THE REMISSION OF SINS
"As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained."—JOHN 20:21-23
John’s account of the first day in the resurrection life of Jesus is that of an eye-witness. As we have seen in our earlier article, the commission which Matthew records was not uttered until nearly the end of the forty days. The account which Mark tells us is, in all probability, an account of what he had heard from Peter. Luke, in the preface to his Gospel, distinctly informs us that his writing consisted of the setting in order of facts which he had gathered together from the testimony of eye-witnesses. In this Gospel there can be no doubt that we have the account of one who was certainly present, and of one, moreover, who during the life of Jesus had entered into a most close and familiar friendship with the Lord.
His message concerning his Master was preeminently that of Jesus as the One through Whose mission God is manifest. The prologue of his Gospel ends with the declaration, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son Which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." That is the key-word to the whole Gospel; and the words of Jesus, uttered on the first day of resurrection to the disciples gathered in the upper room, which ultimately impressed John, were those which harmonized most perfectly with his consistent presentation of Jesus as the Word of God, the Manifester of the Father, the Son of God.
He tells how, when Jesus presented Himself among the disciples, He greeted them by saying, "Peace be unto you," and in that greeting sought to dispel their fears, as He accompanied the words with the demonstration of His identity with the One Whom they had known and loved so well, by showing them His hands and His side.
Having done this, He again uttered the same words, "Peace be unto you," but this time in view of the service to which He was about to appoint them.
On that first resurrection day the disciples were subjects of conflicting emotion. One of the evangelists describes them as having been filled with fear and great joy. Troubled, hopeful, amazed, it must have been difficult for them to believe in the reality of the things that were passing around them. Therefore the Lord, before uttering the words of His great commission, sought to bring them to clear consciousness of the fact of His resurrection. Then, to these men thus assured, He gave a charge which John records in the words which we are now to consider.
It may be that these were the first words of the commission, that the things recorded by Mark and Luke were said subsequently; or it may be that between His first greeting of peace and the last the other things were said, John recording only the words necessary to his purpose. Whether first or last in order of utterance, it will at once be agreed that this phase of the commission touches a profound note, and therefore demands careful attention. So suggestive and yet so mystical are these words of Jesus, that around them controversy has waged in the Christian Church for centuries, and there has grown up a whole ecclesiastical system which gathers its constant power over men from an interpretation of these words, upon which it bases its claims. It is not for us in the present article to discuss that system. I simply refer to it in passing in order to draw attention to the fact that whatever these words may mean, they were spoken not to the apostles alone, but to the whole company of believers gathered together in the upper room.
As a matter of fact, in these words we have one phase of the charge of the risen Lord to His disciples as to their responsibility concerning the world; and in them we find a new note, a different emphasis, a fresh phase of suggestion. We have heard Him command us to proclaim Him King. We have heard Him call us to go into the midst of suffering creation in order to heal it. We have heard Him declare that we are to be His witnesses, His revelations. Now we hear Him charge us that we are to go to the world empowered to forgive or to retain sins.
The command in its simplicity, as it would appear to one who had never heard it expounded, or who had no prejudice concerning it, is a most startling one, demanding most earnest attention. We shall again follow the same method of consideration as in our former articles, inquiring what is the deposit committed to the Church; what, therefore, is the debt which the Church owes her Lord and the world in the presence of the deposit; and finally, what is the dynamic by which she is equipped for the discharge of her debt? These three divisions are most clearly manifested, although they do not follow that order.
Let us first, then, note them as they occur. The Church's debt is indicated in the first words of the passage, "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." The dynamic in which she is able to fulfill her mission is revealed in the words of Jesus, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The deposit committed to her is revealed in the final words, "Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." Following the order of previous considerations, we will first consider that deposit.
Before considering the authority vested in the disciples, as indicated in these words, let us notice the suggested alternative: sins forgiven, sins unforgiven. The Authorized Version reads here, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." In this instance I prefer the Authorized translation, for the simple reason that for English readers the two words, remit and retain, stand more evidently and clearly in antithesis.
The word translated "forgive" has as its root and essential meaning exactly what is indicated in the word "remit." Forgiveness is not the passing over of wrong done, with the understanding that it is never to be mentioned. That is not the New Testament idea of forgiveness. The root idea of the word must be kept in mind. It is that of setting free from, creating liberty with regard to. If my sins are forgiven, I am set free from them, and from all the consequences following upon them. Forgiveness of sins is not merely the decision of God that He will not punish man for them. The remission of penalty is an effect resulting from a cause, and the cause is the remission of the sin. Forgiveness means that the sinner is set free from sins as to their guilt, their power, their presence.
It may be immediately objected that such definition includes in forgiveness the experience of sanctification; and this is perfectly true. Sanctification is potentially included in justification; and the forgiveness of sins in the economy of God includes the setting free of the sinner from the sins themselves, and therefore from their consequences of every description.
The forgiveness of sins always results in two things: first in a new vision of God; and second, and consequently, in a new motive of life. That fact is demonstrated by the experience of the saints as revealed in the New Testament, and as revealed in all subsequent history. In that moment in which the soul comes to the consciousness that sins are forgiven, there dawns upon it a conception of God which is entirely new. The word of Isaiah is of perpetual application: "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you." In the moment in which a man is set free from his sins this separation ends, and the face of God is seen.
That new vision, following upon the consciousness of sin forgiven, becomes the new motive of life, the secret of holiness, the impulse of compassion, the reason of activity. The new vision is that of God as love; which, producing love to God makes love forevermore the motive of life.
The forgiveness of sins is the fundamental note in the evangel which the Church proclaims to the world in the name of the crucified and risen Christ. No other form of religion offers it to man. As we have constantly acknowledged, there is a measure of light in every form of religion, from that of the fetish worship of the savage to that of the teaching of Buddha; but no religion approaches man with the declaration that seeing he is unable to walk in the light, it brings to him a forgiveness of sins which means moral reconstruction; so that from henceforth he may walk therein, in the strength and beauty of holiness, making advancement towards the perfection to stand in the presence of God. (Jude 24)
The risen Lord declared to His disciples that He sent them to the world, empowered to forgive sins. This includes, however, that which is its opposite, namely, the retention of sins. If forgiveness means freedom from sins, retention means slavery to sin. The man whose sins are retained is not loosed from them, but bound by them.
Such a man has no vision of God, and therefore his motive of life is a false motive, and consequently all his life is a false life.
As a matter of fact, in one of these two conditions all men who have heard the Evangel are living at this moment. There are those whose sins are remitted, and those whose sins are retained. Or, to state the antithesis in the terms of result, there are men and women who have seen God so as to love Him and so as to serve Him; and men and women who, lacking the vision of God, are afraid of Him, and are at enmity against Him. Or, once again to state the division in terms of the final issue, there are men and women whose motive in life is to do the will of God, and men and women whose motive is to please themselves.
According to this charge of Christ, His disciples are sent with a message, by which there is created for men a crisis of choice; and when men make their choice, as they are compelled to do who hear the Word, the disciples, with their Lord's authority, which is the authority of heaven and eternity and of final destiny, pronounce the verdict of sins remitted, or of sins retained, according to the choice which men make.
In the proclamation of the Kingship and Savior-hood of the Lord Jesus Christ, men are inevitably brought to a crisis. The question of Pilate is the question of every man who confronts Christ, "What then shall I do with Jesus?" One man answers, repenting: I trust Him. To that man the commissioned disciple declares: Thy sins, which are many, are remitted. Another man replies: Crucify Him. To that man the message of the commissioned disciple is: Thy sins are retained.
This is our fundamental message. We are not sent to men to discuss with them the relative values of their religions. In our going to them we must respect the light which they already possess, and attempt to lead them towards the fuller light; but our most important business is to preach Christ crucified and risen, thereby to compel men to stand in the presence of His Savior-hood, and make their choice; and upon the basis of that choice we are charged to remit or retain sins, according to whether they crown or crucify Him.
Before we leave this statement of the deposit it is necessary that we should recognize the conditions which are involved in our Lord's method of stating it. For the purpose of our article we have commenced at the end of the passage, but we cannot commence there in our service. Let us emphasize the sequence revealed by tabulation of the threefold declaration :—
"As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you."
"Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
"Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained."
If we attempt to remit or retain sins save in that line of succession, we are guilty of the worst blasphemy possible.
The whole movement begins with God: "As the Father hath sent Me." It proceeds through the Son; the Son is the Sent of the Father. It is carried forward by the ministry of the Spirit: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." It is accomplished through the instrumentality of men and women indwelt by the Spirit, given by the Son, received from the Father. All three names of God are involved in this work and therefore the believer’s baptism is symbolized using these three names.
The final authority for forgiving sins does not rest with men or women, but with God; and He exercises His authority through the mediation of the Son, and the administration of the Spirit, through the members of the Church. Only thus can we forgive or retain sin. Words of absolution are utterly useless except as they are spoken in the power of the indwelling Spirit, in fellowship with the crucified and crowned Christ, and under the authority of the living God. Words of absolution or sentence of retention can only be uttered; therefore, upon the fulfillment of the conditions declared by Christ Himself.
Thus in the upper room, on the first day of resurrection, suggestively and prophetically our Lord recognized the union of His disciples with Himself, and therefore with the Father; and upon the basis of that union He sent them forth to the exercise of this high and awful prerogative.
This is the fundamental note in the great commission of the Christian Church. Whether it be in New York, England, in China, or in India; in city or village or hamlet; to bond or free, to rich or poor, to learned or illiterate; we take to men a Savior in Whose presence they make a choice which results either in the remission or retention of their sins; and we are authorized to remit or retain according to what their choice shall be.
From this consideration we pass necessarily and naturally to a consideration of our debt, as indicated in the words of the Lord: "As the Father has sent Me, even so send I you." “Go.”
It is evident that the key to the interpretation of these words is found in the two words which suggest the comparison, "As . . . so." To see and understand the work of the Son as the Sent of the Father is to see and understand the debt we owe to the world, as those sent by the Son. Our first question, then, must be as to the purpose of His sending; and, in order to a satisfactory answer to the question, the whole Gospel of John is needed. All that it contains, however, for purposes of the present article, may be suggested by the use of two simple words; the Father sent the Son for Manifestation and for Cooperation. The Whole truth is contained potentially in that master-declaration at the close of the prologue to which we have already referred: "No man hath seen God at any time : the only-begotten Son, Which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." His declaration of the Father consisted in Manifestation and Cooperation.
When at the close of His ministry the Lord gave His disciples final instruction in what we speak of as the Paschal discourses, Philip suddenly exclaimed: "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." In those words essential humanity uttered its deepest need. All the unrest of today, east and west, north and south, is but the expression of the same need. To that cry Christ answered, "He that hath 'seen Me hath seen the Father." He was sent of the Father that men through Him might see the Father. John, His familiar friend, the one who perhaps more intently than any of the other disciples, had gazed upon Him, and more often than any other, had handled Him, declared: "We beheld His glory —glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." These are comprehensive, inclusive, exhaustive words. The Father sent the Son for manifestation. He came, and in Him men saw Grace and Truth.
It is most important that in the recitation of the passage, "The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," we should not employ an emphasis which denies its essential meaning. We are in the habit of reading the declaration as though the law that came by Moses was characterized by severity only, while the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ were characterized by tenderness only. As a matter of fact, the Law of Moses was the expression of love, and it must not be forgotten that truth is a more awful word than law. Law is but the expression of truth in certain applications to individual needs. Truth is essential, eternal, unswerving, unbending. Not grace only, but truth also came by Christ. These were the utmost facts in the manifestation, for which the Son of God was sent.
He came not for manifestation only, but also for cooperation. And here again we may take one illustration from the Gospel of John, this time from the beginning of His ministry rather than from the close. After He had healed the man in the Bethesda porches, in answer to the criticism of those who objected to His healing on the Sabbath, He said: "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." The importance of that declaration may be gathered from the fact that on the human side that claim cost Christ His life. From the moment of its utterance His enemies sought opportunity to kill Him; and if John's grouping of facts be carefully studied, it will be discovered that the claim which He then made was that to which His enemies most profoundly objected, and for which at last they crucified Him.
It was indeed a great word: "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." I think its simplest and most inspiring interpretation is discovered by turning from all speculation, and considering it in the light of the actual miracle which gave rise to it. When His enemies charged Him with breaking Sabbath in healing this man, He used these words, and if I may attempt most reverently to interpret His meaning by expressing the thought in other words, it is as though He had:said: You charge Me with breaking Sabbath because I have healed this man. Do you not know and understand that God has never had a Sabbath since man sinned? "My Father worketh." Man broke in upon the rest of God when he sinned; and God can never be at rest while humanity sins and suffers. It was a declaration that in the presence of human sin, God is active instead of passive; and moreover, that His activity is in order to restore rest to those who have lost it.
To this declaration He added the significant words, "and I work," thus claiming. cooperation with God, which cooperation was illustrated in what He had then done. The suffering man had been without Sabbath for thirty eight years, and by his healing had been restored to the possibility of rest. In order to accomplish this, Christ, in fellowship with God, had lost His rest. This, then, is the revelation of the debt that we owe to the world. As the Father sent the Son, so the Son sends us, for manifestation and for cooperation.
This conception of our debt is one calculated to inspire us with the loftiest ambition, and at the same time to humble us to the dust in shame.
Every disciple of Jesus ought to be able to look into the face of those hot and restless souls who lack the vision of God because of sin, and say: He that hath seen me hath seen the Christ; my Savior worketh even until now, and I work. It is impossible to say this without an overwhelming sense of shame filling the soul on account of failure and shortcoming.
And yet let us carefully conceive the great ideal. The Church is sent to the world for the
manifestation of the Manifester. The Church is sent to the world for cooperation with the Son, Who cooperates with the Father, in order to set it free from all the bonds that bind it. It ought to be that wherever humanity is hot and restless for lack of God, humanity can find God in the people of God.
Our debt to the world is that of revealing Christ to men, and of working in fellowship with Christ. To fulfill this responsibility is to be forever restless in the presence of human restlessness, to abandon all our personal rights and privileges and Sabbaths, in order that we may toil and thus create Sabbath for others. "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you."
Wherever the disciples cooperate thus with Christ in manifestation, they produce a crisis in human lives, bringing men to the point where they must choose. Whenever the disciples cooperate thus with Christ in service, they have the right to pronounce the remitting or retaining word, according to the decision that men make in the hour of crisis.
This is a most solemn consideration, and we do well honestly to face it, however much such action may rebuke us, in order that by new dedication of all we are to Him we may enter into the realization of His great purpose. We cannot live in fellowship with Christ without compelling those with whom we come in contact to stand face to face with Him. And whenever we do this, and they are thus brought to the crisis of choice, it is our business to declare to them the way of the life we live, and when in response to that declaration they receive or reject Him, we are authorized to declare their sins remitted or retained.
And finally, in the great central word of the passage, our Lord clearly reveals the dynamic; and in the light of the solemnity of the work committed to us, how conscious we are of our need of that which He promised to His disciples. If in very deed the tremendous responsibility rests upon us, as Christian men and women, of bringing the world to the crisis of choice, in order that sins may be remitted or retained; we are inevitably compelled to exclaim, "Who is sufficient for these things?"
The answer to that necessary question is contained in the action and the words of Christ as here recorded. He prophetically breathed upon that first group of disciples, and said to them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." I use the word prophetically, because they did not then receive the Spirit; for on that same occasion in the upper room, as Luke records, He charged His disciples to tarry in the city until they were clothed with power from on high. His action of breathing upon them indicated the fact that the Spirit could only be bestowed upon them in fullness through Him; and His word indicated the fact that it was only possible for them to fulfill their responsibility in the power of the Spirit.
It is of utmost importance here that we should connect this word with the comparison which we have already considered. That may be done perhaps by reading the words that He uttered, omitting for a moment the declaration of the prophetic breathing. "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. . . . Receive ye the Holy Spirit." The suggestion of these words is that Jesus fulfilled His mission in cooperation with the Spirit, and that we through Him have the same Spirit at our disposal for the doing of our work, as He had for the doing of His. If we think again of the account of His mission of manifestation and cooperation, it may be told in very brief chapters. He was born of the Spirit; He was anointed by the Spirit; He exercised His ministry in the power of the Spirit; He offered Himself to God upon the Cross through the eternal Spirit. Even after His resurrection, according to the words of Luke in the book of the Acts, He gave commandment to the apostles through the Holy Ghost.
The whole ministry of Jesus was a ministry of fellowship with the Spirit. The Father gave the Spirit to Him, the eternal Son, not by measure, but in fullness. If that be remembered, there is new force in the words, "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you . . . receive ye the Holy Ghost." The men and women who are commissioned by Christ to remit or retain sins are those who have spiritual union with Christ in the most absolute sense of the word.
He was born of the Spirit; so also is the believer. It may be objected that there is a very great difference, and yet does the objection hold good? Is it not true that the life which we now live is a life which began when we were born of the Spirit? All that which proceeded the hour of the new birth is cancelled has ceased to be. The things that were gain are counted but dung and dross. We have sometimes smiled when we have heard some illiterate man declare on a given day that it was his birthday, and that he was three, or seven, or ten years of age, when apparently he was a man of forty or fifty, or more. And yet he was perfectly right. He began to live when he was born of the Spirit of God. It is only such as live this new life which had its beginning by the action of the Spirit of God, who can possibly manifest Christ or cooperate with Him.
Again, He was anointed by the Spirit; and so also is the believer; and in that anointing perfect equipment is provided for all the work to be done.
He exercised His ministry in the power of the Spirit; and the same power is perpetually at the disposal of all those whom He sends, both for the perfecting of the life for manifestation, and its empowering for cooperation.
And finally, as through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself to God; the bestowment of the Spirit upon the believer is not only for new manhood and new equipment, but also for new suffering. No man can tell another that his sins are forgiven, unless in some measure he knows what it is to have fellowship with the suffering of Christ. It is only when we are swayed and swept by the compassion of Jesus, and only when we can say, "I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake," that we have power to pronounce the word of absolution.
If on account of our own feebleness of realization these things are stated negatively, it is best for us to remember that this word of Jesus, and the work which followed it, mean that the Spirit is at the disposal of the believer for life, for work, and for suffering; and therein is created both the authority and the power by which we are sent to men in order that they may be brought to remission or retention of sins.
Thus inclusively in the power of the Spirit we can manifest the Christ and cooperate with Him. This great power for the proclamation of the evangel, for the creation of the crisis, for the pronunciation of remission or retention is not vested in a few, but in the whole Church; and she is able to exercise that power in proportion as she is abandoned to the dominion of the Spirit, and thus is living the life of fellowship with the Lord.
This, then, is the fundamental message of the Christian evangel, and this the great offer of God to men, which the Church is responsible for making. She is commissioned to go to all men and tell them that through Christ it is possible that their sins may be forgiven; that they may have a new moral beginning in spiritual power.
When Nicodemus said unto Jesus, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" His question was not flippant as some people seem to imagine. He meant, what can a man do with the days already lived? How can
the nature which he received at the beginning be changed? The answer of Christ was, and is, that
it is possible for a man to be born anew of the Spirit; that in that new birth there is moral regeneration; that in that moral regeneration life begins again, equipped for reconstruction.
That is the message of the Church to the world, and that pulpit disastrously fails, and that missionary endeavor lacks its highest note, where this evangel is not proclaimed and this authority is not exercised. It is for this, moreover, that the world is ultimately waiting. Humanity is one, the whole world over; and whether men be struggling, or hoping to struggle, through long processes to reach the obliteration of personality that blots out sin, or whether men are crying in still more acute agony, "What must we do to be saved?" the highest and underlying need is that of the remission of sins. Our business in the world is to bring men to Christ, and so to the possibility of such remission.
By the world's need, by the Christ's compassion, by the desire and purpose of God, by the hope of the salvation of our own lives, if we name His name we must carry His burden and fulfill His purpose. As the Father sent Him, and He sends us, so must we be going, bearing to men in the power of the Spirit the glad news of the possibility of sins forgiven and peace with heaven.
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