Introduction | Table of Contents | Chapter 3

The Lord's statement to the Apostle Peter, that upon the rock foundation of the truth of his confession, as embodied in His own Person, He would build His Church and the gates of Hades should not prevail against it, was followed by the promise, "I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). It is important to observe the distinction made by the Lord between the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven. To identify the two gives rise to much confusion.

"The Kingdom of Heaven" describes Heaven as the place from which authority proceeds, while the earth is the sphere in which it is exercised. Heaven is God's Throne, the Seat of Divine Government (Ps. 11:4; 103:19; Matt. 5:34; Acts 7:49). When the One who exercises the authority is the predominant thought, the phrase used is "the Kingdom of God," &~ phrase which also extends beyond all the various ages of time with their dispensational features.

"The Heavens" have always ruled (Dan. 4:32). Inasmuch, too, as the Kingdom of Heaven assumed a special phase with the testimony of Christ in the days of His flesh, obviously the Kingdom of Heaven preceded the formation of the Church. While yet the inception of the Church was future Christ denounced the Pharisees for shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: "Ye enter not in yourselves," He said, "neither offer ye them that are entering in to enter" (Matt. 23:13). That alone would be sufficient to show that there is a distinction. They were not hindering men from entering the Church, as it did not then exist.

The Keys

In saying to Peter, "I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," He was at once differentiating between the Kingdom and the Church, of which He had just spoken. The keys are symbolic of authority and of the power to give admission to something. In this case the admission was not to the Church. Peter did not open the door into the Church either when He preached to the Jews on the Day of Pentecost or when he preached to Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. If the preaching of the gospel is the opening of the door into the Church, then all who engage in preaching are openers of the door. Moreover, the Lord's commission to preach the gospel was given to all the Apostles, as recorded in Matthew 28:19. While, on the one hand, He was about to build His Church, which would consist of true believers only, His disposition of the affairs of the Kingdom of Heaven, of which He handed Peter the keys, was quite another matter; it had to do initially with the nation of Israel, in the midst of which the powers of the Kingdom had already been exercised, though it was not limited to Israel.

Israel and the Kingdom

Whereas there is no mention of the Church in Christ's previous discourses, He had constantly spoken of the Kingdom of Heaven, as also had His herald John the Baptist in his special mission to Israel. Each had given the nation the message, "Repent ye; for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2 and 4:17), clearly a reference to the fact of Christ's presence in the nation. The Kingdom had been one of the Lord's chief topics in His discourses.

The nation of Israel, though professing allegiance to God, had shared in the general rebellion of mankind (cp. Isa. 1:2, 4). The King had at length Himself come into their midst, but they had refused to recognize Him, and, at the time when Christ spoke of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Jews were just about to reject Him absolutely. For this they were eventually to be "cast away," until a time of restoration, an event still future (Rom. 11:15,25). In spite of this, to Peter was to be committed the proclamation of a great amnesty to the nation, and thereafter the gospel was to be carried by him and others t6 the Gentiles.

Pentecost

On the Day of Pentecost, after explaining the circumstances of the sending of the Holy Spirit, and addressing his hearers as "men of Israel" (Acts 2:22), and "brethren" (verse 29), i.e., as his fellow nationals, the Apostle proclaimed the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified by "the hand of lawless men." "All the house of Israel" were to know assuredly that God had "made Him both Lord and Christ" (verse 36). In, his subsequent message to the nation he says, "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied" (3:13). Yet, upon the condition of their repentance, their sins would be blotted out, "seasons of refreshing" would come from the presence of the Lord, and He would send the Christ (verses 19, 20).

Here, then, was a proclamation to the nation, "the house of Israel," and in this and his further testimony the Lord fulfilled His word to the Apostle, that to him He would give the "keys of the Kingdom of Heaven." In other words, besides the new fact that the Church, the Body of Christ, began to be formed at Pentecost, the Apostle Peter, in offering terms to Israel, was dealing administratively with the affairs of the Kingdom of Heaven; not that he was the first to do so (that is not involved in the Lord's word that He would give Him the keys), for the authority of the Kingdom had already been operating, but that he fulfilled a special function in regard to it.

While members of the Church, the Body of Christ, are thereby in the Kingdom, yet, as we have seen, the Kingdom was preached as the Kingdom of Heaven before the Church began, and will be proclaimed on earth after the Church is complete and is removed from earth to its heavenly destiny at the Rapture.

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is the sphere in which God's rule is acknowledged. It is said to be "in mystery" (Mark 4:11), that is, it does not come within the natural powers of observation.' The Lord said, "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation"⁴ (margin, "with outward show") (Luke 17:20). The reign of God on earth today is not that of an earthly kingdom (though His Almighty power controls the affairs of kingdoms), but is the reign of His will over the unseen movements of the inner man. Submission to His will involves faith in Christ, and this brings regeneration, or the new birth, of which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus. Then it is that we become children of God, being born of the Spirit, and thereupon we receive eternal life and are justified in His sight, becoming accepted in Christ. Without the new birth all other conformity is vain. The Kingdom of Heaven, as Scripture portrays it, makes all attempt to gain temporal power entirely inconsistent with its objects. Those who would reign as kings to day must reign without the Apostles (see I Cor. 4:8, where Paul deprecates the attempt to reign now, and expresses an ardent longing for the appointed future time for doing so). When hereafter God asserts His rule universally, then the Kingdom will be in glory, and will be manifest to all (cp. Matt. 25:31-34; 2 Tim. 4:18). That is destined to be the ultimate phase of the Kingdom of Heaven, an expression which often covers the same ground as "the Kingdom of God," the two terms being frequently interchangeable (cp. Matt. 19:23 with verse 24, and again with Mark 10:23, 24; also Matt. 19:14 with Mark 10:14; and Matt. 13:11 with Luke 8:10)⁵.

⁴See an extended note on the subject in Notes on I and 2 Thessalonians by C. F. Hogg and the writer.

⁵The phrase "the Kingdom of Heaven" is used only in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament (in 2 Tim. 4:18, the phrase is "His heavenly Kingdom"). That Gospel speaks of the Kingdom of God four times. There is a distinction between what that Kingdom actually is and what it resembles. In the parables in Matt. 13 the Lord does not say, "the Kingdom of Heaven is so and so," but "the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto" (verses 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47), and again in the corresponding passage in Mark, "So is the Kingdom of God as if..." (verse 26), and "How shall we liken the Kingdom of God, or in what parable shall we 80 it forth" (verse 30). Just as there is a radical difference between wheat and tares, so there is all the difference between .'sons of the Kingdom" and "sons of the evil one' (Matt. 13:38). Both are to be found in the Kingdom, in its mystery form, outwardly acknowledging the name of Christ. But some yield either merely formal or even feigned obedience. This will be so even in the Millennium, and with hearts unchanged they Will rebel at the last (see Rev. 20:7-10). Only those can enter into the Kingdom in reality and in its eternal blessedness who are born again (John 3:5).

Binding and Loosing

The promise with which the Lord immediately followed His word to Peter about the keys, namely, "and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven," He subsequently extended to all the disciples, as recorded in chapter 18:18. From this it is obvious that, whatever is indicated thereby, it was not, as a principle, to be confined exclusively to Peter. The preceding context in the eighteenth chapter shows that the reference there is to cases of discipline for maintaining the Lord's honour, and the succeeding context shows that the power was to be shared with two or three who would be gathered together in His Name. He would Himself be in the midst of them. The passage in the sixteenth chapter shows that the reference is, as we have seen, to administration in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Lord's words to Peter, therefore, do not in any wise imply that this Apostle was to receive a primacy of jurisdiction in the Church, or that he was to have supreme authority to teach and govern under Christ. Both this, and the idea that Peter was the rock foundation upon which the spiritual edifice of the Church was to be built, are based upon ecclesiastical misconception and find no support in the pages of Holy Scripture. Christ was neither founding a monarchy in forming the Church, nor was He establishing an individual to be a ruler over it.

Nor again can such superiority or authority be inferred from the Lord's words to Peter, after His resurrection, "Feed My lambs," "Feed (or tend) My sheep." What Christ was doing, as recorded in John 21:15-17, was not the impartation of ecclesiastical authority but a confirmation of Peter after his restoration from his fall, and a preparation for his service. There was no implication in the Lord's words that any specially superior work of pastoral care was to be committed to him. The care of the flock is a responsibility devolving upon all spiritual shepherds; as the Apostle himself says when exhorting elders, "Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight thereof, not of constraint, but willingly, according unto God; nor yet for filthy lucre but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock" (I Peter 5:2, 3, R.V.).

Things that Differ

To sum up, the Kingdom is not coterminous with the Church. Holy angels, though they do not form part of the Church, are in the Kingdom of God. The Psalmist, after saying "The Lord hath established His Throne in the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all," calls at once upon His angels to praise Him. They fulfil His commandments, "hearkening unto the voice of His words"; they are "His ministers that do His pleasure" (Ps. 103:19-21). In the present era the powers of the Kingdom work in the hearts of men by means of the preaching of the gospel, but neither the Kingdom of God nor the Church consists of a visible external organization. Christ did not found and build up for Himself a Kingdom upon earth, nor do we find any intimation in Scripture that the Church is an earthly establishment.

When Christ, speaking of a trespass on the part of one brother against another, and of the efforts that were to be made by means of witnesses to remove the difficulty, said that if the erring one refused to hear them the injured brother was to tell it to the church (Matt. 18:17), obviously the reference was to a local congregation. The Church, in the extended significance of the word, is ruled out by the circumstances. The thought of the establishment of a central ecclesiastical institution as a court of judicature for the trying of such cases is as absent from that passage as it is from the rest of the New Testament. The Church is never looked upon, in the teaching of Scripture, as an earthly institution. To conceive of it as the Kingdom of God is to confound things concerning which Holy Scripture makes a difference. That Kingdom is spiritual in its present phase. Its operations do not consist in the punctilious observance of ordinances, in things external and material, but in those which are spiritual and essential, in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17).

Introduction | Table of Contents | Chapter 3

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