The Vision (8.9.24): The Keys of the Kingdom

 

Note: Devotional message taken from last Sunday afternoon's sermon on Matthew 16:16-19.

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be found in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

On Sunday afternoons in 2024 at CRBC we have been working our way through the Heidelberg Catechism (as supplemented by the Baptistic revision of it known as the Orthodox Catechism). This Catechism provides 119 questions and answers divided into the 52 Lord’s Days of the year.

Last Sunday, on Lord’s Day 31 (Questions 83-85), the teaching addressed the “keys of the kingdom.”

I don’t need to tell you that we live in an anti-authoritarian age. Every authority it seems is under question in our day. This includes the authority of the parents in the home, the elders in the church, the magistrate in society. Many are even challenging the authority and integrity of Holy Scripture itself.

On Lord’s Day 31, our instructors teach us about a special authority that has been given to the Lord’s church and to her officers for the spiritual good of all. This is symbolized by the image of keys, the keys of the kingdom. With a key one opens a door or locks it.

This authority is traced first to Christ’s instructions to Peter after he made “the good confession” that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (see Matthew 16:16-19). Second, it is traced to our Lord’s later instructions to the disciples in Matthew 18:15-20. This second passage is necessary for understanding the first, because it makes plain this authority, the keys, was given not only to Peter (as our Roman Catholic friends like to suggest), but to all the apostles, upon whom the church would be built, the Lord Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. After the apostles it was given to the churches of Christ, as served by their ordinary officers.

The catechism teaches that the “keys of the kingdom” (authority in in the administration in the kingdom of Christ) is twofold. It consists of preaching and Christian discipline.

The magisterial Reformers used to speak of three marks of a true church: right preaching of the gospel, right administration of the sacraments (ordinances), and right exercise of discipline (discipleship). If a church lacks any of these three it is vulnerable to disqualification as a church.

With respect to discipline, we typically think of two kinds: formative and corrective. Formative discipline takes place through ordinary interactions, encouragements, and exhortations. Corrective discipline is more rarely used, as it is reserved for serious faults that require an unrepentant person to be removed (excommunicated) from the church and its ordinances until restoration might be achieved. A church will be unhealthy if it never exercises this kind of discipline, but also if it does so too often or, especially, unjustly.

The visible church is given real authority on earth. This is truly a sober and grave authority, and so it is not to be taken up lightly. Let us exercise this authority carefully and justly.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Piper and Grudem wrangle over baptism and church membership

John Piper had an interesting post on his Desiring God site yesterday (August 9) responding to Wayne Grudem on the issue of baptism and church membership [Thanks for the tip Howard!].

Grudem has apparently rewritten part of his Systematic Theology in its latest edition to frown on churches not taking a clear stand on baptismal standards for church membership. Piper pleads, "But, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, why did you rewrite page 983?" Piper makes the same claim he has made earlier that to exclude a person from Baptist church membership who has only experienced infant baptism is "virtually the same as excommunication."

He also goes on to say that (if his church would allow it) he would welcome paedobaptists like Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, R. C. Sproul, or Philip Ryken into membership.

The site also posted Grudem's response. Grudem reminds Piper that denial of church membership is not excommunication. He also makes clear that baptism is required for church membership and states clearly that he would not support a church which practices an either-or policy with regard to infant baptism or believer's baptism. I wish he had asked how the paedobaptist luminaries Piper listed would feel about being included in membership but excluded from eldership in Piper's plan.

I was a bit brothered, however, by Grudem's description of his own church's practice that allows non-members to lead home fellowship groups and his dismissal of churches that exclude those who have not experienced believer's baptism from the Lord's table as a practice of "very few of the most strict Baptist churches."

For my much longer and detailed response to Piper's maverick ecclesiological views, listen to this audio file.

JTR