9
No. 2
The keys of Peter and the doors of Paul
If the keys of a row of houses were mixed together, it is very probable that not one of the housekeepers would be
able to pick his own from the rest. The law of permutations and combinations, that troubled us at school, enables
the locksmith to make so many variations in the wards of the key, that for practical purposes they can guarantee that
a duplicate is impossible. When we think of a key therefore, we remember "To every door its key". True, in large
business houses, the head of the firm holds a "master key" that opens all locks, but this is not surrendered to
servants. A key moreover, is a small affair. Its importance is sometimes not appreciated until the safe door refuses
to give access to the much needed money, or the house (where warmth and comfort can be enjoyed) cannot be
entered by reason of the loss of the key.
Turning to the Scriptures, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ holds the master key. Standing in all the triumph
and glory of resurrection He declares:
"I am He that liveth, and was dead: and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of
death" (Rev. 1:18).
He Who holds the keys of death holds the master key. This the Lord has surrendered to no man. He has two
prominent servants, however, Peter and Paul. To Peter He gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, while to Paul
He opened many doors of service, and the question we ask and seek to answer in this pamphlet is, "Do the keys of
Peter fit the locks of Paul?" which shorn of figures of speech means, "Is the Church of the Acts as ministered to by
Peter all one and the same with the church ministered to by Paul!" The importance of the enquiry lies in the fact
that Paul is continually emphasizing that he had a dispensation and an apostleship to the Gentiles, and the confusion
that exists in the church as a whole, and in the minds of individuals as well, looks very much like the result of
getting into a wrong house, and seeking to bring together things that by nature are far apart.
Christ is the Head of every department in the purposes of grace. He holds the master key; that we gladly
acknowledge, and do not here question. Let us, so far as space permits, look at the keys of Peter and the doors of
Paul, to see whether the keys of the one fit the locks of the other.
The keys of the kingdom of heaven.
It is common knowledge that the gospel according to Matthew deals very specially with the kingdom of heaven.
In the opening beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount we have two statements that bear upon the sphere of this
kingdom:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" (Matt. 5:3).
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit THE EARTH" (Matt. 5:5).
If the kingdom of heaven means that its subjects will one day "go to heaven", upon what principle of
righteousness and equity has God acted in deciding that the poor in spirit go to heaven, while the meek stay on
earth? Should we not be nearer the truth if we said that the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom on earth which will be
ruled by the same Lord and laws as now obtain in heaven? and would not the prayer of Matthew 6:10 confirm this?:
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"?
John the Baptist, in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sitting in that
kingdom (Matt. 8:11), strengthen this view. It is in Matthew 16, at the close of the first section of Matthew"s
Gospel (indicated by the parallel words of 4:17 and 16:21), and after His rejection in His three Messianic offices,