Whose soever sins ye remit, they
are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23)
Jesus spoke this as He visited His disciples for the first
time after His resurrection, and as I read it, it struck me how amazing it was
that He gave them this power.
It establishes the principle of confession of sins to
priesthood authority. (I wonder whether this was to supersede or complement the
practice of sacrifice at the temple.)
They can’t go around forgiving random people; they have to wait for
people to come to them and confess.
The power to remit sins isn’t just a feel-good
encouragement. It is the power to
declare the heavenly record modified and a person’s sins expunged from that
record. That’s huge. They can act as agents of God and declare them forgiven as
God would do if He were there working with the person.
Our priesthood leaders have this power today and it is such
a blessing. We can go to the
bishop and make confession and work through the repentance process with
priesthood guidance.
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