# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1909_S43
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Iutheran Pioneer.

43

Of course, we all understand that this is what
is called. figurative language. Heaven is here,
namely, compared to a house. Now, if you have
the keys of a house, you may lock or unlock it. -If
you lock it, you prevent others from going in; but
if you unlock the door of the house, you open its
door for others to enter. Thus the Office of the
Keys has the power to open and close heaven
unto men.

But how is heaven opened and closed unto men?
By forgiving and not forgiving their sins. Men’s
sins prevent them from entering heaven; for into
heaven nothing unclean can enter, Eph. 5, 5, and
sin makes men unclean. Only if man’s sins be re-
moved can he enter heaven. But now the Office
of the Keys is the power to loose men of their sins
or to retain them. Whoever, therefore, has this
Office of the Keys has the keys of heaven. But who
has this Office of the Keys? Originally this: office
is Christ’s. Christ came into the world to give
His life a ransom for many, Matt. 20, 28. By
sacrificing Himself on the cursed wood of the cross,
Te redeemed and ransomed us from our sins and
opened heaven to the whole world of sinners. Thus
Christ has the Office of the Keys by virtue of His
work of redemption. But this office Christ does
not wish to administer Himself, and therefore He
has delegated it to others, namely, to His Church
on earth. What the Church is we learned in the
Third Article of the Creed: “It is the congrega-
tion of saints, the whole number of believers; for
only believers, and all believers, are members of the
Church.” ‘To the belieyers, then, Christ gave the
power to forgive and retain sins.

“But,” I hear somebody say, “did not Christ
give the keys of heaven to Peter?”
Christ did say to Peter: “I will give unto thee the
keys of heaven,” and He-not only said He would
do this, but He also did it. But why to Peter?
Because Peter had confessed his faith in Christ;
and whoever believes in Christ as Peter did has
the same power that was given to Peter because of
his faith. ‘That this is the case we learn from
John 20, 22. 23: “The Lord Jesus breathed on
‘His disciples and said unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye re-
tain, they are retained.” Here Jesus speaks to all
-of His disciples, not to Peter or the eleven only,
but to them and all that were gathered with them.
He gives them the Holy Ghost and together with
the gift of the Holy Ghost He delegates to them

‘was a member of the Church.

It is ‘true,

the Office of the Keys. ‘To those whom Christ gives
the Holy Spirit (and He gives the Holy Spirit to
all His believers), to them He also gives the Office
of the Keys. But if Christ gives this power to
every believer, it is evident that where a number
of believers form a congregation, there this power
is also to be found. Matt. 18, 17. 18. 20 the Lord
says: “If he [a sinner] neglect to hear them [in-
dividual Christians], tell it unto the church; but
if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto
thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily,
I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. For where
two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.”

And this power to forgive and retain sins is
a power peculiar to the Church. Nowhere else,
only in the Church, is this power exercised. Christ
has given the Office of the Keys to His Church on
earth, and to it only; therefore no one else on
earth besides the believers can open and close heaven
by forgiving and retaining sins. ‘To Peter was
given the Office of the Keys because he by faith
To those disciples
on Easter Day Christ gave the Office of the Keys
because they had received the Holy Ghost, because
they were believers and, hence, members of Christ’s
Church on earth. No Church, no Office of the Keys;
but wherever the Church, and if it be but one be-
liever, there is the Office of the Keys.

F. J. 1.

God’s Word and Our Faith.

God’s Word and faith belong together. For
whenever God speaks, He cannot speak anything
else but what is beyond our natural reason, such as
the resurrection of the dead, the incarnation of God,
the forgiveness of sins through Baptism and Abso-
lution. We therefore must believe these things.
And having believed them, we shall find out and
experience that they are true indeed. — Luther.

The Greatest Enemies of the Gospel.

“The greatest enemies of the Gospel,” says Lu-
ther, “are the self-righteous; for with them the |
Gospel cannot possibly agree. ‘They want to be rich
in works, while the Gospel wants them to be poor;
they will not yield, neither will the Gospel yield.
It is God’s own unchangeable Word.”

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