mercy cannot ignore justice, especially when so many people are calling out for justice.

The godly Psalmist refers to it in several Psalms, such as:

“‘Justice and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.”

Psalm 89:14.

A Divine-human Saviour

The Christian Old Testament shows us that the Saviour Whom God promised is both God Himself and a man, the Messiah. These two strands are woven through the whole Hebrew Bible. God says that He will save sinners Hos 13:9 yet at the same time that a man will be the Saviour Gen 3:15.

This was necessary in order to satisfy divine justice and to secure the authority to forgive the sins of the chiefest sinner 1Tim 1:15.

The Saviour needs to have both a divine nature and a human nature Heb 2:14. As the Mother’s Catechism puts it: “He was man to die for us, and God to overcome death.”

Why crucifixion?

Why was Jesus crucified? There are social and political reasons, but the Bible had predicted it for a very long time. Combining Gen 3:15, Deu 21:22, Ps 22, Ps 69 and Isa 52:13-Isa 53 give us a vivid picture of Jesus’ crucifixion long before He came into the world. The question still remains, Why was He crucified? Isa 53 gives God’s reasons.

The whole topic is quite long, but basically there needed to be a public display of God’s justice in forgiving sin and justifying the ungodly who believed in Jesus.

Paul explains the theological implication of Christ’s crucifixion in Gal 3:13 and Rom 3:23-26.

Jesus’ crucifixion is an essential public display demonstrating that Christ’s death was an atoning, substitutionary death, dying under God’s curse, and His resurrection after such a death is a public display that Redemption had been accomplished, intimated in Jesus’ triumphant cry on the cross of Calvary: “It is finished!” Jn 19:30. As He Himself taught: he came to fulfil the law Mat 5:17, to fulfil all righteousness Mat 3:15 because the righteousness of any one of us is not good enough. You try to do your best? Very good, but it is not good enough to satisfy God’s justice. You need Jesus and His righteousness.

Christ taught the substitutionary nature of His death to His disciples at the Last Supper Mat 26:26-28, Lk 22:19-20, “Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you” 1Cor 11:24, explained further by the apostle Paul in 2Cor 5:19-21.

The crucifixion was predicted in Scripture, pointed to the timing of Christ’s arrival and death. Christ’s crucifixion dated His death to the time of the Roman Empire which made use of this form of execution, whereas the Jews stoned criminals to death. Its details add to the identification of Jesus as the Messiah, such as the piercing of His body on the cross was in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy Ps 22:16 and His sayings on the Cross Ps 22:1 and Ps 69:21.

Does this offend you?

Some people find this doctrine offensive. ”When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said to them, Does this offend you?” Jn 6:61.

The apostle Paul experienced the same Gal 5:11, but Jesus says to them: “If you do not believe this, then you will die in your sins” Jn 8:20. Jesus means that they will be on their own when they die, facing God in their sins with no-one to help them. They will discover too late that there is no other way of justifying themselves in the sight of God. There is no other Saviour Act 4:12.

Some people do not want Jesus to forgive their abusers, etc. Jesus does not do so. He changes them first, by His Spirit giving them a new spirit, and then He forgives them. Do you grudge this? I have met those who do. They have still to learn their own need of forgiveness and they have still to taste the forgiveness of God, which teaches the godly to forgive others. They need a new spirit before they leave this world.

How do sinners think that they will deal with God’s justice on the Day of Judgment? Do they really think that they will be able to handle God’s justice?

A complete salvation by a complete Saviour

Jesus is a complete Saviour Heb 2:10 with a complete salvation Heb 7:25, from the Penalty of sin, the Power of sin, the Pollution of sin and finally from the Pleasure and Presence of sin.

Why should Jesus forgive anyone’s sins? And why all of them? Whatever the reason, the main point is that He does not do things in half measures. He does not forgive sins partially but wholly – “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven” Lk 7:47.

By His sacrificial death Jesus secured the grace of the Holy Spirit to convince Jn 16:7-15 and then regenerate His sinful people to give them a new spirit and to make them new people 2Cor 5:17.

Soon He will add to their current spiritual and eternal life, with their future glorified and resurrection life Col 3:4.

Will you be among them? Will you join them?