Thursday, June 13, 2013
John 20:22-23 [Jesus] breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
AS LUTHER TAUGHT: THE OFFICE OF THE KEYS
Part of being a fellowship of believers is guarding each other from hypocrisy. To help us do this our Savior, Jesus Christ, has given His believers a gift called the "Office of the Keys."
In connection with the Keys, it's important to note the distinction between "sins of weakness" and "unrepentant sin."
Sins of weakness are sins that a person does simply because we have an inner sinful nature. A Christian doesn't defend these sins, but rejects them as evil and looks to Jesus for forgiveness and for the power to avoid them in the future.
Unrepentant sins, on the other hand, are sins done by a person that they aren't sorry for. They dismiss these sins as "okay" or even defend them as right and good. Unrepentant sin is a sign of unbelief.
Jesus instructs us to use the "loosing key" on sinners who are sorry for their sins and willing to change. In other words, we are commanded to reassure the repentant person that their sins are forgiven and heaven is open to them, because of what Jesus did on the cross.
Jesus instructs us to use the "locking key" on sinners who are not sorry for their sins and are not willing to change. In other words, we are commanded to tell them the sad truth that as long as they remain unrepentant, their sin separates them from Christ's forgiveness. Jesus wants us to do this in order to rattle the unrepentant sinner and lead them back to repentance and the salvation which is found in Christ Jesus.
As God's word says in First Timothy: "[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4).
