Jesus was the sender

JESUS WAS THE SENDER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 20:21 As the Father hath sent me, even so send I
you.
GreatTexts of the Bible
Christ’s Missionand Ours
1. It was the evening of the greatestdayin history, and the little company of
the disciples satwatching anxiously within lockeddoors. They had waitedall
day for Jesus, but Jesus had not come. And now it was evening, and their
hopes had perhaps dwindled with the setting of the sun, when suddenly,
silently—without the sound of footfall or the warning of openeddoor—He was
there. “Jesus came andstood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto
you. And when he had so said he shewedunto them his hands and his side.…
Jesus therefore saidto them again, Peacebe unto you; as the Father hath sent
me, even so send I you.”
2. What an astonishing statement it is! Christ makes Himself co-ordinate with
the Father. He associatesin indefeasible unity “the Father “and “I.” He tacitly
claims the right to do what the Father does. He makes Himself equal with
God. He was either incarnate God, or He was incredible blasphemer; there is
no escape from the alternative. It is in such implications that we see our
Saviour’s Deity. These subtle claims of Christ are irresistible arguments for
His absolute divineness.

3. Quite as astonishing are these words from another point of view. Not only
does the Lord associateHimself uniquely with God, but in a wonderful way
He associatesChristians with Himself. What an honourable vocationHe
assigns to His people!He sends us as He Himself was sent. He classes His
disciples with Himself. He who said “the Father—I,” says, “Me—you.” Ours
is a task analogous to His. What He thus declares to His disciples He expressly
declares to God the Father, in that high-priestly prayer of His: “As thou didst
send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.” This immutable
word which puts such honour upon Christians Christ asseveratesalike to God
and to man. “Whata word is this!”
4. What is the realand permanent value of that message?It reveals His
conceptionof the meaning of our mission; it unveils before us the truth
concerning the responsibility of the Church of Jesus Christ, the truth
concerning the responsibility of all the Churches of Jesus Christ, the truth
concerning the responsibility of every individual member thereof.
I
The Son and the Disciples
1. There is a series of remarkable utterances, found only in St. John, in which
our Lord draws a parallel betweenthe relation He bears to the Father and the
relation the believer bears to Himself. In these passagesour Lord asserts that
He is the central and connecting link in a dual relationship the upper and
lowersides of which exactly correspondto eachother. What the Father is to
the Son, that Christ is to him who believes in Him. And thus Jesus Christ
stands midway between the Father and us, and the lines of communication
betweenearth and heaven pass through Him. All that the Father has to

communicate is first received by Him and then transmitted to us, while on the
other hand He receives the love and trust and obedience ofHis disciples and
passes it all on in turn to the Father.
(1) “As the living Father hath sentme, and I live by the Father; so he that
eatethme, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57). The whole series of
utterances now under considerationis castin this parallel form. There is
something more than similarity of relationship implied in these words;they
also imply that the greatprinciple of life is an identical principle both on the
upper and on the lowerside of this relationship. Life is the same in us as in
God; and wonderful as the thought may be, it is nevertheless true that when
we believe in Christ and through Him are made partakers of spiritual life, we
enter into communion with the life of God Himself. When one thinks of life in
man as one thing and life in God as another, one has lostthe key to the science
of life. Spiritual life is not a series ofisolatedsprings, but an oceanlaving
every shore.
(2) “As the Fatherhath loved me, so have I loved you” (John 15:9). Here again
we have the same passing on from the Father to the Son and from the Sonto
the disciple. The love of the Fatherto the Son is beyond human
comprehension. It is frequently referred to in the Gospelnarratives, but
always as a sacredand mystical thing which it is almost a sacrilegeto unveil to
the common gaze. Christ Himself says, “Thoulovedst me before the
foundation of the world.” But love, like life, is the same throughout the
universe; the same bond that unites God and Christ unites Christ and the
disciple, and the disciple and his fellow-disciple, and the heart of the humblest
believer thrills with the same love that dwells in the heart of God. “I have
declaredunto them thy name,” says Christ, “that the love wherewiththou
hast loved me may be in them.”

(3) “I know my sheep, and am known of mine, even as the Father knowethme,
and I know the Father” (John 10:14-15). These two verses belong to one
sentence, and must not be separatedas in the Authorized Version. They are
two sides of a comparison. Christ is speaking of Himself as the Good
Shepherd, and of the perfectunderstanding there is betweenHim and His
sheep. There is an instinctive recognitionby which the sheepknow the
shepherd, and the shepherd knows the sheep. And our Lord declares thatthis
reciprocalknowledge andintimacy is of the same kind as that which exists
betweenHim and His Father.
(4) “If ye keepmy commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have
kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10). That
obedience is the true test of love is a commonplace of Christian thought;
Christ has taught us this in His familiar admonition, “If ye love me keepmy
commandments.” But here our Lord shows us how this principle runs up into
the higher sphere, and forms the basis of the love which exists betweenHim
and God. It is a law that operates universally, in heaven as well as on earth; it
is not peculiar to the sphere of earthly discipleship but rules also in the
heavenly places;an ordinance whose swayis felt throughout the whole circle
of being. Christ lived in the love of the Father because He always did the
Father’s will; His perfectobedience was the soil out of which the flowerof
love grew;His oneness ofwill and desire with the Father formed the
harmonious environment in which alone love can subsist. “I have kept my
Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” And now our Lord takes that
exalted experience of His—the life which He lived toward the Father—and
turns it earthward, as the pattern of our relation to Him. Obedience is the
royal law that binds the Father, the Son, and the disciple in one fellowship of
love.
(5) “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world” (John 17:18). Christ thus links the mission of His disciples to that
which He receivedfrom the Father, and makes their work the outcome and

continuation of His own. The purpose which brought Christ into the world
runs through the whole service and ministry of the Church, and the work in
which Christian men and womenare employed to-day is a continuation of the
purpose of the Incarnation. The commissionwhich the Father placed first in
the hands of Jesus Christ, Christ has handed on to His disciples, thus raising
them to the position of co-workerswith Himself, to share in the honour and
privilege of carrying out the redeeming purpose of God.
(6) For a final instance of this specialform of expressionlet us turn to
Revelation3:21. Though we go outside the Gospelfor this passage, we do not
quit the circle of St. John’s writings; nor is there any change in the personof
the speaker.And the factthat these words were spokenfrom heaven, after our
Lord’s exaltationto the right hand of God, makes it all the more significant
that they should assume the same parallel form as those we have already
examined, which were spokenwhile He was on earth. “To him that
overcomethwill I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Fatherin his throne.” Here we see that this twofold
relationship runs right through to the end, and is completed in the final
triumph and glory of Christ’s people in heaven.1 [Note:J. T. Hamly.]
The beginning of the Gospelis to be found in the thought and love of God. We
may castour lines back as far as we can through the ages ofeternity, and we
shall never be able to find the point at which God’s concernfor the welfare of
the universe that was to be first began, and yet the Lamb of God is said to
have been slain from before the foundation of the world. The sacrifice of
Christ was not an afterthought on the part of the Divine Being;it was, so to
speak, part of Himself, an element of His very Godheadand of His very
existence. So that, if we are really to go back to what may be termed the
beginning of beginnings, we shall have to searchthe depths of the Divine
existence, and follow all the wonderful and infinite course of the Divine
thinking and purpose and love. There, of course, we are lost. Our hearts can
only point, as it were, towards that greatsolemnmystery. Explanation we

have none. Specialindication is entirely beyond our power. We are lost in
wonder, and our wonder is lost in speechlessness.
The secondbeginning of the Gospelof Jesus Christ, the Sonof God, is found
in the Incarnation of God’s Son. We begin the next time at Bethlehem. We
were lost when it was a mere question of unuttered and in speechunutterable
love. We only begin to think and to feeland to understand in part God’s
meaning, when He utters His love not in speech, but in the person, the flesh
and blood of God’s dear Son. We canbegin there—little children can begin at
that point; our love cancommence its study at the cradle of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Creatures like ourselves need alphabets, beginnings, sharp lines,
visibilities. We are not all pure mind; we cannot dwell upon the abstract, the
unconditioned, the absolute, the infinite, in matters of this kind. We need
some one to look at, to speak to, to go up to quite closely, and to hear speak
the language ofthe love of God. This is what may be termed the second
beginning of the Gospelof Jesus Christ.
Where, then, are we to look for the third beginning of the Gospelof Jesus
Christ, the Son of God? We look for it in the Church. As He was, so are we to
be in the world. We are to be “living epistles, knownand read of all men.”
When men ask, “Where is Christ?” we are to show them Christianity. And
when they ask, “Whatis Christianity?” we are to show them the Church—
meanwhile, indeed, an incomplete representationof the truth, yet Jesus Christ
Himself claims it, and devolves upon the Church the responsibility not only of
bearing His name by exemplifying His life, but of interpreting His doctrine
and living upon His love.1 [Note:J. Parker.]
2. “As the Father hath sentme, even so send I you.” Mark the deep
significance ofthat resounding “as” and “evenso.” The parallel involves
disparity. He is God, and we are but men. He came to atone, and we but
preach His sovereignatonement. This and much more is implied in the fact

that in this text two different Greek verbs are used, which are translated by
the common word “send.” The sending of Jesus was a grander sending far
than the sending of us. He represents God more intimately and vividly than
we can ever representHim. But if there be this disparity there is in many
respects a wonderful identity between His mission in the world and ours. The
tenses of the verbs in the original indicate this in a very generative manner.
“As the Father hath sent me”—the tense shows that the commissionis still in
force—“evenso send I you.” The idea is that our commissionis but a
continuation of His in another form. The duty of the Christian is practically
equivalent to the mission of the Christ. “As the Fatherhath sent me, even so
send I you.”
The word “send” which He uses concerning Himself is not the same word
“send” as that used concerning His disciples. He speaksofHimself as the
Apostle of the Father;He says, in effect, “My Fatherhath delegatedauthority
to Me,” but He never delegatedauthority to His disciples. The word used
concerning them was simpler, and merely indicates that they are His
messengers. He dispatches them under authority, but He holds the authority
within His own grasp.
Thus the commissionof Matthew harmonises with the declarationof John:
“All authority is given unto me; go ye, therefore,” and be My messengers and
preach My Gospel. Jesus has never delegatedHis authority either to man or
to men, to synods or to conferences,oreven to unions; He holds it still
Himself.
This is not to degrade the office of the Church; it is to indicate the factthat He
brings the Church into such union with Himself that she is to exercise His
authority. She is to be the instrument through which He carries out the
purposes of God. God delegatedall authority to His Son; and His Son calls

into living and vital union with Himself all believers, and they become the
instruments through which He carries out the work of God.
And I think the same meaning is found in the words He used on another
occasion, whenHe said, “My Father workethhitherto, and I work”;and then,
presently, He brought into associationwith Himself all His disciples when He
used the plural and said, “We must work the works of him that sent me, while
it is day.”
If this be the meaning of the text, then the mission of the Church in the world
is the mission of Christ. He is the Sent of the Father, still the living and
present Worker;but the Church is His Body—bone of His bone, flesh of His
flesh. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” And as the Church of Jesus
Christ realizes her actualand vital union with Christ, she becomes the
instrument through which He moves to the accomplishmentof His work.1
[Note:G. Campbell Morgan.]
But to be a true disciple is to think of the same things as our prophet, and to
think of different things in the same order. To be of the same mind with
another is to see all things in the same perspective;it is not to agree in a few
indifferent matters near at hand and not much debated; it is to follow him in
his farthestflights, to see the force of his hyperboles, to stand so exactly in the
centre of his vision that, whateverhe may express, your eyes will light at once
on the original, that whatever he may see to declare, your mind will at once
accept.2 [Note:R. L. Stevenson, Lay Morals.]
II
The Missionof Christ and Our Mission

The Missionof Jesus Christ to the world may be expressedby three great
words—Revelation, Redemption, Salvation.
1. It is a mission of Revelation.
He came to declare the love of the Father’s heart. The Fatherentrusted to the
Son the manifestation of His love. “Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren.” “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The love of the Fatherto a guilty and dying
world was the substance ofthe Redeemer’s message. “God so lovedthe
world,” it began. How it would have gladdened that poor prodigal in the
parable if he had heard in the midst of his hunger and loneliness that his
father tenderly cherished his memory still. He would not then have waited till
the pangs of insatiate hunger drove him to his father’s presence, if perchance
it might yet be open to him, as the only alternative with death. Had a message
from the father found him and calledhim home again, full joyously would he
have trodden the homewardpath. And so God loved the world in its rebellion
and misery—shameful rebellion, no doubt, and merited misery; but they were
His children who were groaning in bondage, and the meaning of their anguish
reachedand touched His heart. And God gave His only begottenSon, that the
world should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now as the Fatherrequired for the expressionof His own mind and will and
love to the world, and by the very nature of the case, a sufficient and adequate
image, organ, hand, word, and mediatorial ambassador;so Christ required—
when He was about to return clothedin our humanity to the bosomof the
Father, to the midst of the throne—a corresponding agency. We are not the
direct representatives of the Invisible God, of Him who fills eternity and space
with His glory; but we are sent by Christ to be the image, the messengers, the

hands, the mediatorial representatives ofHis Divine humanity to the world in
which we live. Therefore, first of all, in order to realize the grandeur of our
calling, let us keepever in mind that Christ sends us to men, that by our
character, by our growing sanctification, by our holy living, by our entire
walk, by our habits, our spirit, we may make Him known; He was and is the
light of the world, but light itself is invisible unless reflectedor refractedby
the medium on or through which it vibrates. We may be able to reflect some
one ray of the perfect beam of unsullied light.
I am very glad that you askedme your question. May I put it this way? The
contents of the Christian revelation is the Personof the Lord Jesus. Scripture
is the recordof that revelation. The Church is the witness of that revelation.
In early times, amongsta rude and semi-barbarous people, the Church was
greatly engagedin considering how she was to discharge her function as a
witness. But this process was largelyconcernedwith mechanism. Just as the
State was striving at the same time to embody the idea of justice; the method
was imperfect, but the idea existed nowhere else. Still, at the present day, the
State embodies that idea imperfectly; but we do not doubt about the idea
itself. So with the revelationof which the Church is the guardian. That
revelation is immediate to eachhuman soul; and the attempts to express it in
the forms of outward organisation—theirpartial success, their conspicuous
failure—only make the eternal meaning of the revelationitself clearerand
more precious.1 [Note:The Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, i. 416.]
One of the lastacts of Henry Ward Beechershowed the true greatness ofthat
greatman. He was leaving Plymouth Church on the last Sabbath evening of
his ministry, just as the strains of the organ were dying away, when he saw
two little pauper children, who had come inside from the storm to listen to the
music, startled with childish fright as he drew near, as though detected in
some wrong; but the warm-hearted preacherspoke lovingly to them, and,

kissing them, soothedaway their fears, as he went out with them into the
wintry coldand sleet, with his arms thrown around them to shelter and shield.
And, doing this actof lowly love, he went home to die.1 [Note: T. F. Lockyer,
The Inspirations of the Christian Life, 121.]
2. It is a mission of Redemption.
(1) Christ came into the world to express God’s absolute hatred of sin, and to
extirpate it from the heart of man, by taking upon Himself all its curse and
shame, bearing these to the bitter end. He came on a sacrificialand redeeming
mission, to do what no angelor man could accomplish. He came to setforth
what was eternally present in the Father’s heart, to bring to a climax the
expressionof perfect holiness and boundless mercy, to bring righteousness
and love with infinite travail and peerless joyinto absolute unity, to justify by
remissionof sins past, present, and to come, and to prove that when men
realize this awful and glorious fact, when little children can sobthemselves to
rest in the arms of Jesus, then full reconciliation, repentance, submissionto
the will of the Father supervene, and there is the beginning of a new and
eternal life.
My blood so red
For thee was shed,
Come home again, come home again!
My own sweetheart, come home again!

You’ve gone astray
Out of your way—
Come home again, come home again!
(2) Now if we are sentat all, we are sent to take a share in the very ministry of
our Lord Himself. Our service represents and continues His service. Our
labour is indissolubly joined to His. We are actually brought into a
partnership with Him who “came not to be ministered unto but to minister,
and to give his life a ransom for many.” And what a tremendous obligation
does that fellowshiplay upon us! We remember, with shame for ourselves,
how utterly Christ gave Himself. Of Tissot’s 365 drawings ofHis life, no less
than 310 are concernedwith the ministry and Passion:and yet even that
proportion is inadequate to express the place which service occupiedin the life
of the GreatPastor. Why, surely His every act, His every word and thought,
was service. The whole of His life was one long sacrificing of Himself for
others. And when there was nothing further that His life could give, He gave
the life itself a willing sacrifice in death. Well might our Lord, looking into the
eagerfaces ofHis Apostles, ask, “Canye drink of the cup that I drink of?”
Well may He put to us that question now!
Scarce hadshe learnt to lisp the name
Of Martyr; yet she thinks it shame
Life should so long play with that breath

Which spent could buy so brave a death.
She never undertook to know
What death with love should have to do;
Nor has she e’er yet understood
Why to shew love, she should shed blood.
Yet though she cannot tell you why,
She canlove, and she can die.1 [Note:Richard Crashaw.]
3. It is a mission of Salvation.
(1) In order to save the world He beganwith loving care showeredon little
children, with sympathy extending to the outcastand excommunicate, to the
publican, the harlot, the devilridden, and the dead. He healed men one by one.
He felt the specialagonyof the widow of Nain and of the family at Bethany.
He had saving words for rulers and priests, for Pilate and Caiaphas, forHis
executioners, and for the dying brigand.
(2) Now in all this He was sent to unveil the righteousness andlove of the
Father, and He sends faithful souls who have learnedHis secretto carry out

the plan of which He sets the example, the first beginnings of which He
wrought alone. When a missionary, with patience, persists in saving one
drunkard, one idolater, one cannibal from his otherwise inevitable doom,
pursues the proud rebel with the calls of pity, or urgently plies any one
despairing soul with the greatconsolation;when a missionaryof the cross
knows that his Master’s orderis, “Go, preach to every creature, compelthe
vile and the most ignorant, the most bewildered, to come into the light, and
acceptthe conditions of salvation,” he shares the burden of Jesus, takesHis
cross upon his shoulders, and hears and accepts His commissionas certainly
as if it had been thundered to him from the skies, “As the Fatherhath sent
me, even so send I you.”
Wherever I see a young man teaching the Gospelto half-a-dozen children, I
recognize a living branch of the Church of Christ.1 [Note:The Life and
Letters of John Cairns, 588.]
The late BishopSimpson relates a remarkable instance of the work of a young
man in America, who started an institution for the care and improvement of
poor imbecile children. Among those brought him was a little boy, five years
of age, who had never made an intentional act, had never spokena word, and
had never given any look of recognitionto a friend. He lay on the floor, a mass
of flesh, without even ability to turn himself over. Such was the student
brought to this school. The teachermade effort after effort to getthe slightest
recognitionfrom his eye, or to produce the slightestvoluntary movement; but
in vain. Unwilling, however, to yield, he had the boy brought to his room, and
he lay down beside him every day for half-an-hour, hoping that some
favourable indication might occur. One day, at the end of six months of
unavailing effort, he was unusually weary, and did not read. He soon
discoveredthat the child was uneasy, and was trying to move himself a little.
The thought flashedacross his mind: “He misses the sound of my voice.” He
brought his mouth near the child’s hands, and, after repeatedefforts, the little
one succeededin placing his fingers on the teacher’s lips, as if to say, “Make

that sound again.” The teacherfelt that from that moment his successwas
assured. And, as the narrative goes on to relate, only five years after that time,
the child stoodon a platform, in the presence ofinterested spectators,and
answeredwith ready accuracythe questions of a public examination. The
patience of love had conquered.2 [Note:T. F. Lockyer, The Inspirations of the
Christian Life, 122.]
Yes, the ugly old church!—at first such a failure that Bishop Blomfield was
wroth at its appearance,—thoughit cannot raise its head among the
handsome churches of the metropolis, yet it has been the nursery of babes in
Christ and the home of thousands who have reacheda fuller age in Christian
experience. I can say this without incurring the charge of egotism, for I am
speaking of what the church had become before I knew it. The material fabric
was the ugly, uninteresting building I have described. The church which was
built up within it was a church of simple, honest souls, whose outlook onlife
had been raisedto such a level that piety had discarded the temptation to be a
sham, and a deep, earnestconviction of the reality of spiritual life had laid
hold npon their hearts. They formed a societyof true-hearted men and women
who loved their Lord, and who strove, severallyand unitedly, to do His will.
The very atmosphere of the church and parish brought me a messagewhich
helped, while it humbled me. They were so much better than I—those devout
and simple-minded souls to whom I was sent to minister. Whence had this
atmosphere come? Under God, it was owing to the untiring and unique work
of one man—the Rev. William Bell Mackenzie—mypredecessor, andthe first
vicar of the church. Fidelity and fixity marked his life. He lived till he was
sixty-four years of age. He had been ordained thirty-six years, and in that time
he served but one curacy, St. James’, Bristol, and one incumbency, St. James’,
Holloway. The thirty-two years at St. James’, Holloway, were devotedto
building up his flock in faith and love—a generation’s work for the
regenerationof the people. Slowly he gatheredround him, not only an
attachedand appreciative congregation, but a band of trusty and faithful men
and women, genuinely interestedin the goodof the parish and
neighbourhood, and keenlyalive to missionary responsibility.1 [Note:W.
Boyd Carpenter, Some PagesofMy Life, 158.]

Christ’s Missionand Ours
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The MissionOf The Son And Of The Servants
John 20:21
J.R. Thomson
A mission involves a sender, the party to whom he sends, the sentone, and a
commissionto be fulfilled by the senton behalf of the sender and for the
benefit of those whom he visits. A religious mission originates in God, is
designedfor the welfare of men, and is accomplishedin the first instance by
the Sonof God, and then by his ministers.
I. THE MISSION ON WHICH CHRIST WAS SENT BY THE FATHER.
1. The origin of thin mission must be sought in the love and pity of the Father
towards sinful men, and in the condition of humanity which rendered a Divine
interposition desirable.
2. The condition of this mission was the incarnation and advent of the Son of
God.
3. The evidence and authentication of this mission are found in Christ's
mighty works and benevolent ministry on earth.
4. The completion of this mission was effectedwhen the Lord Jesus laid down
his life for the sheep.

II. THE MISSION ON WHICH CHRISTIAN APOSTLES AND
EVANGELISTS WERE SENT BYTHEIR LORD. The twelve were, because
thus sent, designated"apostles."There is no reasonto limit the mission to
these;it was shared by the evangelists who were associatedwith them, and
indeed by the whole Church of the Redeemer.
1. Apostolic conditions. These are
(1) sympathy with the mind of Christ;
(2) compassionfor the world;
(3) renunciation of selfish ends in life.
2. The apostolic spirit. This is preeminently a spirit of dependence upon the
gospeland upon the Spirit of Christ.
3. Apostolic methods.
(1) The proclamation of distinctively Christian truth;
(2) the institution of Christian societies;
(3) the continuous employment of the Christian example, and the witness of
the Christian life.
III. THE RELATION BETWEENTHE MISSION OF CHRIST AND THAT
OF HIS CHURCH.
1. A relation of dependence. The mission of apostles andpreachers would be
impossible, had it not been precededby that of the Divine Lord himself. The
mission of the Sonmade possible that of the servants.
2. A relation of similarity. Notwithstanding the difference betweenDivinity
and humanity, betweenthe work of mediation and that of publication, the
mission of the followers is as that of the Leader. In both casesthe work is
God's, the authority is God's, the favor and assistance is God's, and the end
sought is God's. The recompense andthe joy ensuing in both casesupon
successis one and the same. How honorable is the Christian calling! how

noble the Christian aim! how sacredthe Christian fellowship!how bright the
Christian hope! - T.
Biblical Illustrator
Then saith Jesus unto them... as My Fatherhath sent Me, even so send I you.
John 20:21-23
The correspondencebetweenthe two missions
R. Besser, D. D.
Christ is the Arch-Missionary and the Arch-Apostle (Hebrews 3:1), at once
both the Author and the first Bearerofthe office;and the apostles are His
successors. Christcame in His Father's name (John 5:43), and they came in
Christ's name. Christ was sent that He might speak, notof Himself, but what
fie had heard of the Father (John 8:27; John 14:10; John 15:15); and His
servants are sent, not to preach dreams of human wisdom, but the Word of
God (Jeremiah23:16; 1 Peter4:11). Christ was sent not to destroy but to save

souls (Luke 9:56; John 3:17); and His ministers are sent with power to build
up, and not to destroy (2 Corinthians 13:10). The Fatherworkedwith Christ,
and left not the Sonalone (John 5:17, 19; John 16:32); and Christ works with
us so that our labour is not in vain. Finally, as Christ was sent, that through
suffering He might enter into His glory; so also has He bequeathed His shame
(Matthew 10:22), and His cross (John21:18), but after that His glory also
(Luke 22:29; comp. 1 Peter5:1). Now, if we should all "honour the Son even
as we honour the Father," so to the servants of Christ also the honour is due,
that in them we honour the Lord who has sent them; as He Himself says, "He
that heareth you heareth Me," &c.
(R. Besser, D. D.)
Christ's mission one with ours
James Owen.
His mission and their mission were one. The purpose that fired His heart as
He came from the glory to the Cross, and was returning from the grave to the
throne, was to be their purpose. There was to be the same aim and the same
grand consummation in view. The subaltern, the common soldier, the
drummer in the campaign, may feel that they are taking part in the same
cause that is keeping the anxious generalawakeatnight, and taxing all his
ingenuity and energy. And so the humblest servantin His house who can do
nothing more than talk to a few children, or carry a cup of cold waterto a
fainting one, or place a few flowers on the table in the sick room, or read a few
verses from a psalm or sing a few stanzas of a hymn to an agedChristian, may
rejoice in the consciousnessthat his little work is finding a place in the grand
plan that has its sweepthrough the centuries;that the little ripple of his love is
helping the flow of the tide that is to coverthe world with glory; that his feeble
heart-beats are in unison with the pulses of the eternal God. "As My Father
hath sent Me, even so send I you." It is the voice of authority; it is the voice
"that rolls the stars along";but it speaks to a human will, a human heart; and
He has confidence that His word will be obeyed.

(James Owen.)
The true Spirit of missions
W. Arthur, M. A.
I. THE RISEN LORD MANIFESTING HIMSELF TO THE CHURCH.
1. He did not manifest Himself first of all to the collective disciples, but to
Mary Magdalene, &c. This is God's way. His blessings are not for the Church
apart from its individual members. No Church will have collective
manifestations whose members do not find Him in the garden, in the closet, in
the way, sitting at meat, &c.
2. He manifested Himself while they were talking about Him. Mary declaring
that she had seenHim, others that He had opened the scriptures, others were
doubting; then someone said, "There He is in the midst of us."
3. He bestowedHis benediction. With a reminiscence of "Let not your hearts
be troubled," i.e., agitated, He said, "Peace,"&c.
4. He demonstrated the reality of His resurrection, and made the disciples
glad. What makes the heart of God's people glad is the revelationof Christ,
not as here, but as on the way to Damascus to Paul, "GodrevealedHis Son in
me, that I might preach Him." He to whom Christ has never manifested
Himself is in no condition to preach Him.
5. Now, how did He come? There were there, as there are here, persons
wondering how Christ could manifest Himself. Are there not closeddoors,
impenetrable walls, and one difficulty after another in this nineteenth century
to prevent this? No, the only barrier which can keepChrist out is unbelief.
"Oh," you say, "there is unworthiness." No! look at the people in that room!
We know little, even in natural things, of what is likely and unlikely, exceptby
experience. Forinstance, if we knew that there was outside these walls trying
to get in some sunlight, sound or electricity, and we were askedhow it was to
get in, and we knew nothing about iron, and glass, and stone, and air, we
should saythat sound, e.g., would getin much easierthrough air than through

iron — and yet we know it will go much fasterthrough iron. And when God
makes a thing to pass through, it will pass through, and when He is in the
question, no barriers can keepHim out. "Where two or three are gatheredin
My name," &c.
II. COMMUNICATING HIS SPIRIT TO THE CHURCH. This is more than
the manifestationof Himself. We are particular to think of our seeking Christ
and the Spirit; bat here are both waiting to communicate themselves. Here is
Christ not waiting for them to breathe out a prayer for the Spirit, but
breathing the Spirit upon them. There is one word with reference to the Spirit
which is very expressive — influence. This means nothing more than a flowing
in just as water will flow in upon a meadow until the meadow is completely
under it. And we talk of being under the influence if any man with that idea in
our mind. But the Bible never represents the Spirit as inert watercoming in
by gravitation, but as being "poured" in with a will and hand that has power
to send it. And so when we come to the word "inspiration," it is not a mere
gliding in of a gale of air, but the "breathing" in from a living being warm
with feeling and earnestwith will. So here. And thus Christ calls to mind some
Old Testamentrecords. The disciples would feel that the world in a moral
sense was "withoutform and void," &c., and that the Spirit was coming forth
to make the chaos and the darkness feelHis power, and eachof them might
have said, "We are all dead men"; but there was the SecondAdam, the
quickening Spirit, to breathe into their nostrils the breath of life to make His
dead disciples living souls. They would think, too, of the valley of dry bones,
and the command, "Breathe upon them." He had told them that it was
expedient for them that He should go away so that He might send the Spirit;
and now, on the very first day of His reappearing, the first thing He does is to
show them He that is just as near as the breath that is breathing upon them.
"Go," He says in effect;"but before you go, take the breath to travel with.
Go; but before you spreadthe sails of your ship, the Lord of the winds shall
make the winds blow for you. Go to convert the world; but before you try to
raise the dead, let it be seenthat the Lord has raised you." Christ is breathing
now, and saying, "Receive ye," &c.
III. LAYING HER COMMISSIONTO WORKUPON THE CHURCH.

1. "As the Father," &c. This has been interpreted to mean, "With the
authority which the Father sent Me, I send you." Now, the authority with
which Christ came was to restore all things to make atonement, &c. So it
cannot mean that. No; the disciples were under, not in, authority. He sent
them forth to preach, love, labour, pray, as He preached, &c. Never a man of
them could play the king as He did. They were to go representing Him; they
were to go in love and self-sacrifice as He had gone.
2. Then He says, "Whosoeversins ye remit," &c. Who are the "ye"? Those
present — not Peteror John, or the ten collectively. We are expresslytold that
other disciples were there — Mary, &c. — and not the slightestdifference was
made. What the Lord meant He meant for all. There are two ways of
interpreting what He did mean — the one the way in which the Church of
Rome interprets it, and the other the way in which the Church of St. Peter
interprets it,. Rome tells a man He must go and confess to and get absolution
from a priest. But take the first case in which a man cries out in the presence
of Peterfor remission(Acts 2.). Does Petereversay, "come aside and
confess?" orJohn, or Paul? Is there a hint of any such transaction? No, you
will find that every one demands repentance and faith in Christ, and promises
forgiveness upon that. That was the use which Peterunderstood was to be
made of this. And the remission was not a transactionsomewhere above the
clouds, but actually carried into the man's soul so as to transform him. The
remissionwas conscious, realand immediate. Now in the Church of Rome
there are five ways of remission.
(1)By baptism.
(2)By confirmation.
(3)By penance.
(4)By indulgence.
(5)By extreme unction.Of course, after all that they ought to be remitted. But
supposing a man has receivedall these remissions from the pope himself; why,
you will find masses offeredfor his sins in purgatory! Such is not the
remissionof Christ. When Christ remits all sin is at once castaway, gone for

ever into the depths of God's forgiving love. And the Church's mission is to
testify to every man that there is remissionwithout price, priest, sacrifice.
Show His hands and His side and there is the proclamation of remissionof
sins.
(W. Arthur, M. A.)
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. —
The gift of the Spirit
Lay Preacher.
The Christian dispensation is remarkable for two unspeakable gifts — God's
gift of His Sonand God's gift of His Spirit. And it were hard to say which gift
is of the greaterpracticalvalue; for without the gift of the Spirit we perish
under the very shadow of the cross, while with it we possessallthat the Cross
promises. Consider —
I. IN WHAT THIS GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST CONSISTS.
1. Notin an empty sound, but in a veritable and substantial gift. When God
says "I will pour out My Spirit upon you," He does not mock us with a sound
of words; for the gift is largerthan the word that speaks it.
2. Notin the gift of a number of goodthings figuratively representedas a gift
of the Holy Ghost. If there is a literal expressionanywhere in God's Word,
then the gift of the Holy Ghostis the gift of the Holy Ghost;and to suppose it
to be anything else is to reduce the Scriptures to a shadowyphantasm of
figures with no fixed meaning.
3. Notin the gift of the Spirit on our behalf, merely to prepare the economyof
saving grace. The Spirit was given not only to inspire the Word, to anoint
Christ, to qualify the apostles, andto fill all the organisationofChristianity
with light and life; but is also given as a direct and immediate gift to the
believer, blot only as a gift of germinating and fructifying efficiency to the soil

and atmosphere in which the seed-cornis placed, but also as a gift of life and
growth-powerto the seed-cornitself. "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you."
4. It consists in the grant of His abiding presence. There is a necessary
presence ofthe Spirit, by reasonof His nature — "Whither shall I go from
Thy Spirit?" But this is a presence in which He is caringly, lovingly, helpingly,
savingly with us. God was always in the world; but when He came m Christ,
He was "God with us" in a very specialmanner. So with His Spirit in this gift.
5. It consists in a gracious affluence and influence of the Spirit upon our
spirits. A patriot oratoraddresses his countrymen. Like a subtle, invisible fire,
the fervour of his spirit flows out in his words, gestures, andlooks, and flows
in upon the spirits of the crowd, till all are moved and roused to action. And
shall not the spirit of God — by the words of God, the wounds of Christ —
move us to grief or joy, to hope or zeal? Believe in the life and energyof the
Spirit.
6. It consists in the production of "fruits of the Spirit." The Spirit's movings
would be a small gift without their effects;as the warmth and refreshing of
sun and rain would be without the following harvest, or as the sound of
David's harp on Saul's troubled spirit without the ejectionof the evil spirit.
And we are liable to be deceivedby false, or human and merely natural
emotions. Trust no emotion that does not hallow the heart; but do not distrust
the Spirit's influence because "manyfalse spirits are gone out."
II. THIS GIFT IS A GIFT FOR ALL BELIEVERS IN COMMON. Forthe
ordinary work of a common salvation. Notonly to enable men to speak with
tongues, but to enable men of blasphemous tongues to speak the praises of
God; not for "gifts of healing" only, but to heal the sin-sick souls of penitents
to all time; not for "prophecies" merely, but to enable glad-heartedbelievers
to foretell and foretaste the joys of heaven. Is a man to be born again — to
belong to Christ, to be assuredof adoption, to be sanctified? For all these, and
all the gracious round of gospelpurposes the Spirit worketh. And the promise
is to "as many as the Lord our God shall call."
III. THE STANDING NECESSITYFOR THIS GIFT. "No man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Men canread the Bible, but cannot

make it as a hammer, or as a fire; canbuild sanctuaries, but cannot make
them temples of God; can organize churches, but cannotmake them
"habitations of God" except"through the Spirit;" can make sermons, but
cannot convertsouls; canarrange and marshall attacks upon vice and sin, but
cannot make them "mighty to the pulling down of strongholds." Eventhe
Lord Jesus Himself was "anointed with the Holy Ghost, to go about doing
good;" while not a captain was ever sent againstthe Philistines, or an Aholiah
or a Bezaleelemployed upon the tabernacle without a measure of God's
Spirit. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
IV. HOW IS THE GIFT TO BE OBTAINED?
1. Believe in the Holy Ghost. All baptized into His name; part of the Christian
benediction from above is His communion. Believe in His powerand gift.
2. Confess your dependence on this gift. This blessedshowerwill slide away
from the mountain side of self-sufficiency, to rest richly in the valleys beneath.
The Spirit is promised when "the city shall be low in a low place."
3. Be ready to receive the gift. The Spirit comes to work a holy work. If you
rejectHis work you rejectHim. Submit to all His working, and He will come.
4. Ask the gift of the Father in Christ's name. While Christ prayed the
heavens were opened, and the Spirit descendedupon Him. While the apostles
prayed the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
5. Rely upon the gift, and venture on God's work in expectationof it. Stretch
forth the withered hand. Like the priest who bore the ark, put your foot into
the waters ofyour swelling Jordan; sound your trumpet againstyour
frowning Jericho, and expectthe help you need.
(Lay Preacher.)
Receiving the Holy Ghost
James Owen.

I. THIS BREATHING WAS MORE THAN A SYMBOLIC ACT,
CONFIRMING THE PREVIOUS PROMISE;it was more than an assurance
— "Ye shall receive." It was an actual, though partial, impartation of the
Holy Spirit.
1. In this connection, in Luke, we read that "their understandings were
opened, that they might understand the Scriptures." They receive now from
Him a pledge and an earnestof the greaterfulness that would come on the
Day of Pentecost.This was a breath, heralding the "rushing mighty wind;" a
little cloud, the size of a man's hand, the precursor of the clouds that would
soonpour out a flood upon the parched ground. God often gives earnests of
His blessings. A John the Baptist comes to prepare the way for Christ. The
morning star heralds the sun.
2. This was the pledge of the Pentecost, whenthey were filled with the Spirit.
And after that we read that in a prayer meeting they were againfilled with the
Spirit. There was a greaterfulness, because there was greaterroom, because
their natures were enlarged. Sometimes a father has to sayto his spendthrift
son: "My boy, when I have given you this, I shall have no more that I can
throw away." God will never say that to as; every gift is a seedfrom which a
largergift will grow. All natures are not the same, and there comes a larger
measure of spiritual influence to some than others. The large tree, with its
spreading branches and broad leaves, is drinking in from the air and sun and
rain that which would suffice for three or four smaller trees.
II. THE NATURE OF THIS SPIRITUAL POWER AS BESTOWEDBY
CHRIST.
1. The words "breath" and "life" and "spirit" are used synonymously. "The
Lord God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives." "Come from the
four winds, O breath!" and the breath came into the dry bones and they lived.
But the physical is a symbol of a higher life, and the Spirit of God is the life of
this higher nature. The question askedby scientific men is, How came life at
first? From God. In regard to spiritual life, it is the testimony of all, from
those early disciples downwards, "NotI, O Lord, but Thy Spirit in me."

2. This is a real thing. Just as the breath of Jesus, falling warm on the
disciples'faces, and the word of hope or courage whisperedto a brother in
darkness, and lifting him up to the light, and the battle-cry of freedom,
arousing a nation from doggeddespair, are realthings; so this breath from
heaven is real, a new, vital force coming into the man. He is a new man. "The
old things are passedaway;behold they are become new."
3. The question of inspiration has been much discussedoflate. The word is
literally "inbreathing." And I believe that the writers of this book were
divinely inspired, that the prophets and apostles, with their varied powers and
attainments, were harps along which the breath of God swept, and discoursed
sweetand immortal strains to the world. But I believe that every Christian is
divinely inspired for the work God means him to do, that the Spirit which
came upon Bezaleel, the builder of the tabernacle, comes to the Christian in
his humblest service to guide and teachhim. He is not required to write a
Bible, to be an apostle to the Africans or Chinese, to leada crusade against
slavery, or to usher in a great reformation; and, therefore, he has no
inspiration for all this. But for the service required of him there is adequate
power, and the five barley loaves in a lad's basketmay be multiplied into a
feastfor five thousand men.
III. THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS THE DISCIPLES'
EQUIPMENT FOR THEIR GREAT MISSION — a mission that has to do
with sin. "Whose soeversins," &c. There were many evils afflicting the world
at that time, as there are to-day; they were the sores onthe surface, but Christ
went to the root of the disease. It is possible to change the circumstances and
yet not change the man. Laws may be improved, socialand national customs
may be reformed, wrongs may be redressed, abuses may be corrected;but,
after all, this is only like giving a new coatto the leper or putting a new
tombstone on the grave. But Christ came to deal with the evil thing itself, to
work at the centre, and from that to the circumference, to put the leaven in
the midst of the meal, to take awaysin, and destroythe work of the devil.
"But do these words appear," you may say, "to delegate the powerwhich the
priests assume?"In reply, considerthat these words were not addressedto all
the apostles. Thomas wasabsent. And the words were not addressedto the ten
apostles alone.

1. "Whose soeversins ye remit," or forgive. What does this mean? That a man
is to take the place of the Saviour, and undertake to forgive sins? No; but he
bears a gospelfrom Christ which is a messageofforgiveness;and when that
gospelis received, forgiveness is received, and we are warranted in saying,
"You are forgiven;" and what we sayon earth, the angels, in their songs over
the returning prodigal, sayin heaven. Sin begets despondency, and a man
says, "I shall never get rid of it; the load is tied on too fast; like the Nessus
shirt, it clings to me — it will be with me for ever." You, as a Christian, have
to reply: "No;the load may be removed, the devil driven out, the sins washed
away." It is a great thing to help a man to realize this. Think of how Paul dealt
with a man who had fallen in Corinth. Did he ask the man to confess to him
and receive absolution? No;but he requested the Church to forgive him, and
by their forgiveness to help him to believe in the forgiveness whichabounds
beyond the abounding sin.
2. "And whose soeversins ye retain," &c. That is, the messageofforgiveness
may be rejected. If not only the load of guilt remains, but, by reasonofthat
rejection, is made heavier. The preaching of Christ cannotleave men as it
finds them. The gospeloflife may become a savourof death unto death.
Where there is a rejectionof Christ, we are authorized to say, "Your sins
remain. There is no other way." And as the decisions of our colonies, are
generallyconfirmed by the government at home; so the decisions ofa
divinely-directed society, whetherin Church discipline or teaching, are
ratified in heaven. Conclusion: Forgoodservice to the Church and the world,
what do you need? Mentalpowers? knowledge? training? books? Yes. But,
above all, you need the Spirit of God. Sunday-schoolteachers, if you would do
your work well, you must have the Spirit. Witnesses for Christ in daily life, if
you have the Spirit, there will be a right emphasis, a consistency, andcourage
in your testimony.
(James Owen.)
Whose soeversins ye remit.
The remissionof sins

Bp. Ryle.
I believe that nothing more than the authority to declare canbe got out of
these words, and I entirely rejectthe strange notion that our Lord meant to
depute to the apostles the powerof absolutelyabsolving or not absolving any
one's soul. My reasons for maintaining this view of the text are as follows:
1. The power of forgiving sins, in Scripture, is always spokenof as the special
prerogative of God. The Jews themselves admitted this (Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21).
It is monstrous to suppose that our Lord meant to overthrow this great
principle.
2. The language of the old TestamentScripture shows conclusivelythat the
prophets were said to "do" things, when they "declaredthem about to be
done." Thus Jeremiah's commission(Jeremiah 1:10) canonly mean to declare
the rooting out and pulling down, &c. So also Ezekielsays, "Icame to destroy
the city" (Ezekiel43:3); where the marginal reading is, "I came to prophecy
the city should be destroyed." The apostles were doubtless wellacquainted
with prophetical language, and I believe they interpreted our Lord's words in
this place accordingly.
3. There is not a single instance in the Acts or Epistles of an apostle taking on
himself to absolve any one. The preachers ofthe New Testamentdeclare in the
plainest language whose sinis pardoned, but they never take on themselves to
pardon. When Petersaid to Cornelius and his friends, "Whosoeverbelieveth
in Him shall receive remissionof sins" (Acts 10:43); when Paul said at
Antioch, in Pisidia, "We declare unto you glad tidings;" "Throughthis Man is
preachedunto you the forgiveness ofsins" (Acts 13:32, 38); and when Paul
said to the Philippian jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved" (Acts 15:31); in eachcase they fulfilled the commissionof the text
before us. They "declaredwhose sins were remitted, and whose were
retained."
4. There is not a single word in the three pastoralEpistles to show that the
Apostle regardedabsolution as part of the ministerial office. If it was he
would surely have mentioned it, and urged the practice of it on young
ministers, for the relief of burdened souls.

5. The weaknessofhuman nature is so great, that it is grosslyimprobable that
such a tremendous power would ever be committed to any mortal man. It
would be highly injurious to any man, and a continued temptation to him to
usurp the office of a Mediator betweenGod and man.
6. The experience of the Romish Church affords the strongestindirect
evidence that our Lord's words canonly have been meant to bear a
"declarative" sense. Anything worse ormore mischievous, both to minister
and people, than the results of the Romish systemof penance and absolution it
is impossible to conceive. It is a system which has practically degradedthe
laity, damagedthe clergy, and turned people away from Christ.
(Bp. Ryle.)
The gospelof absolution
T. G. Selby.
(Text, and Matthew 16:19;Matthew 18:18): — Let us inquire —
I. WHAT IS ABSOLUTION? "And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven." If we refer to another occasionupon which Christ used
this metaphor of the keys, we shall find that Christ was accustomedto
associate withthe expressionknowledge andthe specific powerthat comes
from knowledge (Luke 11:52). The reference here can only be to the
knowledge that unlocks the gates leading into the kingdom of heaven. That
was Christ's future gift to Peter. Putting this side by side with the fact that
Christ had just been speaking of a knowledge ofHis own Personand
characterthat had been given to Peter, what can the knowledge thatChrist
would by and by give be but the knowledge ofthe Father, of which He was the
only one spring and channel amongstmen? It was through that knowledge
that Peterwas to open the wayfor men into the kingdom of heaven. "To
bind" and "to loose" wasto teachand to rule in the kingdom of heaven, in
harmony with the knowledge receivedfrom the Father. You will observe that
the promise deals more immediately with things, not persons, with truths and
duties, and not with human souls. And then we turn over two chapters in

Matthew's Gospelthat are separatedfrom eachother by a few months of
time, and we find practicallythe same language, with the metaphor of the
keys dropped from it, addressedto a much wider circle of disciples. In the
later version of the same words, you will find that the binding and loosing
refers to that which is impersonal. "What things soeverye shall bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven." No unconditional infallibility is ascribedin the
passageeitherto the Church or its ministers. It declares its infallibility with
specialsafeguards.Go into an observatory, and watch some astronomeras he
is following the transit of a star. His telescope is so adjusted, that an ingenious
arrangementof clockwork is made to shift it with the transit of the star. His
instrument is moving in obedience to the movement of the star in the heavens.
But the clock-work doesnot move the star. The astronomerhas made his
faultless calculations;the mechanic has adjusted his cranks and pendulums
and wheels and springs with unerring nicety, and every movement in the
telescope answers to the movement of the star in the far-off heavens. The
correspondence rests onknowledge.And so when the things that are bound on
earth are bound in heaven. Every legislative counseland decree and
movement in a truly apostolic and inspired Church answers to some counsel
and decree and movement in the heavens. But then the power of discerning
and forecasting the movements of the Divine will and government rests upon
the powerof interpreting the Divine characterand applying its principles of
action, as that characteris communicated to us by Jesus Christ. You are
giving a boy his first lessonin astronomy. You show him an orrery. You tell
him that the central disc represents the sun, and the third from the centre the
earth, and so on. And then you ask him to turn the handle which puts all these
metallic balls representing things in the heavens in motion. You say that every
movement here is a counterpart of every movement in the skies. Butunless
the boy is very dull indeed he does not suppose he is actually turning the
planetary system with this little handle. And yet if the machine be faultless in
construction, whateveris done on earth is done in heaven. Whateveris bound
here is bound yonder likewise. The words addressedto the apostles by Jesus
Christ on the evening of His resurrectionfrom the dead approach more
nearly to what has been understoodby the term "absolution" than the earlier
utterances. Here the apostles are spokenofas dealing with the souls of men in
direct judgment. In the preceding instances they have been viewed as dealing

with souls through the instrumentality of the truth. Here the instrumentality
falls more or less into the background, and the witnessesto Jesus Christ are
viewed as justifying or condemning, saving or destroying men by the powerof
their word. "Whose soeversins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and
whose soeversins ye retain, they are retained." And yet, after all, this is but a
more solemn and impressive form of the earlier statement. As the doctortakes
the keyof his drug-store and selects from the specifics thatare arranged
around him, he kills or makes alive. His keymeans a powerof absolution.
When it is first put into his hand he is entrusted with as solemna
responsibility as the judge who pronounces death-sentencesorthe Home
Secretarywho presents a death-warrant to the sovereignfor signature or
recommends a reprieve. When he selects this drug, or looks upon that as
hopeless to apply under the conditions into which the patient has fallen, he is
dealing with questions of life and death. And so Christ in His closing
admonitions to the disciples teaches that they are not dealing with speculative
truth only. They are commissionedto deal with grave, spiritual destinies.
"Whose soeversins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever
sins ye retain they are retained." The words imply that the truth the apostles
shall preach to men in the crowd, as well as present to the individual in the
course of their more private ministrations, is the truth by which men shall be
judged in the day of Jesus Christ, and that the impression produced here and
now under their preaching shall be confirmed then. The sphere of the
apostles'ministry and the sphere of the final judgment shall be penetrated by
the same moral laws and principles. We sometimes find that things that apply
under the conditions of one age do not apply under the conditions of another.
Acts done in one country may have no worth or validity if the doer of them
goes to another. The principles to be setforth by the apostles in their relation
to the collective orindividual souls of men alike are universal, not local, of
Divine and not human authority only, eternaland not temporary and
terminable in their sanctions. "Whosesoeversins ye shall remit shall be
remitted unto them." It will help us in our endeavour to reach just
conclusions onthis question, if we remember that the power possessedby the
first messengersofthe gospelwas greaterthan the power possessedby its
messengersnow, and approximated more closelyto the exclusive type of
prerogative claimed by the modern sacerdotalist. The first possessorsofa

truth wield a more terrible power than their successors canexpectto wield,
when that truth has become widely known. The curative properties of certain
drugs now used in medicine were once knownonly in certainfamilies. The
knowledge was kepta secretwithin these families for generations. The
knowledge was a monopoly. Through that monopoly they had in many cases
powerof life and death. That knowledge diffuses itself through a hundred
text-books over half the globe, and becomes accessible to any one who can
read. The specialpower accruing to the first possessorsofthe secretthrough
their monopoly has passedaway. And so with the knowledge by which
entrance into the kingdom of heaven was to be gained. That knowledge atfirst
was the monopoly of the few who followedChrist. But that condition of things
exists no longer. If Peterhimself could come into our midst, he would find his
distinctive prerogative gone. Thatspecialknowledge whichmade him an
absolverof souls gifted with a prerogative of life and death, he would find the
possessionoflittle children in Sunday schools. It is said that when the Earl of
Essexwas in high favour with QueenElizabeth, she one day gave him a ring,
accompaniedby the request that if he should ever find himself in
circumstances oftrouble in which her help could avail, he would at once send
that ring as the signof his appeal to her goodoffices. She would then do
everything in her powerto aid him. Some time after he was arrestedfor
rebellion, and condemned to die. Elizabeth signed his death-warrant, but
waited with tears and solicitude for the return of the ring, that was to be the
sign of his appealto her clemency. The ring had been entrusted by the
condemned earl to the Countess ofNottingham for delivery into the hands of
the queen. The Countess kept back the ring, and suffered the sentence to be
carried into effect. The ring gave her the power of remitting or retaining sin.
To make the illustration serve the purpose for which we want to use it just
now, we must suppose the Countess was the go betweenfor the transmission
of the ring not from the condemned man to the queen, but from the queen to
the condemned man, and for the ring we must substitute a password. The
powerof absolutionin the evangelicalsense is very much like that. The ring,
or the password, is the truth through which the forgiveness ofGod must be
carried home to anxious, sin-burdened multitudes. And this leads us to ask the
question, Upon what conditions does this powerof opening and closing the
kingdom of heaven, and of retaining and remitting the sin of men, rest? You

will observe, in the first case, nothing whatever was promised to Peter, except
so far as he was already the subjectof a teaching inspiration, and was to
become so in a yet richer degree in future days. He held the keys, and could
bind and loose in so far as the Son was revealedto him by the Father and the
Father by the Son, and not one iota beyond. He could not open the gates of the
kingdom by any private authority and apart from the possessionofthese
truths. And then we come to the promise of this same power to the whole
congregationof the disciples. There is no powerof binding and loosing, you
will observe, apartfrom Christ's indwelling presence within the Church. And
then we come to the last case. Christconnectedthe power of absolution with a
symbolic act, in which He made the disciples recipients of His own life, and
partakers and instruments of the Holy Ghost by that fellowship. But it will be
observedthat there is no valid retention or remission of sin that can be
pronounced to men, exceptby the lips of which the Holy Ghost is the
unceasing breath. Given that condition in the case ofeither priest or layman,
and I am free to extend the province of absolution just as far as the most
extreme sacerdotalist has ever soughtto extend it. The ideal Church and the
ideal minister may have all the powerthe sacerdotalists claim, but to assume
that the Church and minister of to-day and every day is ideal in actuallife and
attainment is to make a very strong demand upon our credulity indeed. I go
and look for the minister who is so filled with the Holy Ghostthat he becomes
infallible in moral judgment, and always speaksthe exactthought of God in
acquitting or condemning men And I scarcelyknow where to find the man
who has been lifted by the inspiration of the Spirit above error. I come
therefore to the conclusionthat these are delineations of ideal Christianity;
not ideal in the sense that they are beyond the line of practicalpossibility, but
ideal in the sense that they are realized only by an uncommon exaltationof
soul.
II. The question arises, WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO PRONOUNCEAN
ABSOLUTION OF THIS SORT? The sacerdotalistreplies, The man who has
receivedan ordination that is unbroken in the line of its successionfrom the
apostles, with Peterat their head. But the power committed to Peter is
entrusted some few months later, not only to the apostles, but to eachand
every disciple who might chance to be offended by the wrong or transgression

of another and who would be loyal to certain specifieddirections, as well as to
the whole congregationof believers in their corporate capacity. The thorough-
pacedsacerdotallstdemands confessionas a preliminary basis for the
absolution he utters. That demand is a tacit admission of the frivolity of his
claim. It is just as though some thought-reader should boastthat he would
read the number of a bank-note placed in a sealedsafe, and ask first to be
allowedto look at the cash-book ofthe firm through whose hands the note last
passed, and in which a recordwas made of the number. If the priest cannot
read the heart of the penitent without the help of his confession, he is still less
able to read that Divine heart, from whose secretjudgment the absolution of
the individual must spring. A genuine absolutionmust rest as much upon a
correctinterpretation of the mind of Godto the individual, as upon the
interpretation of the state of the individual mind itself. Indeed, no confession
can supply an accurate basis forthe utterance of an edict of absolution. The
same acts may representvery diverse religious conditions in people of diverse
knowledge, training, and experience. The God, who is a God of knowledge,
and by whom actions are weighed, and He only, can read unerringly all the
delicate factors in our spiritual state and condition, and pronounce the
absolution that is unimpeachably and eternally judicial. So far, however, as
absolution deals with the proclamation of God's good will to the penitent,
whoeveris filled with the mind and spirit of Christ is free to proclaim it. The
proclamation, resting as it ultimately does, upon Christ's authority and that of
His disciples, is just as goodfrom one man's lips as another's, if he be
spiritually qualified to reflect the mind of God. It is not the man who clothes
the truth with the authority of his office. It is the truth that clothes the man
with his authority as he utters it. News may not always come from the
Government gazette, or be proclaimed by the town crier who fills an office
that may have existedfrom the first incorporation of the town; and yet it may
be goodand trustworthy news notwithstanding. It has been calculatedthat the
amount of heat receivedfrom the sun in the course of a year is so greatthat if
the earth were covered, from pole to pole, with an ice cap a hundred feet
thick, the heat would suffice to melt away every atom of that ice heap. And the
amount of heat our earth receives is but a trifle in comparisonwith the total
volume given off by the sun. It is scarcelyso much as a drop in the rainfall of a
year. Our earth receives onlyone twenty-five-thousand-millionth of the heat

the sun gives off year by year. God's forgiveness is as bountiful as that. From
the burning depths of His great, unfathomed heart He is ever pouring
boundless grace and incomprehensible compassion. His love is sufficient, not
only to melt the sin from every human heart, but to melt the sin from as many
worlds, if they needed it, as there are human souls in this ant-heap world of
ours. Do not suppose that the warmth of God's forgiveness, before it canmelt
or transform our natures, must needs be gatheredup into the burning-glass of
some petty priest's insignificant absolution. God's warm love is pouring down
upon you Sunday and week-dayalike, without stint or condition other than
that you will meekly and penitently receive it. You are not dependent upon the
absolution of either the confessionalorthe inquiry room.
(T. G. Selby.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(21) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you.—These words may be
here a solemn repetition of the greeting in John 20:19, by which our Lord’s
own messageofpeace is immediately connectedwith that which the Apostles
were to deliver to the world. It is, however, more natural to understand the
words in John 20:19 as those of greeting, and these as words of farewell.
(Comp. John 14:27.) Other words had intervened, as we know from St. Luke’s
narrative. He is now about to withdraw the evidence of His presence from
them, and does so with the customary “Shalōm;” but with this He reminds
them of the apostleshipto which He has calledthem, gives them an earnestof
the Presencewhichwill never leave them, but always qualify them for it (John
20:22), and places before them the greatnessofthe work to which He sends
them (John 20:23).
As my (better, the) Father hath sentme, even so send I you.—Comp. Note on
John 17:18, where the words occur in prayer to the Father. As spokenhere to
the disciples ‘they are the identification of them with Himself in His

mediatorial work. He is the greatApostle (Hebrews 3:1); they are
ambassadors forChrist, to whom He commits the ministry of reconciliation
(2Corinthians 5:18 et seq.). He stands in the same relation to the Fatheras
that in which they stand to Him. He declares to them, and they in His name
are to declare to the world, the fulness of the Father’s love, and the peace
betweenman and God, witnessedto in His life and death. He and they stand
also in the same relation to the world. At this very moment they are assembled
with shut doors, for fear of the Jews, who are triumphing over Him as dead.
But to that world, which will hate, persecute, andkill them, as it had hated,
persecuted, and killed Him, they are sentas He was sent; they are to declare
forgiveness, mercy, love, peace, as He had declaredthem, to every heart that
does not harden itself againstthem; and they are to find in His presence, as
He had ever found in the Father’s presence, the support which will ever bring
peace to their ownhearts (John 14:27).
And when he had said this, he breathed on them.—The word rendered
“breathed” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, but was familiar from
its use in the Greek (LXX.) of Genesis 2:7. St. John uses to describe this actof
the risen Lord the striking word which had been used to describe the actby
which God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. He writes as one
who remembered how the influence of that moment on their future lives was a
new spiritual creation, by which they were called, as it were, out of death into
life. It was the first stepin that great moral change which passedover the
disciples after the Crucifixion, and of which the day of Pentecostwitnessedthe
accomplishment.
And saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.—Thesewords are not, on
the one hand, to be understood as simply a promise of the future gift of the
Holy Ghost, for they are a definite imperative, referring to the moment when
they were spoken;nor are they, on the other hand, to be taken as the
promised advent of the Paraclete(John14:16 et seq.), for the gift of the Holy
Ghostwas not yet, because Jesuswas notyet glorified (John 7:39; John 16:7 et
seq.). The meaning is that He then gave to them a sign, which was itself to
faithful hearts as the firstfruits of that which was to come. His act was
sacramental, and with the outer and visible signthere was the inward and
spiritual grace. The very word used was that used when He said to them,

“Take (receive ye), eat;this is My body” (Matthew 26:26;Mark 14:22). It
would come to them now with a fulness of sacredmeaning. The RisenBody is
present with them. The constantspiritual Presencein the personof the
Paraclete is promised to them. They againhear the words “Receive ye,” and
the very command implies the power to obey. (Comp. Excursus C: The
SacramentalTeaching ofSt. John’s Gospel, p. 556.)
MacLaren's Expositions
John
THE RISEN LORD’S CHARGE AND GIFT
John 20:21 - John 20:23.
The day of the Resurrectionhad been full of strange rumours, and of growing
excitement. As evening fell, some of the disciples, at any rate, gathered
together, probably in the upper room. They were brave, for in spite of the
Jews they dared to assemble;they were timid, for they barred themselves in
‘for fear of the Jews.’No doubt in little groups they were eagerlydiscussing
what had happened that day. Fuel was added to the fire by the return of the
two from Emmaus. And then, at once, the buzz of conversationceased, for‘He
Himself, with His human air,’ stoodthere in the midst, with the quiet greeting
on His lips, which might have come from any casualstranger, and minimised
the separationthat was now ending: ‘Peacebe unto you!’
We have two accounts of that evening’s interview which remarkably
supplement eachother. They deal with two different parts of it. John begins
where Luke ends. The latter Evangelistdwells mainly on the disciples’fears
that it was some ghostly appearance thatthey saw, and on the removal of

these by the sight, and perhaps the touch, of the hands and the feet. John says
nothing of the terror, but Luke’s accountexplains John’s statementthat ‘He
showedthem His hands and His side,’ and that, ‘Then were the disciples
glad,’ the joy expelling the fear. Luke’s accountalso, by dwelling on the first
part of the interview, explains what else is unexplained in John’s narrative,
viz. the repetition of the salutation, ‘Peace be unto you!’ Our Lord thereby
marked off the previous portion of the conversationas being separate, anda
whole in itself. Their doubts were dissipated, and now something else was to
begin. They who were sure of the risen Lord, and had had communion with
Him, were capable of receiving a deeper peace, andso ‘Jesus saidto them
again, Peace be unto you!’ and thereby inaugurated the secondpart of the
interview.
Luke’s accountalso helps us in another and very important way. John simply
says that ‘the disciples were gatheredtogether,’and that might mean the
Eleven only. Luke is more specific, and tells us what is of prime importance
for understanding the whole incident, that ‘the Eleven. . . and they that were
with them’ were assembled. This interview, the crown of the appearances on
EasterDay, is marked as being an interview with the assembledbody of
disciples, whom the Lord, having scatteredtheir doubts, and laid the deep
benediction of His peace upon their hearts, then goes on to invest with a
sacredmission, ‘As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you’; to equip
them with the neededpower, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost’; and to unfold to
them the solemnissues of their work, ‘Whose sins ye remit they are remitted;
and whose sins ye retain they are retained.’ The messageofthat Easter
evening is for us all; and so I ask you to look at these three points.
I. The Christian Mission.
I have already said that the clearunderstanding of the persons to whom the
words were spoken, goes farto interpret the significance of the words. Here

we have at the very beginning, the greatthought that every Christian man
and woman is sent by Jesus. The possessionofwhat precededthis charge is
the thing, and the only thing, that fits a man to receive it, and whoever
possesses these is thereby despatchedinto the world as being Christ’s envoy
and representative. And what are these preceding experiences? The vision of
the risen Christ, the touch of His hands, the peace that He breathed over
believing souls, the gladness that sprang like a sunny fountain in the hearts
that had been so dry and dark. Those things constituted the disciples’
qualification for being sent, and these things were themselves-evenapart from
the Master’s words-theirsending out on their future life’s-work. Thus,
whoever-andthank God I am addressing many who come under the
category!-whoeverhas seenthe Lord, has been in touch with Him, and has felt
his heart filled with gladness, is the recipient of this great commission. There
is no question here of the prerogative of a class, norof the functions of an
order; it is a question of the universal aspectof the Christian life in its relation
to the Masterwho sends, and the world into which it is sent.
We Nonconformists pride ourselves upon our freedom from what we call
‘sacerdotalism.’Ay! and we Nonconformists are quite willing to assertour
priesthood in opposition to the claims of a class, and are as willing to forget it,
should the question of the duties of the priest come into view. You do not
believe in priests, but a greatmany of you believe that it is ministers that are
‘sent,’ and that you have no charge. Officialismis the dry-rot of all the
Churches, and is found as rampant amongstdemocratic Nonconformists as
amongstthe more hierarchicalcommunities. Brethren! you are included in
Christ’s words of sending on this errand, if you are included in this greeting of
‘Peace be unto you!’ ‘I send,’ not the clericalorder, not the priest, but ‘you,’
because you have seenthe Lord, and been glad, and heard the low whisper of
His benediction creeping into your hearts.
Mark, too, how our Lord reveals much of Himself, as well as of our position,
when He thus speaks.ForHe assumes here the royal tone, and claims to

possessas absolute authority over the lives and work of all Christian people as
the Fatherexercisedwhen He sent the Son. But we must further ask ourselves
the question, what is the parallel that our Lord here draws, not only between
His actionin sending us, and the Father’s actionin sending Him, but also
betweenthe attitude of the Son who was sent, and of the disciples whom He
sends? And the answeris this-the work of Jesus Christ is continued by,
prolonged in, and carried on henceforwardthrough, the work that He lays
upon His servants. Mark the exact expressionthat our Lord here uses. ‘As My
Father hath sent,’that is a past action, continuing its consequencesin the
present. It is not ‘as My Father did send once,’but as ‘My Father hath sent,’
which means ‘is also at present sending,’ and continues to send. Which being
translated into less technicalphraseologyis just this, that we here have our
Lord presenting to us the thought that, though in a new form, His work
continues during the ages, andis now being wrought through His servants.
What He does by another, He does by Himself. We Christian men and women
do not understand our function in the world, unless we have realisedthis:
‘Now, then, we are ambassadorsforChrist’ and His interests and His work
are entrusted to our hands.
How shall the servants continue and carry on the work of the Master? The
chief way to do it is by proclaiming everywhere that finished work on which
the world’s hopes depend. But note,-’as My Father hath sent Me, so send I
you,’-then we are not only to carry on His work in the world, but if one might
venture to say so, we are to reproduce His attitude towards God and the
world. He was sentto be ‘the Light of the world’; and so are we. He was sent
to ‘seek and to save that which was lost’; so are we. He was sentnot to do His
own will, but the will of the Father that sent Him; so are we. He took upon
Himself with all cheerfulness the office to which He was appointed, and said,
‘My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me,-andto finish His work’;and
that must be our voice too. He was sentto pity, to look upon the multitudes
with compassion, to carry to them the healing of His touch, and the sympathy
of His heart; so must we. We are the representatives ofJesus Christ, and if I
might dare to use such a phrase, He is to be incarnatedagain in the hearts,
and manifested againin the lives, of His servants. Many weak eyes, that would

be dazzled and hurt if they were to gaze on the sun, may look at the clouds
cradled by its side, and dyed with its lustre, and learn something of the
radiance and the glory of the illuminating light from the illuminated vapour.
And thus, ‘as My Fatherhath sent Me, even so send I you.’
Now let us turn to
II. The Christian Equipment.
‘He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost!’ The symbolical
actionreminds us of the Creationstory, when into the nostrils was breathed
‘the breath of life, and man became a living soul.’The symbol is but a symbol,
but what it teaches us is that every Christian man who has passedthrough the
experiences whichmake him Christ’s envoy, receives the equipment of a new
life, and that that life is the gift of the risen Lord. This Prometheus came from
the dead with the spark of life guarded in His pierced hands, and He bestowed
it upon us; for the Spirit of life, which is the Spirit of Christ, is granted to all
Christian men. Dearbrethren! we have not lived up to the realities of our
Christian confession, unless into our death has come, and there abides, this
life derived from Jesus Himself, the communication of which goes along with
all faith in Him.
But the gift which Jesus brought to that group of timid disciples in the upper
room did not make superfluous the further gift on the day of Pentecost. The
communication of the divine Spirit to men runs parallel with, depends on, and
follows, the revelationof divine truth, so the ascendedLord gave more of that
life to the disciples, who had been made capable of more of it by the factof
beholding His ascension, thanthe risen Lord could give on that EasterDay.
But whilst thus there are measures and degrees, the life is given to every
believer in correspondence withthe clearnessand the contents of his faith.

It is the powerthat will fit any of us for the work for which we are sentinto
the world. If we are here to representJesus Christ, and if it is true of us that
‘as He is, so are we, in this world,’ that likeness canonly come about by our
receiving into our spirits a kindred life which will effloresce andmanifest
itself to men in kindred beauty of foliage and of fruit. If we are to be ‘the
lights of the world,’ our lamps must be fed with oil. If we are to be Christ’s
representatives, we must have Christ’s life in us. Here, too, is the only source
of strength and life to us Christian people, when we look at the difficulties of
our task and measure our own feebleness againstthe work that lies before us.
I suppose no man has ever tried honestly to be what Christ wished him to be
amidst his fellows, whetheras preacheror teacheror guide in any fashion,
who has not hundreds of times claspedhis hands in all but despair, and said,
‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ That is the temper into which the power
will come. The rivers run in the valleys, and it is the lowly sense of our own
unfitness for the task which yet presses upon us, and imperatively demands to
be done, that makes us capable of receiving that divine gift.
It is for lack of it that so much of so-called‘Christianeffort’ comes to nothing.
The priests may pile the woodupon the altar, and compass it all day long with
vain cries, and nothing happens. It is not till the fire comes downfrom heaven
that sacrifice and altar and wood and water in the trench, are licked up and
convertedinto fiery light. So, dear brethren! it is because the Christian
Church as a whole, and we as individual members of it, so imperfectly realise
the A B C of our faith, our absolute dependence on the inbreathed life of Jesus
Christ, to fit us for any of our work, that so much of our work is ploughing the
sands, and so often we labour for vanity and spend our strength for nought.
What is the use of a mill full of spindles and looms until the fire-born impulse
comes rushing through the pipes? Then they begin to move.
Let me remind you, too, that the words which our Lord here employs about
these greatgifts, when accuratelyexamined, do lead us to the thought that we,

even we, are not altogetherpassive in the reception of that gift. For the
expression, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost’ might, with more completeness of
signification, be rendered, ‘take ye the Holy Ghost.’True, the outstretched
hand is nothing, unless the giving hand is stretchedout too. True, the open
palm and the clutching fingers remain empty, unless the open palm above
drops the gift. But also true, things in the spiritual realm that are given have
to be askedfor, because asking opens the heart for their entrance. True, that
gift was given once for all, and continuously, but the appropriation and the
continual possessionofit largely depend upon ourselves. There must be desire
before there canbe possession. If a man does not take his pitcher to the
fountain the pitcher remains empty, though the fountain never ceasesto
spring. There must be taking by patient waiting. The old Friends had a lovely
phrase when they spoke about‘waiting for the springing of the life.’ If we hold
out a tremulous hand, and our cup is not kept steady, the falling waterwill not
enter it, and much will be spilt upon the ground. Wait on the Lord, and the
life will rise like a tide in the heart. There must be a taking by the faithful use
of what we possess. ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ There must be a taking
by careful avoidance of what would hinder. In the winter weatherthe water
supply sometimes fails in a house. Why? Becausethere is a plug of ice in the
service-pipe. Some of us have a plug of ice, and so the water has not come,
‘Take the Holy Spirit!’
Now, lastly, we have here
III. The Christian power over sin.
I am not going to enter upon controversy. The words which close our Lord’s
greatcharge here have been much misunderstood by being restricted. It is
eminently necessaryto remember here that they were spokento the whole

community of Christian souls. The harm that has been done by their
restriction to the so-calledpriestly function of absolutionhas been, not only
the monstrous claims which have been thereon founded, but quite as much the
obscurationof the large effects that follow from the Christian discharge by all
believers of the office of representing Jesus Christ.
We must interpret these words in harmony with the two preceding points, the
Christian mission and the Christian equipment. So interpreted, they lead us to
a very plain thought which I may put thus. This same Apostle tells us in his
letter that ‘Jesus Christ was manifested to take awaysin.’ His work in this
world, which we are to continue, was ‘to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself.’ We continue that work when,-as we have all, if Christians, the right
to do-we lift up our voices with triumphant confidence, and callupon our
brethren to ‘behold the Lamb of God which takethawaythe sin of the world!’
The proclamationhas a twofold effect, according as it is receivedor rejected;
to him who receives it his sins melt away, and the preacher of forgiveness
through Christ has the right to say to his brother, ‘Thy sins are forgiven
because thou believeston Him.’ The rejecteror the neglecterbinds his sin
upon himself by his rejectionor neglect. The same messageis, as the Apostle
puts it, ‘a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.’ These words are the
best commentary on this part of my text. The same heat, as the old Fathers
used to say, ‘softens waxand hardens clay.’ The message ofthe word will
either couch a blind eye, and let in the light, or draw another film of
obscurationover the visual orb.
And so, Christian men and women have to feel that to them is entrusted a
solemn message, thatthey walk in the world chargedwith a mighty power,
that by the preaching of the Word, and by their own utterance of the forgiving
mercy of the Lord Jesus, they may ‘remit’ or ‘retain’ not only the punishment
of sin, but sin itself. How tender, how diligent, how reverent, how-not bowed
down, but-erect under the weight of our obligations, we should be, if we
realisedthat solemnthought!

BensonCommentary
John 20:21-23. Thensaid Jesus again, Peace be unto you — This is the
foundation of the mission of a true gospelminister; peace in his own soul, in
consequence ofhis having receivedpardoning mercy from God through
Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:1. As my Fatherhath sent me, even so send I you —
Christ was the apostle of the Father, Hebrews 3:1 : Peterand the restthe
apostles ofChrist. And when he had saidthis, he breathed on them — In a
solemn manner, communicating unto them new life and vigour; and saith
unto them — As ye receive this breath out of my mouth, so receive ye — That
is, ye shall receive;the Holy Ghost — Out of my fulness, in his various graces
and gifts, influencing your minds and hearts in a peculiar manner, and fitting
you for your greatand important embassy. He refers chiefly to those
extraordinary influences of the Spirit which they were to receive at the
following pentecost. Whose soeversins ye remit — According to the tenor of
the gospel;that is, supposing them to repent and believe; they are remitted;
and whose soeversins ye retain — Supposing them to remain impenitent and
unbelieving; they are retained — So far is plain: but here arises a difficulty.
Are not the sins of one who truly repents and unfeignedly believes in Christ,
remitted without the absolutionby Christ’s ministers here spokenof? And are
not the sins of one who does not repent and believe, retained even with it?
What then does this commissionimply? Can it imply any more than, 1st, A
powerof declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon, whose sins
are remitted and whose retained? as is done in the form of absolution
containedin our church service: and, 2d, A powerof inflicting and remitting
ecclesiasticalcensures?that is, of excluding from, and readmitting into, a
Christian congregation?See note on Matthew 16:19. Some, indeed, are of
opinion, that something further than this is intended in this commission, as
given to the apostles, namely, the gift of discerning the spirits of men in such
perfection, as to be able to declare with certainty to particular persons in
question whether or not they were in a state of pardon and acceptancewith
God; and it must be acknowledgedthat such a gift was doubtless conferredin
certain casesonsome, if not on many, of the first ministers of Christ, 1
Corinthians 12:10.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:19-25 This was the first day of the week, andthis day is afterwards often
mentioned by the sacredwriters;for it was evidently setapart as the
Christian sabbath, in remembrance of Christ's resurrection. The disciples had
shut the doors for fear of the Jews;and when they had no such expectation,
Jesus himself came and stoodin the midst of them, having miraculously,
though silently, opened the doors. It is a comfort to Christ's disciples, when
their assemblies canonly be held in private, that no doors canshut out
Christ's presence. WhenHe manifests his love to believers by the comforts of
his Spirit, he assures them that because he lives, they shall live also. A sight of
Christ will gladden the heart of a disciple at any time; and the more we see of
Jesus, the more we shall rejoice. He said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, thus
showing that their spiritual life, as wellas all their ability for their work,
would be derived from him, and depended upon him. Every word of Christ
which is receivedin the heart by faith, comes accompaniedby this Divine
breathing; and without this there is neither light nor life. Nothing is seen,
known, discerned, or felt of God, but through this. After this, Christ directed
the apostles to declare the only method by which sin would be forgiven. This
powerdid not exist at all in the apostles as a power to give judgment, but only
as a power to declare the characterof those whom God would acceptor reject
in the day of judgment. They have clearly laid down the marks whereby a
child of God may be discernedand be distinguished from a false professor;
and according to what they have declaredshall every case be decided in the
day of judgment. When we assemble in Christ's name, especiallyon his holy
day, he will meet with us, and speak peace to us. The disciples of Christ should
endeavour to build up one another in their most holy faith, both by repeating
what they have heard to those that were absent, and by making known what
they have experienced. Thomas limited the Holy One of Israel, when he would
be convinced by his own method or not at all. He might justly have been left in
his unbelief, after rejecting such abundant proofs. The fears and sorrows of
the disciples are often lengthened, to punish their negligence.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
As my Father hath sentme - As God sent me to preach, to be persecuted, and
to suffer; to make known his will, and to offer pardon to men, so I send you.
This is the designand the extent of the commissionof the ministers of the

Lord Jesus. He is their model; and they will be successfulonly as they study
his characterand imitate his example. This commissionhe proceeds to
confirm by endowing them all with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
21. Then said Jesus—preparednow to listen to Him in a new character.
Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sentme, so send I you—(See on
[1918]Joh17:18).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Peace be unto you; the repeating of this salutation speakethit more than an
ordinary compliment, or form of salutation. It signifieth his reconciliationto
them, notwithstanding their error in forsaking him, and fleeing; it prepared
their attention for the great things that he was now about to speak to them; it
also signified, that he was about to preach the gospelof peace to all nations.
As my Father hath sentme, even so send I you; I have now fulfilled my
ministry, and am now going to my Father who sentme: now by the same
authority that I am sent, I send you, to gather, instruct, and govern my
church; I send, or I will send, you clothed with the same authority with which
I am clothed, and for the same ends in part for which I was sent.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then said Jesus to them again,.... The words he said before:
peace be unto you; which he repeated, to put them out of their fright, by
reasonof which they returned him no answer;and to raise and engage their
attention to what he was about to say; and to pacify their consciences,
distressedwith a sense of their conduct towards him; and with a view to the
Gospelof peace, he was now going to send them to preach:
as my Fatherhath sent me, even so send I you; Christ's missionof his
disciples, supposes powerin him, honour done to them, authority put upon
them, qualifications given them, and hence success attendedthem; what they

were sent to do, was to preach the Gospel, convertsinners, build up saints,
plant churches, and administer ordinances. The pattern of their mission, is the
mission of Christ by his Father, which was into this world, to do his will,
preach the Gospel, work miracles, and obtain eternalredemption for his
people; and which mission does not suppose inferiority in his divine person,
nor change of place, but harmony and agreementbetweenthe Father and
Son: the likeness ofthese missions lies in these things; their authority is both
divine; they are both sent into the same place, the world; and in much the
same condition, mean, despicable, hated and persecuted;and in part for the
same end, to preachthe Gospel, and work miracles, for the confirmation of it;
but not to obtain redemption, that being a work done solelyby Christ; in
which he has no partner, and to whom the glory must be only ascribed
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(21) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you.—These words may be
here a solemn repetition of the greeting in John 20:19, by which our Lord’s
own messageofpeace is immediately connectedwith that which the Apostles
were to deliver to the world. It is, however, more natural to understand the
words in John 20:19 as those of greeting, and these as words of farewell.
(Comp. John 14:27.) Other words had intervened, as we know from St. Luke’s
narrative. He is now about to withdraw the evidence of His presence from
them, and does so with the customary “Shalōm;” but with this He reminds
them of the apostleshipto which He has calledthem, gives them an earnestof
the Presencewhichwill never leave them, but always qualify them for it (John
20:22), and places before them the greatnessofthe work to which He sends
them (John 20:23).
As my (better, the) Father hath sentme, even so send I you.—Comp. Note on
John 17:18, where the words occur in prayer to the Father. As spokenhere to
the disciples ‘they are the identification of them with Himself in His
mediatorial work. He is the greatApostle (Hebrews 3:1); they are
ambassadors forChrist, to whom He commits the ministry of reconciliation
(2Corinthians 5:18 et seq.). He stands in the same relation to the Fatheras

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