The Rock

…whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This phrase appears in Matthew twice, in 16:19 and 18:18.  The context of each passage is very different, but it is Jesus speaking both times.  Let us look at the first passage concerning Peter.  We’ll look at other Biblical references, at theories of the rock, and at the perspective of redemptive history.  We will likewise examine the second passage concerning the resolution of disputes.  We’ll look at the same three categories with this verse.  Finally, after taking a step back, with the backdrop of redemptive history in mind, we will examine this phrase in the larger context of Jesus’ work on the cross.  The idea of the Two Kingdoms will be used as a tool for understanding redemptive history.

In the first Matthew passage, Jesus is revealing part of his role in redemptive history.  The Son of Man is an OT name for the messiah.  While the phrase has a different meaning in Ezekiel, Daniel begins to change the meaning of the phrase in chapters 7 and 8.  It has eschatological meaning as the messiah from those passages.  Jesus always refers to himself as the Son of Man, using this messianic declaration.  Because it can also be viewed as a general reference to humanity, there can be confusion over the meaning.  In Matthew 16:16, Peter makes this direct link between the Son of Man and Jesus, and that He is the Christ, the messiah. 

It is interesting that there is actually discussion of the word rock after Jesus renames Simon as Peter or rock.  Many view this passage as stating that the church is built upon Peter specifically.  If Peter is the rock, specifically, why does Jesus undress him so severely in the same discussion in Matthew 16:23.  Others will say that the rock is the pronouncement by Peter that Jesus is the messiah.  Still others will refer to passages about the chief cornerstone, which are referenced in all of the Synoptics, and say that Jesus is referring to himself in this passage.  Let us stay with Peter for a moment, or perhaps Peter’s proclamation of Jesus, and continue onward.

The next verse starts with the reference to keys of the gates of heaven.  Who is receiving these keys?  It seems clear that this is initially granted to Peter.  The Roman Catholics use this verse as the grounds for Peter being the first Pope.  Peter is the first Apostle to preach to the Jews after Pentecost in Acts 2.  Peter is the first to preach to the Samaritans in Acts 8.  Peter is the first to preach to the Gentiles in Acts 10.  But Peter continues to report back to the Jerusalem council.  In fact, it seems in Acts 15 that James has the last word at that council.  Furthermore, in Ephesians 2:20, Paul is fleshing out this foundation idea with Jesus as the cornerstone and all of the Apostles and prophets forming the foundation.  Therefore, this office of preaching or proclaiming of the Gospel has been delegated to all of the Apostles early on in Acts, and eventually is delegated to others because the Apostles will certainly and eventually die.

Now there is a second aspect of the keys of heaven.  The Pharisees were in the habit of locking everyone out of the Holy of Holies, but Peter is charged with binding only some.  Those who he binds on earth will be bound in heaven.  Clearly, this is an office that must be passed onward as well as preaching.  Whether Jesus intended this to mean that Peter is in charge of church discipline or rather in the role of excommunication is difficult to ascertain from this passage alone.  In Galatians, Paul pronounced preachers of false gospel as accursed.  We will return to that passage later.  But let’s now go on to the other place that this first phrase appears, Matthew 18.

In Matthew 18, we are in a section concerning the resolution of disputes between Christians.  In this section, there is a discussion of witnesses and so forth.  Notice carefully the use of the word church in verse 17. 

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Therefore, when we arrive at verse 18, the antecedent of the pronoun you has become the church.  We all become responsible for the discipline of our brothers in Christ.  This is part of the Ministry of Reconciliation of which Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 5.  Not only are we to preach the Gospel, to teach about Christ’s reconciling us to Him by His work on the cross, but in doing so, we will also minister to each other in the church as part of the fruits of the Spirit.  We will help each other walk the walk.  These works are not works towards our justification.  These works are the necessary result of a people who recognize their sinful nature in Adam, but also know that through faith we are reconciled to Christ.

Notice John 20:23.  This occurs after Jesus reappears to the Apostles.  Whether or not Peter is the first to preach, it is clear that the office is given to all of the Apostles, and by extension, to all who are called to preach the Word and to give Absolution.  Two of the most important portions of the Sunday service are the Confession of sins and the  Absolution pronounced by the priest or pastor, parts of the service that are nonexistent in many Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.  Whether we look at these events as the actual loosening of these people in absolution for their sins, or as a mini drama of repentance and absolution through the justification provided by Jesus’ work on the cross, which occurs next in the service, it is important that God’s people are reminded each week that through faith in Jesus, we are justified, reconciled, offered atonement and propitiation, sanctified and saved.  Jesus was pretty busy on Easter.

How does a reformed person, of Covenant theology and Amillennial eschatology apply the concepts of the Two Kingdoms to these passages?  In Matthew 16, this is an eschatological passage, as Jesus is referring to himself as the Son of Man, a messianic title.  Therefore, this passage should be interpreted in terms of the Age to Come, or the Kingdom of Heaven.  The question here is whether verse 19 implies that Peter will pass judgment on individual men in terms of salvation.  Rome clearly reads this passage in that the Church and, more specifically, the Papacy, as the direct theological descendent of Peter, have this office.  The Reformation view does not agree.  The argument here is that Peter first, and then all of the Apostles, as per Ephesians 2:20 and John 20:23, are given the office of preacher, by which they spread the Word to the world, making salvation possible by the hearing of the Word and the movement of the Holy Spirit in elect hearers of this preaching.  The binding is not so much in terms of the denial of salvation, but rather in the correction of members of the church.  But this office of correction is not only given to the Apostles, and their preacher descendants, but to the church as a whole, as per Matthew 18:17.

And now, tying this into Matthew 18:18, a passage that is clearly about this Age and this world, Jesus here is discussing the settling of disputes on this earth.  He gives this authority to the church.  In this case, binding again becomes a question considering the action of making the offender be as a Gentile or tax collector.  Jesus used these same examples in Chapter 5 in a similar context.  It must be remembered that at this point in redemptive history, Jesus and the Apostles are preaching to Jews.  Therefore, these two groups represent outcasts, those considered unsaved under the Old Covenant.  One has to be careful in over reading Jesus’ intension in this section considering the company he keeps, the role of the tax collector in Luke 18, the ministry that comes first from Peter to the Gentiles, and the previous occupation of the Apostle Matthew (tax collector.) Still, the implication of discipline remains.

Therefore, in summary, we can say that this phrase

…whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

is a complex phrase in the Gospel of Matthew.  The interpretation can seem to mean several things.  What it is important to keep in mind are basic principles, particularly the Sovereignty of God.  Salvation is not an issue for man to determine.  Salvation is of God, by God, through God and at the whim of God.  This binding may be a delegation of some level of authority concerning the disciplining of the church membership, but it cannot mean a delegation of the determination of Salvation.  Even with Paul’s remarks in Galatians, let him be accursed is more of an expectation of an adverse judgment rather than actually rendering that judgment upon the false teachers.  The difference is huge.  And so, in the Age to Come, that began on Pentecost and will be fully realized on the Last Day, the Apostles and those that serve in the office of preacher are empowered to deliver the Word of God to the ends of the earth.  And in the Present Age, on this world, the church is charged with the discipline of its own membership.  Remember also that the church is charged with the teaching of Christ’s Ministry of Reconciliation, so that with discipline, we offer repentance and then receive reconciliation.

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