20:23
This verse can also cause problems, but they need not. All authority that the church has comes from God. Just as Jesus did only what He saw the Father do, so we are not to go about making things up for ourselves. Rather if we faithfully proclaim the gospel and someone receives the message, then they are forgiven. If someone refuses the gospel, then they are not forgiven. We do have authority to proclaim forgiveness and to tell people they are not forgiven, but only when we faithfully proclaim the gospel. Not when we make things up!
20:24,25
Now we have the encounter between Thomas and Jesus. We know Thomas as “doubting Thomas”, though the Bible never uses this term. Instead of criticising Thomas we may be better to be thankful that God is quite happy for someone to raise the questions that he does. Thomas had not been with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them. They told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, but Thomas said he would only believe it if he could see the reality of the wounds in Jesus, and even touch them. This really does give lie to the foolish notion that people were gullible and prepared to believe anything. They knew exactly what death meant, and were not prepared to believe any old twaddle.
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