by Jared Hardin

May 21, 2025

I have a habit of losing things. More than I would like to admit, I lose my glasses, my books, and my Airpods, just to name a few common examples. And, like so many of you reading this have done, sometimes I lose my keys. Just a few weeks ago, I had to be somewhere at 8:00 am, and I was running around the house frantically searching for my car keys at 7:45. Just when I had given up and was going to take my wife’s car, I found them in a chair next to the dining room table—right where I had left them.

But this article isn’t about car keys. It’s about a much more important set of keys that Jesus entrusts to Peter in Matthew’s Gospel. Most people are familiar with this passage, and they are aware that Jesus, in some sense, gave these keys to Peter. But no one seems to understand how this idea applies today. In other words, it seems we’ve lost the keys again. Here’s the passage I’m referring to, Matthew 16:16-19:

(16) Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (17) Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. (18) And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (19) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Some commonly-told jokes interpret this verse to mean that St. Peter himself stands outside the gate of heaven, deciding who gets in and who doesn’t. That certainly isn’t the case. Roman Catholics interpret this to mean that Peter passed on the keys to a successor in Rome, and that every pope since Peter has held these unique keys to the kingdom. That certainly isn’t the meaning of the passage either. So what does it mean? The context will give us the answer.

Jesus has just said to Peter “You are Peter” (Peter is the Greek word for “rock”), “and on this rock I will build my church”. As the leader of the Twelve Apostles, Peter becomes part of the church’s foundation. Paul confirms this when he says that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets” (Eph. 4:20). Christ is building a church. The indestructible force Jesus is building is not the papacy or a literal doorway into heaven. It is a victorious people under God’s authority.

In the very next verse (v. 19) immediately after Jesus mentions the keys, he includes the mysterious saying, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Fortunately for us, this is not the only place Jesus utters this phrase. Let’s turn to Matthew 18, where he sheds more light on the subject:

(15) “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. (16) But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ (17) If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

(18) “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

(19) “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (20) For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Matthew 18:18 sounds exactly like Matthew 16:19—they are both about “binding” and “loosing”. But there is one important difference. Now, Jesus is using a plural “you.” You can’t really see this in English, but in most languages there is a difference between “you” (singular) and “you” (plural). We might clarify by saying, “You all” or just “y’all”. The point is this: the “binding and loosing” authority is not given to an individual. It is given to a group of people. “Whatever you all bind on earth will be bound in heaven.” So what group is it given to? The passage could not be more clear: the authority is given to the church, the gathered people of God.

I’d love to talk more someday about what this authority means and how it’s exercised, but I just want to demonstrate that the church is almost definitely a bigger deal than you think it is. While we can debate the details, one thing is clear: these passages teach that the church is an institution on earth with the unique authority to make declarations about realities in heaven. There is no other Jesus-commissioned institution like it.

To no other institution does Jesus promise, “the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” To no other institution does Jesus give the authority to “bind” and “loose”. To no other person, group, nation, or institution has Christ given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Only to the church.

While many may not know where the keys are, the keys are not lost. The keys of the kingdom of heaven are held by the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has left the keys with his Bride, and it is our responsibility, as his church, to exercise this authority carefully in our local congregations. The church speaks and acts on behalf of Jesus. This is a high, solemn, and weighty responsibility. So I assure you that church is a bigger deal than you think it is. The church is “the pillar and foundation of the truth,” the “body of Christ,” the “temple of God,” “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” and the “fullness of him who fills all in all” (1 Tim 3:15, 1 Cor. 12:27, 1 Cor. 3:16, 1 Pet. 2:9, Eph. 1:23).

The church is not an optional, temporary, or manmade institution. It is a divinely constituted and commissioned people. It’s time we started acting like it!