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From Heaven With Love
Peter was not the rock on which the church was founded. The gates
of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing
and swearing. The church was built on One against whom the gates
of hell could not prevail.
Christ Is the Rock
Moses had pointed to the Rock of Israel’s salvation. See
Deuteronomy 32:4
. The psalmist had sung of “the rock of my
strength.”
Psalm 62:7
. Isaiah had written, “Thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, ... a
sure foundation.”
Isaiah 28:16
. Peter himself applies this prophecy
to Jesus: “For you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Come to
Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen
and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiri-
tual house.”
1 Peter 2:3-5
, RSV. “Other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:11
. “Upon
this rock,” said Jesus, “I will build My church.” Christ founded His
church on the living Rock—Himself, His own body, for us broken
and bruised. Against the church built on this foundation, the gates
of hell shall not prevail.
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How feeble the church appeared when Christ spoke these words!
There was only a handful of believers, against whom the power of
demons and men would be directed, yet they were not to fear; they
could not be overthrown.
Peter had expressed the truth which is the foundation of the
church’s faith, and Jesus now honored him as the representative of
the body of believers. “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed
in heaven.”
“The keys of the kingdom of heaven” are the words of Christ.
All the words of Holy Scripture are His. These words have power
to open and to shut heaven. The work of those who preach God’s
Word is a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
The Saviour did not commit the work of the gospel to Peter
individually. Later, repeating the words spoken to Peter, He applied
them to the church, and also to the Twelve as representatives of