UNIT X - The Use of the Keys and The Office of the Holy Ministry

What is the Use of the Keys?
Repentance - The Crucial Issue
Christian Discipline
Excommunication - Tough Love in Action
The Office of the Holy Ministry
Concerning the Holy Ministry

WHAT IS THE USE OF THE KEYS?
The use of the keys is that special power and right which Christ gave to His church on earth, to forgive the sins of penitent sinners, but to refuse forgiveness to the impenitent as long as they do not repent.

WHERE IS THIS WRITTEN? The holy Evangelist John writes in chapter 20, "Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

HOW DOES A CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION USE THE KEYS? A Christian congregation with its called pastor uses the keys in accordance with Christ's command by forgiving those who repent of their sin and are willing to amend, and by excluding from the congregation those who are plainly impenitent that they may repent. I believe that, when this is done, it is as valid and certain in heaven also, as if Christ, our dear Lord, dealt with us Himself.

WHERE IS THIS WRITTEN? Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 18, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The Office of the Keys is the authority/responsibility which Christ has given to His Church on earth to preach the Word of God, to administer the Sacraments which He has instituted in the Word, and to forgive and to refuse to forgive sins. This authority/responsibility is specifically implemented in confession and absolution and, whenever necessary, in the process of Christian discipline. The authority of the keys is a spiritual power which operates not on the basis of physical coercion or outward force but only in and through the Word of God. The Augsburg Confession declares:

"Our teachers hold that according to the Gospel the power of the keys...is a power or command of God to preach the Gospel, to remit and retain sins, and to administer the sacraments...This power is exercised only by preaching and teaching the Gospel and by administering the sacraments either to many or to individuals, depending on one's calling. For it is not bodily things that are thus given, but rather such eternal things as eternal righteousness, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. These things cannot come about except through the ministry of the Word and sacraments... Inasmuch as the power of the church bestows eternal things and is exercised only through the ministry of the Word, it interferes with civil government as little as the art of singing interferes with civil government. For civil government is concerned with other things than the Gospel. The state protects not souls, but bodies and goods from manifest harm, and constrains men with the sword and physical penalties, while the Gospel protects souls from heresies, the devil, and eternal death." (Augsburg Confession, XVIII, 8-11)

Scripture uses three vived metaphors to describe the nature of this authority/responsibility. It is the power to: lock/unlock (Matthew 16:19); bind/loose (Matthew 16:19; 18:18); and, remit/retain (John 20:23).

The power of the keys to lock and unlock refers to the right to admit or deny entry into the dwelling place of God. "Keys symbolize the owner of a house or a city transferring responsibility to a steward or successor. When the owner of a building gives keys to an overseer to take responsibility on behalf of the whole family or enterprise, that amounts to a direct transfer of authority and agency. To be given the keys to the household of God is symbolically to be given authority to guide and govern the household in accord with the directives of the householder...The bearer of the keys has the legitimate power to open the gate of the house or city of God to the truly penitent by offering forgiveness, assuming the readiness of the penitent to abide in this wonderful dwelling place." (Thomas Oden, The Power of Corrective Love, p. 33) John Gerhardt, the great 17^th Century Lutheran teacher and theologian finds a beautiful appropriateness in this image.

"The church is the house of God (1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6). The Lord of the House is Christ, the Son of God (Hebrews 3:6). He is also its 'chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10), 'in whom the whole building being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord' (Ephesians 2:21). The family members in this house are all believers who have been 'built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.' In this house there are stored all the treasures and gifts that Christ has merited by His precious suffering and death; as, for example, divine grace, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life. Hence Irenaeus calls the church 'the true treasury of all gracious gifts.' the matron of this house is also the church, Christ's beloved bride (Psalm 68:13). The matron divides the spoils of the victory which Christ has wrested from His enemies. Nor do we dare to regard it as a contradiction that the church is regarded as the house of God and at the same time the matron of the house, for this si done from two different perspectives. The church is the house itself, because of the fact that God chooses to dwell there; it is the matron of the house because of its administration of the keys and God's love. For as the matron receives the keys, by which as a good and faithful manager she should open and close the storerooms of goods and other family necessities, so Christ has given the church the keys as His bride, who is to use them for remitting and retaining sins, indeed to open and close the kingdom of heaven." (Quoted in Church and Ministry, C.F.W. Walther)

The imagery of binding and loosing refers to the power to place one in captivity or to liberate him from that captivity. The bondage in question here is, of course, that of sin. By proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church has been given the ability to set the captive free. By contrast, in the face of continued impenitence, the church must announce judgment rather than forgiveness. Thus the captive remains in bondage and cannot be untied and set free. This is an image drawn directly from the rich prophetic heritage of the Old Testament.

"The terms bind and loose have as their background the Old Testament image of salvation as liberation from bondage. The Gospels report Jesus' words at the beginning of His public ministry, quoting from Isaiah, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to...proclaim release to the captives and...to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18, 19) The historical setting of these words is, of course, the deportation of captives in the exile and the hope of their liberation and return to their homeland. The words implied much more, however, than merely political liberation. In the prophetic mind they signified also deliverance from the sin for which the deportation was the judgment. Behind the political bondage stood an enslavement to those sins which the prophets from Amos to Jeremiah had condemned." (Marlin Jescke, Discipling the Brother)

Remitting or retaining is language that refers to the cancellation or continuation of a debt. Christ has paid the ransom price for the sins of mankind in His shed blood upon the cross. On the basis of that payment the church is now authorized to announce the cancellation of the debt of sin which man could never have paid for himself. When that redemption is refused in unbelief and impenitence the debt remains fully in force. The church must then forcefully remind the sinner that although he has spurned what Christ has done for him the stern demands of the Law must still be met. Before that Law, with its demand for absolute perfection, the sinner stands condemned.

When the church exercises the office of the keys she acts "in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ," with His full authority and power. This is true both of Holy Absolution's announcement of forgiveness and salvation, and of excommunication announcement of judgment and damnation. In reference to the Augsburg Confession declares: "At the same time the people are carefully as a great and precious thing. It is not the voice or word of the man who speaks it, but it is the Word of God, who forgives sin, for it is spoken in God's stead and by God's command." (AC,XXIV,3-4)

Repentance - The Crucial Issue

The critical issue in all this is repentance. In Scripture, repentance (Greek - metanoia) indicates a radical change of heart and mind followed by a moral and behavioral reformation of sinful life. Metanoia is a very powerful word which implies a fundamental coming to one's self (Luke 15:10), in which the sinner, by the power of the Holy Spirit, becomes intensely aware of sin as an offense to divine holiness and comes to loathe the power of sin within his life. One then turns away from sin in grief over the misdeeds that have been done and turns toward God, seeking pardon and forgiveness. Repentance is part and parcel of the daily reality of the Christian life. In the first of his famous "95 Theses" Martin Luther declares: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent!" (Matthew 4:17) he willed the entire life of believers to be on e of repentance. Psalm 51, the great Penitential Psalm of King David after his sin with Bathsheba is the Bible's classic statement of personal repentance. In the magnificent words of the Psalm, David abandons all pretense of personal justification, acknowledges the enormity of his offense against the holiness of God, and casts himself upon the mercy of his heavenly Father. The great preacher and theologian St. John Chrysostom distinguishes the following five componants in genuine repentance.

REPENTANCE

1. Recognition and Acknowledgment of Sin
2. Contrition (Sorrow for Sin)
3. Seek Forgiveness in Christ
4. Conscientious Resolve Not to Repeat the Sin
5. Willingness, Wherever Possible, to Undo the Damage of the Sin

Christian Discipline

When a brother or sister in Christ is living in manifest impenitent sin the community of God's people is obligated to implement the process of Christian discipline. The motive in this process must always be humble, Christlike love which earnestly desires the restoration of the brother. A church which fails to practice Christian discipline has failed to demonstrate that love to fellow believers in need. At the same time, a failure to practice Christian discipline undermines the integrity of our witness both to our own members and to the world around us.

The steps in this process are clearly deliniated by our Lord Himself in Matthew Chapter 18. The goal of each step in the process is to lead the sinner to repentance. When that goal has been achieved, the process is joyfully discontinued.

Steps in the Process of Christian Discipline (Matthew 18)
1. Private, individual contact with the sinner (vs. 15)
2. Contact with one or two witnesses (vs. 16)
3. Tell it to the church (vs. 17)
4. Excommunication (vs. 17)

Excommunication - Tough Love In Action

When all else fails, in one final desperate attempt to bring the sinner to his senses, so that he may come to recognize the dire spiritual peril into which he has placed himself, the church resorts to excommunication (Matthew 18:17; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; Titus 3:10-11).

Excommunication is the formal pronouncement by the church that because of persistent impenitence an individual who has failed to respond in all of the steps in the process of Christian discipline is no longer a believer. The excommunicant is expelled from the fellowship of the church and may no longer participate in the Lord's Supper. He is literally ex communio (Latin - outside of the communion). He is no longer a Christian and if he persists in his impenitence until death, he will not be saved. In the ancient church, the grim significance of excommunication was dramatically conveyed with the symbolism of the bell, the book, and the candle. When an excommunication was announced the church bell was tolled as for the dead to indicate that the excommunicant was spiritually dead. The chancel Bible was closed to represent the removal of the individual's name from the Book of Life in heaven. Finally, one of the altar candles was extinguished to show that the light of faith had gone out within the impenitent sinner's heart. If excommunication achieves its desired result, the sinner will recognize and repent of his sin and be restored to the fellowship of the church. (1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11)

The Office of the Holy Ministry

All the people of God in Christ Jesus are members of a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9) with direct access to the Father through His Son. Every Christian becomes a part of this "universal priesthood of all believers" at the time of his Baptism. The authority/responsibility of the Keys has been entrusted by God to His Church on earth. God Himself has established the office of the pastoral ministry for the public exercise of the office of the keys within the church on behalf of all. In a recent document on the ministry the Commission on Theology and Church Relation offered the following helpful observations:

"The Office of the Keys is "the peculiar church power which Christ has given to His church on earth." It belongs to the whole church. However, its exercise is not left merely to the efforts of individual Christians or to the uncertain ventures of self-starting, charismatic individuals. The church, as a single congregation or as a group of congregations, must call and authorize certain of its members to function publicly on its behalf. The public ministry, it is here maintained is not a mere human arrangement or the product of sociological evolution, but a divine arrangement from the beginning of the New Testament Church." (CTCR, The Ministry, 1981)

The Augsburg Confession affirms: "That we may obtain this faith (namely that we are justified by grace through faith for the sake of Christ) the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as though thru instruments, the Holy Ghost is given who works faith, where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel." The authority/responsibility of the pastoral office is to preach the Gospel, to administer the Sacraments, to pronounce Holy Absolution to the penitent and to implement Biblical Church Discipline for the admonition and restoration of the impenitent.

The Bible clearly establishes the requisite qualifications for those who would serve in the pastoral office (cf. 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9). In the ancient traditions of the church, those who are judged to have met those qualifications, and have received a call from a congregation are set apart for the work of ministry by a ceremony called "ordination."

Concerning the Holy Ministry
by C.F.W. Walther, 1852

THESIS I
The holy ministry or pastoral office is an office distinct from the priesthood of all believers.

THESIS II
The ministry of the Word or the pastoral office is not a mere human institution but an office that God Himself has established.

THESIS III
The ministry is not an arbitrary office but one whose establishment has been commanded to the church and to which the church is ordinarily bound until the end of time.

THESIS IV
The ministry is not a special, or, in opposition to that of ordinary Christians, a more holy state, as was the Levitical priesthood, but it is a ministry of service.

THESIS V
The public ministry has the power to preach the Gospel and administer the holy sacraments as well as the power of spiritual judgment.

THESIS VI
The ministry of the Word is conferred by God through the congregation as the possessor of all ecclesiastical power, or the power of the keys, by means of its call, which God Himself has prescribed. The ordination of those who are called with the laying on of hands is not a divine institution but merely an ecclesiastical rite established by the apostles; it is no more than a solemn public confirmation of the call.

THESIS VII
The holy ministry is the power conferred by God through the congregation as the possessor of the priesthood and all church power to exercise the rights of the spiritual priesthood in public office in the name of the congregation.

THESIS VIII
The pastoral ministry is the highest office in the church, and from it stem all other offices in the church.

THESIS IX
To the ministry there is due respect as well as unconditional obedience when the pastor uses God's Word. The minister must not tyrannized the church. He has no authority to introduce new laws or arbitrarily to establish adiaphora or ceremonies. The minister has no right to inflict and carry out excommunication without his having first informed the whole congregation.

THESIS X
To the ministry of the Word, according to divine right, belongs also the duty to judge doctrine, but laymen also possess this right. Therefore, in ecclesiastical courts and councils they are accorded both a seat and a vote together with the clergy.

(From Church and Ministry by Dr. C.F.W. Walther, 1852)