What if someone handed you your own set of keys to the kingdom of heaven—keys that could never be lost and that worked every time on a lock that never changed? This is essentially what happened to Jesus’ disciple Peter, as related in the book of Matthew (see 16:13–19). Jesus asked if the disciples recognized who he, Jesus, was, and Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus approved this answer with the words, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar–jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”

But was Peter the only disciple who received this gift? While Peter may have answered before his fellow disciples, Jesus’ response was, in essence, giving each of them—and each of us—the same set of keys. After all, the kingdom of heaven isn’t a physical place that we need to find and unlock. It doesn’t have a lock. It cannot be locked, because it’s spiritual and infinite—the totality of God’s creation. The Bible tells us that God is the only creator and that His creation is wholly good. If God, Spirit, created all, then that which is real and good, the kingdom of heaven, must, in reality, be spiritual and therefore present and totally accessible to all of God’s children all the time.

The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, “Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Science has opened the door of the human understanding” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 99). When our study of the Science of Christianity unlocks our spiritual understanding, we can’t help but see the kingdom of God, Love, as ever present and eternal and Love’s law as governing all. The “key” to opening the door to our understanding is first recognizing and acknowledging this always-present heavenly creator and creation and then acting on that. This is what made Peter’s declaration so important.

Peter’s recognition of Christ and the truth that was revealed to him gave him spiritual power to lift himself and others out of the world’s ills.

The Messiah, or Christ, that Peter confessed—acknowledged—was, in Mrs. Eddy’s words, “the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love, which heals mentally” (Science and Health, p. 137). The God-power that underlay that acknowledgment did not come from a human perception but from Peter’s spiritual receptivity to Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and from his willingness to do Love’s bidding—to obey Love’s law.

There seem to be such overwhelming problems in our world, causing so much suffering, that we might wonder how we could possibly find this heaven that Jesus taught and proved. Because the kingdom of heaven, spiritual reality, can seem so distant, perhaps even impossible to know or access, many are working diligently to solve those problems with worldly tools—both familiar and newly invented. But problems appear to proliferate faster than they are solved.

Christ reveals to us the reality that all—all—truly is good. It opens our eyes to the fact that God’s entire creation is spiritual and works together in harmony, each element complementing every other element. Peter’s recognition and acceptance of Christ and the truth that was revealed to him gave him spiritual power to lift himself and others out of the world’s seemingly endless ills. That same power lies behind every acknowledgment of Christ, in whatever heart recognizes the reality of divine Truth and is willing to put that conviction—however modest our understanding of it—into action. 

It’s comforting to remember that, though Peter had glimpsed the truth of God’s eternal presence and power through Christ Jesus’ teachings, works, and example, that glimpse didn’t instantly free him from every belief associated with a sense of existence as material. He still had to deal with doubts, fears, and setbacks. But his acknowledgment of Christ—his conviction that reality is better and higher than what the material senses present, that this reality was right there to be demonstrated, and that God’s law really is supreme—supplied him with the means to go higher. We might say that it gave him the keys to unlock what may appear to be the locked door of heaven—of harmonious being. And the record he left in the Bible’s book of Acts—among other things, healing a lame man, raising a dead woman to life, and walking out of prison—shows that his confession of Christ was not just intellectual; it was profoundly perceived and entirely practical.

God is giving us the same message He gave Peter. He’s assuring us that Christ, the spiritual idea of God, is always present, right here, right now, to heal and save. Acknowledging Christ may not instantly transport us out of the belief of living in a material universe made up of both good and evil. It didn’t for Peter. But it puts the keys to the kingdom of heaven in our hands. Through his willingness to repent and to try, try again, Peter became a healer who shared his keys with many others. Let’s take the keys we’ve been given and do the same.

Lisa Rennie Sytsma, Associate Editor