Perhaps you’ve seen the Renaissance paintings of Peter holding keys. We’ve all heard jokes that mentions someone dying and having to walk up to Peter, who stands at the pearly gates of heaven. In the jokes, it’s apparently up to Peter who gets into heaven. And who doesn’t. Will Peter have a final say of whether or not you and I get to spend eternity with God? After all, Jesus said to him:
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Matthew 16:19
I hate to be “that guy,” but this article will throw a wet blanket on all your future jokes about Peter at the pearly gates. But if you’re like me and want to pursue God’s truth, that’s not going to bother you.
Our questions primarily have to do with what Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:19. It is, however, never a good practice to zoom in on a verse, read it, close the Bible, and wonder what it means. The first step to understanding any individual verse is to know the context, which sometimes means knowing the entire book and always includes reading the surrounding verses. We obviously want to get to our main questions:
- What does it mean that Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven?
- What does it mean that Peter had authority to bind and loose truths on earth?
We’re going to get to those questions. But if we want to truly understand the answers, we must first dig into the context.
When Jesus made this statement to Peter, He and His disciples had recently come to the region of Caesarea Philippi. Jesus then began asking His disciples what other people were saying about Him.
So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
Matthew 16:14
Jesus was roughly two years into His public ministry at this point, and His teachings and miracles had caused the religiously zealous, the superstitious, the political people, and the common man to wrestle with the question, “Who is this Man from Galilee?” The Old Testament promised someone great would come in the spirit of Elijah (by the way, that was John the Baptist [see Matthew 17:10–13]). After having John the Baptist executed, Herod the tetrarch thought Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead (see Matthew 14:1–2). People had many theories. Jesus, however, was not primarily concerned with what the people were saying. In the next verse, he asked His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). Peter, being the one to usually speak up first, answered on behalf of all the disciples.
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 16:16–17
How do you feel when you’ve learned someone has said something untrue about you? When that situation has happened to me, I have felt betrayed, upset, and sad. Sometimes, it can happen innocently, when the speaker didn’t know better. When that has happened to me, I’ve at least wanted to set the record straight. Most of us would agree that it doesn’t feel good when rumors and falsehoods about us are spread. It is morally wrong for someone to do so intentionally. Why would we ever think it is okay for someone to do that about Jesus, whether they say He’s fictional, or that He is John the Baptist, or that He is Michael the Archangel?1 When the people around us blaspheme Jesus, do we sit idly by? When the misinformed religious people say silly things like, “Jesus was a good man and maybe a prophet, but He wasn’t really the Divine Son of God,” do we shrug it off? We should be prepared like Peter to remind the world that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God! Jesus didn’t perpetuate the idea that all religious ideas are equal. He said that Peter’s answer was the correct answer. All other speculation, therefore, was incorrect.
Jesus said that His Father in heaven had provided this information to Peter. How so? There’s no reason to believe that, in this case, the Father had somehow implanted information beyond Peter’s own deduction. On another occasion when the Jews were doubting Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, He explained to them that they too could receive this revelation from the Father if they would simply read Scripture and pay attention to Jesus’ works.
But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
John 5:36–39
Although the Jews closed their minds to the Scriptures and the works of Christ, Peter had been paying attention for a couple of years now. Through the works of Jesus, the Father was revealing to Peter and all who were listening that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Next, Jesus said:
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18
This verse is the first time the word church is used explicitly in the Bible. What can we learn of the church just by this one verse? First, Jesus called it “My church.” That means, whatever else we learn from this verse, the church would belong to Jesus and no one else. Read the rest of the New Testament and see that Jesus fulfilled this promise to establish His church, and He has never transferred ownership to anyone else. If we ever encounter a church, then, that was established by a man, a woman, a council, or a committee, it cannot be the church we read about in the Bible. Plus, since Jesus built His church, anyone who starts a new church must think they can improve on what the Master Builder did in the first century. Are they really better than Jesus?
Second, we see that the church would be built on a rock. What—or who—was that rock? Remember, Jesus had this conversation with His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, which was at the base of Mount Hermon. This location was characterized by the prominent rocky terrain, bedrock, and rock face of the mountain. He used the rocky landscape to teach. Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. Then Jesus said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” The name Peter (Πέτρος, Petros) means “stone.”2 The word Jesus used for rock was petra (πέτρα), which means “a massive stone.”3 Jesus was likely using a play on words here. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel account, Jesus Himself had taught the importance of building on a reliable foundation (a rock, see Matthew 7:24–27). Although Peter had stone-like qualities, Jesus needed something more bedrock-like on which to build His church—something like the massive confession that Peter had just made. The foundation of the church is the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That being said, as we will see in the next verse, Peter, the rest of the apostles, and the prophets that Jesus would later equip had a vital role in building up the church. Without the Holy Spirit using them to spread the gospel and strengthen the disciples, how far would the church have spread? Paul would later say:
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19–22
In a sense, the apostles did serve as part of the foundation of the church. The church, however, has always belonged to Jesus, the chief cornerstone, and it depends on the truth of Christ as the foundation.
Third, we learn from Matthew 16:18 that the church would be associated with life. Jesus, the Master Builder, the chief cornerstone, would wisely build His church on a tremendous stone. That foundation—the fact the He is the Christ, the Son of the living God—will never change. The foundation, therefore, will never shift.
He also said that the gates of Hades would never prevail against the church. The first time I read this passage, and for several subsequent years, I pictured Hades (or “Hell,” KJV, ESV) as constantly attacking the church. I believed that Jesus was assuring His disciples that the attacks of sin and persecution would never destroy His church. Although I do believe this promise is true, I do not think that’s what Jesus had in mind here. Notice what Jesus specifically said about the strength of the church: “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Gates are erected for barriers and protection. Gates are used to defend that which is inside. Therefore, Jesus painted a picture of a church on the offense, not defense. Christ’s mission (and the church’s inherited mission) is not to hide in caves and withstand the onslaught of the world. The mission is not to “duck and cover” while the gates attack. The mission—our mission—is to storm the gates! It is to do as Jude, by the Holy Spirit, instructs:
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Jude 20–23
With all of that in mind, we get to verse 19:
And I [Jesus] will give you [Peter] the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
If you are now picturing Peter at the gates of heaven letting people in, or keeping them out, then the influence of pop culture is clouding your mind. Now that we have read the verse in context, we should not be picturing heaven as the kingdom of heaven, but the church. The kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, generally refers to God’s rule over the people. He has always been King, whether or not people have recognized it. The first message Jesus preached publicly was, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). That was the same message John the Baptist preached (Matthew 3:2), and it was the message Jesus first sent His apostles out to teach (Matthew 10:7). Sometimes, context refers to when someone inherits the kingdom of God eternally (i.e. “heaven;” see Matthew 7:21–23; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11). But the context of Matthew 16 shows that by saying “kingdom of heaven,” Jesus meant the establishment of the church on earth.
In verse 18, Jesus promised to build the church. In verse 19, He promised to provide keys. That’s a very natural flow of terminology. Picture this: An architect and construction crew work together to build a home for you. They call you and say, “Great news: the house is built! Come on over.” You arrive, they hand you some keys, you walk up to the door, your heart pumping with the anticipation that has only grown over the past eighteen months… and then the keys don’t work. You turn to the foreman and ask, “What’s the deal?” “Oh,” he says, “Those keys are for something else down the road far into the future.” That would be silly. Jesus promised to build the church, and then he would give Peter the keys to the kingdom—the church.
The first time we see Peter using those keys is in Acts 2. In that chapter, the apostles began fulfilling the Great Commission to take the gospel to the entire world. The Holy Spirit empowered them to preach the gospel in many different languages for people from all nations to hear and understand. In verse 14, Peter became the primary spokesperson, and he wrapped up the sermon with:
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Acts 2:36–41
On this occasion, only Jews (albeit Jews from every nation under heaven—see v. 5) heard and obeyed the gospel. Peter, as the primary spokesperson, used the keys (the gospel) to usher people into the kingdom of God. The chapter concludes with, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (v. 47). The apostles continued to use those keys to grow the church by thousands and to win souls in every direction. When it came time for God to grant the Gentiles repentance that leads to life, Peter was again the primary spokesperson (see Acts 10). Once again, he used the keys (the gospel) to grant access to the kingdom. The entire New Testament teaches this fact: When someone obeys the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord adds that person to His kingdom, to the body of Christ, to the church.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love [this isn’t a reference to heaven in the future; it is a reference to the church here and now], in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:13–14
But what about the next part, where Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”? Jesus said this in the future perfect past tense, which is why some other translations of the Bible say, “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (NASB, LSB). This is a question of whose will came first: Peter’s or heaven’s. Two other passages will help us here. First, when Jesus later said to all of His apostles:
Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
Matthew 18:18 (LSB)
In this passage, Jesus gave the same promise, but He was not speaking to only Peter, but to all of His apostles. In this context, Jesus was speaking to them about dealing with rebellious disciples—those who have sinned but refused to repent. They were to take God’s will (revealed through Jesus by the Holy Spirit) and deliver it on earth. We access that will today through the Scriptures. The second passage that will help us is:
Pray, then, in this way:
Matthew 6:9–10
“Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Jesus taught His disciples to pray that God’s kingdom would come. Corresponding to that, God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what Jesus was referencing when He told Peter and, later, the other apostles, “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” When the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles and they preached the gospel of Jesus, they were revealing and binding God’s will from heaven on earth.
When we picture Peter with the keys of the kingdom, we shouldn’t picture a lectern and ledger at the pearly gates. We should picture the gospel being preached to sinners and the glory of Jesus fulfilling His promise in Mark 16:15–16:
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
When Jesus delivered His kingdom to the world, it was God’s will in heaven being bound on earth.
Right after Jesus said that, He also told them, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). What did He mean by that? It’s now time to study that question with this lesson.
- Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that Jesus was a created being and is Michael the Archangel. Learn more here. ↩︎
- πέτρος, BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. ↩︎
- Ibid, πέτρα ↩︎