The Keys

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

 - From Matthew 16

Peter's simple confession, that Jesus is the "Messiah, the son of the Living God," was an expression of faith that qualified him to be given the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. 

But what might that mean?

When a mortal has the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, does that mean he has heavenly authority? Doe sit mean that Peter could have, any time he wanted to, just pass over into the eternal realm, since he has a key?

Or how about . . . the Lord only said that He will give Peter the keys. It was a promise that, even today, may not in fact, have been fulfilled!

Peter's expression of faith was all that it took. "You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God." That's it./ Just say it, and mean it, and you will have the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. When Christ returns, and the old is burned up, replaced with the new (the Kingdom of God) and Eternity begins, those keys are just handed to you. You then use them, and open a door into a place that would make the Land of Oz look like a barren desert.

I belonged to a church once, that would give all new members a key to the church. Eventually, there were hundreds of keys floating around the community, and eventually, they had lost track of who was out there with keys. A person that left the church, in anger and in a huff, might still be going about, with keys to the church. 

This is a nice object lesson of what the Kingdom of God is all about. If Christ hands you the keys to His Kingdom, it means He trusts you implicitly. If you trust Him, He will trust you. 

And maybe it also has something to do with power, and grace, and authority, that is available to us, even now, in this life.