John 20:23

The Great Commission not only requires supernatural power to carry it out (John 20:22), but it also involves the forgiveness of sins (cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 26:28). In the similar passages in Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18, the context is church discipline. Here the context is evangelism.

The second part of each conditional clause in this verse is in the passive voice and the perfect tense in the Greek text. The passive voice indicates that someone has already done the forgiving or retaining. That person must be God since He alone has the authority to do that (Matthew 9:2-3; Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21). The perfect tense indicates that the action has continuing effects; the sins stand forgiven or retained at least temporarily if not permanently.

Jesus appears to have been saying that when His disciples went to others with the message of salvation, as He had done, some people would believe and others would not. Reaction to their ministry would be the same as reaction to His had been. He viewed their forgiving and retaining the sins of their hearers as the actions of God’s agents. If people ("any" or "anyone," plural Gr. tinon) believed the gospel, the disciples could tell the believers that God had forgiven their sins. If they disbelieved, they could tell them that God had not forgiven but retained their sins. Jesus had done this (cf. John 9:39-41), and now His disciples would continue to do it. Thus their ministry would be a continuation of His ministry relative to the forgiveness of sins, as it would be in relation to the Spirit’s enablement. This, too, applies to all succeeding generations of Jesus’ disciples since Jesus was still talking about the disciples’ mission.

". . . all who proclaim the gospel are in effect forgiving or not forgiving sins, depending on whether the hearer accepts or rejects the Lord Jesus as the Sin-Bearer." [Note: Tenney, "John," p. 193.]

This resurrection appearance has threefold importance in John’s Gospel. It validated again Jesus’ bodily resurrection, and it provided the setting for the commissioning of Jesus’ disciples. It also provided the background for Jesus’ appearance when Thomas was present and Thomas’ climactic statement of faith that followed (John 20:24-29).