All of us know what it’s like to misjudge someone.
We assume someone is simple, and then are surprised by their intelligence. We are suspicious of a stranger in our office, and they turn out to be the CEO of our company. We try to help a person with a task they are far more able to accomplish than we are. The consequences of such mistakes are often awkward.
From time to time, you will hear of professional musicians taking their art to the street or subway, usually to find the same result—people ignore them, presuming they are just another amateur. Later on, some of those passersby are devastated to find out they missed the music of their favorite musician, free of charge.
There are many instances in which we underestimate someone and face the uncomfortable or disappointing consequences. But typically the result is no worse than a sinking feeling.
In our previous blog, we considered swaths of people who had misjudged Jesus. They thought he was John the Baptist or some other prophet. Like many today, they considered him a great man of God, but fell short of acknowledging Him as the Son of God.
Each Christmas, myriads of people around the world are given a fresh opportunity to make the right assessment of Jesus. Who is the baby in the manger? Unlike our perceptions of other people, the answer to that question has enormous consequences, not only in this life, but into eternity.
In Matthew 16, Jesus tested His disciples’ estimation of who He was, first by asking what others thought and then by asking what they thought.
“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matthew 16:16).
As usual (cf. Matthew 15:15; 19:27; John 6:68), Simon Peter was the spokesman, “the director of the apostolic choir,” as Chrysostom called him. Also as usual, his comments were brief, emphatic, and decisive: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus Is the Christ
“Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Messiah,” God’s predicted and long-awaited deliverer of Israel, the supreme “Anointed One,” the coming High Priest, King, Prophet, and Savior. Without hesitation Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, whereas the multitudes of Jews believed Him to be only the Messiah’s precursor. And we know that the other disciples agreed.
On first meeting Jesus, Andrew had excitedly proclaimed Him to be the Messiah, and Nathanael had called Him “the Son of God . . . the King of Israel” (John 1:41, 49). The disciples knew that John the Baptist had testified that Jesus “is the Son of God” (John 1:34), and the longer they stayed with Him, the more evidence they had of His divine nature, power, and authority.
Like their fellow Jews, however, they had been taught to expect a conquering and reigning Messiah who would deliver God’s people from their enemies and establish forever His righteous kingdom on earth. And when Jesus refused to use His miraculous power for His own benefit or to oppose the Roman oppressors, the disciples wondered if they were right about Jesus’ identity. His humility, meekness, and subservience were in total contrast to their preconceived views of the Messiah. That the Messiah would be ridiculed with impunity, not to mention persecuted and executed, was inconceivable. When Jesus spoke of His going away and coming back, Thomas doubtlessly echoed the consternation of all the disciples when he said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” (John 14:5).
It was similar bewilderment that caused John the Baptist to question his earlier affirmation of Jesus’ messiahship. “When John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’” (Matthew 11:2–3). Jesus’ miracles were clear evidence of His messiahship, but His failure to use those powers to overthrow Rome and establish His earthly kingdom brought Jesus’ identity into question even with the godly, Spirit-filled John.
Like John the Baptist, the twelve fluctuated between moments of great faith and grave doubt. They could proclaim with deep conviction, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68–69). They could also display remarkable lack of faith and discernment, even after witnessing hundreds of healings and dramatic demonstrations of supernatural power (see Matthew 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). They were sometimes strong in faith and sometimes weak. Jesus frequently spoke of their “little faith.”
Now, at last, the truth of Jesus’ divinity and messiahship was established in their minds beyond question. They would still experience times of weakness and confusion about what Jesus said and did, but they would no longer doubt who it was who said and did them. He was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. God’s own Spirit had now imbedded the truth indelibly in their hearts.
It took two and a half years for them to come to this place of confession, through the struggles and hatred of the Jewish religious leaders, the mounting fickleness and rejection of the people, and their own confusion about what the Messiah had come to do. But without question they now knew He was the fulfiller of their hopes, the source of their salvation, the desire of the nations.
Jesus Is the Son of God
On behalf of all the apostles, Peter not only confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, but also as the Son of the living God. The Son of Man (Matthew 16:13) was also the Son of God, the Creator of the universe and all that is in it. He was the true and real God, not a mythological figment such as Pan or a mortal “deity” such as Caesar—both of whom had shrines in Caesarea Philippi. The disciples’ Lord was Son of the living God (v. 16).
The title “Son of God” reflects the idea of oneness in essence between the Father and the Son, as a son is one in nature with his father. So Jesus Christ was one in nature with God the Father (cf. John 5:17–18; 10:30–33), “for in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).
As evidenced by numerous things the twelve later said and did, they did not at this time have a full comprehension of the Trinity or even of Christ’s Person and work. But they knew Jesus was truly the Christ—the Messiah; that He was truly divine—the Son of the living God, and that He was truly human—the Son of Man.
That is still the testimony that God calls us to receive today concerning the Lord Jesus. As the apostle John—who was present when Peter made that confession—wrote many years later, whoever “confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2), “whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15), and “whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1).
Next time, we will consider the blessing that attends those who make such a confession.
(Adapted from The Deity of Christ)