The Office of the Keys

The Night of the Resurrection

On the evening of Easter Day, the risen Christ appeared to his gathered disciples in a locked room and performed an act found nowhere else in the New Testament. He breathed on them. The Greek verb is enephysēsen, and it appears in the New Testament only in this single verse. The same word appears in the Greek Old Testament at Genesis 2:7, when God breathed into Adam the breath of life. Jesus is enacting a new creation. He says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:22–23). With those words, Christ instituted what the Church has called for two thousand years the Office of the Keys: the authority to forgive and retain sins, given by Christ to his Church.

The Greek and the Aramaic Behind the Words

John employs two contrasting Greek verbs. Aphiēmi means to release, send away, or forgive. Krateō means to hold fast, to grip, to retain. Scholars believe John 20:23 and Matthew 16:19 are independent Greek translations of the same original Aramaic saying of Jesus. The Aramaic verbs were almost certainly petah (to open) and ʻahad (to shut). Matthew translated those concepts as binding and loosing; John translated them as retaining and forgiving. The two passages say the same thing in different words: Christ placed in his Church’s hands the power to open or shut the door of heaven through the spoken Word.

	Matthew 16:19 / 18:18	John 20:23
Original Aramaic	petah (to open) and ʻahad (to shut)	petah (to open) and ʻahad (to shut)
Greek translation	luō (to loose) and deō (to bind)	aphiēmi (to forgive) and krateō (to retain)
English	“Whatever you loose on earth… whatever you bind on earth…”	“If you forgive the sins of any… if you withhold forgiveness…”
Same reality	Doors of heaven opened or closed through the spoken Word of the Church	Doors of heaven opened or closed through the spoken Word of the Church

Given to the Whole Church, Exercised Through the Called Minister

In John 20, Jesus spoke these words to the gathered disciples, not to Peter alone. The Reformers had to recover this truth against centuries of Roman teaching that the keys belonged exclusively to Peter and his successors in the papacy. The Lutheran Confessions are clear: when Jesus spoke to Peter in Matthew 16, he was speaking to him as the representative of all the apostles and the entire Church. The keys belong immediately and directly to the whole Church, the gathered assembly of those who have the Holy Spirit. Luther wrote: “Christ says here nothing of priests or monks, but says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ Whoever has the Holy Spirit, to him is given this power.” The Confessions also distinguish carefully, however, between possession and exercise. The Church possesses the keys; she calls a pastor to exercise them publicly on her behalf in the preaching of the Word and the absolution of penitent sinners.

The Housewife and the Keys

The Lutheran scholastic theologians employed a vivid domestic image to explain this distinction. Just as the master of an estate hands the keys of the household to his wife, so Christ, the Lord of the house, has given the keys to his Bride, the Church. The Church then entrusts them to her ministers as stewards who administer the mysteries of God publicly on her behalf. The pastor does not own the keys; he holds them in trust for the congregation that called him, and behind the congregation stands Christ himself, who gave them in the first place.

Two Keys, Two Different Jobs

Luther distinguished sharply between the two keys Christ placed in the Church’s hands. The loosing key does the work of the Gospel; the binding key does the work of the Law. Without the binding key, the Church would be overrun by false security; without the loosing key, the conscience would have nowhere to turn.

	The Loosing Key (Gospel)	The Binding Key (Law)
Greek verb	Aphiēmi: to release, send away, forgive	Krateō: to hold fast, retain, keep shut
Spoken to	The terrified, contrite sinner who confesses and seeks mercy	The hardened, impenitent sinner who refuses to acknowledge wrongdoing
What the pastor does	Pronounces formal absolution in the Divine Service: “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” This is Christ’s own forgiveness, spoken on his lips.	Privately admonishes the unrepentant; in the severest case, excommunicates: the public exclusion of the openly unrepentant from the congregation until he or she returns.
What the layperson does	Comforts a troubled brother or sister with the Gospel, declaring God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ. Luther called this “the greatest service I may do to my fellow-man.” The layperson does not pronounce formal absolution; that belongs to the called minister.	In love, names another’s sin and calls that person to repentance, following the steps of Matthew 18:15–17. The layperson does not excommunicate; that belongs to the congregation acting through her called minister.

What Rome Got Wrong: The “Erring Key”

The most pastorally devastating Roman abuse was the doctrine of the clavis errans, the erring key. Rome taught that absolution might fail if the sinner had not repented perfectly enough or performed sufficient satisfaction. Luther recognized this as a doctrine that plunges every conscience into despair: if the validity of absolution depends on the depth of my sorrow, I will never be certain of forgiveness. The Reformers replied that the keys derive their power not from the perfection of our repentance but from the Word of Christ alone. When the called minister absolves the penitent, that sinner must believe it “not otherwise than we would believe a voice from heaven.”

“As If Christ Himself Dealt with Us”

One of the most striking grammatical details in the entire New Testament appears in Matthew 16:19 and 18:18. The Greek for “shall be bound” and “shall be loosed” is a periphrastic future perfect: literally, “will have been bound” and “will have been loosed.” The decisions made on earth follow decisions already made in heaven. The pastor does not ask heaven to ratify his judgment; he declares what heaven has already determined.

Greek (Matt. 16:19; 18:18)	Literal English	What It Means
estai dedemenon (future of eimi + perfect passive participle)	“will have been bound”	Heaven’s decision is already made. The pastor on earth declares what God has already done.
estai lely menon (same construction with the verb “to loose”)	“will have been loosed”	The forgiveness was finished at the cross. The earthly absolution announces a heavenly verdict that already stands.
Common (mis)translation in many English Bibles	“will be bound” / “will be loosed”	Reads as if heaven ratifies the pastor’s decision afterward. The Greek tense will not allow this reading.

Luther saw precisely what this tense meant. Christ did not say, “What I bind in heaven, you shall also bind on earth,” leaving the Church to stare upward and guess what God might be doing. He bound himself to the word of his Church. Luther wrote: “The keys are mine, but I have left them down on earth. You shall not look for them in heaven nor anywhere else, but you shall find them in Peter’s mouth, where I have put them. His keys are my keys.”

The Bottom Line

Confessional Lutherans hold that Christ gave the keys to his whole Church, but that the Church exercises them through two distinct callings. The pastor, as the called and ordained steward of Christ, pronounces formal absolution in the Divine Service (“In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins”) and, when necessary, exercises church discipline on behalf of the congregation. He is not expressing a hope; he is announcing on earth what has already been decided in heaven. The layperson comforts brothers and sisters with the Gospel, declaring God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ, and calls fellow Christians to repentance when needed, following the steps of Matthew 18. The layperson does not pronounce formal absolution or excommunicate; those acts belong to the called minister. Christ has given his Church both gifts: the universal priesthood that places the Gospel on every Christian’s lips, and the called Office that places his absolution on the pastor’s. Heaven’s door opens every Sunday morning, here, in this congregation, through the man Christ has authorized to speak it.