CHRIST

We may often have played games such as ‘Guess my name’ or ‘Who am I’ in an effort to entertain ourselves. The Lord Jesus was playing no such game when He enquired who men thought that He was. He wanted them to confess the fact that He was the Christ, or the Messiah, not for His own gain, but because such an admission could only come after God had spoken to their soul, Matt. 16.17.

The title of ‘Christ’ or ‘the anointed’, (the significance of the Greek word), had been used for a long time to describe the one who would come to deliver Israel, Ps. 2. 2, Dan. 9. 25. The Jews, in the days of the Lord, were looking for a Messiah who would free them from the tyranny of Rome. What had escaped the notice of all but the deeply spiritual Jews, Luke 2.34, 35, was the fact that Messiah would come as a suffering Saviour, Dan. 9. 26, before He would come as a conquering hero. The work of atonement was essential as the legal basis upon which He will come as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He cannot reclaim the throne of Israel without the price of redemption being paid, and He cannot reclaim and restore a fallen creation without the work of redemption being accomplished, Luke 2. 38, Rom. 8. 23. Calvary and the suffering Messiah had to come before the glory, Luke 24. 26.

Thankfully, there were those who recognised Him for who He was. Andrew exclaimed, ‘we have found the Messias’ in John 1. 41. The Lord Jesus openly accepted the title when He said to the woman of Samaria ‘I that speak unto thee am He’, John 4. 26, after she had said ‘I know that Messias cometh’, John 4. 25.

In today’s reading, when the Lord Jesus posed the question ‘Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?’, the disciples told Him of the various things that they had heard people say. The Lord then brings the question to a more personal level, ‘but whom say ye that I am?’ The answer to this question determines the eternal destiny of every living soul.

Remember, Jesus is ‘the Christ, the Son of God’, and make it your business to tell someone that He can be their Saviour.