The authority of the Church is bound in the person of Christ

So while it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send 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, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

John 20:19-23

Introduction

Does it ever seem confusing and convoluted how many Christian denominations there are? Why are some Christians Protestant while others are Catholic? And what about the Orthodox? Are Mormons Protestant or something else? What about the Jehovah’s witnesses?

Church splits invariably occur due to disagreements over doctrine. Sometimes those disagreements are linguistic; sometimes they are truly material; and sometimes they are hidden behind the stated disagreements. Throughout Church history, Christians have gathered together in council to address matters of doctrinal controversy. In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea was called to determine a firm stance on Christ’s divinity, for instance. Those of the Arian camp who claimed Christ was a created being were excommunicated, and never congealed into a coherent competing Church (many of their ideas were revived in 19th century America with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons who both deny Jesus is God).

But in AD 1054, a more significant controversy arose. In response to Arian sympathies in Spain, the western portion of the Church adapted the Nicene Creed to state the Holy Spirit, “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” That second portion, “and the Son,” was added to emphasize His divine nature and to exclude the Arians from sneaking into the Church. This was ratified by Pope Leo I without consulting the Eastern Churches. This unilateral alteration of the creed led to an event called The Great Schism which divided the Roman Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church. Functioning in much the same way prior to this change to the creed, the Church found herself split over a doctrinal matter that was never properly discussed or debated.

Fast forward to October 31, 1517 when a German monk proposed a set of 95 theses that would again shake up the Church. Martin Luther challenged many ideas that had been tacitly endorsed by Rome, including the practice of indulgences. This ultimately led to his excommunication along with a large group of Christians who agreed with his assessment. This birthed the Protestant Reformation, further dividing the Western Church.

An issue that became apparent after this was the ordination of clergy. Whether Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, clergy could be confident that if they were ordained by another who was ordained, that ordination could be traced back to an apostle. But the Protestants could not make this claim. Instead, the unity they claimed with the apostles was on the basis of baptism and the priesthood of all believers.

To the so-called “Apostolic Churches”, however, this seemed like grounds for instant dismissal. After all, Christ laid on the apostles the authority to forgive or retain sins, didn’t He?

Christ and His authority

Any and all authority is derived from God. Jesus’ authority was testified to by the Father who granted Him signs and wonders (John 5:19). Scripture is authoritative because it is given to us by God (2 Timothy 3:16). All governing authorities are to be obeyed on this same grounds (Romans 13:1).

But what about Church authorities? Why should they be obeyed? Commonly, the answer is that they were given that authority from Christ who appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, and they passed that authority along. In His glorified body, He entered a locked room and breathed on them, performing the same act that gave Adam life (Genesis 2:7).

Which comes first?

After this, He commanded them to receive the Holy Spirit. Then He told them, “if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” On the surface, this simple “if… then” conditional statement appears as though Jesus transferred the authority to retain or forgive sins onto the apostles. And so the argument goes that they then transferred this same authority to those whom they ordained, granting authority to priests and clergy today to declare your sins truly forgiven or truly retained.

But that is not the form this statement actually takes. Notice Jesus does not say “if you forgive the sins of any, their sins will be forgiven.” Instead, He says, “their sins have been forgiven.” The verb tense is past-perfect. That means it is already completed by the time the apostles get around to forgiving them! A way of stating something with a similar construction might be, “if you drink water, your glass has been filled.” Drinking water does not cause the glass to be filled; and in fact, the drinking is only possible because it was already filled.

Likewise, when Jesus breathes on the disciples and commands them to receive the Spirit, He is empowering them to recognize when someone’s sins have been forgiven or not. And that recognition is revealed to us in their writings (1 John 4:7-21; 2 Peter 1:5-10). We can know that someone is forgiven because he confesses the Lord Jesus Christ, and his life grows in conformity to Christ’s. Thus, the authority of local clergy does not fall in the binding or loosing of sin, but rather in the teaching of sound doctrine and instruction (2 Timothy 4:2).

This teaching, correcting, and shepherding was done by men who never received formal ordination because, just like every Christian who loves God’s scripture, they were guided by the Holy Spirit. Apollos famously taught about Christ even before he’d met a single apostle (Acts 18:24). And Justin Martyr, the Church Father whose record of liturgy is still used in many Churches, was never formally ordained himself. So even those Churches which claim Apostolic succession perform a liturgy given to them by one who did not possess the Apostolic succession they themselves claim!

The authority is entirely God’s. And He is able to grant it on the basis of faithfulness. He did this in the days of Israel’s apostasy, and continues to do so today. Do not be dissuaded from attending a faithful Church because of some arbitrary claim to authority found outside God’s own.

May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.