whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained.
On the evening of His resurrection, Jesus stands among His gathered followers and hands them authority over the forgiving of sins. Who received this, and can people decide where a soul stands with God forever?
Older translations read "remit" and "retain" sins. The writers quoted below use those words.
Who Was in the Room
The room was not full of apostles only. One writer weighs the claim that this gift was for apostles alone:
But someone will say, "That was apostolic." Let us allow that for the moment. The fact remains that it was men who acted like this. No doubt they acted for God, but still men remitted sins. But if we look at the chapter we see that there is no ground for saying it was apostolic. It says the disciples were assembled, not apostles. And John 21:2 shows that "disciples" in these last chapters of John does not mean only apostles. It calls Nathanael one of the disciples, and we know he was not an apostle.
The Power Behind the Commission
Christ gave them His Spirit for a purpose: to act for Him once He was gone.
He was sharing His Spirit with the company, so that they could act for Him on earth after He had left it. This gave them power to receive, or to refuse, anyone who came to them claiming to be a believer. When such people were received into the company, their sins were forgiven. Their past history, their acts, their ways before conversion were not held against them. They were forgiven. So the believers at Damascus received Paul, who had once persecuted the Church.
Administrative, Not Eternal
Commentators call this "administrative" forgiveness. One writer explains what he means by that word:
They were the administrators of it in the world — first in preaching the gospel, if you like, but afterwards in the proper administrative sense... And yet, if such a person is a believer, he has eternal life and forgiveness the whole time. That is what I mean by administrative. It is not the forgiveness in which the soul is justified. It is forgiveness given now, in the ways and government of God.
One writer shows how this works out in practice:
It is a picture of the assembly that was about to be formed at Pentecost — and this is the assembly's function. They have authority from God to retain or to remit sins. This is not at all a question of eternal forgiveness; it is administration, or discipline. For instance, when the assembly receives a soul from the world, what is this but remitting sins? Take the opposite case. If a person is refused fellowship, or is put away after being received, that is the retaining of sins.
Worked Out in the New Testament
One writer points to how the first Christians actually did this:
The apostles never undertook to forgive sins in an official way. This passage does not mean that. It speaks of the discipline of an assembly of disciples, acting by the Holy Spirit, in the name and on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, when the assembly at Corinth put the evil-doer out from among them, it was retaining of sins. And when they received him back, on the ground of his repentance, it was a remitting of sins.
Its Limits
One writer marks out where this power is used, and where it stops:
What is called administrative forgiveness is a power the Lord entrusted to the Assembly to use on earth. It may be needed when people are received into fellowship at the Lord's Table, or when someone who was put away in discipline is restored. But in neither case would administrative forgiveness be right until God had first granted forgiveness to that person. In neither case is it a substitute for God's forgiveness. This passage in John (20:23) is the only authority from the Lord for receiving people to the Table. Matthew 18:17-18 is His own authority for binding and loosing in the exercise of discipline.
Two Opposite Errors
The verse has suffered from both overreach and neglect, and one writer names both before drawing out its first and simplest use.
Rome, and some churches like her, have built monstrous claims on it. They say that forgiveness of sins for eternity is in the hands of the so-called Church — really the clergy. On the other hand, Protestants have shrunk from its plain and simple teaching. They have neglected its use completely... It is not a question of our remitting them for eternity. God alone can do that. It is this: we are in the scene where Christ is not. Knowing what He has accomplished, the evangelist is to go out and proclaim the good news of forgiveness to people. Every Christian should be an evangelist like this at heart.
Commentators differ on emphasis. Some stress the assembly's action in receiving and disciplining. Others begin with the preaching of forgiveness to the world.
Summary
- Shared — Christ first gives His Spirit, so the company can act for Him once He is gone.
- Given — He speaks to disciples gathered together, not to apostles as officials.
- Administrative — not the forgiveness that justifies a soul, but forgiveness in God's present government and ways.
- Practised — receiving someone from the world remits sins; putting a person away, as at Corinth, retains them.
- Bounded — it never creates God's forgiveness and never replaces it. It belongs to no clergy: every Christian can carry the news of forgiveness to others.