“Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts,”
In today’s verse we see the apostle Peter, using the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus gave to him to use.
Matthew 16:19 (NLT)
“And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”
This verse as well as when it is further discussed in Matthew 18, are primarily today used as binding demonic spirits, and loosing blessings. This however is not the primary purpose of the keys, nor really what their use is being referred to.
Binding and loosing is originally a Jewish phrase originally mentioned in the Targum, which is the Jewish Aramaic translations of books of the Hebrew Bible. To bind and to loose simply means to forbid by an indisputable authority and to permit by an indisputable authority.
Peter opened the way for a backslider to return to God. If Simon had not been a backslider from the faith, but had been a hypocrite pretending a false faith and submitting to baptism which would have then been worthless, Peter would never have commanded him to just repent and pray. Peter would have given the same steps he spoke in Acts 2:38.
- Repent of your sins
- Be Baptized for the forgiveness of your sins
- Receive the gift of Holy Spirit
Instead the door Peter opened here was showing Simon the same way any backslider in a true relationship with Jesus Christ comes before the Lord in repentance from any sin or shortcoming.
1 John 1:9 (NLT)
“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
The sin that Simon required forgiveness for was not his insufficiency of faith in his conversion, but the wrong motive of thinking that he could buy a gift of God with money.
Blessings in Jesus Holy name!!!