“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'” (Matthew 16:15-17)
In our nation today, the greatest sins as proclaimed by the media and the mob are deemed to be racism and intolerance. Nothing else is as wicked or evil. Indeed, what one chooses as his or her lifestyle is acceptable and cannot be wrong. Feelings determine what actions are valid and so what one chooses to do or be is considered beyond reproach. Those who do not agree are condemned and vilified.
Not so in the Kingdom of God. The media and the mob are focusing our eyes on specific sins. But according to the Word of God, the only sin that is truly worthy of God’s eternal condemnation is rejection of Jesus as the only way to heaven. The only question that is worth answering, the only one that truly matters is: What do you think of Jesus? How one answers that question determines the course of one’s life in this world as well as in eternity.
Why is the answer one gives to this question so important? As we look at the answer that the apostle Peter give to Jesus when the Lord asked him we discover the answer. Jesus is, as Peter attests, the Messiah and the Son of God, a term which means Jesus is equal to God the Father Almighty. So, Peter, whether he knew it or not, was acknowledging that Jesus was (and is) God in the flesh come to redeem all humans from sin and death.
In Matthew’s day as now, people had different opinions about who Jesus was and is. Down through the millennia people have debated and fought over the nature of Jesus and why what we believe about Him is of eternal importance. Yet many people who claim to agree with Peter, who recite the Apostle’s creed as we do, do not understand the implications of the words, nor do they believe them. They live their lives as if they were accountable to no one but themselves. Since Jesus is Almighty God then we really ought to pay attention to what He says and follow Him with every ounce of our energy and passion. Then we can overcome all the other sins as well by His strength and grace.