that he is the rock on which the church is built. Rather, he insists that the Matthew 16:19 foundation stone is actually Jesus Christ.” Boice cites Stott “Writing on Acts 10, Stott says, ‘We have already watched Peter use these keys effectively, opening the kingdom to the Isaiah 22:22 Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, Jews on the Day of Pentecost and then to the Sanhedrin soon afterwards. When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open. Now he is using them again to open the kingdom to Gentiles; by evangelizing and baptizing Cornelius, the first Gentile convert.” Custer “Some expositors say that it is Christ Himself who is the rock, but in His teaching he is the builder (“I will build”). It is better to say Revelation 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia that the church is built on the teaching and ministry of the apostles.” write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who Custer “Peter could bind on earth only what shall have already been opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, bound in heaven …. Far from making a pope out of Peter, it made him a says this: servant of God. It is Christ alone Who has the keys of death and of hades (Rev. 1:18).” Revelation 1:17-18 Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John J Marsh, The Gospel of St. John Steward Custer, The Gospel of the King William Hendriksen, Matthew Acts 14:27 When [Barnabas and Paul] had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Matthew 23:13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Ephesians 2:19-20 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but 20 you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, Matthew 18:17-18 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; Bible Knowledge Commentary (Walvoord/Zuck) “It seems best to and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a understand that Jesus was praising Peter for his accurate statement about Gentile and a tax collector. 18 "Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on Him, and was introducing His work of building the church on Himself (I earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth Cor. 3:11)…. The privilege of binding and loosing was seen in Peter’s shall have been loosed in heaven. life as he had the privilege on the day of Pentecost to proclaim the gospel and announce to all those who had responded in saving faith that their sins had been forgiven…. The same privilege was given to all the disciples (John 20:22-23).” Hendriksen: “by means of the preaching of the gospel he was opening the doors to some and closing them to others.” He also notes that the Heidelberg catechism explains the authority to bind and loose through John 20:21-23 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the preaching means that to believers we proclaim forgiveness and to Father has sent Me, I also send you." 22 And when He had said this, He unbelievers we proclaim God’s wrath so long as they continue in unbelief. breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain Morris “There would be a continuing need for guidance in understanding what was permitted and what was forbidden. Jesus is the sins of any, they have been retained." saying that this guidance would be given to Peter and (a little later he adds) to the other apostles. Good reasons may be brought forward for holding that Jesus meant that the new community would exercise divinely given authority both in regulating its internal affairs and in deciding who would be admitted to and who excluded from its membership.” Hendriksen: “In order that the Christian’s way of life might be clearly understood and discipline properly exercised certain basic principles of conduct had to be set forth…. The very wording whatever, not whoever, shows that the passage refers to things, in this case beliefs and actions, not directly to people. Binding and loosing are rabbinical terms, meaning forbidding and permitting. Naturally if a person continued to do or to believe what was forbidden, refusing to repent, he would be disciplined; conversely, if he repented from his evil way, he would be forgiven.” Marsh “It is simply the result of the preaching of the gospel, which either brings men to repent as they hear of the ready and costly forgiveness of God, or leaves them unresponsive to the offer of forgiveness which is the gospel, and so they are left in their sins.” Carson “The Christian witnesses proclaim and declare, and, empowered by the Spirit, live by the message of their own proclamation; it is God who effectively forgives or retains sins.” Boice “As for myself, I could believe that Jesus called Peter the rock in the careful and limited sense that many evangelical scholars suggest. But what persuades me that Jesus is the rock is Peter’s own testimony in his first letter (I Peter 2:4-8). Peter does not suggest even for a moment .