“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. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 16:19)
In Matthew 16, Jesus changes Simon Peter’s name to just Peter. He also declares that, because of and through Peter (“this rock”), He will build His church. Then, He tells Peter He will give him “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” What are these keys? Are they for Peter or the church? What do they do?
It has been a controversial subject. Some say Jesus gave Peter the keys—the means, if you will—to take the gospel to the Gentiles. They claim Jesus was commissioning him to preach to new ethnic groups outside the Jewish community, as he did in Acts 10, when God told him to go to the Roman centurion Cornelius’ house to teach the gospel. Jesus commanded all believers to go and share the gospel to “all the nations” (Mt 28:19-20), so the keys belonging only to Peter is unlikely.
More relevantly, keys refer to controlling access either to heaven or hell, as we see repeatedly in the book of Revelation. Isaiah 22:22 also mentions palace keys held by an important official who either opens a door for believers or shuts nonbelievers out of heaven.
“The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. So, he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.” (Is 22:22)
Therefore, most often, scholars say the keys are not a single subject but one connected to the remainder of Matthew 16:19 and the matter of binding and loosening, a verse very similar to Isaiah 22.
“And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
A more accurate translation of verse 19 from the Greek, using the two verbs estai dedemenon and estai lelumenon respectively, therefore is,
“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens. And whatever you shall bind on the earth shall be as having been bound in the heavens. And whatever you shall loose on the earth shall be as having been loosed in the heavens.”
Theologian Michael Vanlaningham paraphrases Matthew 16:19 like this: “Peter, when, in the future, you bind or loose people, be assured that unquestionably they will remain bound or loosed in heaven as well.”
What Jesus is telling Peter, a member of the church, is that the church (not Peter alone) has the authority to declare what God has already conclusively decided. In this case, we are talking about acceptance of the gospel message. In other words, when the church makes a judgment about forgiveness based on God’s word, it can be sure that heaven agrees.
If the church declares an unrepentant person is still bound in sin, the church is repeating what God says about that person. Likewise, if someone has accepted Christ, they have been loosed from sin, and God will agree. And if someone hears the gospel and refuses it, they remain in their sin and will continue to be bound.
Jesus’ declaration to Peter in Matthew 16:19 highlights God’s permanent divine agreement between Peter (as a member of the church) and heaven. In the end, the church has the authority to decide if someone is truly saved, a decision usually based on evidence of our spiritual fruit.
The church alone holds the keys of the kingdom, not Peter.
