Christ told the apostles to follow his example: "As the Father
has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21). Just as the apostles
were to carry Christâs message to the whole world, so they were
to carry his forgiveness: "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:1
.
This power was understood as coming from God: "All this is from
God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:1. Indeed, confirms Paul, "So we are ambassadors for
Christ" (2 Cor. 5:20).
Some say that any power given to the apostles died with them. Not
so. Some powers must have, such as the ability to write Scripture.
But the powers necessary to maintain the Church as a living,
spiritual society had to be passed down from generation to
generation. If they ceased, the Church would cease, except as a
quaint abstraction. Christ ordered the apostles to, "Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations." It would take much time. And he
promised them assistance: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close
of the age" (Matt. 28:19â20).
If the disciples believed that Christ instituted the power to
sacramentally forgive sins in his stead, we would expect the
apostlesâ successorsâthe bishopsâand Christians of later
years to act as though such power was legitimately and habitually
exercised. If, on the other hand, the sacramental forgiveness of
sins was what Fundamentalists term it, an "invention," and if it
was something foisted upon the young Church by ecclesiastical or
political leaders, weâd expect to find records of protest. In
fact, in early Christian writings we find no sign of protests
concerning sacramental forgiveness of sins. Quite the contrary. We
find confessing to a priest was accepted as part of the original
deposit of faith handed down from the apostles.
http://www.catholic.com/library/Forgiveness_of_Sins.asp
