AT 16A better understanding of this profound principle would keep many souls within the bounds of humble caution in all the differences and debates that occur concerning the Church and her truth, and all that relates to the name of Christ.
Christ watches the Father's action, to guide Himself by it, and sees all salvation rest on it. "None can come to me unless the Father draw him."- "I came not to do ray own will, but my Father's."- "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out;" "I will raise him up at the last day."-" Of those, that THOU halt given me I have lost none."
This plain truth of the FATHER'S planting unto salvation, will be found to be the secret of the largely-debated place in this chapter. Nor have I seen the explanation of its difficulties cast upon this truth. I pray God that the suggestion of it may prove a safeguard and enlivener to some. I am sure that some most fully taught of God must have seen it. I have never seen it in common use.
It will be serviceable to trace the place from its plain points. " The gates of hell shall not prevail." Hell is here HADES, the same word as Grave in the sentence, "O Grave, where is thy victory?"-a parallel passage! Now, therefore, figuratively, the judgment of death, or, in a natural sense, the gates of the grave, shall not prevail against the Church, i.e., it shall rise! Glorious and blessed truth-truth of comfort and glory! We may now trace from this expression an elucidation of the rest of the place. Shortly, then, Simon, thou son of Jonah -thou natural man, and son of a natural man-blessed art thou, for my Father has revealed to you that I am the Christ, the ever-living Son of the Father, for it is tantamount to this. Flesh and blood have not, and could not have, communicated this in the knowledge you have of it. I recognize my Father's act, and I say unto thee, THOU ART PETER, and on this rock I will build MY Church. It is not, observe, God founding His Church on Christ, making Christ the ROCK, but the Son founding His Church on the Father's action. The Son discovers the Father's hand in revealing Him as Christ to Simon; and in obedience, He takes the Father's act as the foundation (as was needful) of a Church which He was to lead to the Father.
" As my Father knows me, so know I the Father." The confession of the Son revealed of the Father founding a Church, against which the gates of he grave, or the judgment of death, shall not prevail. IT SHALL RISE. It is a plant planted in life eternal by the Father, through faith of the Son of God. The expression here changes. " I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven," was on a new ground. It was not the keys of heaven that he had, but of the kingdom of heaven. This is entering entirely on a new line of declaration. Simon was now Peter, by the direction of the Father's act, and by the Son's appointment; the first to receive the truth as it is in resurrection and eternal life-the first in ready devotion to the person of the Son. For in the confession of His person he filed not, but through the disappointment of secondary hopes. To him, therefore, was given to open the door to Jew and Gentile, to confession of Christ's name. The keys were not given to the twelve, except as the general term of sending may imply it in John 20, but the power of binding and loosing was, and in a yet more extended point of view in John 20. The order of this gift to Peter is, in kind, still manifest. To whom would you say is entrusted the breaking of new ground, and introducing confession, but to those to whom the Lord is specially dear, and have received remarkable apprehension of the truth of Christ from God.
All, however, is presently reversed. Peter was yet resting, not on resurrection, but on present hopes. The hopes of man, as he might have had them, had he received Christ instead of slaying Him. Peter would dissuade the Lord from the higher and suffering sphere, and savored of man's thoughts and not God's. He loses the name of Peter, and is now called Satan. Succession is broken before it is founded. I have heard it said, that Peter at this time had not received the Holy Ghost. It would have been enough had he seen Him risen to prevent this speech. But I would ask, Does he that savors of the things of men partake of the Holy Ghost at least in doing so? He that savors of the things of men has no just commission in the things of God. We observe, also, the Lord calls Peter Simon after he had denied Him -" Simon, lovest thou me?" Faith of the Lord's person, and love, and savoring of the things of God, are necessary to the character of Peter. The revelation of the SON OF GOD by the Father to the foundation of LIFE.