Peter’s Confession (Matt.16:13-20)
The acknowledgement of Peter that Jesus was the Messiah (‘Messiah’ is Hebrew and ‘Christ’ is from the Greek – they both mean ‘Anointed One’) and the Son of God brought forth the statement of v.18. This has been used by the Roman Catholics to assert that their church was founded by Peter and is therefore, Christ’s church. From v.19 they also claim that when sins are confessed to one of their ‘priests’ they can be forgiven.
The first claim is based on something which cannot be proved, namely that Peter was ever in Rome and that he founded a church there. To support the claim they teach that Simon’s name was here changed to Peter (meaning a stone) and that when Jesus said, “Upon this rock will I build my church” he implied that it should be built upon Peter. But the Greek words are not quite the same. The first – petros- means ‘a little stone’, and the second – petra – means ‘a Rock’. Moreover, Jesus did not here name Simon by the name Peter. It was already his name (Matt.4:18). Jesus made a “play” upon the name by commending Peter for his true understanding of his position as the anointed Son of God, and stating that this true understanding (the confession) was the foundation of his church or ecclesia (called out ones).
It is clear that this is so, for the New Covenant is centred in Christ and rests upon the fact that Christ was a son of man through Mary (and could therefore die) and yet Son of God because God was his Father (Luke 1:35) and “without sin”, so that “death could not hold him”. The gates of the grave (the Bible “hell”) could not prevail against him and now Christ has the keys of death and the grave (Rev.1:18) and can unlock it. Moreover, “the keys” were not given exclusively to Peter (Matt.18:18). Both Peter and the apostles used these keys when preaching the Gospel first to Israel, and then to the Gentiles (Acts 1:8).
Bro. W. Mitchell (UK)
