The Proclaimer

"But Who Do You Say That I Am"

About six months before His death, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’  And they said, ‘some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’  He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’  And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’  And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’” (Matt. 16:13-17).  From this exchange we learn that evidence of the identity of Jesus Christ is not the result of mere human opinion.  Instead, there were divine demonstrations indicating exactly who Jesus was.  Consider some of the evidence with me.

• The Virgin Birth.  Both Luke and Matthew record that the conception of Jesus was by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35).  Furthermore, Mary is specifically referred to as being a “virgin” (Matt. 1:23; Luke 1:27).  This fact is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy made some seven hundred years earlier. "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). 
  
  Many today do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. When Gabriel the angel told Mary of Jesus’ birth her response was, “How can this be, since I do not know a man” (Luke 1:34).  The fact that Joseph was “minded to put her away” (Matt. 1:19) indicates that he knew he was not the father of Mary’s child. If one does not believe Jesus was born of a virgin, he does not believe in the deity of Christ.
   

• The Miracles of Jesus.  John records, “Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30, 31).  On the day of Pentecost, Peter declared that Jesus of Nazareth was “a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know” (Acts 2:22).
  
  The authenticity of the signs and wonders performed by Jesus was never questioned.  On one occasion the Pharisees accused Him of casting out a demon by the power of Satan, but even His enemies did not question that the miracle had been performed (Matt. 12:24).  The miracles Jesus performed confirmed He was the Christ, the Son of the living God.
   

• The Resurrection of Jesus.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the very foundation of the Christian’s faith.  Paul writes, “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Cor. 15:17)  If Christ was not raised from the dead, then the gospel of Christ is a hoax.  Modernism asserts that Christ was not literally raised from the dead, but that the “resurrection” of Christ is merely a symbol of the fact that after Christ’s death He lived on through the influence of His followers.  But in reality, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is that single event which proves without a shadow of a doubt who He was – the Christ, the Son of the living God.

                                                                             -- Clark Dugger

The Proclaimer