The Spiritual Authority of St. Peter

We'll back up a little bit to Matthew 16, 16 to get the context here.

As we all recall, Simon Peter replies to Jesus and says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, giving that good confession.

And Jesus answers him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, which means rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Now we're going to leave verse 18 alone.

We're not going to really delve into the question of Peter and the rock and the gates of Hades, and all of that.

But I want to focus in on verse 19 because we want to look at these terms, binding and loosing.

And again, our Lord says to Peter, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

And actually, what the Greek literally says is, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

It's an unusual Greek formulation that we call a future pluperfect.

It's something will have been the case in the future.

So the significance of that, though, is that Peter's decision doesn't cause a decision to take place in heaven, but rather Peter's decisions reflect what has already been decided in heaven.

So Peter then is the reflection or the manifestation of the divine decision about, well, about what? Well, as we're going to find out about doctrine.

We'll back up a little bit to Matthew 16, 16 to get the context here.

As we all recall, Simon Peter replies to Jesus and says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, giving that good confession.

And Jesus answers him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, which means rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Now we're going to leave verse 18 alone.

We're not going to really delve into the question of Peter and the rock and the gates of Hades, and all of that.

But I want to focus in on verse 19 because we want to look at these terms, binding and loosing.

And again, our Lord says to Peter, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

And actually, what the Greek literally says is, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

It's an unusual Greek formulation that we call a future pluperfect.

It's something will have been the case in the future.

So the significance of that, though, is that Peter's decision doesn't cause a decision to take place in heaven, but rather Peter's decisions reflect what has already been decided in heaven.

So Peter then is the reflection or the manifestation of the divine decision about, well, about what? Well, as we're going to find out about doctrine.