God’s word strongly implies that only God has the authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-11).
So what does John 20:23 actually mean? To understand it, we must read the verses just before it. Jesus was speaking to the apostles and He commissioning them for ministry.
We know that He was speaking only to the apostles because the next verse after John 20:23 talks about how Thomas who was one of the twelve wasn’t with them.
The twelve refers to the twelve apostles and “them” refers to the apostles who were present in that room.
Having the Holy Spirit inside them changed everything.
God was able to teach the apostles and guide them “into all truth” through His Spirit (John 16:12-15).
As the Bible wasn’t complete yet, they didn’t have the privilege that we do today to be able to check the Scriptures.
God had to instruct them from within. Through this way, they were able to learn the terms and conditions of forgiveness of sins, and preach it in Jesus’ name.
That’s why Jesus could give the apostles the authority to declare a person’s sins forgiven and another person’s sins retained.
They were taught and guided by the Holy Spirit, in the absence of the written New Testament.
Take note that the words “have been forgiven” and “have been retained” in Greek are both phrases in the present perfect tense.
It means that once a person is declared forgiven, they will always continue to be forgiven.
Likewise, if a person is declared that his sins are retained, his sins continue to be retained and the wrath of God remains over him.
This teaches us that once a person believes in Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior, he cannot ever lose the gift of salvation that he has received.
Conversely, a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus cannot ever have forgiveness of sins unless he believes in Jesus.
Today since we have the Bible, we know the terms of the forgiveness of sins. It is clearly written in it.
Once a person believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, he or she is saved and has passed from death to eternal life. We have the revealed will of God!
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