"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." -- Colossians 3:12-13
There is no "sacrament" of forgiveness. We are to forgive each other's weaknesses and transgressions, as God forgives our own. Nothing about "another Christ" imposing himself between men and God.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." -- Gal. 5:1"And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage" -- Galations 2:4
Praise, God, we have been forgiven by Christ's work on the cross.
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." -- 2 Corinthians 5:21
As noted above, this refers to contrition - acknowledging repentance for injuring others. It is liberating but it does not eradicate the mark of sin on the soul. Our Lord was clear and direct in how this was to be accomplished.
There is no "sacrament" of forgiveness.
Of course there is; in fact, there are 7 Sacraments. The sacraments are Christ's own gift that provide us with his grace.
They are the divine helps which God gives us to enable us to:
When God made us, he gave us free will.
He continues to respect our free will to the end. When Jesus died upon the Cross to redeem us from our sins, it did not mean that from then on everyone would have to go to Heaven whether they wanted to or not.
When Jesus died upon the Cross, he paid an infinite price for an inexhaustible flow of grace. That grace would enable each person to turn back to God and to remain united with God through this life and through eternity.
That brings us to a question: How would Jesus provide for this flow of grace to individual souls?
The grace itself would be invisible, as by its nature it must be. But the grace would come to us through the visible things that we deal with daily.
And so God took the common things from the world about usobjects which we could taste and touch and feel, words that we could hear and gestures that we could understandand made these the carriers of His grace.
He even matched the sign to the purpose for which the grace was given:
To this combination of outward sign and inner grace, welded together by Christ, the Church gives the Latin name of sacramentuma holy thing.
The sacraments are chosen instruments of divine power.
The exact definition of a sacrament is that it is "an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace." We readily can see that there are three distinct ideas contained in that short definition:
The outward signs are God's way of treating us like the human beings we are. He conveys His unseen grace into our spiritual souls through material symbols which our physical bodies can perceivethings and words and gestures.
The outward signs of the sacraments have two parts: the "thing" itself which is used (water, oil, etc.), and the words or gestures which give significance to what is being done.
We know that no human power could attach an inward grace to an outward signnot even the divinely guided but humanly applied power of the Church.
Only God can do that.
Which brings us to the second element in the definition of a sacrament: "instituted by Christ."
Between the time He began His public life and the time He ascended into heaven, Jesus fashioned the seven sacraments. When He ascended into heaven, that put an end to the making of sacraments.
The Church cannot institute new sacraments. There never can be more or less than seven, the seven Jesus has given us: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Reconciliation (Confession or Penance), Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
Jesus did completely specify the matter and form of some of the sacramentsnotably Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. But this does not mean that He necessarily fixed the matter and form of all the sacraments down to the last detail.
Coming now to the third element in the definition of a sacrament, we have its essential purpose: "to give grace."
What kind of grace do the sacraments give?
First and most important of all, they give sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is that marvelous supernatural life, that sharing-in-God's-own-life that is the result of God's Love, the Holy Spirit, indwelling in the soul.
The other five sacramentsConfirmation, Holy Eucharist, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimonygive an increase in sanctifying grace.
They deepen and intensify the spiritual life of sanctifying grace which already pulsates through the soul. As each additional sacrament is received (and repeated, when it can be) the level of spiritual vitality rises in the soulsomewhat as the brightness of a fire increases as you add more fuel.
(God's love does not increaseit is infinite to begin with. But the soul's capacity to absorb His love increases as a child's capacity for life increases with each meal that he eats.)
If each sacrament gives (or increases) sanctifying grace in the soul, then why did Jesus institute seven sacraments? Wouldn't just one sacrament have been enough, to be received as needed?
Yes, one sacrament would have been enough, if sanctifying grace were the only kind of grace God wanted to give us. But God did not choose simply to give us spiritual life and then let us fend for ourselves.
God gives us the spiritual life which is sanctifying grace, and then does all that He can (short of taking away our free will)...
So in addition to the sanctifying grace which is common to all the sacraments, each sacrament also gives the sacramental grace of that particular sacrament. These are other special helps which God wills to give us, helps keyed to our particular spiritual needs and our particular state in life.
2Corinthians 5:21
You need to step back two lines. In 2 Cor. 5:18, the ministry of reconciliation was given to the ambassadors of the Church. This ministry of reconciliation refers to the sacrament of reconciliation, also called the sacrament of confession or penance.