Part 1⤒🔗

I received a request from our churches to give attention to the application of the power of the keys in preaching. This is a question and an issue that should be important to all of us. I will generalize the concrete situation that an office bearer from our churches explained to me and can then deal with the matter itself from a general situation.

A preacher had a beautiful sermon on Psalm 23. But it struck the brother that in the sermon there was not any appeal to whether God was also our shepherd. It was tacitly assumed that for all listeners God is the shepherd. In a conversation with the preacher he said that he did not find it necessary to explicitly call to faith every Sunday or to exhort in every sermon. The power of the keys is only an issue when this particular Lord’s Day is dealt with (LD 31 of the Catechism). Even the Lord does not warn every time.

With this approach the person writing the letter had great difficulties. He knows that in our churches there are ministers who have the same opinion, although he acknowledges that many of our ministers bring the Word faithfully and proclaim the “two roads” with dual ends. The concern of the brother is that we get an “arrived” congregation; we are all saved. We should just thank the Lord for that. The brother has the impression that the church stands or falls with the application of the keys. “The ministers open wide all the doors of the kingdom, but to hear the other side (closed doors for those who do not believe) is difficult for some people.”

We deal here with an important matter! The issue is not new, but always relevant. Does every sermon have to a ministry of the keys of the kingdom? In other words, does every sermon need the warning that a man can be lost if he does not convert sincerely to and believe in Jesus Christ? Behind this lies the issue of how we should view the congregation. How do we as office bearers and especially as servants of the Word view the congregation? Is the congregation the community of believers? Is everyone in the congregation a child of God and does everyone in the community of believers share in the communion of faith with Christ Jesus? I still think that there is no one in our churches who operates from that point of view concerning the work of the office bearers. We all know that not all is Israel that is called Israel. Sadly, hypocrites and unbelievers are found in our congregations. There are people who are members of the congregation and in their hearts are alien to grace and even averse to a warning, discerning preaching. One must be blind not to see that, or one must be a stranger in one’s own congregation not to notice that. The question is: how do we deal with that? How must this biblical concept function in the preaching of the gospel?

It is completely clear, that the keys of the kingdom have been entrusted to the church of Christ in her official ministry. I mention the core text: Matthew 16:18, 19: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The same we read in Matthew 18:18: “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The same is stated in different words on John 20:23: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

And in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ we hear many times the warning that the life of a man can end in hell, in the outer darkness. It is not different in the letters of the New Testament. The book of Revelation pictures the reality of hell. Being lost and ending up in hell is not just a possibility or rather an impossible possibility; no, it is the full reality for every man who did not accept in his or her life the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ and who closed his heart to the glad tidings of salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Only via conversion to God, which is via a true faith in Jesus Christ, a man enters the kingdom of heaven with eternal bliss. Jesus is the only door.

What then is the power of the key that has been entrusted to the church in the service of its office? In Matthew 16 the keys of the kingdom are the indication of the authority that Christ gave to his apostles and in them to the church in the execution of its office. He who has keys has control over something. He can open something but also close the access. The authority that Christ gave to his church, he describes with the following words: “bind” and “loose.” That is to declare something allowed or forbidden. God will enforce the apostolic word in heaven. Prof J. VanGenderen writes in his Concise Reformed Dogmatics, “In summary, we can say that Matthew 16:19 and 18:18 speak about the authority to make binding judgments about entering the kingdom of God.” “In this world and time, decisions are made for eternity.”

Our confession speaks in Lord's Day 31 about the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The keys that the church must use are the preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline. By the use of these keys the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers and closed to unbelievers. From this description it shows very clearly that the preaching of the gospel – thus the Sunday preaching and all proclamation! – is the use of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Christ has ordered his church to use these keys. The exercise of the power of the keys refers back to the command of Christ. He has the keys, but at the same time he has given them to his church. That makes all the ministry of the office bearers in the congregation a responsible and often difficult work. This also means that the use of the keys must take place in every sermon. To say it even stronger: every sermon is the exercise of the power of the keys. How that should function practically will be dealt with in a following article.

Part 2←⤒🔗

The proclamation of the gospel opens the kingdom of heaven for believers and closes it for unbelievers. That’s how it is stated in our confession, Lord's Day 31. It deals here with the official application of the Word of God. The burden and the authority of Christ is connected to the preaching of the gospel. By means of the official proclamation of the gospel the eternal weal or woe for the hearers is being effected. Preaching never remains free of obligation. Listening to the proclamation of the gospel remains free of obligation neither. A preacher cannot think: I have proclaimed and now you have to decide what to do with it. Preaching also involves the urging to take the good decision. The good decision is not a choice between two options. Taking the good decision is the faithful accepting of the choice to which the Lord seriously calls us in his Word. Stated even more clearly: It is executing in one’s own heart that choice which the Lord commands us. The Lord even commands us to make the good decision.

The whole man is engaged in this. This good choice no one makes against his wish and will. It is the choice of the heart, made in great thankfulness and completely of one’s own free will. That is how the execution of the good choice is being experienced. Still no man can make this choice on his own. He will never come to make the right decision, if the gospel does not call him to do so. The Holy Spirit is the effector of the good choice, but in that the responsibility of man is maintained completely. Answer 84 shows beautifully how believers, in listening to the proclaimed gospel, are involved in believing. According to the command of Christ it is proclaimed and publicly testified to believers, altogether and each individually, that God has really forgiven all their sins for the sake of Christ's merits, as often as they by true faith accept the promise of the gospel. Note the statement “as often as.” This accepting with a believing heart also occurs at the end of answer 60 and answer 61, that faith is always of an accepting character. Therefore, believing is being active personally, seriously with the promise of the gospel. You fall back on the promise of God. You hold on to that. We have assurance in that. But the official proclamation of the gospel goes further. To all unbelievers and hypocrites it is proclaimed and testified that the wrath of God and eternal condemnation rest on them as long as they do not turn to God. To all unbelievers in whatever situation comes the command to repent! The gospel also comes to unbelievers, but they cannot share in the promise of forgiveness of sins because faith does not function. That is because they neglected the command to turn to God. Unbelievers have many excuses. Office bearers know that. But the unbelievers in whatever position can never escape the testimony of the gospel. The testimony of the gospel is decisive for the coming judgment. According to this testimony of the gospel the Lord will judge in this life as well as in the life to come, as answer 84 states in the final sentence.

Preaching is therefore always preaching of the gospel! Everything starts with that. That is the glory of preaching, that the gospel is proclaimed from God with the command to faith and repentance. Therefore, display the gospel, every time. In the thousands of aspects it has in Scripture, in all riches, time and time again. You can never preach too welcoming when it comes to the gospel. It is sad that we make the borders of the invitation in the preaching narrower than what the Lord does. The gospel is for all sinners, for the most filthy and dirty sinners. It is for the committers of incest and murderers, for prostitutes and tax collectors, for those who have fallen very deeply. It is also for those who in a hypocritical way compromise the gospel. No conditions or marks first; we don't find that anywhere in Scripture.

But he who neglects this gospel and confronts it with all kinds of counter questions and objections – so that the effect of the gospel in his own heart is being hindered and does not result in conversion to God and faith in Christ – is busy to remain in the position where the wrath of God and eternal judgment rests on him or her. It is necessary here for the sly ways and reactions of the human heart to be known, especially through the preaching. These matters need to be addressed in the preaching time and again.

Do you have to warn in every sermon? At the one occasion more than at the other. That depends on the text. But surely we regularly will have to show the reverse of the gospel. That can be done in a manner of invitation: “People, if you refuse such grace, if you neglect this gospel, then know what you are doing. Why would you choose death?” It can and may also be done in direct warnings. And from time to time the full severity of being unconverted and unbelieving should sound in the preaching of the gospel to God's congregation.

When office bearers realize that in the preaching – for which they share responsibility – the seriousness and reality of being lost, and that the people are given a cheap gospel, then they have to speak about that. With the preacher – whether he appreciates that or not – together in the council session. It goes without saying that this is to happen in love and sensitivity.

By nature we don’t want to hear about true repentance. We do not want to believe and are not able to do so either. Therefore the preaching of the gospel with a serious call from God should be heard by all, without distinction. The congregation is not there yet; “faith” does not automatically remain believing. Believing means to be active, every time anew. Believing brings along strife and temptation. That cannot be blamed on faith, because faith is and gives absolute certainty, but the blame is on us and on our existence in this life that is not fully redeemed yet. It certainly matters to persevere until the end. It makes one realize that many who viewed faith as something easy and cheerful have lost that faith. It makes one realize as well that many who saw faith as being heavy and impossible lost that faith as well. No, the Holy Spirit does not work according to human rules and regulations, but he works via the Scriptures. He works with the pure gospel, which we find in the Scriptures. People have to go to the Scriptures. And that goes especially for the preachers and the office bearers.

With a healthy conscience toward God and his gospel and towards one another, we have to be able to do our work as office bearers. From every pulpit the keys of the kingdom of heaven will have to be applied. For the preaching of the gospel is, by definition, the application of the power of the keys.

These articles were translated by Bert Stulp