SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/1/2017
9:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Christ’s
Appearance to the Ten Disciples”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
20:19-23
Message of the
verses: “19 So when it was evening
on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and
*said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 And when He had said this, He
showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they
saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the
Father has sent Me, I also send you." 22 And when He had said this, He
breathed on them and *said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 “If you
forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the
sins of any, they have been retained."”
We ended up our last SD by talking about what it meant
for Christ to breathe on His disciples in order for them to receive the Holy Spirit,
and now in today’s SD we want to look at verse 23. This is another verse that people have had
trouble understanding in the past, including myself, so we will look and see
what this verse means.
Now when it comes to verses like this one, and by the way
Matthew 16:19 also has a similar message, I want to go to those who I respect and
get quotes from them, and the first one would be Dr. Warren Wiersbe, and then
we will look at what John MacArthur has to say.
“"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever
you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth shall have been loosed in heaven’ (Matthew 16:19).”
“John 20:23 must not be interpreted to mean that Jesus
gave to a select body of people the right to forgive sins and let people into
heaven. Jesus had spoken similar words
before (Matt. 16:19), but He was not setting aside the disciples (and their
successors) as a ‘spiritual elite’ to deal with the sins of the world. Remember,
there were others in the room besides the disciples, and Thomas was missing!
“A correct understanding of the Greek text helps us
here. Some years ago, I corresponded
with the eminent Greek scholar Dr. Julius R. Mantey (now deceased) about this
verse, and he assured me that the correct translation both here and in Matthew
16:19 should be: ‘Whosoever sins you remit [forgive] shall have already been
forgiven them, and whosoever sins you retain [do not forgive] shall have
already not been forgiven them.’ In
other words, the disciples did not provide forgiveness; they proclaimed
forgiveness on the basis of the message of the Gospel. Another Greek scholar, Dr. Kenneth Wuest,
translates it ‘they have been previously forgiven them.’
“As the early believers went forth into the world, they
announced the good news of salvation. If
sinners would repent and believe on Jesus Christ, their sins would be forgiven
them! ‘Who can forgive sins but God
only?’ (Mark 2:7). All that Christians
can do is announce the message of the forgiveness; God performs the miracle of
forgiveness. If sinners will believe on
Jesus Christ, we can authoritatively declare to them that their sins have been
forgiven; but we are not the ones who provide forgiveness.”
Now as we have looked at what the verse actually means in
the Greek language, and also compare it to other Scriptures like Mark 2:7 “"Why
does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God
alone?"” We can also look at Daniel
9:9 “"To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have
rebelled against Him.” Now as we look at
these verses and compare it with verse 23 and as we have seen what it really
means then we have to reject how the Roman Catholic Church teaches about this
verse, along with Matthew 16:19. God can
only forgive sins for after all it is God whom we sin against.
This information that Jesus is giving them here is not
new to them as we mentioned He spoke of this in Matthew 16:19, but this reminds
them of what their new ministry is all about, giving out the gospel to those
who God brings into their paths.
John MacArthur writes:
Here Jesus spoke on the delegated authority of believers. He told Peter, the Twelve, and by extension
all believer, that they had the authority to declare who is bound in sin and
who is loosed from sin. He said
believers have the ‘keys of the kingdom,’ the realm of salvation, because they
have the gospel truth that saves (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18-25). Christians can declare that a sinner is
forgiven or unforgiven based on how that sinner responds to the gospel of
salvation.
“The church’s authority to tell someone that he is
forgiven or that he is still in sin comes directly from the Word of God. In Matthew 18:15-20, the Lord taught His
disciples (and by extension all believers) that if a professing believer
refuses to turn from his or her sin, even after being privately confronted (vv.
15-16) and publicly rebuked (v. 17), then the church is commanded to treat that
individual as an unbeliever. Those
within the church have both the authority to call the sinning brother back to
repentance (vv. 18-20), and to let him know that because of his blatant
disregard for the Word of God, he has subsequently forfeited fellowship with
the people of God. The reality is that
he may not be a child of God at all (John 8:42; 14:15; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John
2:3-6)”
It is interesting that this month in my Daily devotional
Bible which has devotionals from John MacArthur in it that we are going over
something similar, the genuineness of our faith as seen in James 1:19-2:26.” We will be looking at different things in
this section of James to help determine whether or not we are truly in the
faith. Paul writes something similar “Test
yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not
recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you
fail the test?” John also talks about
the genuineness of faith “3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if
we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, "I have come to know
Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been
perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in
Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that the Lord saved me on January 26, 1974, and as stated before I surely was
not seeking the Lord, but He was seeking me and when that happens He will save
you. My life has never been the same
since that day, even though there have been times of testing God has and will
always be faithful.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord to give me what He wants
me to teach, and teach it with confidence this coming Sunday.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Bethlehem (or Zion)” (Luke
2:4; 2 Samuel 5:7). I have to say that
when I looked at the answer to this question my thoughts went to Jerusalem, and
I believe that the section in 2 Samuel does speak of Jerusalem, but then Luke
2:4 also speaks of Bethlehem too, so I guess both are correct.
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was the slave who Paul
won to the Lord while in prison?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/1/2017 10:19 AM
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