"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19)
“Without the prescribed sacrifices there is no atonement, but the [modern] Rabbis suggest that atonement may be made by fasting and good deeds and that one may be found righteous by keeping what remains of the law. However, the Law of Moses does not allow for changes to be made to it: ‘Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you’ (Deut. 4:2). Neither will partial fulfilment of the law justify anyone for as the apostle James taught, ‘whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it’ (Jam 2:10). After the destruction of the temple, it became impossible for anyone to live in complete obedience to the Torah, but God did not just remove the means of atonement under the old covenant without first providing a final atonement for sin through the new covenant.” (Binding and Loosing by Peter Cohen)
“’I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,’ All of the apostles, "not merely Peter alone, were included in this promise.” (Coffman Commentary)— “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Some see support of their churches ability to excommunicate sinners from heaven. “That is, whomsoever the officers of my church shall justly excommunicate upon earth, shall, without repentance be shut out of heaven; and whosoever upon their true repentance, shall be absolved on earth, shall be absolved in heaven.” (William Burkitt) But this goes against the spirit of the Reformation. And the church is worsening. The call is to come out of her. Gross error exists in the papal and the protestant, as well as other churches. “This promise, therefore, cannot be understood as extending to all Christians or ministers, for all others but the apostles may err.” (Albert Barnes)
The keys are not given to a single man but rather those of like faith or doctrine as the apostles. The Word of God was passed down orally, at first. After the Fall, Adam and Eve had passed it along to their children... etc. But God gave the ancient stories to Moses afresh. And he wrote the Pentateuch, according to the Word of God, for all spiritual Israelites. It was the standard upon which the judges judged the children of Israel. And the prophets used it to guide and correct the people... as well as pronounced doom and otherwise to predict the end-time. By the Spirit, the Message was made known to the twelve who have died and now sleep with the fathers.
The apostles looked unto the Great Apostle: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. If anyone does not listen to My words that the Prophet speaks in My name, I myself will call him to account’ (Deut. 18:18). If we want to obey God we have to listen to the One whom He sent. This is binding on all men. All who refuse to listen to Him will be called to give account. The LORD said through the prophet Habakkuk that the righteous will live by his faith. That faith only comes through hearing and obeying the Word of God spoken through His Messiah. In harmony with Deuteronomy 18:19 whoever rejects the salvation of God, Yeshua the Messiah, remains under a curse. Accordingly the apostle Paul wrote, ‘If anyone does not love the Lord; a curse be on him’ (1 Cor. 16:22).... So when Jesus said ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom,’ he was removing the authority that had formerly resided with the Sanhedrin [based largely on traditions] and transferring it to the faithful leadership of the new covenant assembly. The failure of the Sanhedrin to listen to the ‘prophet like Moses,’ and to believe in the One whom God had sent and to whom Moses and all the prophets testified, proved their unfaithfulness to God, despite an impressive outward show of piety.” (Binding and Loosing by Peter Cohen)
“No other terms were in more constant use in Rabbinic Canon-Law than those of ‘binding and loosing.’ The words are the literal translation of the Hebrew equivalents Asar, which means ‘to bind,’ in the sense of prohibiting, and Hittir, which means ‘to loose,’ in the sense of permitting. For the latter the term Shera or Sheri is also used. But this expression is, both in Targumic and Talmudic diction, not merely the equivalent of permitting, but passes into that of remitting, or pardoning. On the other hand, ‘binding and loosing’ referred simply to things or acts, prohibiting or else permitting them, declaring them lawful or unlawful. This was one of the powers claimed by the Rabbis … If this then represented the legislative another pretension of the Rabbis, that of declaring ‘free’ or else ‘liable,’ i.e. guilty, expressed their claim to the judicial power. By the first of these they ‘bound’ or ‘loosed’ acts or things; by the second they ‘remitted’ or ‘retained,’ declared a person free from, or liable to punishment, to compensation, or to sacrifice. These two powers – the legislative and judicial – which belonged to the Rabbinic office.” (Alfred Edersheim)
It is rather the Scriptures or teachings of the apostles that replaced the Sanhedrin counsel. We will stand or fall based on our own understanding of their doctrine and adherence thereto. Paul said: "And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
Jesus said: "And if anyone hears My Words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My Words, has that which judges him—the Word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:47-50)
The apostle and Jesus taught the Ten Commandments as the basis of the New Covenant written on our hearts, as well as the atonement of the Pentateuch and the corrections of the prophets.
Rather than studying to show themselves approved of God by properly interpreting the apostles’ doctrine as admonished, some folks use church creeds as a crutch... or use human reasoning, while others are desperately in search of lost books of the Bible, as a means of grace, such as spiritualists, which the Bible forbids. In reality, God has given us all that is needed for salvation in the canonized Books. It may be said that this key is bound on earth, as well as in Heaven.