Absolution

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Absolution

absolution. The formal act of a bishop or priest pronouncing the forgiveness of sins by Christ to penitent sinners, in virtue of Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles empowering them to forgive or to retain sins (Jn. 20:23

Absolution is the remission of sin, or of the punishment due to sin, granted by the Church.

formal release from guilt, obligation, or punishment.

Difference between Absolve and Forgive

As verbs the difference between absolve and forgive

is that absolve is to set free, release or discharge (from obligations, debts, responsibility etc) while forgive is to pardon, to waive any negative feeling or desire for punishment.

James 5:16

English Standard Version Chapter 5

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

John 20:22-23

English Standard Version Chapter 20

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Confession and Penance

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Confession

Confession. Admission, especially of guilt or sin; also, a statement of religious belief. “To confess” can mean to agree, to promise, or to admit something.

Penance is self-punishment done to try to right a wrong, or the receipt of absolution from sins from a priest by fulfilling some requirement.

The Roman Church teaches that sin requires that satisfaction be made to God and this is achieved through penance and good works, through the enduring of sufferings in purgatory and through indulgences which are authorized by the pope.

Penance means repentance or satisfaction for sin.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Purgatory

PURGATORY A Christian doctrine of the afterlife, holding that redeemed persons undergo a transformative purification between death and eternal blessedness, thereby becoming fit for the holiness of God. Purgatory is an express doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church

Who grants absolution/forgiveness of sin?

God Alone has the power to forgive/absolve one from sin

Mark 2:7

English Standard Version Chapter 2

7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

English Standard Version Chapter 43

I, I am he

who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

God forgives us himself without any sacrifices from his people so that HE and HE ALONE is glorified

If we/sinners take part in that, we/sinners have the potential of thinking we were a part of earning forgiveness

Luke 5:21 ESV

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”