• ἀφέωνται — SBLGNT
• ἀφέωνται — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
• ἀφιένται — Robinson-Pierpont

§976The Apostle's Creed associates faith in the forgiveness of sins not only with faith in the Holy Spirit, but also with faith in the Church and in the communion of saints. It was when he gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles that the risen Christ conferred on them his own divine power to forgive sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if …

§1087Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying:10 they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. This "apostolic succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Or…

§1120The ordained ministry or ministerial priesthood is at the service of the baptismal priesthood.38 The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church. the saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they receive the Spirit …

1. Paul mixes the lowly things with the lofty, ever imitating his Master, so that the lowly become the path to the lofty, and through the former we are led to the latter, and when we are amid the great things we learn that these [lowly ones] were a condescension. This accordingly he does here also. After declaring that He offered up Himself, and showing Him to be a High Priest,…

What is Confession? Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven. What sins should we confess? Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of, as w…

Q. What are the keys of the kingdom? A. The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline toward repentance. Both preaching and discipline open the kingdom of heaven to believers and close it to unbelievers.

Q. How does preaching the gospel open and close the kingdom of heaven? A. According to the command of Christ: The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming and publicly declaring to all and every believer, each time they accept the promise of the gospel in true faith, that, as often as they do this, truly all their sins are forgiven them of God, for the sake of Christ's merits…

We believe that there are in the Church Evangelical Mysteries [i.e. Sacraments], and that they are seven. For a less or greater number of the Mysteries we have not in the Church; since any number of the Mysteries other than seven hath no foundation in Scripture, or in the Doctors and Councils of the Church. And these seven are as follows: Baptism, Confirmation (Chrismation), th…

God is generous in His grace: not only through the spoken Word but also through Baptism, the Sacrament of the Altar, and the power of the keys (absolution) does He give the forgiveness of sins. The Gospel is not one narrow channel but a broad stream of God's mercy reaching people through multiple means. Wherever God's Word is, there He is at work.

Luther retains private confession and absolution as a precious gift, not to be abandoned. However, he rejects the requirement of enumerating all sins, which is impossible and turns confession into a torment rather than a comfort. Absolution is the voice of the Gospel declaring God's forgiveness; it is not a priestly judicial act that depends on complete enumeration.