Jesus had gathered His disciples at Caeserea Philippi and asked them, “Who do men say I am?” Popular answers were shared: one of the prophets like Elijah or Jeremiah, maybe even John the Baptist risen from the dead.
Then, Jesus asked this pointed question, “But who do you say I am?” Peter’s Spirit-inspired answer was, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Now, the critical question is, “Who do you say Jesus is?” How you answer that may be the difference between heaven and hell. If you get it wrong about Jesus, then it doesn’t matter if you get everything else right.
Theologian, C.S. Lewis said it well:
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
There are only three options open concerning Jesus.
He was a liar. He claimed to be the Son of God when He knew He was not.
He was a lunatic. He really was deluded and believed Himself to be the Son of God when He was not.
He was and is the Lord. He is the Son of God.
Now, of those options, which is the only one that is compelling? The character Jesus displayed rules out that He was a deceiver. The wisdom Jesus expressed rules out that He was deranged. All about His ministry, His messages, and His miracles unite with Peter’s testimony, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
What do you say?
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