John 20:23

Whosesoever sins ye remit] This includes all the means by which, through the ministry of the Word, souls are reconciled to God; e.g. baptism, the preaching of repentance, and moral discipline, as well as absolution (see on Matthew 18:18).

As others were present besides the Apostles (Luke 24:33), it has been suggested that the ministerial powers here mentioned were conferred not upon the Apostles only, but upon the whole Church. St. John, however, who alone mentions the communication of ministerial powers, mentions the Apostles only as receiving them. It is possible indeed that our Lord's commission to baptise and teach, etc., was given to the corporate body of believers (see Matthew 28:16), but it was clearly intended to be normally exercised through an authorised ministry.

Christians of different communions and schools of thought are not entirely at one as to the precise meaning of this verse, and their explanations of it differ very considerably, at least in detail. A full account of the numerous interpretations cannot be given here. If must suffice to indicate very briefly, for the information of the reader, the two main views which are taken of the nature of the power to 'remit' and 'retain' sins, which the risen Lord here communicates to His Apostles, and through them to His Church. (1) Many believers see in it nothing but the power to exercise ecclesiastical discipline. They regard sins as 'retained,' when a notorious offender is excommunicated, i.e. deprived for a time of the sacraments and other ministrations of the Church, and 'remitted,' when, as a penitent, he is restored once more to full communion. On this view, the forgiveness which the Church is empowered to bestow, is only a human forgiveness,—the forgiveness of the injured and justly offended Christian brotherhood. (2) Other believers hold that something more is intended. Impressed with the mysterious solemnity of the words themselves, of their occasion, and of the symbolical act which accompanied them, remembering also that our Lord more than once promised that the discipline of the earthly Church, when rightly exercised, should be ratified in heaven (Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18 : cp. 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 2:10), they believe the meaning to be that God Himself (normally and usually) ratifies in heaven the remitting and retaining of sins by the earthly Church, though He still, of course, retains in His own hands the power to remedy all injustice, and to grant pardon (where penitence is deep and real), even beyond the covenanted channel.

When the important and farreaching qualifications with which the second view is now generally held are duly considered, it will probably appear to many readers that the two views are not so much fundamentally opposed, as expressive of two different aspects of truth. At any rate there is at present a strong tendency among theologians representing the two points of view to come to a better understanding by frank mutual explanations.

25, 26. The doubts of Thomas. Thomas in a sense represents the spirit of our age. He will be satisfied with nothing less than the evidence of the senses.