Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” Luke 9:18-20
As I have written before I identify with Peter more than any person in the New Testament. Peter makes mistakes. He rushes off halfcocked. He is impulsive and he had doubts. But in today’s verses he is spot on. When Jesus asked the disciples “Who do the crowds say that I am?” they gave the answers we had seen before. Jesus was Elijah or John the Baptist come back to life or another of the prophets of old come back to life. But when Jesus asked His closest followers who did they think He was. Only Peter had an answer.
Mathew records that after Peter’s answer Jesus said “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17 ESV) Peter showed great insight this time. However later Peter would deny Jesus and after the crucifixion would go into hiding. Yet after the resurrection Peter would be reborn as one of the two greatest evangelists for the new church. It was Peter’s preaching at Pentecost that brought thousands to Christ. It all started with this one question, “who do you say that I am?”
It is that question and the answer that separates Christianity from all other religions. Unless one accepts that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then you are not following Jesus but some manmade image of Jesus. The Mormons follow Jesus. They will tell you Jesus is in the name of their church. But the Mormon Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible but just one more on their pantheon of gods. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in a Jesus believe that is God’s only direct creation not God. Islam recognizes Jesus but only as a great prophet second only to Mohammed. Many believe Jesus was a great teacher and some that He never existed at all.
For the Christian Jesus is God, the promised Messiah and God’s perfect unblemished Lamb. It is the sinless life, the sacrificial death on a cross and the bodily resurrection that makes the Jesus of the Bible so much more than what all other religions believe He is. Son of God, Lamb of God, Savior and Redeemer all rolled into one. Fully man and fully God, that is Jesus. Peter recognized that early in Jesus ministry and then once again after Jesus resurrection. “The Christ of God.”
Have a blessed day,
David
PS Wednesday marked the fourth anniversary of my first blog post. In that time I have written over 900 of these short essays as well as some longer series. The daily essays are my thoughts and what I have learned about the verses for that day. I hope that they give you some food for thought and hopefully cause you to explore the verses in more detail.
Reasons For The Hope Blog 
Yes David as you shared, Peter had the right words, sadly some have mistaken Jesus’ meaning when He said on this Rock I will build my Church, they think it was Peter who He was referring to but it was what he said, Jesus is The Living Rock and The Head of the Church not a man and we are His Body to minister to each other and than reach our in Love to a hurting world.
Yes Jesus was fully God but only fully man when He took our sin on the Cross, He had the flesh of a woman but He was conceived by The Holy Ghost and had God’s seed, meaning Nature and He knew who He was even as a young boy of 12.
Jesus after He was risen, told Peter and the rest of the Disciples to wait until Pentecost when they would receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and so have Power to go out and proclaim the Gospel, before this Jesus gave them gifts to do good works in His name.
Christian Love Always in our Unity in Christ Jesus – Anne
Anne, once again a great comment. Yes, Peter was not the Rock Jesus was referring to but Jesus Himself. No one man can be the cornerstone of God’s church. Have a blessed day, David
David can I ask you a favor about something that is very important to me at this time, would you please write a message about Jesus being the Rock and Cornerstone so I can Reblog it, I value your understanding of this Truth greatly but sadly there is much confusion in regard to it and Love does not remain mute when other believers are in doubt or confused but please don’t feel pressured to do so, I have been thinking of Posting about it myself in the near future but I would very much appreciate your impute first and perhaps you know of others who can confirm this Truth too. I also have all the Scripture references if needed although you probably have them already.
Blessings – Anne