"And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord." "Now when Jesus came into the parts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." MATTHEW 16: 13-16. CHAPTER V THE AFFIRMATION OF THE SON OF GOD We are in a very different scene from that in which we were in the last chapter. There, following the lead of the Church's Confession, we found ourselves standing on the seashore, looking up at the sky, and about us God's wonderful works in creation. sought to listen to the psalm of the created universe, recognizing in nature's wonders and mysteries the ever-present testimony to its Maker. We expressed our belief in God, the Maker of heaven and earth. We Here it is not the voice of nature, but the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself that calls us to know, not his works, or his teaching, or his sacrifice, but himself; to ask our hearts the question which the Saviour put to his disciples, "Who say ye that I am?" Matthew says it was at Cæsarea Philippi that this searching question was asked. It was just before Jesus' transfiguration, and after the turning away of his disciples, following upon the miracle of the loaves and fishes, because he would not consent to receive their plaudits of royalty. In a scene of rare beauty, on the southern slope of the noble Mount Hermon, about an ancient grotto, a place once sacred to the heathen god Pan, an early pagan settlement had gathered. Herod had adorned the spot with a temple of white marble, and called it after the emperor. Later, Philip had enlarged the temple and given it his own name, Cæsarea Philippi. It was one of those mixed Gentile-Judæan communities, of which there were many on the skirts of northern Galilee. On this beautiful spot, with, on the one hand, the great world of heathenism pressing up against him, with all its unanswered cry after an interpretation of the riddle of life, and its yearning for a knowledge of the living God; and on the other side, Israel, alone in her possession of the oracles of God, alone in the extent of her humiliation, which others could not understand, because her exaltation had been so peculiarly her own; alone in her possession of prophecies yet unfulfilled and uninterpreted; alone in the promise of a Messiah, whom she did not receive; -standing between the two, mocked in his poverty, despised and rejected alike by both, bearing in his heart the world's sin and the world's need, Jesus asked: "Who do men say that I am?" Sweeping aside their historic testimony, we hear him pressing upon his disciples the personal question, "But who am I to you?" Whatever force the question had then, it has now uch more. The disciples knew comparatively little of the Lord. The resurrection had not occurred; they had not yet had the revelation of the Holy Ghost in their own hearts, or seen the witness to the living Christ on the day of Pentecost, or had the testimony of martyrs, as we have. That is all behind us; it all lay before them; and it conspires to make it a very personal question to every man and woman to-day, when the world is asking, "Who do you say that he is?"" A Christianity without Christ is no Christianity; and a Christ not divine is no Christ, or, at most, is a Christ far different from the one in whom the Church has wrought out her salvation and to whom she has witnessed her good confession. So the essential matter is, not what may be said of Jesus Christ as a historic person, but what answer we can give to these questions: Is he to me a living Christ, a Saviour from sin and weakness, a daily power in my life? Can I approach him, love him, continue with him always? Has he opened the kingdom of heaven to me? Is my faith in him, as the Messiah, one on which I am willing to stake not only the future but the present? For the basis of our answer we must turn to the Word of God itself. The earliest written testimony that we have concerning Jesus is that of Paul. Each New Testament author 1 See Note 1. |