Mat 16:16-18 | KingComments | STEP | Then the Lord’s question is put directly to His disciples: Who do they say He is? This question is of the utmost importance to every disciple. Simon Peter answers the question first. He confesses that Jesus is the Christ. Christ is to say Messiah as the One Who is the fulfilment of the promises of God and of the prophecies that have announced their fulfilment. He is the Messiah promised by God. Moreover, He is the Son of God according to Psalm 2. This is the confession of the Jewish remnant ( ). In addition, Peter confesses Him as the Son of the living God. With that he says that there is life in Him. Also connected with this is that He possesses life-giving power. To be the Son of the living God means that He Himself has this life. What is built on it cannot be affected by death or anything connected with it. The life of God cannot be destroyed. Everything is based on His Person. No one can understand the truth of the church unless He has first accepted the truth about His Person. In the following verses, the Lord Jesus begins to reveal the truth of the church.

‏ Matthew 16:16-18

Who Do You Say That I Am?

Then the Lord’s question is put directly to His disciples: Who do they say He is? This question is of the utmost importance to every disciple. Simon Peter answers the question first. He confesses that Jesus is the Christ. Christ is to say Messiah as the One Who is the fulfilment of the promises of God and of the prophecies that have announced their fulfilment. He is the Messiah promised by God. Moreover, He is the Son of God according to Psalm 2. This is the confession of the Jewish remnant (Jn 1:49).

In addition, Peter confesses Him as the Son of the living God. With that he says that there is life in Him. Also connected with this is that He possesses life-giving power. To be the Son of the living God means that He Himself has this life. What is built on it cannot be affected by death or anything connected with it. The life of God cannot be destroyed. Everything is based on His Person. No one can understand the truth of the church unless He has first accepted the truth about His Person. In the following verses, the Lord Jesus begins to reveal the truth of the church.

The Church and the Kingdom

Christ has provided enough evidence of Who He is. But all these proofs have clearly had no effect whatsoever on the heart of any human being. The revelation of the Father is the only way to know Who He is, and that goes far beyond the expectation of a Messiah. The Lord Jesus adds a new revelation on top of the Father’s revelation to Peter. By saying “I also say to you” He places Himself on the same level as the Father. He and the Father are one (Jn 10:30). The Father has revealed something and now He will reveal something.

For this revelation, He uses the meaning of Peter’s name in saying to him, “you are Peter”. Peter means ‘stone’. The Lord thus indicates that Peter is one of the stones that will be built on the rock, in Greek petra. We see in Peter’s first letter that he made an allusion to the Lord in his name. In it he writes about the believers as “living stones” which together form a spiritual house (1Pet 2:5).

The building of the church is still future here because the Lord says: “I will build.” This also makes it clear that the church does not exist from Adam. He further points out that this work of God cannot be disrupted by the power of the enemy. When it comes to man building the church, there is a possibility of disruption (1Cor 3:12-17). The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is proof that He is the Son of the living God (Rom 1:4) and that death has no power over Him. He Himself has the keys of death and Hades (Rev 1:18).

He gives Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. These are not the keys of the church. The kingdom is shaped by people, while the church as presented here is God’s work alone. From the use Peter makes of the keys, we see that the kingdom and the church are two different areas.

We see Peter using the keys in Acts 2 to “loose” the Jews, that is, to free them from their Jewish environment (Acts 2:37-40). In Acts 10 he uses those keys to “loose” the Gentiles, that is, to separate them from their Gentile environment (Acts 10:44-48). Baptism is the gate through which they enter the kingdom of heaven. In Acts 8 he uses the keys to “bind” Simon the magician, that is, to bind his sins upon him (Acts 8:20-23). Although Simon the magician was baptized, he appeared to be bound to his sins, which is, as it were, confirmed by the action of Peter.

After these special announcements from the Lord, perhaps the disciples have a great desire to make Him known as the Christ. The Lord does not want that. The time for that has passed. The people have rejected Him. It is now about something else, namely the work on the cross. He presents this in the following verse.