May we refer back to our original story for a moment? Why did Christ ask: Whom do men say that I am? He was not asking for information. He knew the truth and knew what was in man. No, Christ desired His disciples to state the current opinions of others, as a preface before narrow-ting down the question to the twelve who were round Him. He wanted them to make their confession of Him and state their allegiance to Him, before He told them things which would rock the very foundation of their immature faith. He was soon to direct His steps towards Jerusalem and He must have with Him men who knew Him as the Christ, the Sent One of God, the fulfilment of God's promises to His people. So in the silence of some quiet spot our Lord asked the second and most personal question: Whom say ye that I am? It was Peter who voiced the confess sion- of that group: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And with this answer Christ was satisfied. Amid a babel of discordant voices of prevailing unbelief and crude. conjectures, Peter's confession rang true as steel, as clear as a bell—Thou art the' Sent One of God. The Lord accepted this, Peter was not rebuked for any extravagant statement. What did this answer imply?
Jesus was the Messiah. The Jews looked for a man, a superior man, from God. Peter acknowledged Christ was He, but Peter's Christ was more than mere man, 'Thou art... the Son of the Living God', He wis divine. Yes, Christ that He claimed to be, or none of these things and the greatest impostor this world has ever know:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.