055. What does John 20:23 mean: “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and wh...

What does John 20:23 mean: “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained"? A Roman Catholic said to me that this passage taught that the priest had power on earth to forgive sins: Does it teach this? The meaning of the verse is very clear if you notice exactly what is said and the exact connection in which Jesus said it. In the preceding verse Jesus had breathed on the disciples and said to them: “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” Then He said to them: “Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (R.V.). In other words, Jesus taught that a disciple who had received the Holy Spirit would get the power of spiritual discernment whereby he would know whether there had been true repentance or not, and whosoever sins this Spirit-filled disciple pronounced forgiven, they were indeed forgiven. The promise was not made to an official priest but to disciples who had been filled with the Holy Spirit. If a priest were filled with the Holy Spirit he doubtless would receive this spiritual discernment, but a man who is not a priest (except in the sense that all believers are priests) and who receives the Holy Spirit may have this spiritual discernment. There are times when any Spirit-filled man knows that a pretence of repentance which another man makes is not genuine, and because of this he declares to that man that his sins are not forgiven, and that man’s sins are not forgiven. On other occasions he will see that repentance and faith are genuine and declare to the man that his sins are forgiven.

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, exercised this power in Acts 8:20-23. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, exercised it in Acts 13:9-11. And many a humble believer has this Spirit-given discernment today. There is no mention whatever of priests in the passage, and absolutely nothing that the Roman Catholic can build upon to prove that the priest as such has power on earth to forgive sins.