Q. 40. What authority does the Church have from Christ in matters of salvation?

• Heidelberg Catechism 83–85
• WCF 30
• Luther’s Small Catechism 245
• AOR 33
• Belgic Confession 32

Keys of the kingdom. In Matthew 16:16–19, Christ promised to give confessing Peter and the apostles “the keys of the kingdom” to “bind and loose.” In Matthew 18:15–20, Christ gives instructions for how the gathered church is to “bind and loose,” making it clear that local churches are authorized to exercise the keys of the kingdom after the apostles. This authority is real and weighty, but it is derived from the Lord Jesus Christ, and must be exercised in accordance with his laws and virtues, as revealed in Holy Scripture. Christian authority is meant for building up, not for tearing down (2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10), and should not be lorded over others (Matthew 20:25–27).

Declare … receive … exclude. The Church has been given “a power of declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon; whose sins are remitted and whose retained … and a power of inflicting and remitting ecclesiastical censures; that is, of excluding from, and re-admitting into, a Christian congregation” (John Wesley, Notes on the Bible, John 20:23).

Terms. Elders solemnly vow to “teach nothing as necessary to salvation but that which may be concluded and proved by the Scriptures” (see p. 355). A church has no authority to invent unbiblical standards by which to include or exclude others.

Receive. Members are received through baptism, the sacrament of entrance into the church (see Q. 44). A formal system of church membership is also necessary, since a baptized person may relocate and need for their membership to be recognized in another local body. Such a system is also assumed in the biblical commands concerning church discipline and excommunication (Matthew 18:15–20; 1 Corinthians 5). See Notes on Q. 41.

Gently restore. Formal church discipline should be overseen by the church’s elders (Q. 42) and carried out with a spirit of gentleness, humility, self-examination, and a sincere desire to restore and edify the sinning member (Galatians 6:1–5; see p. 227, “Restoration Covenant”).

Exclude … Lord’s Supper. To exclude someone from membership in the Church is commonly called excommunication (“exclusion from communion”). Unless they are posing a direct threat to the safety of the congregation, the excommunicated person is not banned from attending the church’s weekly gathering; however, they are no longer recognized as a brother or sister in Christ or permitted to share in the church’s communion at the Lord’s Table, since participation in the bread is a sign of belonging to the body (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Persist. Excommunication is ordinarily a last resort, only considered after a sinning member has been given several opportunities to come to their senses and repent of flagrant sin (Matthew 18:15–20).

Mother. Through the Church’s ministry, God converts sinners, adopts them into his family, and raises them to spiritual maturity. “The church is the mother of our new birth, in whose womb we are conceived, and at whose breasts we are nourished” (Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity). “The heavenly Jerusalem is the church, that is to say, believers scattered throughout the world, who have the same gospel, the same faith in Christ, the same Holy Spirit and the same sacraments. This church goes on giving birth to children until the end of the world as long as she exercises the ministry of the Word, for this is what it means for her to give birth” (Martin Luther, Second Lectures on Galatians). “The heavenly Jerusalem is the mother of believers because she has the incorruptible seed of life deposited in her. By this means she forms us, cherishes us in her womb and brings us to light. She has the milk and food by which she continually nourishes her offspring. Anyone who refuses to be a child of the church desires in vain to have God as his Father. It is only through the ministry of the church that God begets children for himself and brings them up through adolescence to maturity” (Calvin, Commentary on Galatians). “To those to whom God is a Father, the Church must also be a mother” (Calvin, Institutes 4.1.1). “He cannot have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his Mother” (Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church 6). “You begin to have him for your Father, when you have been born by the church as your Mother” (Augustine, A Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 1).

Ark. Although God alone can save us, as he saved Noah and his family, God has ordained for the Church to be the vessel in which we are safely carried to our final salvation (1 Peter 3:20–21). “Since there is no salvation out of the church (no more than out of the ark; nor does anyone have God as his Father in heaven whose church is not his mother on earth), nothing ought to be dearer to our hearts than that this mother may be known (in whose bosom God has willed us to be educated and to be nourished). It behooves us to be directed by her care until we grow up and arrive at the goal of faith. Also it behooves us to know what assembly is that true church with which (according to the command of God) we are bound to connect ourselves that we may obtain salvation (Acts 2:47)” (Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology 18.1.3). See Notes on Q. 55.