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Transcript 319A
The Forgiving and Retaining of Sins [Jn 20:23]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I'd like to take my answer over the air, please. In the Bible, when Jesus was talking to the apostles, and made the statement, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." Could you elaborate on that a little bit?
HC: Yes I'll be glad to speak to that.
In the Bible God indicates that the official representation of Christ on the earth is the body of believers, which is also called the church. God of course is the one who does the saving. He is the one who forgives sins. Only God can forgive sins.
The custodian of the Gospel, however, is the body of believers, or the church. And they are to share that Gospel with others. And as they do this, God works through this Gospel to forgive the sins of those who are becoming saved. Therefore, in a real sense, it is the church, or the body of believers, that is forgiving the sins. No, it isn't the church that's forgiving the sins. It is God who is, but the vehicle through which God is accomplishing this is through the Gospel which the believers are presenting to the person who is being saved. And so in that sense the church is forgiving the sins. Ultimately it's only God who forgives sins.
Now by the same token, when that person is saved, it is God who has forgiven the sins of that person. He works through the Gospel which the body of believers has presented to this person. And it is the body of believers or the church that officially recognizes that that person's sins are forgiven. It is the church that welcomes this person into the fellowship of the body of Christ. That has been through joining the church and becoming a member of the congregation. And so in that sense we see this intimate relationship between the forgiveness of sins and the church.
If the member of the church, who claims now to be a member, whom the church has officially recognized as one in whom the Gospel has done its work, so that that person has become a born again believer, proves later on by his actions that he is not a believer at all, then the church excommunicates that person. He doesn't belong in the body of Christ.
And of course that person never was saved. But actually, the church officially is being used of God to declare that this person is not saved. This is as far as I think we can go in thinking through this idea that it is the church that retains the sins of those with whom it comes in contact.
It is simply the official representation of God on earth. It is God who actually does the forgiving.