Jesus tells His disciples,
“For if you forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly.
Father will also forgive you.
But if you don't forgive men their trespasses,
neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.
The very core of the gospel message
is the truth
that the way someone has their sins forgiven is by having
faith in Jesus Christ
as his or her
Lord and Savior.
In Acts 10:43-44, when Peter was sharing the gospel,
he said,
“Everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through
his name.”
First John 5:1-5
tells us only he who believes in Jesus will
overcome the world.
Luke 5:20 says,
“When Jesus saw their faith,
He said
'Friend, your sins are forgiven.’”
Colossians 2:13-14 says Jesus forgave all our sins.
All these passages confirm that
Jesus is the one who forgives sin,
and He forgives all of our sins.
If we have had genuine
Faith in Him,
someone else cannot later decide we are
not forgiven one sin or another. So, what exactly did
Jesus mean in John 20:23?
Only God can forgive sins,
and
Christ, being God,
has the
power to do so as well,
but He never communicated
any such
power to His disciples,
nor did they ever assume any such power to themselves.
The key to understanding
the meaning of John 20:23 lies in the previous two verses:
"Again Jesus said,
‘Peace be with you!
As the Father has sent me,
I AM sending YOU
And with that he breathed on them and said,
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
He sent them, as
He is sending us,
to bring the
good news
of
The Way to salvation
and
heaven to the whole world!
Jesus was leaving the earth physically
but
promised God would
be with them in
the person of the
Holy Spirit living
in them.
As they proclaimed the
gospel,
they could honestly tell people
who believed
in that message that their sins were forgiven, and
they could honestly tell people that did
not believe
in the message that their sins were not forgiven
and that they stand condemned in
God’s eyes.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever
rejects the Son will
not see life,
for
God’s wrath remains on him”
(John 3:36).
Believers today have the
very same
mission given
to us
to
share the gospel,
-The Way-
to heaven, to others in the world, and we
GO
about that mission with
the
Holy Spirit living
inside us,
guiding us as we share His
-truth-
We are obligated to tell people the
-only way-
to be forgiven is
through faith
Jesus said in John 8:24,
"If you do not believe that
I AM (God),
you will indeed die in your sins.”
This is the very core
of the gospel message and the very heart
of what we are to explain to the world.
It was Jesus’ last command to
His followers
before He physically left
the earth
--carry forward the message of hope
and save as-many as will
believe in Him
Jesus preached a crucial message
about
forgiving our brothers, as God forgave us.
We stand in grace,
and He expects us
to keep
our hearts pure toward others,
not
holding grudges or harboring
a
spirit of unforgiveness,
especially after He gave us
such
undeserved love and forgiveness
at such a
high personal cost to Himself!
Jesus said those
who have
been forgiven
much,
love much
(Luke 7:47)
He expects us to forgive others
70 times 7 times
(Matthew 18:22).
We are also told that if we are praying but
hold something against anyone,
we are to forgive that person so
our relationship with
God is right and righteous!
Colossians 3:13 says,
"Forgive whatever grievances you may
have against one another.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
We know we are His
if we love
our brothers and don’t hate them
or have unforgiveness in
our hearts
(1 John 2:3-6; 3:14-19; 4:16-21).
Forgiveness is a key
to showing we indeed have eternal life
inside us,
according to these passages.
If we say we love God but hate our brother,
we are liars and
no truth is in us.
So, our forgiveness of others is a major indicator of
true
fellowship with God.
God looks
at the heart and actions,
not mere words.
Jesus stated while on earth,
"These people come near to me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.”
So, it’s important we have a
living, genuine faith:
"We know that we have passed from
death to life,
because we love our brothers”
(1 John 3:14).
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