"And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 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" (Matt. 16:18-19). Claims are made that Peter is the rock upon which Christ built his church. In a booklet by the Knights of Columbus entitled, Why Millions Call Him "Holy Father," we read: "It is apparent, therefore, that any attempt to explain the term 'rock' as meaning anything but Peter himself, is a misinterpretation". The exact power promised Peter here is promised to all the apostles. Christ states: "Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye (apostles) shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18). The same was repeated in John 20:21-22. Whatever authority Christ gave Peter on this occasion He gave to all the apostles.
It is important that we consider everything said. We read of two cities: one representing the kingdom of heaven and the other representing hell. The kingdom is about to be built on a rock, its builder, its gatekeeper, and its keys are mentioned. The assurance is giving, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Christ says he is the builder of the kingdom, Peter is the gatekeeper, for he was given the keys. The foundation is solid rock. Now, it is impossible, without throwing this in confusion, to make either Jesus or Peter the rock, because Jesus said he was the builder, and Peter was the gatekeeper, or holder of the keys. If Jesus or Peter is not the rock, the other alternative is the truth which Peter has just confessed concerning Jesus. This truth, that he is "the Christ, the Son of the living God," is the foundation for the whole Christian system. Without that truth (confession) we are nothing.
In the Greek text in which the New Testament was originally written, there are two different words used in Matt. 16:18 to denote rocks. The Greek word for Peter is "petros." Jesus interpreted that word as "a stone" (John 1:42). The rock upon which the Lord said he would build his church is in the Greek "Petra." Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon says "petra"--"a rock, ledge, or cliff," and further states: "this is a massive living rock and Peter a detached but large fragment" (p. 507). If Christ was saying the church was to be built on Peter, why did he change words from "petros" to "petra" in the same verse? He could have said thou art Peter and upon thee I will build my church, but he didn't.
The emphasis was never on the primacy of Peter; it concerned the deity of Christ! Note verse 15: "But whom say ye that I am?" The confession that Peter made was the foundation on which the church was built. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Peter never claimed to be the rock on which the church was built. But to the contrary, he speaks of Christ as "the chief coner stone" (I Pet. 2:5-7). "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3:11).
Peter was not the foundation on which the church was built. Christ built it upon that divine bedrock foundation--the rock that cannot be moved--the deity of Christ. That is why the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church of the Lord. When we allow the Bible to explain itself, we have no problem at all.
"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Pet. 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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