What about all that “binding and loosing” Jesus talks about in the Bible? Does He mean that Christians have the authority over the demonic?

There are two passages in particular that are most relevant to this question; Matthew 16:19 and 18:18. And as we say every week, the first step in interpretation is to understand the CONTEXT of a particular passage.

In Matthew 16:19, the context is Peter’s proclamation of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God (vs. 16). When Peter makes this declaration, Jesus affirms that it is true, and that God Himself revealed it to Peter. Jesus then goes on to give Peter his nickname and then makes a “pun.” The word “Peter” is a transliteration of the Greek word “petros” which means “little stone.” Jesus then says that on this “petra” or large rock or “bed-rock” He will build His church.

Roman Catholicism turns to this passage to prove the authority of the Pope as having ultimate authority over the church; a conclusion with which we most heartily disagree. Peter was a “little stone” not the “bed-rock” of the church; there is a clear difference between the two terms.

Most Reformed scholars have understood the “bed-rock” on which Christ builds His church to be the confession of faith that Peter made, not Peter himself. The true church is established on no other foundation than the profession of faith, and faith alone in the Lord Jesus.

This then brings us to the “binding and loosing” passage. Jesus does not explain here what He means. He simply states that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His church, and that the church has the power of “binding and loosing.”

However, in the Matthew 18 passage I think we get a better picture of what Jesus is talking about. The context here is clearly church discipline. When a brother is in sin, we are to go to him privately and confront him. If the brother does not repent, then we are to take two witnesses and confront him again. And if he STILL will not repent, then the church is to cast him out, treating him as a “gentile” and “tax-gather.” In Jewish culture, one could not even eat with a “Gentile” since there were almost always ritually unclean. And of course, the tax man was no more popular in the first century than he is today!

Then, after that statement about what we call today “excommunication” (i.e., breaking off all communication or “communion” with a person) Jesus then again uses the same formula about binding and loosing. Thus clearly, the binding and loosing has something to do with the decisions made by the church here on here, being recognized and accepted in Heaven.

Therefore, the “binding” and “loosing” must refer to judicial acts of the church, when the church lawfully follows the instructions of our Lord. It is significant to note that in both passages, a legitimate alternative translation is “whatever is bound on earth has already been bound in heaven.” Do you see the difference? In this translation, it places the emphasis not so much on the authority of the church which implies that Heaven has to follow along, but rather that when something has been judged by Heaven, the church ought to make the same assessment. Hence the church’s authority to bind and loose is “declaratory.” This is not unlike what a judge does when he applies the law to a particular criminal case. The judge’s authority comes from the law; he does not make it up as he goes along and he can be over-ruled by higher courts if he gets his interpretation wrong.

Going back to the Matthew 16:16 passage which does not seem to deal directly with judicial decisions of a church court, we will argue that the meaning however is still similar. What God binds in heaven, His church must bind on earth. What God looses in Heaven, the church must loosen on earth. But what in this context is the church supposed to be “binding and loosing?”

We think it refers to the forgiveness of sins. Men are bound by their sins until by the grace of God their hearts are regenerated, they are given saving faith where they can turn away from the dead works and trust in Christ, and Christ alone. The church declares the gospel of Jesus Christ, and when men repent of their sin, profess faith in Christ (as Peter did) and then are baptized they are loosed from those bounds of sin and received into the visible body of Christ. Thus the church lawfully admits, or refuses membership into the visible communion of the saints when it bases its actions on what God Himself declares them to be.

Thus the Matthew 16 passage deals with ENTERING the church by a confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ (i.e., literally, the “Anointed One”) who is the Son of the Living God. The Matthew 18 passage deals with LEAVING the church when someone who has made a profession of faith, denies that faith by refusing to repent of his sin (note; no one is ever excommunicated for sin; they are excommunicated because they refuse to repent of their sins-see Matthew 18:21-22 where this issue is clearly the unstated question in Peter’s mind).

In neither passage is there any indication of some supernatural power to “bind” demonic forces. Think with us for a moment; it certainly makes sense to “bind” evil forces, but why would anyone ever want to “loose” them? So why then would God give Christians the ability to loose demons?

The one passage of course that does seem to deal with “binding” supernatural forces is where Jesus talks about “binding the strong man” so that his house can be plundered (Matthew 12:29) and of course the Bible does talk about demon-possessed people as being “bound.” The context of Matthew 12:29 clearly deals with demonic possession; Jesus is refuting the foolish idea that he casts out demons by the authority of Satan.

However, a couple of quick points; Jesus did drive out demons, and He did of course give this authority and ability to His disciples. But that does not necessarily have anything to do with the two passages about “binding” and “loosing” we just discussed. Furthermore, if want to generalize His comments here to apply to ALL Christians, then we will need better evidence than this verse; just because Jesus did something, does not mean that you or I can do the same thing. Just because He gave the same authority to His holy Apostles, does not necessarily mean that He gives it to us! Furthermore, there is that interesting little passage in Acts 19:13ff who thought they could do what Jesus and Paul did, and got “whupped” for their insolence!

Finally, Jesus definitively “bound” the “strong-man” (i.e. Satan) at the cross. Satan’s name means “Adversary” which is a legal term meaning “prosecuting attorney.” Satan is the great accuser of the brethren because he could hold our sins against us. When Jesus died in our place, He removed all of the accusations Satan could make. Therefore there is NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus; the strong man has been “bound” because he no longer has any right to accuse the elect. Jesus died for us, God accepted His sacrifice, and therefore we have been “loosed” from the bonds of sin, and judgment.

But having said all the above, and sincerely meaning every word of it, if you DO happen to run into someone whose head does a 180 degree turn and they start levitating, START praying!