Reformed Dogmatics Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation by Herman Bavinck

Author:Herman Bavinck [Bavinck, Herman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

New Ecclesial Power

[508] When Jesus, coming to his own home, was not received by his own people, he organized his disciples into an ἐκκλησια (ekklēsia) that, hoping and suffering, had to await his second coming and the victory over all his enemies. In its organization and worship, this church community, while it does bear some resemblance to the synagogue, is nevertheless a much more free and independent organization of the new life that Christ introduced.3 There can be no doubt that Christ founded such a church community and entrusted to it a certain power. After all, he himself speaks of it as having been so solidly based on a rock that the gates of hell will in no way prevail against it (Matt. 16:18), and further, he gives to those church communities offices, ministries, institutions, and gifts (Rom. 12:6ff.; 1 Cor. 12–14; Eph. 4:11), all of which indicate that they have their own free and independent existence and their own independent organization.

But this power that Christ furnishes his church has a special character. It consists in nothing other, but also in nothing less, than the power of the keys that was first accorded by Christ to Peter (Matt. 16:19). After first calling Peter a rock on account of his confession that Jesus was the Messiah, a rock, that is, on which Jesus would build his church, he then proceeds (v. 19) to appoint him a house steward (οἰκονομος, oikonomos) of the kingdom of heaven and entrust him with the keys of that kingdom. Keys are a sign of control or mastery (Isa. 22:22; Luke 11:52; Rev. 1:18; 3:7; 9:1; 20:1) and here denote the power of Peter to “open” and to “close” the kingdom of heaven, that is, to determine what will or will not be in effect. Zahn correctly makes the comment that in this text it is not persons but actions that are the object of “binding” and “loosing.”4 The Aramaic words, which in Matthew have been translated by δεειν (deein) and λυειν (lyein) and in English by “binding” and “loosing,” signify “declaring something to be either permitted or prohibited,” and as a rule refer not to past but to future matters. Peter, accordingly, here receives from Jesus the power to determine—on the basis of or in agreement with his confession of Jesus as the Christ—what will or will not be allowed in the kingdom of heaven that has been established here on earth and has its center in the church. And that ruling by Peter will have a weight of authority comparable to something said in heaven. Matthew 16:19, therefore, not only accords to Peter the right to exercise discipline but also the entire range of power that will soon also be entrusted to all the apostles (Matt. 18:18). To their word, the church of all ages will be bound (John 17:20; 1 John 1:3); there is no gospel other than that which was proclaimed by them (Gal. 1:8). Nevertheless, this power of the apostles does not merely extend to actions but does include the right to judge persons.

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