In-Sight: Peter’s Declaration

     We move on to Peter’s declaration.  When Peter told Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he was declaring the reality of the Incarnation.  He was saying that Jesus was “eternity entering into time” (Ephesians 1:9).  This declaration is essential, for it is the way that we tell the world that Jesus is more than a great teacher, moral example, ir founder if a major world religion.
     But there was a downside to Peter’s declaration.  It opened the way to think that Christ was tantamount to Jesus’ last name–or perhaps a way to connect him with the Jewish Messiah.  In other words, unless we distinguish between “Jesus” and “Christ,” we will be in danger of losing sight of the ultimate magnificence of both terms. It is almost impossible to put into words.  But the fact is, the Bible wants us to see beyond a person who lived for about 33 years, to a Being Who has existed from the beginning (John 1:1-18). 
     And when we do this, we will see that the “Christ” was, is, and is to come–that the “Christ” is focally seen and worshipped in Christianity, but is not limited to or contained in it.  We will sing the old Gospel spiritual, “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” and we will be on the lookout for the sounds if his voice and the traces if his footprints everywhere