What does John 20:23 mean?

This morning I preached from John 20, especially focusing on John 20:19-22. However, one of the verses I did not touch upon was verse 23.

Jesus says, “ (v22) Receive the Holy Spirit. (v23) If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withhold.”

What does it means for the disciples to have authority to forgive sin and withhold forgiveness?

The key to making sense of this verse is knowing that it is in the context of the disciples being commissioned to continue Jesus’ mission (“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” v20) and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it (“Receive the Holy Spirit” v22).

We know that it is only God who can forgive sins (Mark 2:7). Yet we as believers are commissioned to preach the gospel. If people respond to this, by trusting in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, they know forgiveness and life and if people reject it, they remain in sin.

Marsh, writing on this verse (in Don Carson’s Pillar Commentary on John), says this:

“There is no doubt from the context that the reference is to forgiving sins, or withholding forgiveness. But though this sounds stern and harsh, it is simply the result of the preaching of the gospel, which either brings men to repent as they hear of the ready and costly forgiveness of God, or leaves them unresponsive to the offer of forgiveness which is the gospel, and so they are left in their sins.”

Let me illustrate this from a real life situation. A couple of weeks ago at Alpha we were talking about the gospel and the free gift of salvation, that is received on believing in Jesus. Yet we also talked about the consequences of rejecting this message, which results in continuing to be trapped in sin and being separated from God (both in this life and in eternity, in what the bible calls hell). In other words, the authority with which we can proclaim the forgiveness of sins or withholding forgiveness is based on the authority of the gospel and the message Jesus proclaimed.

What an honour and privilege and responsibility to represent King Jesus and his message and be those who can proclaim his message of salvation to the world.