WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

Friday 13 December

“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:14-16

She said to Him, Yes, Lord, I have believed [I do believe] that You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One), the Son of God, [even He] Who was to come into the world. [It is for Your coming that the world has waited.] John 11:27 (AMPC)

These two encounters have a common thread between them. They are an example of two people in the gospels that had a revelation of Jesus being the Christ. Remember the whole of the Old Testament writings from Genesis to Malachi were all about ‘the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow’.

‘searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.’ (1 Peter 1:11).

The first one was Peter who had a revelation of who Jesus really was. He called Jesus ‘the Christ the Son of the living God. Jesus went on to say that ‘flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to you but my Father who is in heaven.’

Another example of this was when Jesus had a conversation with Martha about Lazarus her recently deceased brother. ‘Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus makes a startling statement that most seem to miss when He said ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ for two major reasons. He separated the two concepts of resurrection and life to show that they don’t always go together. The book of Revelation shows us that the dead will be resurrected to be judged but they will have no eternal life in them. We will look at this in depth in another devotion.

The other more pertinent point for the believer is that Jesus was talking about Himself being the resurrection, which is the exalted Christ (Philippians 2:9) and Martha having no revelation of this, reverts back to speaking of her belief in the incarnate Christ (John 1:14).

Both of these accounts are set in the gospels. Although Martha and Peter received revelation about Jesus the Christ, none of them had the revelation of what was about to transpire. Jesus was soon to go from being the incarnate Christ to the exalted Christ through his death burial, resurrection and ascension.

Just like Martha didn’t recognise the difference in what Jesus was saying between the incarnate Christ and the exalted Christ, many believers don’t know the difference. They are actually stuck in the gospels without realising it. The gospels are also predominantly Old Testament. They look at Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One as the same Jesus after the resurrection. This is certainly not the case. Jesus now has all authority, greater glory, and a name above every name bestowed upon Him. (Philippians 2:9-11).

This is where confusions about subjects like faith and the anointing have been created due to believers thinking that they are to operate expressly according to the parables or actions that they saw in the gospels. If you try to emulate the gospels as a Christian you will get into error. Only the New Testament is the revelation of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

‘Who do you say that I am?’ If Jesus were to ask you that question today the answer would not be what Peter or Martha said: ‘you are Jesus the Christ’. That’s for those who were not believers in the gospels.

The Christian doesn’t have the incarnate Christ, we have the exalted Christ. So what about you?

Who do you say He is?

APPLICATION

Study Jesus in the gospels and Jesus in the epistles and look at all the differences between the two and realise not as he was but ‘As He is so are we in this world’ 1 John 4:17.