Do We Have the Power to Forgive Sins? | thebereancall.org

Do We Have the Power to Forgive Sins?

August 22, 2004
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Tom: We’re continuing with the gospel. We’re in the Gospel of John. John:20:23, but I probably have to go back to 22, don’t I, Dave, just to give us a little context here?

Well, Jesus is meeting with the disciples. It’s after the resurrection; He has appeared to them. “But he breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive the Holy Ghost:” but this verse 23, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”

Now Dave, we mention, time to time, I grew up Roman Catholic, and I have an understanding of this from my Catholic days that I don’t think it squares with the Scriptures. But it would say that the only way that sins can be remitted or retained is by going to a priest and the priest has the responsibility to absolve the sins of the one who goes to confession, but it’s in the power of the priesthood. Only the priests can absolve sins or retain them.

Dave: Well, this is a challenging verse, Tom. It says, let me read it again: “Whose soever sins ye remit,” (that is are forgiven) “they are remitted unto them. Whose soever sins ye retain,” (that is, you don’t let them get away with it) “they are retained.”

Now does that sound like, you know—first of all, it wouldn’t be the priesthood. We talked about that last week or the week before, because Christ said to His disciples, “You make disciples, and you teach them to observe everything I commanded you.” So now everyone who becomes a disciple of these disciples also has this same power—to remit sins or to retain sins.

So now we have to face what does that really mean? If we go back to Matthew 16, remember Peter says, “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

And then He says, “And I will give thee”—well, He says, “I say unto thee, (but this is Matthew:16:18) I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock.…” Well, “Peter” is a little tiny stone, not this giant crag that Jesus is talking about, there’s a play on words there, but anyway, we believe that it is the confession of Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah, that this is the rock on which the church is built, okay?

In fact, the Catholic Church believed that for centuries. It was only—I forget Tom, maybe you can remember—around the twelfth century, or maybe a little sooner than, that that they began to say, “Oh no, that means Peter.”

But anyway, “…upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Now the Catholic Church has said, “See, that’s Peter. He’s got the keys. He was the first pope, and then it’s passed on. Well, as you know, Tom, it wasn’t Peter who passed it on, and then you go down through the list of the popes, and there are many questions about who these guys really were.

Tom: Many bad dudes among them.

Dave: Oh yes! And how did they get in there? Did the previous pope lay his hands on someone and bless him and name his successor? Oh no, they die, and then they’re voted in. Some of them were put in by mobs; some of them bought their way in, fought their way in, they had wars. At one time, you remember, there were three, who each claimed to be the pope. And you had the Council of Constance that deposed them all. So, it showed that a council was above the pope.

Tom: Some of them who had been deceased, their bodies were dug up, they were excommunicated.

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: It’s horrendous.

Dave: And then, it was not until what 1850? —when the first Vatican Council declared that the pope is infallible. He’s above the Councils. We had it—we had a council that threw out three popes and put in a pope. So, a lot of confusion here, Tom, but we know for sure this is not something that was given to Peter alone. Okay?

Why do we know that? Well, it says, going back to Matthew:16:19, Christ was speaking to Peter: “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” It sounds like he said the same thing to all of the disciples in John 20.

Now let’s go to Matthew 18. Jesus is speaking to all of the disciples, not just Peter. Verse 18: “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now I say again unto you, if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done of them of my Father which is in heaven.”

So this was a power that was given to all the disciples. Now how do we explain that, Tom? Now, you’ve got two possible explanations: Either God is abdicating His throne, and He’s saying, “I’m turning the universe over to you guys from now on. Whatever you say goes.” I don’t think that’s rational.

Tom: You don’t think these guys were trustworthy and God could put his confidence (unintelligible)….

Dave: No matter how trustworthy they were Tom, they’re human beings.

Tom: Right.

Dave: And they’re all fallible. But either God is turning over the universe, and “Whatever you guys say, that’s it! Two of you agree on something, you can have it.” Or we have something else here, when Christ, of course, said, “Pray in my name,” that doesn’t mean His name is a magic formula, password. We just breathe the name of Jesus and then we get whatever we want.

It means, “That you would ask as I would ask, for My glory, for My honor, and so forth.” You are my servants. So, by what power could the disciples—and the disciples that were discipled by them—by what power could we remit sins? Only through the gospel. So Jesus is saying, “I’m giving you authority, and here it is. You can say to anyone…,” and here we run into Calvinism again, because the Calvinist says, “No you can’t say it to everyone. Only to the elect.”

But Jesus is saying, “You can say to anyone, your sins are forgiven you, if you will accept Christ as your Savior, and you will accept the penalty that he paid for your sins. If you will not, then your sins are retained. There is no forgiveness.”

And we can go as the ministers of Christ, ministers of the gospel, and we can say that very clearly and confidently. And I often say to people—and here again, we impact Calvinism—God said in the Old Testament, you know…I think…where is it? Jeremiah:29:13 I think. He said, “You will seek for me and find me when you seek for me with all your heart.” I can say that to anyone, whosoever you are. If you really want to know the true God, you are serious about this, and you want to know the true God—what does that mean? Because you want to do His will. You seek him, you will find him. He will reveal Himself to you.

So, Tom, we spent a lot of time on that one verse, but it’s a tough verse. It’s a verse that causes a lot of confusion, and of course, the Catholic Church has built an empire on it.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Dave, we’ve got only a minute, so we’re going to have to come back to this, but verse 24: “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. But other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Some people have to see, Dave. Some people need visuals.

Dave: We call him “Doubting Thomas” for that reason. I guess we’ll have to come back to that.

Program Number: 
3504d

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