Last week, we began our look at the issue of binding and loosing as found in Matthew 16:19 and again in 18:18.
Before we pick up where we left off, I’ll read the email that came on this:
Good morning Pastor Shane!
I have been slowly....... reading thru the book of Matthew.
1. The one thing that I’ve intended to ask you about is Mt 16:19. To what is Jesus referring?
*I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.*
Early on I was taught a certain thing about these verses, and then a while back on a message board, some ladies were discussing it and it blew me away that their explanation of the verse was WAY different than what I had been taught. Truely, when i reread it in context, I dont see what I would have expected to see, so I thought this would be a good one to ask you about. To me it is one of those verses that , as you’re reading along with understanding, and then come upon this verse, you sort of say to yourself.... *okay....*, meaning, what exactly does this mean?
Dina
This question has come up from three different individuals, so it obviously is one that is on people’s minds. This tells me there has been some difference in teaching and understanding of this passage.
I know of abuse of this scripture both intentional and unintentional.
I myself have been guilty of misapplying this scripture out of ignorance and not understanding the full context of what is being said here.
Like all scriptures, we must be sure we have a full grasp of what the actual meaning is and not what we want it to be to make a point or support what we are comfortable with.
With an open mind, let’s try to let go or “loose,” if you will, our preconceived ideas and even hopes for this text.
I hope no one is sitting there praying that I side with them in some debate over the meaning of Jesus’ words.
My intent as always is to get to the truth and show forth the reality of what has been recorded for us regardless of where that leads.
Like the other subjects we have delved into, this one is quite controversial, in fact, it is extremely controversial. It is very hard to get at the full meaning because there are so many variables within the translations we have. So hard in fact that many have tried to not only explain it, but to explain it away.
Let’s read the full passage in question: Matthew 16:13-20
Last week we backed up a bit and looked at two other things that are essential to making sure we take this passage in context:
Is Peter the rock on which the church is built?
What are the keys of heavn and who holds them?
Let me summarize these two with quick general answers as we spent extensive time on them last week.
First, Peter is the small rock placed as the first stone on Jesus the foundation rock upon which the church is built. This was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost as Peter preached the first salvation message and 3000 were saved.
Second the keys of heaven were not given to Peter exclusively at the moment of this conversation. The keys do not give authority, they give the right of access and the ability to show others the way. In fact, I maintain that Peter already had the key when it was revealed to Him by the Father who Jesus was/is and Jesus was acknowledging that and pointing out that the keys of heaven is really just the understanding and proclomation of Jesus as Son of God.
And now the part that all this has been leading up to:
19 ”and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
The surface reader will automatically assume it speaks of binding the works of spiritual forces, but a deeper study indicates otherwise.
Let’s look to the original words in question here:
First is “bind” or “deo” is used literally to bind or restrain only twice in Acts. Everywhere else it is used figuratively in various ways. There is not enough consitency from its use to declare with any certainty one meaning over another outside of the context around it as being figurative.
The second word is “luo” for loose. It’s use in scripture is broad being used literally, figuratively, even metaphorically and also gives no clear evidence of anything literal meant here.
There are not any literal keys to heaven. So it makes sense that Jesus is not speaking of literal binding and loosing, but of figurative binding and loosing.
Another form of the word “deo” is “dei” and implies the certainty of something as being bound to happen.
Like Jesus saying “It is finished,” even though the greatest work was yet to happen in human time as the resurrection was three days later. This being a far greater act and work than the crucifixion because it established God’s power over even death and the grave. When Jesus proclaimed it is finished, He did so in the perfext tense.
It was done in heaven, yet still needed to play out on earth, a certainty of action.
The same tense and application is found here in this passage.
The verbal forms “shall be bound” and “shall be loosed,” in the Greek New Testament, are perfect tense, passive voice participles. The periphrastic perfect tense suggests that the binding and loosing had already occurred, and the effects of that action would remain.
Let me read 19 again from the New American Standard Version which gives a slightly more precise translation of this verse:
19"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
Greek tense indicates that binding/loosing had already occurred; the apostles were to concur.
So we find this to not be a directive to heaven, but an agreement with what heaven is already doing.
We are even given an example of this in Matthew 18.
Jesus seems to be giving the authority to the apostles and thus the church to forgive or not forgive sins.
Verses 15-18
Unfortunately, some have misaaplied this verse and combined it with
John 20:23
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
There are those who contend that we determine who is forgiven and who is not.
That’s like pigs declaring one another has dirtyy or clean while they all wallow in the mud. “Hey pot, this is the kettle, you’re black.”
None of these verses give authority to Christians to forgive sins in any way shape or form.
Jesus was saying that the believer can boldly declare the certainty of a sinner’s forgiveness by the Father because of the work of His Son if that sinner has repented and believed the gospel. The believer with certainty can also tell those who do not respond to the message of God’s forgiveness through faith in Christ that their sins, as a result, are not forgiven.
We even find Peter doing this in Acts 10:43 as he declares sins forgiven in light of the revelation of the forgiveness of God being granted.
The sum of it all means that any duly constituted body of believers, acting in accord with God’s Word, has the authority to declare if someone is forgiven or unforgiven. The church’s authority is not to determine these things, but to declare the judgment of heaven based on the principles of the Word.
When they make such judgments on the basis of God’s Word, they can be sure heaven is in accord. In other words, whatever they "bind" or "loose" on earth is already "bound" or "loosed" in heaven.
When the church says the unrepentant person is bound in sin, the church is saying what God says about that person, or the actual condition of that person.
When the church acknowledges that a repentant person has been loosed from that sin, they are just stating what God has already done.
It’s us agreeing with God, not Him agreeing with us.
The church on earth carries out heaven’s decisions, not heaven ratifying the church’s decisions...
The periphrastic future perfects are then perfectly natural: Peter accomplishes this binding and loosing by proclaiming a gospel that has already been given and by making personal application on that basis...
Whatever he binds or looses will have been bound or loosed, so long as he adheres to that divinely disclosed gospel.
He has no more a direct pipeline to heaven than anyone else in Christ, still less do his decisions force heaven to comply; but he may be authoritative in binding and loosing because heaven has acted first.
Those he ushers in or excludes have already been bound or loosed by God according to the gospel already revealed. Peter or anyother believer is just stating it as having been recognized as an act already done.
Further, Matthew 16:19 cannot mean, as many in the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement are boldly asserting and teaching in seminars and books etc., that we have the power to bind the works of satanic forces, or even that we should.
We must also take into account other parts of scripture where we are taught and admonished not to have much to do with demonic forces, not even arguing with them, or accusing them, or undermining their intentions.
This because God is in charge, and how can we humans know if God may be using satanic forces at His will to do His will in various situations?
Therefore, if God is using satan or a demon to carry out something for His purpose, and we fight against that demon, do we not then fight against an act of God?
Before you storm out and declare heresy and Ichabod look with me to 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Here we have the Apostle Paul, a great man of God and very in tune with the spiritual realm. He gives us much of our teaching on “spiritual warfare” in Ephesians. He states that there is a messenger from Satan sent to torment him (or to harass Paul, or to harm him in some way).
Notice what Paul did about it and what he did not do. He went to the Lord 3 times, asking the Lord to make it depart from him.
He did not go to the latest seminar and get the right person to shout and scream and stomp and spit to exorcise whatever it was.
He did not even speak directly to the messenger and “bind” it in Jesus’ name.
He went to God! Paul realized that this messenger of satan may have been serving a specific purpose. Start of verse 7.
Paul did not dare attack this demon or whatever it was, or to be accusatory of it, or even to tell it to depart from him, but he went to God about it, trusting God to work out things in the spiritual realm.
This opens up a whole new discussion on spiritual warfare and casting out of demons which we do know we are to take part in, but in a limited role. This discussion is beyond the scope of our ability to go into tonight except to say that using this scripture or quoting it to bind or loose things spiritually would seem to be a misuse of its intent.
To sum this up:
I see verse as a directive to be in agreement with heaven, not to expect heaven to be in agreement with us.
And since the Greek syntax gives us no clear indications of the complete meaning here, it is best to see the role Jesus assigns in relation to His statement concerning foundations.
Christ is the foundation.
Peter has confessed Christ. Peter and the disciples were then commissioned to confess Christ before others. That confession, and how men respond to it, is truly the key to heaven.
A response of faith opens the door to new life in Christ. A rejection closes the door on life and confirms ultimate judgment.
We as believers and as a church universally have the authority to declare the trusth of sin and the condition of those in sin or forgiven based on the revelatory light of God’s written Word, thus lining us up with what heaven is doing making that which is bound on earth has already been bound in heavn and what is loosed on earth has already been bound in heaven. We just had to catch up.
Any application that goes much beyond that is on shaky ground at best and outright heresy at worst.
We only confess what God does, we do not direct it or determine it.
Always remember, it is God who is in charge, He is our boss, we do not take matters into our own hands, but we go to God about them.
