3509 — Binding and Loosing. Matt. 16:19
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
What is the meaning of "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"? This is not only God's commission and statement of fact as regards Peter, but the same words are also spoken to the other disciples. John 20:23: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." See also Mark 16:15, 16, which last text is also a key to the understanding of the thing. The real power to acquit or condemn, to accept or reject, is found in the word which the message bears. Peter was an approved messenger of God; so were the other disciples; so is every true minister of Jesus Christ. That minister is responsible for the word he speaks. He will have to give an account to God of the way in which he has presented it; and as he must give an account to God of the message he bears, so must every soul who hears that message give an account to God of the message he hears. That messenger may declare with the fullest authority that the acceptance of the Gospel means justification, forgiveness of sins, salvation. He may declare with the fullest authority that the rejection of that message means condemnation and loss of eternal life. And so by the very message he bears he becomes a binder or a looser of souls. The same truth is expressed in the commission which God gave Jeremiah: "Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." Jer. 1:9, 10. How did he do this? By the message which he bore, as he declares in chapter 18:7-10: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." Jeremiah established or pulled down nations, not by any power given to him as an individual, but by the message which he bore; and so God's servants, whoever they are, have power to bind or loose souls by the message which God gives them.