Jesus and His disciples journeyed to Caesarea Philippi. In the preceding two years, the Nazarene Rabbi’s reputation as a truth-speaker and miracle-worker had steadily grown, as news of His exploits and teachings had swept across 1st-century Judea and Samaria. Now, withdrawn into this remote and predominantly pagan region, with shrines to the Greek god Pan immediately behind Him and the breathtaking beauty of the woods and cliffs all around Him, Jesus turned to His disciples and posed a seemingly simple, straightforward question: “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
The answers ran the gamut. After all, the question of Jesus’ identity was on everyone’s mind, and most people by this time had developed at least a half-formed opinion of him: “Some say John the Baptist,” the disciples responded, “some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But,” Jesus said, fixing His penetrating gaze on His followers, “who do you say that I am?”
Who, indeed? Two thousand years later, Jesus’ question reverberates through the corridors of time and confronts us still today. This is the single most important question anyone can contemplate. The stakes could not be any higher: A wrong understanding of Jesus’ identity yields eternal consequences (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
But Simon Peter, who so frequently misspoke, did not get the answer wrong. “You are the Christ,” he said, “the Son of the living God.” Peter’s confession offers the ultimate twofold summary and synthesis of who the Bible says Jesus is: He is the Christ and the Son of God.
“You Are the Christ”
Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word messiah. By using this term, Peter invoked the many Old Testament prophetic teachings about the promised one by whom God would execute His plan for the future of Israel—and the world. A summary of the Old Testament teachings on Messiahship can be subdivided into three conceptual domains: kingship, priesthood, and sacrifice.
Kingship. At its core, the term messiah denotes kingship. Before acceding to the throne, Israel’s kings were normally anointed with oil, a symbolic gesture to consecrate their reign and dedicate it to God. The Messiah was understood to be the greatest of all Israelite kings—in a sense, the very one for whom Israelite kingship was established in the first place. Thus, Jacob envisioned the coming one from Judah grasping the scepter of Israel (Genesis 49:10), and the prophet Isaiah declared that the Messiah will rule from David’s throne with justice and righteousness (Isaiah 9:7). Jeremiah the prophet added that the Messiah’s reign will be characterized by wisdom (Jeremiah 23:5). In the Davidic Covenant, God Himself promised David a royal posterity to rule over the people of Israel forever (2 Samuel 7:12–16). In the figure of the long-awaited Messiah, Abraham’s children were anticipating the culmination and perfecting of Israelite kingship.
There is another aspect to the Messiah’s kingship that Peter and his contemporaries may have overlooked: Not only would the Messiah be the King of Israel; He would also be the King of all nations. King David envisioned the Messiah triumphantly ruling over all the nations (Psalm 2:7–8), and Zechariah prophesied, “He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth’” (Zechariah 9:9–10). The eventual inclusion of Gentile nations in the Messiah’s rule was thus announced beforehand by the Hebrew prophets (and implied by the stipulations of the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:3).
Priesthood. In addition to the kings, priests also were regularly anointed in Israel before beginning their God-appointed ministries (Exodus 28:41–43). But the two offices were always distinct, with kingship reserved for Judahites (following Saul the Benjamite’s reign) and priesthood reserved for Levites. God tended to execute severe judgment on anyone who undertook to blur the distinction or blend the two official capacities (e.g., 1 Samuel 13:9–14; 2 Chronicles 26:16–21)—doubtless because the united office of Priest-King was reserved for the Messiah alone. Thus, in Psalm 110:4, David recorded the words of God directed toward the Messiah: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
The basic function of the priest was to stand before God representing the people. He served as an intermediary, pleading the people’s case before a holy deity and interceding with Him on their behalf. By applying the language of priesthood to him, David indicated that the Messiah would not only have a ruling function, but also serve an intercessory function. This is precisely how the New Testament describes Jesus’ present work on behalf of His people: He is “a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).
Sacrifice. Probably the single aspect of Messiahship most overlooked and misunderstood by the denizens of 1st-century Israel was the Messiah’s destined role of serving as the atoning sacrifice for the people’s sins. Even Jesus’ own disciples failed to understand and accept this vital part of His mission until well after the resurrection (Matthew 16:22; Luke 24:20–21). But the Old Testament prophets previously announced that the Messiah would be slain to atone for the sins of others. “But He was wounded for our transgressions,” Isaiah wrote, “He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5–6). Undoubtedly reflecting this same truth, Zechariah depicted the Messiah as the one who would be “pierced” (Zechariah 12:10), and Psalm 22 paints a graphic prophetic picture of all that the Messiah would be forced to suffer.
As Messiah, Jesus collectively fulfills the three formerly disparate and disconnected roles of king, priest, and sacrifice. He serves as God’s mediatorial ruler (in the future); the great High Priest who intercedes for His people (in the present); and the sacrificial Lamb of God (John 1:29) that absorbs and satisfies God’s wrath against human wickedness (in the past through the great work He accomplished on Calvary’s cross, as 1 Peter 2:24 explains: “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree”).
“You Are the Son of the Living God”
But there is more to Jesus’ identity than His Messiahship: There is also His deity, the acknowledgement of which is crucial for an accurate and sound Christology. Not only was Jesus sent by God; He is God. The doctrine of the Incarnation is a great mystery that the human mind struggles to fully apprehend, and yet it is absolutely central to the Christian faith. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Ever since the time of Christ, Orthodox Judaism has steadfastly rejected the notion of a divine Messiah. But once again, a careful examination of the Old Testament prophecies reveals that it had always been God’s intention to provide a divine Messiah. In Isaiah’s great prophecy of the coming virgin-born Davidic son, the child to be born was called Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). The implication is clear: The entrance of the Messiah into the world would bring the very presence of God into the midst of His people, something that they had been lacking ever since Ezekiel’s day (Ezekiel 10:15–22).
Isaiah provided even clearer testimony to the Messiah’s divinity two chapters later, in Isaiah 9:6, when he applied to the coming Davidic King the titles “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father” (Avi-Ad, literally the “Father of Eternity”—the one who created time and therefore originated all the ages). And Micah prophesied that the great King who would one day be born in Bethlehem is, in reality, the one whose existence stretches back into eternity past: His “goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).
It is, therefore, far from idolatry for Christians to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as God in the flesh. In so doing, we do not elevate a mere man to the status of God; rather, we recognize the long-prophesied reality that, in sending Israel its Messiah, God Himself chose to become a man. And therefore, “in Him [Jesus] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
The Enduring Question
“Who do you say that I am?” All those centuries ago in Caesarea Philippi, although Peter himself did not yet fully grasp all that his answer entailed, his confession nonetheless answered the question correctly. Jesus is the Messiah—the King of Israel and of all the nations, the Melchizedekian Priest promised in Psalm 110, and the atoning sacrifice offered up for the sins of humanity. And, Jesus is the Son of the Living God—the human embodiment of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the great I AM of the burning bush and the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
And yet, having been successfully and correctly answered two millennia ago, the question has not dissipated. It remains in force today, almost hanging in the air before us as a tangible and palpable thing. The life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth cannot simply be ignored or waved away; it demands consideration from each individual. And then, following that consideration, it demands an answer.
Who do you say that Jesus is?
David Gunn is the assistant director of Media Ministries for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
