Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

IV. The Power of the Church
A. THE SOURCE OF CHURCH POWER.
Jesus Christ not only founded the Church, but also endowed it with the necessary
power or authority. He is the Head of the Church, not only in an organic, but also in an
administrative sense, that is, He is not only the Head of the body, but also the King of
the spiritual commonwealth. It is in His capacity as King of the Church that He has
clothed her with power or authority. He Himself spoke of the Church as founded so
firmly upon a rock that the gates of hell cannot prevail against her, Matt. 16:18; and on
the same occasion — the very first on which He made mention of the Church — He also
promised to endow her with power, when He said unto Peter: “I will give unto thee the
keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,”
Matt. 16:19. It is quite evident that the terms ‘Church’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ are
used interchangeably here. Keys are an emblem of power (cf. Isa. 22:15-22), and in the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Peter receives power to bind and to loose, which in this
connection would seem to mean, to determine what is forbidden and what is permitted
in the sphere of the Church. 32 And the judgment he passes — in this case not on
persons, but on actions — will be sanctioned in heaven. Peter receives this power as the
representative of the apostles, and these are the nucleus and foundation of the Church
in their capacity as teachers of the Church. The Church of all ages is bound by their
word, John 17:20; I John 1:3. That Christ endowed not only Peter but all the apostles
with power and with the right to judge, and that not merely actions but also persons, is
quite evident from John 20:23: “Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto
them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Christ gave this power first of all
and in the fullest degree to the apostles, but He also extends it, though in a lesser
degree, to the Church in general. The Church has the right to excommunicate an
unrepentant sinner. But it can do this only because Jesus Christ Himself dwells in the
Church and through the agency of the apostles has supplied the Church with a proper
standard of judgment. That Christ has given power to the Church as a whole, is quite
evident from several passages of the New Testament, Acts 15:23-29; 16:4; I Cor. 5:7,13;
6:2-4; 12:28; Eph. 4:11-16. The officers in the Church receive their authority from Christ
and not from men, even though the congregation is instrumental in putting them into
32 Cf. Vos, The Kingdom of God and the Church, p. 147; Grosheide, Comm. on Matthew, in loco.
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