Peter's Confession of the Christ
It will be well to turn to some of the many declarations or confessions made in the New Testament concerning Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God. They embody the faith of the disciples; they proclaim Israel’s faith; they exhibit to us the faith on which the Church is built, and on which she has rested, is resting still, and will continue to rest till He comes again.
For the creed of the Church is one; and though man has tried to tear it in pieces, or supplant it with beliefs of his own, it remains to the end, — one and the same: like Him who is its sum and burden, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. It is a veritable creed; uttered by an apostle, and sanctioned by the Master Himself.
Thus, then, in few words, we read the Church’s early creed, given sometimes by one and sometimes by another. (1.) The angel at Bethlehem is the first to give ns the ‘ symbol’ (Luke ii. 11): ‘ Unto you is born this clay, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’ The Saviour, the Christ, the Lord, are the three great words in which it is summed up; each of these containing ‘ the good tidings of great joy.’
(2.) The angel, before His birth, had said, ‘ Thou shalt call His name Jesus’ (Matt. i. 21); Joseph at His hirtli ‘called His name Jesus’ (Matt. i. 25); at His circumcision ‘ His name was called Jesus ’ (Luke ii. 21). Here we have the briefest form of the creed, and yet in this the great essence is retained; for Jesus, that is, ‘Jehovah the Saviour,’ is really the creed.
(3.) The next is John the Baptist, who, in the well-known words, ‘ Behold the Lamb of Cod, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (John i. 29), sums up the whole book of Leviticus, and gives us the essence and meaning of all sacrifice from the beginning.
(4.) The fourth is that of Andrew, ‘ Simon Peter’s brother,’ and runs in these words: ‘We have found the Messias; which is, being interpreted, the Christ’ (John i. 41). Messias! That word wTas the summing up of Israel’s creed, and also of ours.
(5.) The fifth is Nathanaels: ‘ Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel ’ (John i. 49). Here is another article in the old belief; and yet not another, for it was wrapt up in the preceding. Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and Israel’s King! The knowledge of this is life eternal, for in it is embodied the fulness of the grace of God.
(6.) The next is Peter’s (Matt. xvi. 16; Mark viii. 29; Luke ix. 20). Putting together the words as given by all the evangelists, the confession runs thus: ‘ Thou art the Christ... the Christ of God.’ ‘ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Thus we get piece after piece of the wondrous creed, and each succeeding fragment or article brings out more fully ‘ the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
(7.) The next is Martha’s: * I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world’1 (John xi. 27). This was the
1 The words literally run thus, ‘ The Coming One into the world;’ for Messiah was known to Israel by this name, ‘ the Coming One ’ — o lp%of*ivo;. Afterwards He is named ‘ the Come One ’ — o 0av — i*ku0ora, (1 John iv. 3, v. 6). Thus, ‘ He is come ’ contained the summing up of her creed; it was the beginning and end both of her faith and hope. To know Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, was to have everlasting life, and to he an heir of the kingdom. In the Old Testament Scriptures she had the whole revelation of God as to Messiah and Messiah’s work, and all this she now connected with Him whom she knew by the name of Jesus; and in Him she saw the embodiment of all that the fathers had been looking for.
(8.) The next is that of Thomas; ‘ My Lord and my God’ (John xx. 28), — carrying us hack to Isa. xxv. 9: ‘ Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him: this is the Lord (Jehovah); we have waited for Him.’ For it was a divine Messiah that Israel had been looking for; and it is such that Thomas now sees, and hears, and touches.
All these confessions are thus summed up by the
gospel, or good news, which an Israelite would well understand; and as Messiah was the o &p%ofavos, so His age or kingdom was o ulav ipKopivos, or [aiWwv (Luke xviii. 30; Heb. vi. 5). The ‘good things ’ connected with Him as ‘ the Christ ’ and as ‘ the High Priest ’ are similarly referred to: for He is said to be up%npiv$ rupv [AiXX’ovruv a.ya.6ouv, ‘ the High Priest of the good things to come ’ (Heb. ix. 11); which good things are not exhausted by His first coming, but are yet to be poured out more abundantly at His second. This is ‘ the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ’ (1 Pet. i. 13).
Evangelist John, towards the close of his Gospel, and connected with the life which Messiah came to bring. ‘Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name’ (John xx. 30).
We find this form of words more than once made use of by the Apostle John: ‘ Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God’ (1 John v. 1); connecting belief in Jesus as the Christ with sonship, and taking us back to John i. 12 and iii. 1-8. Thus life, and sonship, and heirship, as well as pardon and deliverance, are connected with believing in Jesus as the Christ. For these words are divine and living, conveying to him who receives them the blessing which they contain. ‘ The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life ’ (John vi. 63). The abiding of Christ’s words in us is always associated with the abiding of life, with the presence of Him of whom they speak, and with overcoming the world (1
1 I find that by some a mystical meaning is attached to the word ‘ abiding, ’ whereas it simply means ‘ remaining, ’ and ought always John y. 4): ‘ Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God’ (1 John iv. 15). Nay more, they are associated with the indwelling of that love which they reveal: ‘ We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’
It will be well, however, to select one of these confessions; not indeed omitting the others, but noticing specially some of the circumstances in which it was uttered. Let us take up that of Peter, as given by three of the evangelists, with slight variations, — variations which help to bring out in divers aspects the whole truth. For all such differences are accredited by the Spirit, or rather, they are expressly framed by the Spirit, in order to bring out all sides of the great confession on which rests the Church of God, and out of which spring the
to have been translated by one word, either abiding or remaining. Others, I find, affirm that such expressions as Christ being in us, or the Spirit being in us, are peculiar to the New Testament, whereas they are quite common in the Old; and the Old Testament word ‘ among you ’ is that which is rendered * in you ’ in the New Testament. The Old Testament saints had ‘ the indwelling Spirit ’ as truly as the New. Indeed, all the New Testament expressions regarding the Spirit are taken from the Old. Ex. xxix. 45; Judg. xiv. 6; Isa. lxiii. 11; Ezek. ii. 2.
various doctrines which have made up her one creed; her creed concerning the true God and His Son Jesus Christ. The first promise regarding the woman’s seed was very brief; yet it contained the sum of divine truth on which the patriarchs lived and died. It afterwards expanded very widely, and the Old Testament is the expansion of that promise. How again, at the commencement of a new era, the creed contracts itself to a single article, substantially the same as that out of which all previous expansions had come; and Messiah Himself gives sanction to this brief confession, as containing the sum of saving knowledge: f Thou art the Christ’ (Mark viii. 29).
It will be interesting to notice in detail the circumstances connected with this confession of Peter. We shall find how completely everything in the scene is linked with Him who is the subject of the confession. Here, as elsewhere, Christ is * all, and in all.’ Of the group He is the centre; of the speakers He is the chief. Our eyes do not fasten themselves on the disciple who makes the confession, but on the Master who drew it forth. His attractions eclipse all others; and here, as on the Transfiguration Mount, we behold no one save ‘Jesus only;’ we hear no one save ‘Jesus only.’
It is a wayside conversation that the evangelists record between the Lord and His disciples. Yet were not these disciples ’ wayside hearers ’ in the sense of the parable. It was on good ground that the seed was sown. They were going northward, from Bethsaida to Cesarea Philippi, along the margin of the waters of Merom, the most sequestered, and amongst the most beautiful, of the many fair scenes of Palestine. By the way, He spoke to them, and they to Him. The theme was Himself, and He was at once the Teacher and the lesson.
It was on the extreme north of Palestine that the conversation took place, in the locality out of which sprang the well-known description of the land, ’ from Dan to Beersheba.’ Par from Jerusalem and its temple, far from the distinguished cities either of the Old Testament or of the Hew, was this wondrous confession spoken. Hot to a crowd, not in the midst of scribes and Pharisees, or of publicans and sinners, but simply to the twelve, was it given. The great seed was to be de¬ posited first in their hearts, as they walked quietly along the lake-side, with mountains on either side,
Lebanon full in view, and Hermon in front, with its sparkling snows.
It was just before the transfiguration, as if He would prepare them for that scene, and draw out of them their thoughts concerning Him, before showing Himself to them in His glory. Ere He leads them up the mountain. He wished them to realize who He really was, that they might recognise in the transfiguration-glory the glory of the Christ, of Israel’s Messiah, the Son of God.
It was Peter who made the confession, but he made it in the name of the whole disciples. He speaks, and they add their Amen to what is spoken. They might not fully understand all that the name implied, ‘ the Christ; ’ but they knew what the prophets from the beginning had spoken, and they knew what the nation believed concerning Messiah, and their confession was not made in ignorance and blindness. Yet scarcely had this confession been made, than ‘ Peter took Him ’ (laid hold of Him), ‘and began to rebuke Him ’ (Mark viii. 32). What! rebuke Him whom he had acknowledged to be ‘ the Christ, the Son of God ’? We know not in what language to describe or to condemn such conduct. Yet, strange, notwithstanding this, the Lord
64 Tlu Christ of God.
selects Peter as one of the favoured three who were to stand on the ’ holy mount ’ along with Moses and Elias. Surely here, as elsewhere, ‘ the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant’ (1 Tim. i. 14); and surely here Jesus Christ ‘ shows forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting’ (1 Tim. i. 16).
It was of ‘ Jesus of Nazareth ’ that the confession was made; of Him who had grown up among them as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. They knew Him as the son of the carpenter, the brother of some Galilean fishermen, the native of a city whose name was a byword; yet they own Him as the Christ. They had hitherto acknowledged Him as the son of Mary, of the seed of Abraham, of the family of David; now they avow their belief in Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
It was to Himself that the confession was made. They avow their faith in His Messiahship to Him¬ self, that He may hear it and sanction it as a true belief, no cunningly devised fable, nor dream of their own enthusiasm. It is as if, before proclaim¬ ing it to the world, they fell down before Him and owned His Christhood. They do not merely whisper to one another, or say to themselves in secret. Surely our Master is the Christ. They kneel before Him in reverence, and say, face to face, as if asking His approval, f Thou art the Christ; ’ thus making the declaration doubly sure; — His own as well as theirs. They say, ‘Thou art the Christ;’. He answers, ‘ I am.’ They confess Him to Himself before they are allowed to confess Him before men.
It was in reply to two questions of His own that this avowal of faith was made. The first was, ‘ Whom do men say that I am? ’ and the second, ‘ Whom say ye that I am? ’ He first inquires into the world’s faith, that He may bring out the prevail¬ ing ignorance and error; and then He probes and tests the disciples, in order to draw out the difference between them and the men around. Thus He draws out the faith of His own that He may stamp it writh His own mark; just as, on another occasion, He put the question to the Jews, e What think ye of Christ? ’ (or, ‘ What is your judgment concerning the Christ? ’) in order to bring forth their views, whether of faith or unbelief; and still He asks the same questions of us, ‘ What think ye of Christ? ’ and, ‘ Whom say ye that I am V Tor He knows how
much depends on the right answer to such questions. It is no idle nor random inquiry that He makes, but momentous beyond measure, as involving, in the answer to it, eternal consequences; nay, as involving in its right solution the whole matter of our relationship to God. For if he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and hath everlasting life, then he who does not believe that Jesus is the Christ is not born of God, and hath no life eternal.
The name of Christ, or Messiah, had a special meaning to a Jew. It went back over the whole history of the land, the nation, the race. It embodied all his hopes. It gathered up into itself all the promises, and prophecies, and types, and symbols. It carried him back to David, to Moses, to Abraham, to Adam. It called up not only Jerusalem and Bethlehem, but Paradise; for it was linked inseparably with the first promise, as well as with the first altar and the first sacrifice. For we cannot separate the promise from the sacrifice, nor the sacrifice from the promise. Each without the other is dark. The promise alone is a riddle with¬ out a key to it; and the sacrifice alone is a key without a riddle.
Ho doubt Israel’s blindness was great; and even the disciples were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken (Luke xxiv. 25). But still they knew enough of the prophets to understand much of what and who the Christ was to be; and in speaking of Him, they spoke of One in whom they saw not only the superhuman, but the divine, — a divine Deliverer and King, — one who was coming as the messenger of love, not to Israel only, but to man, and to man’s earth. They could notf at this time comprehend such words as, ‘ Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor, that ye by His poverty might be rich ’ (2 Cor. viii. 9); but they gathered this at least concerning Messiah from the promise and the sacrifice, that He was God Himself, coming to sinners on an errand of grace, and that in that grace law was to be honoured, and righteousness to be exalted: for the name of Messiah had all along been associated as distinctly with righteousness as with love.
1 The Greek rather gives a slightly different thought in connection with the above passage, and we might render the words thus:
‘ 0 fools, and slow of heart to believe, after all that the prophets have spoken ’ (ivi vra<nv). To believe what? The resurrection, to which they had just referred. The Lord reproached them with their slow belief of the resurrection, notwithstanding all that the prophets had spoken.