MR 4.F: Significance of the Resurrection

All pardon for sins is ultimately comes from Christ's finished work on Clavary. Baptism was given to us to take away original sin and to take away all the sins committed before the baptism. It is a spiritual purification of the soul, but there needed to be a different form of purification for the sins commited after baptism. This new form of purification is brough upon by the death and resurrection of Christ. Christ was brought on to the world to forgive the sins of God's people. After he resurrected from the dead, he had conquered death, which was a result of sin. Jesus gave his apostles the power to forgive sins. However, the apostles power given to by Christ had two folds to it. The first one is that they have the power to forgive sins or to hold them bound, which means to retain them unforgiven. The apostles could not forgive sins that they did not hear from the sinner. Secondly their authority was not to proclaim that God has already forgiven their sins. This authority given to the apostles have been passed down through generations from priest to priest. With this instituted we are given another sacrament in which we can show humilty by confessing our sins to the priests that hold the power to forgive sins. After confessing to the priest we are forgiven of all sins said out loud to the priest and cleansed of our sins.