It all comes down to who you say Jesus is.
Peter responds with “you are the Messiah” in verse 16, and is congratulated by Jesus for making such a spiritually wise comment. The Kingdom of Heaven is constructed upon those who make the good confession, and hell has no power to subdue them. Satan may try as he might, but he will never overcome the church. Those who accept that Jesus is the Son of God will obey the instructions given in the Bible, and as the end of this passage reminds us (vs 27) their obedience will be rewarded. Conversely, those who do not accept that Jesus is the Messiah will not enter into heaven, even if they do some of the same things that believers do. That’s because salvation comes from our relationship to Jesus, not from good deeds. If we have the relationship, then good deeds will follow and so will rewards. If we don’t have the relationship, then the sequence stops at that point, and no matter what good deeds we do, they won’t be counted in our favor.
I find myself wanting to comment on the fact that Christians can bind or open things in heaven as well as on earth, but my eye keeps going to the next verse, where Jesus told them sternly not to tell anyone he was the Messiah. Doesn’t it seem strange that Jesus had to “sternly” warn them not to share this wonderful news with anyone, and today we have the opposite problem. We all know that Jesus is the Messiah and it’s difficult to get anyone to share the good news. Maybe the reason we can’t do the same things the disciples did is because we don’t believe what they believed, or we aren’t as convinced as they were. The solution for that is prayer, I think. Praying that God will forgive our unbelief and reveal himself to us in new ways will result in deeper relationship, deeper faith and consequently, more spiritual activity. It seems to me that the church has been woefully delinquent in operating in the power of the Spirit for a long time. Actually I think we could probably trace our drifting away all the way back to about 300 AD when Constantine made Christianity the official religion. From that point forward it became popular to be Christian, and the sacrifice and devotion level dropped.
I think that’s why Jesus tells his disciples that anyone who wants to follow Him must “take up his cross”. Suffering should be expected, as should resistance from those who don’t believe. I think when we American Christians run into any resistance we tend to change direction instead of forging ahead. We tend to believe that Christianity should lead to a life of wealth and ease, and when it becomes the time to carry the cross, we balk. Maybe because we don’t understand, maybe because our love relationship isn’t as close as it should be.
Whatever our reason, the solution is deeper relationship via time spent with the Father in prayer, study and fellowship with other believers.
Be blessed,
PR