You and I are sent as Jesus was sent

So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
John 20:21-23

Jesus sent the disciples “as the Father sent [Jesus].” Some insist that this was directed only to the original Disciples—and not beyond the original disciples—to the Church. We must readily admit that the original Disciples were a special group through whom the Holy Spirit founded the Church and penned the New Testament. However, though their ministry was unique, all of Jesus’ disciples ever since are also sent as the Father sent Jesus. How?

While we obviously are not sent to atone for anyone’s sin, since only Jesus could do that, all Jesus’ disciples are to proclaim the gospel to any and all we can. Evangelism and missions continues through the Church until Jesus returns. We are to be as committed to that task as Jesus was to His task.

And as Jesus’ disciples, we are enabled because we are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit (v.22).

And what is our message? To announce forgiveness of sins, exclusively in Jesus’ name, because of His finished work on the cross, and then His resurrection from the dead.

The Roman Catholic church teaches the unbiblical falsehood that their human priesthood has authority to forgive sins. This is not true because only Jesus (being God) can forgive sins (Hebrews 9:22; 1 Peter 1:19, 2:22; 1 John 2:2, 4:10; Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5). God forgives sin when people are born again by the Holy Spirit and subsequently profess faith in Jesus as the one and only means of being forgiven. Our task is to proclaim Christ, declaring that forgiveness is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This declaration includes the hard, but true reality, that those who do not trust in Christ, will not be forgiven.

Jesus was sent to provide forgiveness. We are sent to proclaim forgiveness. He did what He was sent to do. Let us be sure that we are doing what we were sent to do.