Can you explain John 20:23 and Matthew 16:19 in relation to the question of the disciples’ authority?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Key New Testament Themes’ (1996).

Well shall we start with John 20:19–23? Our Lord appeared on the first day of the week to the disciples when it was evening. He said, '"Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; and if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld."'

My approach to this would be, first to notice that this must be an exceedingly important thing. This 'if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; and if you withhold forgiveness, it is withheld' must be so vastly important in itself. Secondly, I notice it is connected with their mission: 'As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.' It is, in the third place, a connection established between the apostles and Christ. How did they get this? He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' The connection, the authority, is the Holy Spirit given to them by Christ. That's how it comes about, but what does it mean?

I would say that the best way to determine what it means is to read the Acts of the Apostles to start with. Here were the apostles sent by Christ, going out to the world. If this power of forgiving sin, so to speak, is so important a thing, do they show by their behaviour that they've understood it? Where do they exercise this power? That would be my question.

Some people have said that this power of binding and loosing of sins is the power the apostles had for disciplining the church. And they will quote you the story of Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5, who lied to the Holy Spirit. Peter, speaking to them seriously in the name of God, denounced their sin of lying to the Holy Spirit, and they fell down dead. And people say, 'There you are. There's a case of the apostles using their power to bind instead of forgive.' Well I would say that's very interesting. Is that all it means? That is just one incident in twenty-eight chapters of the doings of the apostles as they went out on their mission, and I would say that it is serious, but that's a very small thing if that's what it means.

The other thing that glares at you from every page of Acts is that the apostles went everywhere, proclaiming to people the conditions upon which they could be forgiven. They started on the day of Pentecost, when the crowds came round after Peter's sermon, and they were convicted by his preaching that they had murdered the Messiah. They were pricked to the heart and they came to Peter and said, 'What shall we do?' And Peter said, 'I tell you what you'll do, you'll repent. You'll be baptised in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. That's what you'll do.' Now we are in danger of failing to see something at that point. If somebody asked you, 'How can I be forgiven?' you would say, 'Well don't take it from me. I'll tell you what the Bible says. It says here in this epistle that you can have forgiveness through the blood of Christ.' Isn't that what you'd do?

That raises the question, who wrote the epistle? Well that was Peter. What authority had Peter to lay down conditions on which somebody can be forgiven, and what happens if folks aren't forgiven? Well that's exceedingly serious. Who says so? Well it says so in this epistle. But you say, 'Who wrote the epistle? Where did he get his authority from?' Do you see the point I'm making? If you ask me, I would refer to Scripture. If you asked Peter on the day of Pentecost, he didn't say, 'Well don't take it from me. Get me a Bible and we'll find out.' No. If you asked Peter on the day of Pentecost, 'How can I be forgiven?' he would stand there and tell you, 'What you'll do is you'll repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus unto forgiveness of sins.' If you were to say to him, 'And who are you to tell me that?' what would Peter say? 'I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ.' That I take to be the point, therefore, of the ceremony in the Upper Room. They were now to be sent out. As God had sent Christ, these men, the apostles, were to be sent out. He didn't just broadly state, 'Whosoever sins you forgive, they're forgiven.' He first breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'

The authority that they had is because (1) they were appointed by Christ as apostles and (2) they were given the Holy Spirit to anoint them and inspire them in their ministry. And when they wrote, and when they spoke, they not only spoke with the power of the Spirit, but when they wrote, they were holy men of God, borne along by God's Holy Spirit. Therefore their words are authoritative, in the sense in which if you or I write a commentary: it might be good, but we're simply commenting on Scripture. We don't have that authority the apostles had. So that, I would want to say, is a very big thing and its dimensions are big enough to satisfy my mind that that is what Christ must have meant. Not just an odd case of church discipline, but the annunciation before the whole world of the conditions upon which people of every clime, tongue and nation can be saved. Peter doesn't simply quote the Bible. No, he gives it to you on his apostolic authority and he will tell you straight what will happen if you don't repent.

This ties in with our Lord in John, in the Upper Room ministry, so-called, he likewise says to them, 'Now he that receives you, receives me'. He's talking to his apostles. 'He who rejects you, rejects me. If they reject me, they reject my Father who sent me. If they reject you, they're rejecting me.' He's talking in the first instance to his apostles. It is true if you ask the apostles how you may be forgiven, they will quote substantiating authority: 'To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins' (Acts 10:43). They will quote the prophets in substantiating evidence but they're not afraid to say, 'I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you—you've fallen away from grace' (Galatians 5:2–4, own trans.). They're conscious that they are apostles.