Read: John 12:1 - 21:25

I finished John today. It's the last of the gospels. Acts is next. However something intrigued me and gave me a thought. Bear with me as I attempt to work it out.

Jn 20:21–23 (ESV) -Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Jesus is speaking to the disciples here after his resurrection and before his ascension. This is the first appearance to the disciples of 3; he appeared to Mary Magdalene before that. This passage confuses me. It seems to imply that we have been given the same authority to forgive and not forgive sins as Jesus was. It doesn't seem right, yet Jesus said it, so it is one of 3 things. Either Jesus was lying; I don't understand what he's saying, or it literally means what it says that we have the authority to forgive and not forgive sins.

Well, I absolutely discount the "he is lying" theory because if he's lying about this, then he is lying about everything. Its an all or nothing equation with Jesus, we can't cherry pick those things we like to hear and those we do not.

However, what if it is both my lack of understanding and his literally saying that we have the authority to forgive and not forgive sins? This is a dangerous statement of Jesus for us. It throws great responsibility on us. However, let's not examine this in seclusion, but rather in the whole body of what Jesus said.

First, is he speaking literally or figuratively? We know that Jesus often spoke in parables and in figures of speech with comparisons to light and darkness, vines, trees, seeds, water etc... These patterns are littered throughout the New Testament. Yet, shortly before his betrayal he says this.


Jn 16:25–27 (ESV) -“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

This is after the Lord's Prayer and before Jesus prays to God for his disciples in the upper room. Judas Iscariot has already left to do his deed by this time as well and so this plain speech was hidden from him. After this, at least in the gospel of John, there are no more parables, there are no more turns of phases. It is plain, direct and clear what he says. So when Jesus says we have authority to forgive and withhold forgiveness, he must be speaking literally.

Yet, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Light and no one comes to God but by him. How does that hold up to this authority? Well, later in John, Jesus prays this.

Jn 17:14–23 (ESV) -I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

So, clearly speaking here Jesus, God and we his followers are now one, each in the other. Just as our names are written in heaven^{(Lk 10:29)} so is his name written on us, as in his spirit, his ownership and his seal is upon us his followers. However I don't think this ends here. If our authority to forgive sins is derived from Jesus, in whom God has granted all authority, it is not OUR authority at all, but rather Jesus in us. As such everything else Jesus has said is also true.

Jn 12:44–50 (ESV) -And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Our authority is given by Jesus who received his authority from God the Father, from Abba and Jesus only spoke what was given him to speak, so must we only speak what we are given to speak. So if our flesh rises up and speaks falsehood, is the flesh housed with authority? I don't think it is. Our flesh will die away eventually, it is not eternal, but our spirit, our soul is eternal and IT is invested with authority. It is what is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and through it are we one with Jesus and Jesus one with us.

So, Jesus' will is to give eternal life for that is the commandment given by God. So also is our will. We do not act upon our own accord when we act rightly, we act in accord with God. Yet when we do not act in accord with God, when we act in the flesh, when we sin and are not perfect, when we withhold forgiveness, what then... I'm still confused about this.

So, no conclusions yet, but a big giant question mark.

Hmm, what if he is talking about our own personal forgiving of sins committed against us? Just as he could forgive those that sinned against him, maybe we are also empowered to forgive sins against us. And Jesus chose to forgive every time it was asked of him....

This requires more thought.