Matthew 16:19, commentary and pictures

The keys of the kingdom are Christ's words, including all of Scripture, which open and shut heaven by declaring the terms on which people are received or rejected, and this promise was given upon Christ Himself as the rock and foundation of the church. They were entrusted not to Peter alone but to all the disciples and to the church in every age, with Peter honored only as representative of believers and given no supremacy or headship over the others. In its organized capacity the church speaks with the highest authority God has placed on earth, so that decisions of censure and restoration made in Christ's Spirit and according to His guidance are ratified in heaven. This grants no power to forgive sin by human authority, to control conscience, or to pronounce final judgment, for Christ alone forgives and judges while the church may only announce His forgiveness to the repentant and restore them to fellowship. To claim these keys as power in the hands of the pope to open and close heaven, control consciences, and lay whole regions under interdict is a misuse of the promise, which instead lays grave responsibility on ministers whose leading of souls is bound up with heaven's judgment.

Recipient and Meaning of Keys

The pledge of the keys came directly after the declaration that Christ Himself is the rock and foundation of the church. Immediately after giving that pledge, Jesus charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ, because of the determined opposition of the scribes and Pharisees. The keys of the kingdom are Christ's words, embracing all of Holy Scripture. Those words open or shut heaven by declaring the conditions on which people are received or rejected, so that preaching God's word carries eternal consequences for life or for death.

The keys represent trust and authority bestowed for carrying forward the work of the kingdom. That trust with its power to bind and to loose was given not to Peter alone but to all the disciples and to the Christian church in every age. Peter was honored in this as the representative of all believers, yet with no preference over the other disciples, no supremacy or headship above them, and no supreme rule conferred upon him or upon his successors.

Church Authority to Bind and Loose

The actions, decisions, and business matters of the church on earth carry great weight in heaven, for God regards them as important and instructs and guides His people in them, so they must never be treated as foolish or insignificant. Christ gave the church authority to bind and loose, making the voice of the church the highest authority of God upon the earth, with power to correct wrongs and give warnings. Those who set that voice aside and move out independently of it place themselves where God cannot correct their wrongs and warn them, and are therefore confirmed in deception and blinded in error.

In its organized capacity the church acts through responsible, consecrated representatives entrusted with authority to censure and to remove censure according to inspired rules. Decisions made in the Spirit and power of Christ and according to His guidance are ratified in heaven. This promise concerns the church acting in its organized capacity, not arbitrary power over conscience or the judgment of one person alone. It gives no church leader power to forgive sins, remove guilt, sell indulgences, wield arbitrary control over conscience, excuse sin, or pronounce God's final judgment. Christ alone forgives sin and executes judgment against the impenitent, while the church may announce forgiveness in His name by assuring the repentant sinner of the Saviour's mercy and restoring that person to faith, righteousness, and fellowship.

The commission makes the work of ministers gravely responsible, since their decisions in leading souls to truth are bound up with heaven's judgment. Ministers must therefore give themselves wholly to their sacred work and watch for souls as those who must give an account. The decisions of people in positions of trust are treated as binding or loosing in God's work as if under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. When unconverted people untaught of God and not under His Spirit, never converted and not making God their fear and trust, are placed where their influence has controlling power, their judgment is regarded as reliable and binds or looses with heaven's sanction, swaying things into a wrong channel, counterworking God's work, and imperiling the cause. Those entrusted by God with a special work, influence, and means in trust to raise the standard of truth and advance His kingdom must not feel dependent on any institution or on the decisions of any person or class, place themselves under their power and control, be bound by them, or tie their hands by decisions they are urged to make.

The verse has been misused to claim that the pope as God's representative holds the keys of heaven and hell with power to invoke temporal as well as spiritual judgments and to control consciences. Under a papal interdict, people believed heaven's gates were closed against a whole region and its dead shut out from bliss until the ban was removed. In token of that calamity all religious services were suspended, churches were closed, marriages were solemnized in the churchyard, and the dead, denied burial in consecrated ground, were interred without rites of burial in ditches or fields.