John 20:23

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE REMIT, THEY ARE REMITTED UNTO THEM; AND WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAINED. 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 the note at .) 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....

23._To all whose sins you shall remit. _Here, unquestionably, our Lord has embraced, in a few words, the sum of the Gospel; for we must not separate this power of forgiving sins from the office of teaching, with which it is closely _connected _in this passage. Christ had said a little before, _As the living Father hath sent me, so I also send you _(207) He now makes a declaration of what is intended and what is meant by this embassy, only he interwove with that declaration what was necessary, that he gave to them his Holy Spirit, in order that they might have nothing from themselves. The principal design of preaching the Gospel is, that men may be reconciled to God, and this is accomplished by the unconditional pardon of sins; as Paul also informs us, when he calls the Gospel, on this account, _the ministry of reconciliation, _(2 Corin

19-25 This was the first day of the week, and this day is afterwards often mentioned by the sacred writers; for it was evidently set apart as the Christian sabbath, in remembrance of Christ's resurrection. The disciples had shut the doors for fear of the Jews; and when they had no such expectation, Jesus himself came and stood in the midst of them, having miraculously, though silently, opened the doors. It is a comfort to Christ's disciples, when their assemblies can only be held in private, that no doors can shut out Christ's presence. When He manifests his love to believers by the comforts of his Spirit, he assures them that because he lives, they shall live also. A sight of Christ will gladden the heart of a disciple at any time; and the more we see of Jesus, the more we shall rejoice. He said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, thus showing that their spiritual life, as well as all their ab...

Verse 23. _WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE REMIT_] See the notes on Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18. It is certain God alone can forgive sins; and it would not only be blasphemous, but grossly absurd, to say that any _creature_ could remit the guilt of a transgression which had been committed against the _Creator_. The apostles received from the Lord the doctrine of _reconciliation,_ and the doctrine of _condemnation_. They who believed on the Son of God, in consequence of their preaching, had their sins remitted; and they who would not believe were declared to lie under condemnation. The reader is desired to consult the note referred to above, where the custom to which our Lord alludes is particularly considered. Dr. Lightfoot supposes that the power of life and death, and the power of deli...

WHOSE SOEVER SINS ... - See the notes at Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18. It is worthy of remark here that Jesus confers the same power on all the apostles. He gives to no one of them any special authority. If Peter, as the Papists pretend, had been appointed to any special authority, it is wonderful that the Saviour did not here hint at any such pre-eminence. This passage conclusively proves that they were invested with equal power in organizing and governing the church. The authority which he had given Peter to preach the gospel first to the Jews and the Gentiles, does not militate against this. See the notes at Matthew 16:18. This authority given them was full proof that they were ins

EXPOSITION JOHN 20:1 2. The complete glorification of Jesus in his resurrection. The record pauses for the awful day of that great sabbath, and resumes the marvelous recital when the greatest event in the history of the world is assumed and asserted to have taken place. Heathen and foes admit the fact of the death of Jesus; the evidence is overwhelming, multiform, sufficient to establish itself to the ordinary reason of mankind. It is a matter of indubitable history. The proof was given to all the world; but it is otherwise with the fact of the anastasis of Jesus. That stupendous event was revealed to the eye and mind of faith by a series of communications, which afford to different classes, groups, kinds, and states of mind specimens of the manner and quality of the resurrection-life. "Many infallible proofs" wrought (as St. Luke says,...

WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE REMIT,.... God only can forgive sins, and Christ being God, has a power to do so likewise; but he never communicated any such power to his apostles; nor did they ever assume any such power to themselves, or pretend to exercise it; it is the mark of antichrist, to attempt anything of the kind; who, in so doing, usurps the divine prerogative, places himself in his seat, and shows himself as if he was God: but this is to be understood only in a doctrinal, or ministerial way, by preaching the full and free remission of sins, through the blood of Christ, according to the riches of God's grace, to such as repent of their sins, and believe in Christ; declaring, that all such persons as do so repent and believe, all their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake: and accordingly, THEY ARE REMITTED UNTO THEM; in agreement with Christ's own words, in his declaration and commission...

John 20:11. _But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain._ You see, dear friends, love is very patient and persevering. The other disciples had gone away home, but not so Mary, she stands outside the sepulcher, and still waits, for she cannot go till she has seen her Lord. Love, however, has many sorrows for, as Mary stood without the sepulcher, she was weeping. Oftentimes your love to Christ will make you sorrowful when you for a while lose his presence; it will be a great sorrow to you if your Lord should seem to have hidden himself from you. But see how quick-sighted love is; Mary saw the angels, whom the other disciples might have seen if they had not gone home. One of the beatitudes is, «B

JOHN 20:23 avfe,wntai {B} Although the perfect tense avfe,wntai could be regarded as a secondary assimilation to kekra,thntai at the end of the sentence, a majority of the Committee interpreted the present tense avfi,entai and the future avfeqh,setai as scribal simplifications which weaken the sense. To the external evidence supporting avfe,wntai (ac A D (L) X 050¦1 ¦13 33vid 565 _al_) should perhaps be added B*, which reads avfei,ontai (io being written for w)....

CHAPTER 20 _ 1. The Empty Sepulchre. (John 20:1 .)_ 2. The Risen One and Mary of Magdala. (John 20:11 .) 3. The Gathered Company and He in the midst. (John 20:19 .) 4. The Second Time. (John 20:24 .) 5. The Purpose of John's Record. (John 20:30 .) “I lay down my life that I might take it up again.” The sufferings were accomplished. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep and now we learn how He arose from the dead. John 2:19 was fulf