Peter got it Right!
Matthew 16:13-16 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Who is really Wise?
Peter was considered to be uneducated and untrained, that is, he did not have an advanced degree and wasn’t considered to be qualified to teach by Jews that thought they were qualified. But he was wise enough to know Who the Lord Jesus really was while the educated wanted him to be crucified. They said He was an imposter. They thought that He claimed to be something that He was not.
The central issue of the Bible has to do with Who the Lord really is. If He is Who He claimed to be, we should believe Him and trust Him. If He is not Who He claimed to be, why would we believe anything that the Bible has to say about our eternal destinies?
Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
That is the question and most people get it wrong. They say He is a good man, they say He is a good teacher and they say that He set a good example. But people by and large do not believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God. The disciples gave the common answers of their day, and then the Lord comes back with this pointed important question. But who do you say that I am? That is a question that must be answered by each one of us. Peter gets it right and says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
The fulfilled Old Testament prophecies prove this, the Lord’s miracles prove this, and the resurrection proves this. For Peter this was revealed to him. How do you suppose God revealed this truth to Peter? Perhaps it was revealed through his study of the Old Testament prophecies. Or this may have been a miraculous revelation of some nature as Peter did have visions from the Lord. However, I would suggest that Peter spent time with the Lord and saw the His miracles and heard His teaching. By getting to know the Lord and by being open to the truth, somehow God convinced Peter that the Lord was the promised Messiah. Each one of us who are born again must be convinced of that same thing or we have nothing to believe in and no one to trust. The Lord is not a good man and a good teacher and a good example if He claimed to be someone that He was not.
Peter was convinced, Are we?
Peter was convinced and his life and ministry proved that. I am convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I was convinced of that before I was saved. I was convinced of that by reading the Bible and by studying the nation of Israel. That gave me someone to trust when I came to the conclusion that I needed to be saved, that I wanted to be saved and that I wanted to be saved now.
I personally do not understand how some people are convinced that there is no Creator, instead they believe that this earth and all that lives on it just happened. In like manner, I cannot understand how people can explain away the claims of Christ and still claim to worship God. In addition, I do not see how anyone can trust the Lord and become a Christian unless they can personally answer like Peter, “Thou art THE Christ, THE Son of the Living God.”
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of July 20, 2014