Forgiveness & Faith

Forgiveness
Jesus can forgive sins as we see in this verse. "I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." Mark 2:10. Do we have "authority" to forgive sins?

This was an interesting discussion. I am thankful for the person who said, "yes, we do forgive sins." It is true, we should forgive people when they offend us. The forgiveness we give is important. However, the forgiveness in Mark 2:10 is different that forgiving offenses.

A good illustration that we discussed is this: A man commits a crime against a person and is arrested. The victims of the crime forgive him of the wrong done to them. When the man comes to the judge, will the judge remove the consequence based on the victims' forgiveness?

For this illustration, our answer would be "no." When we forgive people who have done wrong to us, it gives peace to our hearts. But, it does not remove the ultimate consequence of sin--which is eternal death. Only Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, and remove the penalty.


Faith
We are struggling with the concept that Jesus is God, and that there are three unique "personalities" of God--God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit. How can it be true? How can we understand what is impossible?

It is only by faith.
"Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see. That is what the people of long ago were praised for. We have faith. So we understand that everything was made when God commanded it. That's why we believe that what we see was not made out of what could be seen. . . . Without faith it isn't possible to please God. Those who come to God must believe that He exists. And they must believe that He rewards those who look to Him." Hebrews 11:1-3, 6

By faith, we believe--even if it doesn't make sense and we can not understand.