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Only Jesus Can Absolve Your Sins

 




Question: Do I need a priest to absolve my sins?

Short Answer: Jesus, who is the propitiation for our sins, is your intercessor. 


What the Bible Says

Jesus’s life and death fulfilled all of the Old Testament ritualistic requirements for an Old Testament priest to enter God’s Temple and intercede on behalf of the people. Absolute purity and cleanliness were required to bring a sacrifice before the Lord, and Jesus was the embodiment of perfection. His death was the required unblemished sacrifice. His resurrection brings us directly to God. 

Scripture teaches how all of us can be purified and made clean so that we can, “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16) - believe that Jesus’s sacrifice is enough (John 3:16), confess our sins (1 John 1:9). It also teaches us how to remain in that purity and cleanliness - wash each other’s feet (John 13), have a clean heart (Matthew 15), be clothed in humility (1 Peter 5:5) - the spiritual equivalents of the previously required physical acts. 


What do you do with this?

Jesus’s crucifixion allows us direct access to God. The belief that we need an additional middleman to grant forgiveness says that Jesus’s sacrifice didn’t work. That we need to continue performing to achieve spiritual perfection.

There is a worldly conflating of two scriptures: 1) Confess your sins so that you’ll be forgiven (1 John 1:9) and 2) “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). These verses do not appear in the same Biblical chapter and verse. The command to confess our sins to each other is in the context of allowing others to pray for us, not forgive us.

Confession to any person is about the healing that comes through prayer (James 5:16). Scripture doesn’t tell us specifically which person to choose for confession, but it does say that “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). To assume that any person’s worldly profession makes them righteous (meaning their prayers for you will be effective) is simply not Biblical. And, again, no human being has Biblically been granted the power of absolution for another. Jesus, who is the propitiation for our sins, is your intercessor. He is your High Priest. 

Relevant Scripture

  • “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” (Hebrews 4:14)
  • “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34)
  • “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
  • “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)


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Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen

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