If Jesus alone can forgive sins, why did he authorize his disciples to forgive sins--or withhold forgiveness?

Jesus authorized His apostles to forgive sins, in the name of Jesus Christ, in order to put in place a material, tangible mechanism by which real sins are really forgiven. Jesus left us some great ideas, but He left us much more than only ideas. Jesus gave us a tangible real Church, One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

It is the one real Church that Christ left for us, the Catholic Church, through which He intended much Grace to be made available to the world. The Catholic Church delivers the sacraments to humanity. Sacramental Confession and Reconciliation is one of the gifts Jesus gave us when He gave the world the Catholic Church.

Peace with God is so important that Jesus knew we would be helped greatly if we could actually know that such peace exists. As Jesus perfectly knows, we humans sin, and we thereby ruin the peace that God wills for us. Even after we break the peace between us and God, God still wills the peace to exist. That is why, out of love for us, He made it possible for the peace between us and God to be restored after we ruin the peace.

Peace can not be forced on anyone. The idea "forced peace" is an intellectual oxymoron. Real peace must be embraced by all involved. For us to receive God's peace, we must do just that - receive it. This peace is so awesomely important that God wills that we be able to know that we have received His peace. That is why, I trust, that Jesus gave us a material easily understood sacrament to receive God's peace after we have sinned and separated ourselves from God.

Since Christ gave us the Catholic Church, it is not reasonable that we attempt to be at peace with God, BUT NOT at peace with His Church. We can accept God's peace most fully and genuinely through the Catholic Church. Thankfully, by the Grace of God, that is very easy to do. We can go to a duly ordained priest, under the authority of a bishop in direct apostolic succession - in union with the bishop of Rome, to confess our sins and receive absolution.

I never have heard a reasonable person say that a person's sins are not forgiven after sacramental Confession and Reconciliation in the Catholic Church. Since we know that sins ARE forgiven this way, it seems just plain unreasonable to me to refuse this dazzling gift of mercy, love, charity, this gift of peace. It seems not reasonable to me to seek private solitary spiritual forgiveness, just between a sinner and Jesus, when Jesus made a formal sacrament available.

To reject this in-person sacrament seems to me rather like telling a dear friend during this Christmas season, "NO, I don't want to stop by your home for tea, cookies, and an exchange of gifts. I'll mail your present, and you can mail mine to me." Surely an in-person visit with an ordained representative of Jesus Christ is called for when needed.

We should go in person to give Christ our gift - repentance and an explicit spoken apology and request for forgiveness. We never can earn anything from God, but we should be as material as possible in our giving to Him that to which He most surely has the right. We should materially explicitly give God our expression of sorrow for our sins, and to make it clear we should explicitly ask, "Please Lord, forgive me through your agent, this fine priest in whose presence I am confessing my sins."

I am Roman Catholic.

Peace be with you.

EDIT: We always should keep in mind that our sins, even mortal sins, are forgiven if we make an act of perfect contrition, with the intention of going to sacramental confession as soon as possible. Perfect contrition is contrition purely out of our love for God, rather than out of fear of punishment for having offended God.

Sins are always forgiven with repentance. Sincere repentance is the only way to do this, not lip service. The disciples had the discernment of the Holy Spirit to guide others to full repentance and to see into their hearts.

John the Baptist had the Spirit as well.

Jesus gave His disciples authority to continue the work He began. These men understood what sin is and how God regards it. It's connected with the physical healing ability Jesus gave the disciples. Forgiveness of sins is part of spiritual healing and connects people with God. The disciples were yielded instruments who led people to Jesus just like God the Holy Spirit leads those God the Father determines it's time to reveal the spiritual to in Jesus' direction.

Jesus' breathing on the disciples meant that God the Holy Spirit not only indwelled them but led them in all things. The power and decisions were not their own. All decisions are (or they should be) made today as they were then through the leading of God the Holy Spirit.

We are to do the works of the Savior, in the power of the Savior, not to 'get saved', but to prove our love for Him and all He's done for us! ... be His hands & feet to the lost & dying. You were created in love to respond to the love your Father in Heaven proved He has for you. Love demands justice however and He is perfectly holy, pure & just; therefore, He must punish all sin, otherwise He would be unjust. In an astonishing act of grace He provided the way for your offences against Him to be removed, when you confess your sins to Him and ask His forgiveness; He will! Then turn from them proving your repentance is real. Trust Jesus took the punishment your sins deserved, on His cross (aka “believing in Jesus”). I have done this; so can you.

Read how the Bible says to be right with God, Matthew 4:17; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19; Romans 2:4-5; Romans 3:23-24; James 2:10; Hebrews 9:27; 1 John 1:8-9; Romans 5:8; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 10:13; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; John 3:36; 1 John 5:11-13; www.GodsLoveProven.com unbrokengaze777@gmail.com

We, as his disciples, have his spirit within us, and he gave us all authority.

Luke 10:19 (New International Version, ©2010)

19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Jesus was not speaking of the judgement which we will all have to stand under in the last day where the results of a person's life, sin and all shall be judged.

he was imparting to his disciples the ability to love people and forgive their sinful behavior which he had. this is not the same as his blood being the only agent which can wash away or cleanse people of their sin nature, but it is the power to love people even though they are sinners. if Jesus had not passed that on to his followers, they would never have cared enough about the lost to risk their lives to go out and share the good news of Jesus and his life and death and resurrection.

it is not saying that he has transfered his power to judge man and his blood's ability to forgive and wash away sin, he is saying that if we will receive what he is giving us, then we will be able to see past the sin of people and pray for them and forgive them and ask God to forgive them for the things they have done and are doing.

here is an example of what i mean. a man shot the son of a minister in a random drive by shooting and killed the son. the minister struggled mightily with being able or willing to forgive this man. the man was caught and sent to prison. the minister was glad. but he was still so deeply wounded and hurt that he cried out to God to help him and heal his hurt. God's response was to breath on him the Holy Ghost and tell him that if he wanted peace in his heart he was going to need to forgive that murderer. the Lord showed him to go to the prison and tell the man that he forgave him. he obeyed God and did just that. it so shocked that man that he totally rejected what the minister said and yelled at him to leave him alone. but the minister wanted peace and wanted to really forgive this man. so he kept coming back to see him and eventually the man believed him and received the forgiveness and the minister's forgiveness was real and he had peace. this man eventually got saved because his terrible sin was remitted and forgiven by the one who was most affected by what he had done. today, that man and the minister work together in the ministery. this is a true story. if that minister had not forgiven that man, the man would never have been able to forgive himself and his sin would always have stood there keeping him tied to it and never allowing him to be really free.

it is true that only God can forgive our sin to either allow us entrance into heaven or not, but we are able to release or keep one another in bondage to sinful behavior upon the earth if we have received the Holy Ghost and realize the authority we have. refusing to forgive those who have wronged us keeps both ourselves and those who have wronged us in bondage to that sin, but forgiving opens all kinds of doors and windows of possibilities.

Go and forgive you allies and your adversaries because you have the power to. Once you forgive them, they're sins will be forgiven. You're the move of God, for God usually doen't move all by Himself, but needs His sheep to carry out His will on Earth. So, it's the Son of Man that forgives, and that Son of Man is you. Jesus died for you to become him, so be Jesus Christ to everyone you meet, forgiving them and healing them. Raise dead people too when people tell you about others who have died.

because they had the Holy Spirit and knew when sins were forgiven

He was telling the disciples not to "forgive sins" but to teach others about Gods forgiveness of sins.

God alone acts on "His" own authority. What Christ did was always done upon the authority given to him by God. What Christians do is done upon the authority given to us by Christ. We're not doing these things upon our own authority or power.