Who Do You Say I Am?

You are blessed . . . because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.   Matthew 16:17

One day Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15-16). What Jesus explained next is very significant: this was not something Peter had worked out on his own.

Peter had thought about the claims of Jesus and the miracles he’d seen. But Jesus made it clear: there was something beyond observation, reason, and deduction going on. God had opened Peter’s eyes and given him the ability to see Jesus’ glory. Spiritual sight is the gift of God.

On another occasion, Jesus invited a young man to follow him, but the young man chose not to (see Matthew 19:16-22). The immediate problem was that he didn’t want to leave his wealth behind. But the deeper problem was that he never saw the glory of Christ. The Son of God called the man to walk with him, but the man’s life went on exactly as it had before.

The same thing happens in churches today. Crowds of people gather, but only some of them see the glory of Jesus Christ. Others hear the same music, read the same Scripture, and listen to the same sermon, but they return home with nothing more than a religious duty fulfilled.

The Bible tells us why this happens: “Satan . . . has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Satan has his work cut out for him to obscure such a radiant light.

But once you see the glory of God in the face of Christ, your mind and heart will be gripped by the wonder of his incarnation, the beauty of his perfect life, the power of his amazing words, the glory of his miracles, the love of his atoning sacrifice, and the glory of his life-giving resurrection and day of his coming. We see glory in Jesus. That’s why we’re not just believers, we’re worshipers! Don’t rest until God opens your eyes to see the glory of his Son.

For further reading, see Exodus 33