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NASB | John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 20:22 And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. [Acts 1:8; 2:1-3] |
Subject: Retain or forgive sins? |
Bible Note: Dear Tamara, I disagree with the meaning you take from the Pharisees’ statement in Matthew 9:3: “…This man is blaspheming.” Matthew employs the Pharisees’ accusation of blasphemy against Jesus as positive, not negative, testimony of His divine authority to absolve sin, authority which He received from the Father. (In the Old Covenant, such forgiveness came only via the Temple sacrificial system). And because the Pharisees certainly saw Jesus as a mere man, Matthew deliberately contrasts their condemnation with the crowd’s simple acceptance of Jesus’ declaration through the verifiable sign of healing: “…they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men…” With a simple literary device, Matthew underscores how divine authority has indeed been granted to mortal men and emphasizes that the glory is not to man himself, but to God alone. Since the Gospel was also written to edify and instruct the Body of Christ, e.g. His Church, we have in these verses a vivid ecclesial proclamation that God is working through man, in this case through the Person of Christ, to effect His reconciliation with man; thus any man given authority to forgive sin would be doing so in the Person of Christ. Elsewhere, the Apostle John illustrates how this works in practice: Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), (4:1-2) In Verse 4:2 Jesus oversees His apostles as they Baptize in His name, in His Person, as it were, so that any authority conveyed, and any sin forgiven thereby, is in the Person of Christ through His anointed “presbuteros” or “priest”. This is illustrated in James: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (Jas 5:14-15) Here the elder, or “priest”, speaks a “prayer of faith” which effects both healing and the forgiveness of sins. We assume, as James assumes, that these sick are believers who have sinned post accepting Christ and being baptized in His name. Have you read any early Church history on this question? Colin |