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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: Colin: The problem with that interpretation is that IT doesn't square with what the rest of the Bible teaches about who has the power to forgive sin. If you don't like what Gill had to say,... Matthew Henry has this to say on John 20:23 --"Christ directed the apostles to declare the only method by which sin would be forgiven. This power did not exist at all in the apostles as a power to give judgment, but only as a power to declare the character of those whom God would accept or reject in the day of judgment." John Darby's synopsis --"The evangelist is far from exhausting all that there was to relate of that which Jesus did. The object of that which he has related is linked with the communication of eternal life in Christ; first, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and, second, that in believing we have life through His name. To this the Gospel is consecrated." The Geneva study Bible Note: "The publishing of the forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ, and the setting forth and proclaiming the wrath of God in retaining the sins of the unbelievers, is the sum of the preaching of the gospel." Jamieson, Faussett and Brown, have this to say-- 23. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, etc,--In any literal and authoritative sense this power was never exercised by one of the apostles, and plainly was never understood by themselves as possessed by them or conveyed to them. (See on Mt 16:19). The power to intrude upon the relation between men and God cannot have been given by Christ to His ministers in any but a ministerial or declarative sense--as the authorized interpreters of His word, while in the actings of His ministers, the real nature of the power committed to them is seen in the exercise of church discipline." J Vernon McGee, very simply puts it as,--" What will remit sin (verse 23)? The gospel. The gospel must be preached before sin can be remitted." John Wesley's notes read, --"Verse 23. Whose soever sins ye remit - (According to the tenor of the Gospel, that is, supposing them to repent and believe) they are remitted, and whose soever sins ye retain (supposing them to remain impenitent) they are retained. So far is plain. But here arises a difficulty. Are not the sins of one who truly repents, and unfeignedly believes in Christ, remitted, without sacerdotal absolution? And are not the sins of one who does not repent or believe, retained even with it? What then does this commission imply? Can it imply any more than, 1. A power of declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon; whose sins are remitted and whose retained? As in our daily form of absolution; and 2. A power of inflicting and remitting ecclesiastical censures? That is, of excluding from, and re-admitting into, a Christian congregation." The answer to his rhetorical questions are of course, (and what others have written) giving us a consensus that the apostles were never given such authority as some expositors would irresponsibly give them, by the way. Only God Himself can forgive sin, it's as simple as that. King David understood this very well, when the prophet Nathan spoke to him about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, and what amounted to murder, though not directly by his hand, of, Uriah the Hittite. David, the man after God's heart, as well Nathan the Prophet, understood, that it was God, that he sinned against, and that God, was the one who could forgive that sin. 2 Sam 12:13 Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. Shalom John |