Matthew 16:18-19 NASB [18] I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. [19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall n have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall o have been loosed in heaven.” …
Nahum 3:19 NASB There is no relief for your breakdown, Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you Will clap their hands over you, For on whom has not your evil passed continually?
That passage in Nahum is speaking about the king of Assyria, who is a type of Satan in this prophetic book. This verse is speaking about the wounding of his, Satan’s, head that took place through the finished work at the Cross. It is at the Cross Jesus defeated Satan, sin, and death. It is in His finished work 2000 years ago that the works of the devil were bound up, and people were loosed to go free.
Nahum says that all who hear about the defeat of the enemy will clap their hands over his defeat, because on whom has not the evil work of Satan passed continually. 1 John 5:19 says, “The whole world lies under the power of the evil one.” The good news is that Satan’s power has been broken, and all who hear about that will rejoice. But who will tell them, and how will they hear? We are the body of Christ, and it is in union with him that He continues His ministry on the earth that of destroying the works of the devil. Actually, through believers, He is now declaring that the enemy has already been destroyed at the Cross, His works have been bound up, and people have been set free.
You and I have been given the keys to the kingdom. If you have keys then you have access, but you also have an authority that determines who else has access. We are called, as people in Christ, to go forth and give people access to the kingdom of heaven. We are seated in the heavenly kingdom in Christ, and therefore we have access to know heaven’s perspective about every situation. We are able to make heavens reality accessible to others as we share the gospel and let them know their sins been paid for, or as we pray for the sick, letting them know that Jesus bore their sickness 2000 years ago and they can be free, or by letting them know that Jesus bore their pain and their sorrow and it has been bound up in heaven, therefore they can go free, or letting them know that all the oppression of the enemy has been bound up at the Cross, and they are free.
As I’m sure you probably know, that verse in Matthew grammatically should be read like this, “whatever you bind on earth has already been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth has already been loosed in heaven.” At the Cross all the works the enemy were bound, and humanity was loosed. This of course is the reality in the heavenly places, but as Christians we have been given the authority to go forth and bring the reality of heaven to earth by simply enforcing, one person at a time, the victory that Jesus has already won for them at Calvary.