Peter's confession of christ rewarded.
Matt. xvi. 15 — 19. He saith unto them, But lohom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter ansivered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jnd Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, hut my Father ivhich is in heaven. And I say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt hind on earth shall he hound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall he loosed in heaven.
WHILST some are laying an undue stress upon the smaller differences which subsist between Chris- tians, others put all the Christian world together in one indiscriminate mass ; conceiving, that those who are one in name, are one also in reality. But both of these parties are wrong ; for the differences about Church government, and about some abstruser doc- trines of our religion, are of very little signification before God, and ought to be maintained by us with moderation and mutual concessions : whereas those differences which respect our attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ are of infinite importance ; they put asunder the various classes of Christians, and either
prove or disprove their very title to the name. Our blessed Lord has strongly marked this in a conversa- tion which he held with his Disciples. He asked them. What notions the generality of his professed followers entertained concerning him ? To this they replied, that some supposed him to be John the Baptist ; others, Elijah ; others, Jeremiah, or some other of the ancient prophets risen from the dead. Then he put to them the interrogation in our text, and inquired, Whom they supposed him to be ? The answer which Jesus received on this occasion, was quite satisfactory to him, and met with tokens of his most decided approbation. This answer formed the great line of distinction between those who were merely nominal disciples, and those who were so in spirit and in truth. In our further consideration of this passage we shall notice, I. Peter's confession of Christ —
On many occasions had the Disciples, either in- dividually or collectively, acknowledged Jesus to be the true Messiah^. On one occasion in particular, they affirmed it with a more than ordinary confidence^ But this confession being so signally noticed by our Lord himself, we shall embrace this opportunity of considering it more fully.
Peter here justly represents the character of Christ:
\. His high origin —
[The term " Son of God" was understood by the Jews as of so high an import, that when Jesus claimed that title, he was considered as ajEFecting an equality with Jehovah, and actually " making himself God''." In this sense Peter acknowledged him to be, not a mere man, but infinitely above all created beings, " Emmanuel, God with us," even " God over all, blessed for evermore." Peter knew that the Father at his baptism had borne witness to him by an audible voice from heaven : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." He had even been an eye-witness of such a manifestation of his glory, as had convinced him fully, that he ivas God; and at the
a John i. 49. and xi. 27. and Matt. xiv. 33. ^ John vi. G9 ; in the discussion of which passage, we have men- tioned it only in a transient way. c John X. 30, 33, 36.
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same time he had heard precisely the same testimony to him from heaven, which had been before given at his baptism. The remembrance of this was never effaced from his mind ; inso- much that many years afterwards, he referred to it as affording to his mind a demonstration that Christ was possessed of more than human majesty and glory '^. And on other occasions also we are assured, that his disciples " beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father^." This part of Peter's confession then must be understood as equivalent to thai de- claration of another Apostle, that " the Father hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, who is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person ^."]