I Will Build My Church

Jesus promised to build His church with the living stones of those whose true confession, like Peter's, was upon Him, the foundation and cornerstone. Because the church was built on the Rock (πέτρα) rather than the rock (πέτρος), the gates of hades (death itself) would not be able to overcome it.

This indestructible church is to be the visible, earthly manifestation of the invisible realities of the kingdom of heaven. And when Jesus promised to give the church the keys to this kingdom, He gave it the responsibility to bind on earth the things already bound in heaven, and loose on earth the things already loosed in heaven.