Great Themes of the Bible
but neither will be fatal. The Church may be foiled in particular encounters, but in the main battle it shall come off more than conqueror.
5. THE CHURCH'S GOVERNMENT The other part of this charter is to settle the order and government of the Church. When a city or society is incorporated, officers are appointed and empowered to act for the common good. A city without a government is chaos. Now this constituting of the government of the Church is here expressed by the delivering of the keys, and with them a power to bind and loose. This is not to be understood.of any peculiar power that Peter was invested with, as if he were a sole doorkeeper of the Kingdom of heaven and had that key of David which belongs only to the son of David. No, this invests all the apostles and their successors with a ministerial power to guide and govern the Church of Christ as it exists in particular congregations or churches, according to the rules of the Gospel.
"All we who are priests received, in the person of the blessed apostle Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven"' (so Ambrose, De Dignit. Sacerd.). The keys were first put into Peter's hand only because he was the first that 'opened the door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts x. 28). As the King in giving a charter to a corporation empowers the magistrates to hold courts in his name, to try matters of fact, and determine therein according to law, confirming what is done regularly, as if done in any of the superior courts; so Christ, having incorporated His Church, has appointed the office of the ministry for keeping order and government, and to see that His laws be duly observed. "T will give thee the keys." He does not say that He has given them, or that He is giving them now, but He will do it after the resurrection. When he ascended up on high He gave those gifts (Eph. iv. 8). Then His power was actually given, not to Peter only, but to all the rest (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; John xx. 21). He does not say "the keys will be given", but "I will give" them. Ministers derive their authority from Christ, and all their power is to be used in His name (1 Cor. v. 4).
The power here delegated is a spiritual power. It is a power pertaining to the kingdom of heaven. It is not any civil, secular power that is hereby conveyed. Christ's "'kingdom is not of this world". Their instructions afterwards were in "things