And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Addressing this promise to Peter (rock), is simply an illustration of the “power to loose (forgive sins) and to bind (retain sins) that the believers will receive to build the Church. Such power to conquer or prevail over Satan’s “Gates of Hell” can only come from “thee” Rock, which is Christ. Though the person to whom this promise is made in this instance is Peter, he is representative of all believers. The rest of the apostles also received this power of forgiveness of sins, and the judgment in binding sins. Christ gave all of them full power and authority by the Spirit, that their preaching the gospel is as the keys to both bind and loose . It (the Word of God) is what truly binds and looses, not Peter, Paul or John. And Christ is the only Rock (starting or foundation stone) upon which the Church can be built. He is the only foundation that can hold the weight of the Church. Certainly Peter could not have the Church rest upon him.
Nor were these keys to bind and loose given only to Peter. As John 20 plainly illustrates to anyone willing to read it, Christ gave this same power of the keys to all the Apostles.
John 20:22-23
And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
The same Power to bind and loose is the power of salvation and of judgment which Christ gave to His servants (Acts1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”). In their coming in the Spirit of God, preaching the Gospel, they receive this power to bind and loose. That is why in Matthew 16 Christ said, “whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. It is a very clear illustration that the power to bind and loose, to forgive sins and retain sins, had already been prescribed in heaven, and Peter and the Church were only the vessels used by God to preach that the power of the gospel might bring what has been foreordained to fruition.
Notice that the power promised, the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Salvation and Judgment), is a symbolic figure of the ability to be able to “administer” what has already been ordained in heaven before. As the prophets of old, the gift of being a Messenger of the Gospel, the mouthpiece of God is by His Servants coming in the Spirit and power of God.
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