Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 16:19

"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." — Matthew 16:19 (ASV)

The new kingdom would not be all-comprehensive, like Noah’s ark, but would have its dove and its keys. For practical purposes, the people of God would need discipline and the power to receive, refuse, retain, or exclude members. Of these keys our Lord says to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Foremost among the apostles, Peter used those keys at Pentecost, when he led three thousand into the Church, in Jerusalem, when he shut out Ananias and Sapphira, and at the house of Cornelius, when he admitted the Gentiles. Our Lord committed to His Church power to rule within herself for Him, not to set up doors, but to open or shut them, not to make laws, but to obey them and see them obeyed.

Peter, and those for whom he spoke, became the stewards of the Lord Jesus in the Church, and their acts were endorsed by their Lord. Today the Lord continues to back up the teaching and acts of His sent servants, those Peters who are pieces of the one Rock. The judgments of His Church, when rightly administered, have His sanction so as to make them valid. The words of His sent servants, spoken in His name, shall be confirmed by the Lord, and shall not be, either as to promise or threatening, a mere piece of rhetoric.

When He was here on earth, our Lord Himself personally admitted men into the select circle of disciples, but on the eve of His departure, He gave to their leading spirit, and thus to them also, the power to admit others to their number or to dismiss them when found unworthy. Thus, the Church or assembly was constituted and endowed with internal administrative authority.

We cannot legislate, but we may and must administer the ordinances and statutes of the Lord, and what we do rightly in carrying out divine law in the Church on earth is ratified by our Lord in heaven. A Church would be a mere sham and its acts a solemn farce, if the great Head of the Church did not sanction all that is done according to His statute-book.

We need not deal at length with the claims of the Pope of Rome. Even if Peter had been made the head of the Church, how would that affect the bishop of Rome? One might as well say that the Khan of Tartary is the successor of Peter, as make that claim for an Italian Pontiff. No unsophisticated reader of the Bible sees any trace of Popery in this passage. The wine of Romanism is not to be pressed out of this cluster.