Meditations in Matthew Sixteen: Keys of the Kingdom

We have defined two terms Jesus used in Matt 16:17–19 in previous posts.¹ Jesus used “my church” to mean the congregation that comprises those in covenant with God during the messianic age. Scripture speaks of local churches as “the church” by synecdoché,² each one representing the whole. The “kingdom of heaven” refers to his reign over his church/churches. 

The kingdom of heaven is “easily the most prominent theme of the New Testament from beginning to end.”³ Yet, many Christians do not understand Jesus’s reference to it.

The undeniable fact is that God’s people on earth have virtually lost all consciousness of the existence of His Kingdom; that they have but the haziest ideas as to its constitution, its aims and its activities; that few of them could give to any who might ask them concerning it, an intelligible account thereof; that many of them have not even so much as heard whether there be a Kingdom of God or not.⁴

Christian scholars sometimes add to the haziness. Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom. But R. T. France says the kingdom of God “is the abstract idea of God being king, his sovereignty, his control of his world and its affairs. . . . The phrase ‘the kingdom of God’ is . . . not describing something called ‘the kingdom’.”⁵ “In Jesus’ teaching it is applied so widely and diversely that the search for a specific situation or event which is the kingdom of God becomes ludicrously inappropriate.”⁶

Of what use are keys to an “abstract idea”? How could Peter use them if he could not detect a “specific situation” where he should do so?

This post will show the reasoning behind our definition of the kingdom. 

Kingdom Characteristics

The kingdom of heaven has characteristics that make it more than an abstract idea. These attributes pertain to an identifiable object in a real historical context.

The kingdom of heaven has boundaries. Jesus said, “Ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28–29). The kingdom’s limits allow people to know who is inside it and whom God has expelled from it.

God’s kingdom has terminal points in history. In the Mosaic-age, the kingdom began in the Exodus (Exod 19:6). It ended at the Temple’s destruction in AD 70 (Matt 24:1–3). 

In the messianic age, God set up the kingdom—Jesus’s “kingdom of heaven”—in the days of the Roman Emperors (Dan 2:44). That kingdom will culminate at the resurrection (1 Cor 15:25–26).

The kingdom of heaven grows. Jesus compared it to a mustard seed that becomes a tree (Matt 13:31–32). The Messiah’s government increases (Isa 9:7). Daniel, in prophetic vision, saw the kingdom as a stone that “became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Dan 2:35).

 The kingdom is transferrable. God can take it from one group and give it to another (Matt 21:43).

None of these characteristics apply to the abstract idea of God’s rule. All of them require a specific and identifiable “something called the kingdom.”

We agree with Dr. France on an important point. There is a sense in which the kingdom is “God being king, his sovereignty, his control of his world and its affairs.”⁷ We have called this perspective God’s “creation kingdom.” None of the characteristics we have listed apply to the kingdom in this sense.

Jesus’s “kingdom of heaven” in Matt 16:19 is his rule over his church (Matt 16:18). Because of this relationship, we have called this his “church kingdom.”⁸ All the attributes we listed apply to it.

Synecdoché helped us relate “the church” to “the churches” (here). This common linguistic device can also help us understand the kingdom.

The rule of Christ over his church is a subset of his rule over all things. 

God’s “everlasting kingdom” (Dan 4:3) is the whole. The “kingdom” he set up in the days of the Roman kings (Dan 2:44) is a part of this whole. So, we can refer to it as “the kingdom” by synecdoché.

Context determines whether “the kingdom” means the whole or a part. Our “church kingdom” is temporal and mutable. The “creation kingdom” is eternal and immutable. In most cases, the kingdom’s meaning is clear.

The Church-Kingdom Connection

The Bible nowhere explicitly says the “kingdom of heaven” is the church (or, the churches). But this is our position and many conservative scholars believe something similar. Here are a few examples, some of which have appeared in previous posts:

God has made the church on earth a ‘kingdom and priests.’⁹

‘God’s holy mountain’ . . . is the familiar and endeared name for the Church or Kingdom in the present Messianic age.¹⁰

The obedient subjects of his reign, are the same persons that compose the church universal.¹¹

Christ hath here on earth a spiritual Kingdom, which is the Church, which he hath purchased and redeemed to himself, as a peculiar inheritance.¹²

How did these writers conclude this? Abraham Booth points us in the right direction:

The tenor of the New Testament . . . leads us to consider particular churches, as Congregational; and as consisting of those who make a credible profession of repentance and faith. Such congregations, wherever they be, constitute the visible kingdom of Christ.¹³ 

The “kingdom of heaven” so defined has all the characteristics we listed above. It has terminal points. Jesus “set up” the kingdom (Dan 2:44). He did so by building his church (Matt 16:18). His first step was to establish the local congregation at Jerusalem. The beginning of the messianic-age kingdom was also the beginning of the church.

This kingdom will also have an end. It will come when “the dead in Christ shall rise” (1 Thess 4:16).¹⁴ All members of Christ’s church will have glorified bodies. Jesus will then deliver “up the kingdom to God” (1 Cor 15:24). He will have bestowed final glory on his bride, the church.

The kingdom has boundaries. Paul can distinguish between “them that are without” and those that are within (1 Cor 5:13). But, he does this regarding the church. To be outside the local assembly is to be outside the kingdom (cp. 1 Cor 6:9–11).

This kingdom grows as the prophets predicted (Dan 2:35). How does this happen? Within a decade of Jesus establishing the church at Jerusalem, there were churches “throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria” (Acts 9:31). And, within 30 years, Paul spoke of “all the churches of the Gentiles” (Rom 16:4). The kingdom expands through the multiplication of local churches.

Finally, God can transfer the kingdom from one nation to another. In the Mosaic age, Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18) was God’s church (Deut 9:10; Exod 19:6). During the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age, God took the kingdom from them and gave it to Christ’s church (Matt 21:43; 1 Pet 2:9). Now, Christ rules over the church/churches he has established.

The kingdom and the church share these characteristics. This confirms our definition of the kingdom as Christ’s rule over his church.

Kingdom Keys

This definition allows us to understand Jesus’s gift to Peter. The “keys of the kingdom of heaven” represent authority. Jesus has “the keys of hell and of death” (Rev 1:18). This means he has authority over them.

Jesus said Peter would “bind” and “loose” with the keys. These “were technical terms for the pronouncements of Rabbis on what was or was not permitted (to bind was to forbid, to loose to permit).”¹⁵

The Jewish leaders “bound” men by forbidding them to enter the kingdom. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in” (Matt 23:13). This displeased God and brought his wrath on their generation (cp. Matt 23:34–39).

Peter was to use the keys in a more God-honoring way. He was to use his authority to control entrance into the kingdom. But, he must do this according to Christ’s teaching.

Peter was not to determine the terms of entrance; he was to ratify what God had already done. Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19 NASB; emphasis added).

How would Peter know whom God had loosed? Jesus had told him, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). Peter would know those qualified to enter the kingdom by their obedience.

Let’s look at an example. Peter used the keys on the day of Pentecost. He proclaimed that God had raised “up Christ to sit on his throne” (Acts 2:30). And, “that God hath made that same Jesus . . . both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Some asked, “What shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:37–38). 

Some of Peter’s hearers obeyed his command. Those “that gladly received his word were baptized” and added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47). These obeyed and entered the kingdom of heaven. God had worked in them “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). In this way, Peter used the keys to loose what had already “been loosed in heaven.” 

The opposite is also true. Peter “bound” those who “rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him” (Luke 7:30). He did not remit their sins (cp. John 20:23), nor did he recognize them as belonging to God’s kingdom.

Jesus did not confine this authority to Peter. Within a few months (at most) he also assigned this authority to the local church. He did this while explaining how a brother was to react when another brother trespassed against him. As a final step, the offended brother was to take his complaint to the local congregation. He must, 

Tell it unto the church: but if he (i.e., the offender) neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt 18:17–18; emphasis added)

Christ’s churches have the same authority Jesus gave to Peter. So Jonathan Leeman can say,

The local church has heaven’s authority for declaring on earth who is a kingdom citizen and therefore represents heaven. . . . The churches representative authority in Christ’s kingdom is seen most clearly in its ability to remove a person from citizenship in Christ’s kingdom.¹⁶

Such authority is not possible if the kingdom is only an “abstract idea.” There must be “specific situations” where the churches can exercise their God-given authority.

Conclusion

Dr. France says our quest to define the kingdom will fail. He says the question, “Is the church the kingdom of God?” 

is in fact a meaningless question, because it rests on a category mistake. [It] is roughly on a par with such questions as ‘Is an egg happiness?’ or ‘Is Margaret Thatcher patriotism?’ For the church is a definable empirical entity, but the kingdom of God is not.¹⁷

We disagree with our esteemed British brother. The Scriptures assign tangible characteristics to the “kingdom of heaven.” And, Jesus has given his churches the keys of the kingdom. They have the authority to declare who is in it and who is not.

1. See here and here.
2. A figure of speech that puts a part for the whole, or the whole for a part. See E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible Explained and Illustrated (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 613.
3. Philip Mauro, The Church, the Churches and the Kingdom (Sterling, VA: Grace Abounding Ministries, 1988), 42.
4. Mauro, The Church, the Churches and the Kingdom, 44.
5. R. T. France, “The Church and the Kingdom of God Some Hermeneutical Issues,” in Biblical Interpretation and the Church: Text and Context, ed. D. A. Carson (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 2000), 32. Emphasis added.
6. France, “The Church and the Kingdom,” 36. Emphasis added. On the whole, Dr. France is a helpful writer. We appreciate his work, especially his commentaries on Matthew. He will have an encore in this blog.
7. France, “The Church and the Kingdom,” 32. Emphasis added.
8. Our reasons for the terms “creation kingdom” and “church kingdom” are here, here, and here.
9. Jay E. Adams, The Time is At Hand: Prophecy and the Book of Revelation (Woodruff, SC: Timeless Texts, 2000), 94.
10. Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1958), 89.
11. J. L. Dagg, Manual of Theology, Second Part: A Treatise on Church Order (Charleston, SC: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1859), 139.
12. William Lumpkin, Baptist Confessions of Faith, 3rd ed. (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1969), 165. This quote is from article 33 of the 1644 London Baptist Confession of faith. I have modernized the spelling.
13. Abraham Booth, An Essay on the Kingdom of Christ (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1987), 23–24. Emphasis added.
14. See Paul and the Rapture — Part 3.
15. R.T. France, The Gospel According to Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985), 256.
16. Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 61.
17. France, “The Church and the Kingdom,” 31.