*EXCELLENT LIFE KEYS* 🔑🗝️
Mon/17th/Oct/2022
*Francis Reign* (Ap & Coach)
_"Raising excellent agents of change and transformation, well equipped with Truth and Wisdom."_
*UNDERSTANDING THE ACTS AND WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST (179)*
_"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it"_ (Matthew 16:18). This verse is often misunderstood because it is often misused. As with some other verses, this is partly due to translation. The words written in Greek show a relationship not so obvious in English. Here, Jesus is responding to Peter's declaration that _He is the Christ, the Son of the living God._ Jesus declared Peter blessed for understanding this and that this understanding was given to Peter by God the Father (Mat 16:13-17).
Roman catholics point to what Jesus says here as evidence that Jesus established Peter as the first holder of a special office in the Church on earth. They claim Peter to have been the first Pope, that Jesus gave him a spiritual authority over the other disciples and all believers in this moment. According to that claim, the "rock" Jesus will build on is Peter himself. This is a false claim, because, in it, Jesus was not establishing a special office.
However, there is an element of wordplay involved here. As written in Greek, Peter's name is _Petros,_ meaning "a rock" or "a stone," and the word Jesus uses for the foundation is _petra,_ which means "rock" in the sense of substance or material. Jesus does not say "you a Petros, and on this Petros I will build..." nor does He say, "you are petra, and on this petra I will build..." Rather, He says "you are Petros (a stone), and on this petra (rock) I will build My Church." The rock on which God will establish His Church is in the confession Peter has just made: that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mat 16:16).
Peter certainly becomes the leader of the disciples and first spokesman for Christ in the earlier days of the Church, under the power of the Holy Spirit. We can say that Peter - in human terms of service, personal purpose and responsibility to be fulfilled - was the earlier cornerstone, a most visible pillar, but not the foundation rock. And Peter never fulfilled his personal purpose in a setting of a perpetual special office and person of Pope. There was no such office as of Pope in the early church, and it's establishment was a twist of Scripture. The true Church - the collection of all people who come to faith in Christ as Savior - exists only because of the central truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. That's the power that keeps the gates of hades from overcoming those who are in Jesus Christ, His people, the true Church born at Pentecost.
*EXCELLENCE KEY* 🗝️
_The foundation of God's new covenant is not centered around any fallible person or place, but in the hearts and minds of each individual person rooted in Christ alone._
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*Excellence is within you. Bring it out >>*
#1567 ELK.
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