In John 20:22-23 Jesus gave the power of the “Keys” to the church:

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

But, a key question about these Keys is this: Who did Jesus give this power to?

I am a Confessional Lutheran because my answer is “Christ gave this power to everyone who has the Holy Spirit. Every Christian exercises this power privately. But it should only be exercised publicly by those with a rightly ordered call.”

But many Christians, including many who call themselves Lutherans, would give a different answer.

There’s lots of other questions that we could address when talking about this: Why is this important? What does it mean to be “Lutheran” or “Confessional Lutheran”? Why do I think that everyone with the Holy Spirit has this power, and is that consistent with what the rest of the Bible says?

But the focus of this post is very specific. I just want to show you a few places where Martin Luther talks about John 20, and clearly says what I wrote above: that Jesus gave this power to every Christian to exercise privately, and for those with a rightly ordered call to exercise publicly.

Luther preached on John 20:23 several times. In the traditional lectionary it is the Gospel reading appointed for the Sunday after Easter.

You can find three of these sermons translated into English in volume 2 of Lenker’s translation. In all three sermons in Lenker’s collection, Luther explained this verse in the same way.

The earliest sermon in Lenker’s collection was given in Borna on Sunday 2 April 1522 (Lenker vol. 2, pp. 321-322). Luther says this about the power of the Keys (emphasis mine):

31. This power is here given to all Christians, although some have appropriated it to themselves alone, like the pope, bishops, priests and monks have done: they declare publicly and arrogantly that this power was given to them alone and not to the laity. But Christ here speaks neither of priests nor of monks, but says: “Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” Whoever has the Holy Spirit, power is given to him, that is, to every one that is a Christian. But who is a Christian? He that believes. Whoever believes has the Holy Spirit. Therefore every Christian has the power, which the pope, bishops, priests and monks have in this case, to forgive sins or to retain them.

But, he explains, to exercise these Keys in public one would need a rightly ordered call so that all things are done in order:

32. Do I hear then, that I can institute confession, baptize, preach and administer the Lord’s supper? No. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:40: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” If everybody wished to hear confession, baptize and administer the Lord’s supper, what order would there be? Likewise, if everybody wished to preach, who would hear? If we all preached at the same time, what a confused babble it would be, like the noise of frogs! Therefore the following order is to be observed: the congregation shall elect one, who is qualified, and he shall administer the Lord’s supper, preach, hear confession and baptize. True we all have this power; but no one shall presume to exercise it publicly, except the one who has been elected by the congregation to do so. But in private I may freely exercise it. For instance, if my neighbor comes and says: Friend, I am burdened in my conscience; speak the absolution to me; then I am free to do so, but I say it must be done privately. If I were to take my seat in the church, and another and all would hear confession, what order and harmony would there be? Take an illustration: If there are many heirs among the nobility, with the consent of all the others they elect one, who alone administers the estate in behalf of the others; for if every one wished to rule the country and people, how would it be? Still they all alike have the power that he has who rules. So also is it with this power to forgive sins and to retain them.

33. But this word, to forgive sins or to retain sins, concerns those who confess and receive more than those who are to impart the absolution. And thereby we serve our neighbor. For in all services the greatest is to release from sin, to deliver from the devil and hell. But how is this done? Through the Gospel, when I preach it to a person and tell him to appropriate the words of Christ and to believe firmly that Christ’s righteousness is his own and his sins are Christ’s. This I say, is the greatest service I can render to my neighbor.

The following year, preaching in Wittenberg on Sunday, 12 April 1523, Luther again says something similar (Lenker vol. 2, pp. 307-310; emphasis again is mine):

15. This is a great and mighty power which no one can sufficiently extol, given to mortal men of flesh and blood over sin, death and hell, and over all things. The pope too boasts in the canon law that Christ has given to him power over all earthly things; which would indeed be correct if the people rightly understood it. For they apply it to the civil government; this is not Christ’s thought; but he gives spiritual power and rule, and wishes to say this much: When ye speak a word concerning a sinner, it shall be spoken in heaven, and shall avail so much as if God himself spake it in heaven; for he is in your mouth, therefore it has the same force as if he himself spoke it. Now it is always true, if Christ speaks a word, since he is Lord over sin and hell, and says to you: Thy sins are forgiven; then they must be forgiven and nothing can prevent it. Again, if he says: Thy sins shall not be forgiven thee; then they remain unforgiven, so that neither you, nor an angel, nor a saint, nor any creature, can forgive your sin, even if you martyred yourself to death.

16. This same power belongs to every Christian, since Christ has made us all partakers of his power and dominion; and here his is not a civil but a spiritual rule, and his Christians also rule spiritually. For he does not say: This city, this country, this bishopric or kingdom you shall rule, as the pope does; but he says: Ye shall have power to forgive and to retain sins. Hence this power pertains to the conscience, so that by virtue of God’s Word I can pass judgment as to what the conscience can cleave to, so that against and above that no creature can do anything, neither sin, nor the world nor Satan. This is true power. But thereby no power is given me to rule over temporal matters, over a country and people, externally after the manner of civil governments, but a much higher and nobler power, which can in no sense be compared with it.

17. Therefore we shall thank God, that we now know the great power and glory given us through Christ in his plain Word, as St. Paul also highly praises and extols it to the Ephesians, saying: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3. And again: “God made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:5-10.

18. Observe, what great transcendent comfort we have in that God awakens in us also the same power he exercises in Christ, and bestows upon us equal authority. As he made him sit in heavenly places, above all power and might, and everything that can be named; so has he invested us also with the same power, that those who believe have all power over heaven and earth. This we have in the words he left behind him; and they are so powerful, that when they are spoken by us, they avail as much as if he himself were on earth and spake them in the majesty and glory in which he now exists. And this is the power we have from his resurrection and ascension; there he gives us power to. kill and to make alive, to consign to the devil and to rescue from him.

And this wasn’t just an early belief Luther had that he later revised. Seventeen years later, even after the problems with Karlstadt had caused Luther to clarify the importance of a rightly ordered call, he still held the same views. On Sunday, 4 April 1540, Luther preached the following in Dessau (Lenker, vol. 2, p. 337):

33. But who can express what an unspeakable, mighty and blessed comfort it is that a human being can with one word open heaven and lock hell to a fellow mortal? For in this kingdom of Grace Christ has founded through his resurrection, we do indeed nothing else than open our mouth and say, I forgive thee thy sins, not on my account, nor by my power, but in the place of, and in the name of, Jesus Christ, for he does not say: ye shall forgive sins on your own account, but: “I send you, as my Father hath sent me.” I myself do not do this of my own choice or counsel, but I am sent by the Father. This same commandment I give to you unto the end of the world, that both ye and all the world shall know that such forgiveness or retaining of sin is not done by human power or might, but by the command of him who is sending you.

34. This is not said alone to the ministers or the servants of the church, but also to every Christian. Here each may serve another in the hour of death, or wherever there is need, and give him absolution. If you now hear from me the words, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” then you hear that God wants to be gracious to you, deliver you from sin and death, and make you righteous and blessed.

Jesus gave the power of the Keys to all Christians—to declare forgiveness of sins, and to bind sinners with the Law. This is the ministry possessed by every Christian: to be exercised privately. But only to be exercised publicly by those with a rightly ordered call.

That distinction protects both truths. You do not need to be a pastor to speak Christ’s forgiveness to a fellow Christian who is burdened by guilt. But neither does the Church treat the public ministry casually. Christ has given pastors to his Church so that his people can regularly hear his Word, receive his absolution, and be certain that his forgiveness is spoken to them from outside themselves.

That is why Manchester Lutheran Church gathers in person each Sunday: to receive the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s Word publicly given to us in Word and Sacrament. Come, gather with us at 10:45 for coffee, 11:00 for the service: https://mcrlt.ch/sundays/

If you live outside Greater Manchester, you can gather online with the Confessional Lutheran Church every Wednesday at 6pm to hear God’s Word and receive his absolution: https://lutheran.ch/online-service/