Matthew 16:13 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a private conversation Christ had with his disciples about himself. It took place in the region of Caesarea Philippi, at the far northern edge of Canaan. In that remote place, fewer people were crowding around him, so he likely had more time to speak privately with his disciples. When ministers have less public work, they should try to do more good in their own homes.

Christ is here teaching his disciples by asking questions. He first asks what other people were saying about him: “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” He calls himself the Son of Man, which can mean two things. First, it can be a title he shares with other people, since he was truly human, born of a woman. Although he was the Son of God (Luke 1:35), he chose this humble title to show his lowly position while on earth.

Second, Son of Man can be a title that belongs to him as the Messiah, the promised Savior. Daniel saw him under that name in a vision (Daniel 7:13). So Jesus is asking, “Who do people say that I am? Do they recognize me as the Messiah?” He does not ask what the scribes and Pharisees said, because they were already biased against him. He asks about the common people instead, since the disciples would hear more from them than from the rulers. Jesus was not asking because he did not know. He wanted to awaken in his disciples a concern for the success of their preaching, since he cared so much about how he was received.

The disciples answer, “Some say you are John the Baptist,” and mention other opinions that were far from the truth. Some said he was Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. These were different guesses, and they show how divided people were. Truth is one, but error often splinters into many opinions. Because people would not admit that he was the Christ, they chased one uncertain guess after another.

These were still honorable opinions in one sense, because they showed respect for Jesus. They were not the insults of open enemies, but the thoughts of people who followed him with wonder. Yet a high opinion is not the same as a right one. People can think well of Christ and still not think rightly of him.

All these guesses also had one thing in common, they treated him as someone risen from the dead. That may have come from a confused idea about the Messiah, or from a belief that no great man could arise in their own time. So they tried to fit Jesus into familiar patterns rather than seeing who he truly was. They were willing to grant almost anything about him except the truth.

Some said he was John the Baptist. Herod had said that earlier (Matthew 14:2), and others around him may have repeated it. This idea may also have been helped by the belief that martyrs would rise first, before others.

Some said he was Elijah, likely because of Malachi’s prophecy that Elijah would come before the great day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Elijah also worked miracles, and his being taken up into heaven was itself a great miracle.

Others said he was Jeremiah. They may have thought of him as the sorrowful prophet, since Jesus often wept. Or they may have connected him with Jeremiah’s authority over nations and kingdoms (Jeremiah 1:10), which they thought suited the Messiah.

Others said he was one of the prophets. This shows how highly they valued the prophets, even though many of them came from families that had persecuted and killed them (Matthew 23:29). Rather than admit that Jesus of Nazareth was the extraordinary person his works proved him to be, they preferred to say he was one of the old prophets.

Then Jesus turns to the disciples themselves and asks, “But who do you say that I am?” They had seen more than others and had better teaching than the crowd. Those who have greater light and more grace should understand the things of God more clearly than others. The disciples were also being trained to teach others, so they needed to know the truth well themselves. Those who are to preach the gospel must first be examined, especially about Christ. How can someone serve as Christ’s minister if he is ignorant of Christ or wrong about him?

This is also a question each of us should ask ourselves often: Who do we say the Lord Jesus is? Do we treasure him? Is he the chief one in our hearts? Is he the Beloved of our souls? Our condition is good or bad depending on whether our thoughts about Jesus Christ are right.

This is the key question, and now we come to Peter’s answer to it, in Matthew 16:16. To the earlier question about what others thought of Christ, several of the disciples answered from what they had heard people say. But here Peter speaks for them all, with their agreement and consent. Peter was naturally quick to speak in such moments, and sometimes he spoke well and sometimes poorly. In every group, there are bold, eager people who usually speak first, and Peter was one of them.

Still, this is far from proving the kind of rank or authority over the other apostles that the church of Rome gives him. They want to make him into a judge, but at most he was the foreman of the jury, speaking for the rest on this one occasion. He was only chairman for this moment, not a permanent ruler or chief speaker of the whole church.

Peter’s answer is brief, but it is complete, true, and exactly to the point: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Here we have a confession of the Christian faith, spoken to Christ himself, and so it becomes an act of worship. It also confesses the true God as the living God, unlike silent and lifeless idols, and it confesses Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent, and to know whom is eternal life.

This is the heart of the matter. The people had called Jesus a prophet, even that Prophet (John 6:14). But the disciples confess him as the Christ, the anointed One, the great Prophet, Priest, and King of the church, the true Messiah promised to the fathers and long expected by them. It was a great thing to believe this about one whose outward appearance was so unlike the Messiah many Jews had imagined.

Jesus had called himself the Son of Man, but they confess him as the Son of the living God. The people’s ideas about him ranged from a dead man’s spirit to Elijah or Jeremiah. But the disciples know and believe that he is the Son of the living God, the one who has life in himself and gives life to the world. If he is the Son of the living God, then he shares the same nature as the Father. His divine nature was now hidden under human flesh, but these disciples looked through that veil and saw his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Can we also sincerely say this by faith? Then let us come to Christ with love and worship and tell him so: Lord Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Christ then approves Peter’s answer, in Matthew 16:17-19, and he answers Peter both as a believer and as an apostle. As a believer, Christ is pleased with Peter’s confession because it is clear and direct, without hesitation or uncertainty. The growth of Christ’s disciples in knowledge and grace is very pleasing to him, and he also shows Peter where this truth came from. At the dawn of the gospel, it was a great thing to believe this, and not everyone had this knowledge or faith.

Peter was blessed with it. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah.” Christ reminds him of his origin and family background, which were ordinary and humble. He was Bar-Jonah, the son of Jonah. Some take this to mean “son of a dove.” Let him remember the rock he was cut from, so he sees that he was not born into this honor, but was raised to it by God’s favor. It was free grace that made him differ from others. Those who have received the Spirit should remember who their Father is (1 Samuel 10:12).

After reminding him of this, Christ shows him his great happiness as a believer: “Blessed are you.” True believers are truly blessed, and those whom Christ calls blessed are blessed indeed. His word makes them so. Peter was a happy man, one who knew the joyful sound (Psalm 89:15). Blessed are your eyes (Matthew 13:16). All happiness is tied to rightly knowing Christ.

God must also receive the glory for this. “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.” Peter did not learn this through his own sharp thinking, nor from human teachers alone. This light did not come from nature or education, but from my Father in heaven. The Christian faith is a revealed religion. It comes from heaven. It is a religion from above, given by God’s own inspiration, not by philosophers or statesmen. Saving faith is also God’s gift, and when it exists, God himself has worked it in us, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for Christ’s sake and through his mediation, grants it (Philippians 1:29).

So Peter is blessed because the Father revealed this truth to him. The opening of Christ to us and in us is a special sign of God’s favor, and it is a sure foundation for true happiness. Blessed are those who are so highly favored. Christ may also have seen some pride or self-importance in Peter’s confession, a subtle sin that can mix with even our best duties. It is hard for good people to compare themselves with others without thinking too highly of themselves. To guard against that, we should remember that any advantage we have over others is not our own achievement. It is the free gift of God’s grace to us and not to them, so we have nothing to boast about (Psalm 115:1; 1 Corinthians 4:7).

Christ then answers Peter as an apostle or minister, in Matthew 16:18-19. Peter, speaking for the church, had confessed Christ, and so the promise meant for the church is directed to him. There is nothing lost by being ready to confess Christ, because those who honor him, he will honor. On the occasion of this great confession of Christ, which is the church’s act of honor and loyalty, he signed and published this royal, divine charter by which this body is formed and established.

This shows the close bond between Christ and the church, the bridegroom and the bride. God had a church in the world from the beginning, and it was built on the rock of the promised offspring (Genesis 3:15). But now that the promised offspring has come, the church needs a new charter as a Christian church, standing in relation to a Christ who has already come. Here we have that charter, and it is a great pity that this passage, which strongly supports the kingdom of Christ, has been twisted and used in the service of antichrist. Still, the devil has used his craft to twist it, just as he twisted the promise in Psalm 91:11 for his own purpose (Matthew 4:6), perhaps because both that Scripture and this one stood in his way, and so he bore them a grudge. Now the meaning of this charter is this:

First, Christ shows that he is the one who establishes the church. He says, “I also say to you.” Christ makes this promise because he is the church’s Head and Ruler, the one to whom all judgment has been given and from whom all power comes. He speaks with authority received from the Father, and he acts in line with his work of saving God’s chosen people.

The promise is given into Peter’s hands in the sense that Jesus says it to him directly, “I say to you.” In the Old Testament, promises about the church were often given through particular men, such as Abraham and David, men known for faith and holiness. Yet those promises did not give them rule over all God’s people, and they did not give that right to their descendants either. In the same way, the New Testament promise is spoken to Peter as a representative, but it is meant for the good of the church in every age.

Christ promises that he will build his church on a rock. The church is the people Christ has called out of the world and set apart for himself. It is not Peter’s church, but Christ’s own church. Peter later remembered this when he warned ministers not to act as masters over God’s people.

The church belongs especially to Christ. The world is God’s, and everything in it belongs to him, but the church is a chosen remnant that stands in relation to God through Christ as Mediator, which means the one who brings God and people together. The church bears Christ’s image and belongs to him by right. Christ himself says, “I will build it.” He is the Builder and Maker of the church, as the temple was built by the Lord’s appointed work, and Solomon and Cyrus each pointed ahead to Christ in different ways (Zech. 6:11-13; Isa. 44:28).

Christ builds the church by his Spirit working with the preaching of his word. He adds souls to the church, and so he builds it with living stones (1 Pet. 2:5). Believers are God’s building, and building is a work that grows over time. In this world, the church is still being formed, like a house under construction. It is a comfort to everyone who cares about the church that Christ, with divine wisdom and power, is the one who undertakes this work.

The foundation of the church is this rock. If the foundation is weak, the building will not stand, no matter how skilled the builder is. So we must ask what this foundation is, and it must be Christ, because no one can lay any other foundation (Isa. 28:16). The church is built on a rock, a strong and lasting base that time cannot wear out and that will not sink under the weight of the building. Christ would not build his house on sand, because he knew storms would come.

A rock is also high, and Christ’s church does not stand on the same level as the world. A rock is broad as well as strong, and so is the church’s foundation. The wider the foundation, the firmer it is, so those who try to narrow the church’s foundation are not helping it. When Jesus says, “Thou art Peter,” he is speaking of Peter’s name as meaning a stone or rock. Jesus had given him that name when he first called him (John 1:42), and here he confirms it. Peter fits his name, because he is a solid disciple, steady and dependable, not carried away by changing opinions about Christ (2 Pet. 1:12).

Some take this rock to mean Peter himself as an apostle, the leading one among the twelve, though not their master. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles (Eph. 2:20). Their ministry laid the first stones of that building, and their names are written in the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:14). Peter was the apostle through whom the first stones of the church were laid among Jewish believers (Acts 2) and Gentile believers (Acts 10), so in that limited sense he could be called a rock. Cephas, another name for Peter, means “pillar” or something like it (Gal. 2:9).

Still, it sounds too harsh to call one man, who only laid the first stone, the lasting foundation on which the whole building stands. Even if someone reads the verse that way, it does not support the claims of the bishop of Rome. Peter had no such rule over the church, and he certainly did not pass that kind of authority to his successors, least of all to the bishops of Rome. Whether they are bishops in name is one question, but that they are not so in the truth of Christianity is beyond dispute.

Others understand the rock to mean Christ himself. Then the sense is, “You are Peter, you have the name of a stone, but on this rock,” pointing to himself, “I will build my church.” Jesus may have pointed to himself as he spoke, the way he later spoke of the temple of his body (John 2:19). Just as he used the temple as an occasion to speak of himself, so here he used Peter’s name to speak of himself as the Rock. This reading fits the many Scriptures that call Christ the only foundation of the church (1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:6). Christ is both the one who founds the church and the foundation on which it rests. He draws souls to himself, unites them to himself, and keeps them in constant dependence on him.

Others understand the rock to be Peter’s confession of Christ, which comes to the same thing as understanding it of Christ himself. Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and the others agreed with him. Christ then says, in effect, that this great truth is the foundation on which he will build his church. If you remove this truth, the whole church falls. If Christ is not the Son of God, then Christianity is false, the church is empty, preaching is useless, faith is useless, and people are still in their sins (1 Cor. 15:14-17). If Jesus is not the Christ, then those who claim him are not part of the church, but deceivers or deceived.

If any church gives up the faith and open confession of this truth, it stops being part of Christ’s church and falls back into unbelief. This is the main article on which the church stands or falls, the chief point on which salvation turns. Those who let go of this do not hold the foundation. They may call themselves Christians, but they are saying something false about themselves, because the church is a holy community built on the certainty of this great truth.

Christ also promises to keep and protect his church once it is built. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Hell, or the power of death and evil, will not overcome this truth or the church built on it.

This means that the church has enemies that fight against it and try to ruin it. Here those enemies are pictured as the gates of hell, that is, the city of hell, set directly against this heavenly city, the city of the living God. These are the devil’s forces among people, the powers and plans of his kingdom, by which he wages war against the Lamb. Everything that comes from hell’s gates is shaped and planned there.

These enemies attack the church by resisting gospel truth, corrupting gospel ordinances, and persecuting good ministers and faithful Christians. They also use both craft and force, either persuading people by deception or driving them by cruelty, toward things that harm the purity of religion. Their aim is to wipe out the name of Christianity (Psalm 83:4), devour the child (Revelation 12:9), and tear this city down to the ground.

This also assures us that the church’s enemies will not reach their goal. As long as the world stands, Christ will have a church in it, and his truths and ordinances will continue, despite all the resistance of darkness. They will not prevail against it (Psalm 129:1, Psalm 129:2). This does not promise that any one local church or church leader will never make mistakes, fall away, or be destroyed.

It does mean that somewhere the Christian faith will continue to exist. It may not always be equally pure or glorious, but its line will never be cut off completely. The woman lives, even in the wilderness (Revelation 12:14), cast down but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:9). Corruptions may grieve the church, and persecutions may hurt it deeply, but neither will destroy it. The church may lose some battles, but in the great struggle it will come through more than victorious. Individual believers are kept by God’s power, through faith, until salvation (1 Peter 1:5).

The other part of this promise is the ordering and government of the church, which appears in Matthew 16:19. When a city or group is formed into a legal body, officers are appointed and given authority to act for the common good. A city without government is chaos. So the church’s government is shown here by the giving of the keys, along with authority to bind and loose.

This does not mean Peter alone received a special power, as if he were the only gatekeeper of heaven, holding the key of David, which belongs only to the Son of David. Rather, this gives all the apostles, and those who came after them, a ministerial power, that is, a serving authority to guide and govern the church of Christ in local congregations according to the rules of the gospel. As Ambrose said, all priests received the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the person of the blessed apostle Peter. The keys were first placed in Peter’s hand because he was the first to open the door of faith to the Gentiles (Acts 10:28).

Like a king giving a charter to a corporation and authorizing its officers to hold court in his name, Christ has formed his church and appointed the ministry to maintain order and government. They are to see that his laws are properly carried out. So he says, “I will give you the keys.” He does not say, “I have given them,” or “I give them now,” but, “I will give them,” pointing to the time after his resurrection. When he ascended, he gave these gifts (Ephesians 4:8). Then this authority was actually given, not to Peter only, but to the rest as well (Matthew 28:19, Matthew 28:20; John 20:21). He says, “I will give,” not “the keys will be given,” because ministers receive their authority from Christ, and all their power must be used in his name (1 Corinthians 5:4).

This delegated power is spiritual. It belongs to the kingdom of heaven, meaning the church, especially the part of it that lives and struggles on earth, under the gospel. The apostolic and ministerial office deals entirely with that realm. It is not civil power. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. Their later instructions were about things belonging to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

It is also the power of the keys, using the image of someone entrusted with the keys of a place. Or, like a household steward, the minister is given the keys of the storehouse, where the provisions are kept, so he may give each person their food at the proper time (Luke 12:42), or refuse it when needed, according to the rules of the house. Ministers are stewards (1 Corinthians 4:1; Titus 1:7). Eliakim, who had the key of the house of David, was over the household (Isaiah 22:22).

This is a power to bind and loose, that is, using the same picture of keys, to shut and to open. Joseph, who was lord over Pharaoh’s house and steward of the storehouses, had power over his princes and taught his elders wisdom (Psalm 105:21, Psalm 105:22). When the stores and treasures of a house are shut from someone, that person is bound, as if forbidden the use of fire and water. When they are opened again, the person is loosed from that bond, freed from censure, and restored to liberty.

Christ also promises to honor the proper use of this authority. He will confirm the judgments of his stewards with his own approval. Whatever is bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. This does not mean Christ has promised to approve every church decision, right or wrong. It means that when church judgments are made rightly according to the Word, with the key turning the right way, they are sealed in heaven. The gospel word spoken by faithful ministers is to be received, not as the word of man, but as the word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13; John 12:20).

The keys of the kingdom of heaven include, first, the key of doctrine, also called the key of knowledge. Their work is to explain God’s will to the world, both in truth and in duty. For this they receive their commission, their proof of authority, and their full instructions for binding and loosing. In ordinary Jewish speech of that time, this meant forbidding or allowing something. To teach that something was unlawful was to bind it; to teach that it was lawful was to loose it.

The apostles had an extraordinary authority of this kind. Some things forbidden by Moses’ law were now to be allowed, like eating certain foods. Some things allowed there were now to be forbidden, like divorce. The apostles were authorized to declare this to the world, and people could rely on their word. When Peter was first taught for himself, and then taught others, to call nothing common or unclean, this authority was being used.

There is also an ordinary authority given to all ministers, to preach the gospel as appointed officers. They are to tell people, in God’s name and according to Scripture, what is right and what the Lord requires of them. Those who declare the whole counsel of God use these keys well (Acts 20:27).

Some think the giving of the keys points to a Jewish custom when a doctor of the law was made. The keys of the chest that held the law book were placed in his hand, showing that he was authorized to take and read it. The binding and loosing may also refer to the way their books were kept in rolls. They were shut by tying them up with a string, and opened by untying them. In a similar way, Christ gives his apostles authority to open or close the book of the gospel to people as needed. We see this authority exercised in Acts 13:46 and Acts 18:6.

When ministers preach pardon and peace to the repentant, and wrath and the curse to the unrepentant, in Christ’s name, they act under this authority of binding and loosing.

There is also the key of church discipline, which is only the use of the former authority in particular cases, after judging a person’s character and actions rightly. This is not lawmaking power, but judicial power. A judge does not make the law, he only says what the law is, and after a fair examination of the case, he gives a fitting sentence. That is how the power of the keys works wherever Christ has placed it, especially in matters of church membership and its privileges.

Christ’s ministers have authority to admit people into the church. He said, “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them” (Matthew 28:19). Those who confess faith in Christ and obedience to him, along with their children, are to be received into the church by baptism. Ministers are to let into the wedding feast those who are invited, and keep out those who are clearly unfit for such a holy fellowship.

They also have authority to expel and cast out those who have lost their church membership. That is binding. It means refusing unbelievers the use of gospel promises and their signs. It also means telling those who seem to be full of bitterness and sin that they have no share in the matter, as Peter said to Simon Magus, even though Simon had been baptized. This is a binding over to God’s judgment.

They also have authority to restore and receive again those who have been put out, if they repent. That is loosing those they had bound. They may tell such people that, if their repentance is sincere, the promise of pardon belongs to them. The apostles had a miraculous gift for discerning spirits, yet even they went by outward signs (Acts 8:21; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Timothy 1:20). Ministers today may also make such judgments, if they are skilled and faithful.

Finally, Christ charged his disciples to keep this private for the time being (Matthew 16:20). They were to tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. What they had confessed to him, they were not yet to publish to the world, for several reasons.

First, this was a time of preparation for his kingdom. The main message then was that the kingdom of heaven was near. So they were to focus on the things that would prepare people for Christ, such as repentance, rather than on the great truth by which the kingdom would be openly established. Everything is beautiful in its season, and it is wise to prepare the work before building it (Proverbs 24:27).

Second, Christ wanted his Messiahship proved by his works. He preferred that his deeds testify for him rather than his disciples, since their witness was only a witness for him. See John 5:31, John 5:34. He was so confident in the proof of his miracles that he did not depend on other witnesses (John 10:25, John 10:38).

Third, if people had known that he was Jesus the Christ, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8).

Fourth, Christ did not want the apostles to preach this until they had the clearest evidence ready to support it. Great truths can be harmed if they are stated before they can be fully proved. The great proof that Jesus was the Christ was his resurrection. By it he was declared to be the Son of God with power, so divine wisdom did not have this truth preached until that proof could be given. The apostles also needed a greater measure of the Spirit before proclaiming so great a truth. Therefore, the public announcement waited until the Spirit was poured out. Once Christ was glorified and the Spirit was given, Peter proclaimed openly what had been spoken here privately: God had made this Jesus both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.