Crucial elements of the Bible–Part 1

And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him,…. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. – Matt. 16:16-18

But these have been 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 20:31

But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. – John 7:39

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from among the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. – Rom. 8:11

When Christ our life is manifested, then you also shall be manifested with Him in glory. – Col. 3:4

And He subjected all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. – Eph. 1:22f

[Emphasis added]

Any message from the Bible or interpretation of the scriptures that ignores the crucial elements of Christ, the Spirit, life and the church will surely miss the mark. But, in these scriptures we see a sketch of something wonderful in God’s working.

Jesus Christ as the anointed

I am so thankful that the Spirit captured Peter’s words in Matthew 16:16 as they are recorded. You know, we tend to think to easily of the name “Jesus Christ” as being parallel to “John Doe”—a first name and a last name.

That’s why the emphasis is so wonderful here: “You are the Christ”—the anointed One.

Throughout the scriptures we see anointings and, wherever we see that the anointing is always for a purpose—kings were anointed for ruling; priests were anointed for ministry; even that idolater, Cyrus, was anointed (Isa. 45.1) for the specific purpose of liberating the children of Israel held captive in Babylon.

So, when Peter said to Jesus, “You are the anointed one,” he was not just saying that Jesus was chosen by God or sent from God. Rather, he was declaring, “You are the One anointed by God to carry out God’s purpose.”

Now, admittedly, at the time of this speaking, it is quite likely that Peter did not yet comprehend what that purpose was, but he would have understood that there is no anointing in the absence of a purpose.

Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God

Peter went on in his statement to say that Jesus was also “the Son of the Living God.”

Again, in our Christian tradition, we hear so commonly the phrase, “the Father, the Son and the Spirit” that we seldom consider the subtlety conveyed in this revelation of the Triune God. God could have revealed His triune nature as, for example, “the Judge, the Defender and the Bailiff.”

But, no. Instead, God reveals Himself in his economy as Father, Son and Spirit. These three are related to life, not law. The Father is the source of life; the Son is the expression of the Father’s life; and the Spirit is the One who conveys the life imparted by the Father through the Son into the human spirit (Job 32:8) of the believers.

So richly is the Father-Son relationship related to life that this matter is further emphasized by the scriptures for, indeed, Peter saw that Jesus was “the Son of the living God.”

[To be continued]