This chapter is based on Matthew 16:13-28; Mark 8:27-38; Luke 9:18-27.
(HLv 276)
Even before Christ took humanity upon Him, He saw the whole length of the path He must travel to save that which was lost. Every pang that rent His heart, every insult heaped on His head, every privation He was called to endure was open to His view before He laid aside His crown and royal robe and stepped down from the throne to clothe His divinity with humanity. He knew the anguish that would come upon Him, and yet He said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Psalm 40:7, 8.
(HLv 276.1)
His earthly life, so full of toil and self-sacrifice, was cheered by the prospect that by giving His life, He would win back the world to its loyalty to God. Although the baptism of blood must first be received; although the sins of the world were to weigh upon His innocent soul; although the shadow of an unspeakable woe was upon Him; yet for the joy set before Him, He chose to endure the cross.
(HLv 276.2)
The time was near when the chosen companions of His ministry must see Him whom they loved and trusted hung upon the cross of Calvary. Soon He must leave them to face the world without the comfort of His visible presence. Bitter hate and unbelief would persecute them, and He desired to prepare them for their trials.
(HLv 276.3)
Jesus and His disciples had now come into one of the towns about Caesarea Philippi. They were beyond Galilee, in a region where idolatry prevailed. Around them were represented forms of superstition that existed in all parts of the world. Jesus desired that a view of these things might lead the disciples to feel their responsibility to the heathen.
(HLv 276.4)
He was about to tell them of the suffering that awaited Him. But first He prayed that their hearts might be prepared to receive His words. He did not at once communicate that which He desired to impart, but gave them opportunity to confess their faith in Him. He asked, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”
(HLv 277.1)
Sadly the disciples acknowledged that Israel had failed to recognize their Messiah. The multitudes at Bethsaida had desired to proclaim Him king of Israel. Many were ready to accept Him as a prophet, but they did not believe Him to be the Messiah.
(HLv 277.2)
Jesus now put a second question, relating to the disciples themselves: “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
(HLv 277.3)
From the first, Peter had believed Jesus to be the Messiah. Many others who had accepted Christ began to doubt as to John’s mission when he was imprisoned and put to death, and they now doubted that Jesus was the Messiah. Many who had expected Jesus to take His place on David’s throne left Him when they perceived that He had no such intention. But the vacillating course of those who praised yesterday and condemned today did not destroy the faith of the true follower of the Saviour. Peter declared, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He waited not for kingly honors to crown his Lord, but accepted Him in His humiliation.
(HLv 277.4)
Peter had expressed the faith of the Twelve. Yet the opposition of the priests and rulers still caused them great perplexity. They did not see their way clearly. Their early training, the teaching of the rabbis, the power of tradition, still intercepted their view of truth. Precious rays of light shone on them, yet often they were like men groping among shadows. But on this day, the Holy Spirit rested on them in power. Beneath the guise of humanity they discerned the glory of the Son of God.
(HLv 277.5)
Jesus answered Peter, saying, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.”
(HLv 278.1)
The truth which Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer’s faith. But through no wisdom or goodness of his own had it been revealed to Peter. The fact that Peter discerned the glory of Christ was an evidence that he had been “taught of God.” See Psalm 25:14; John 6:45.
(HLv 278.2)
Jesus continued: “I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The word Peter signifies a stone—a rolling stone. Peter was not the rock on which the church was founded. The gates of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. The church was built on One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail.
(HLv 278.3)
Moses had pointed to the Rock of Israel’s salvation. See Deuteronomy 32:4. The psalmist had sung of “the rock of my strength.” Psalm 62:7. Isaiah had written, “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, ... a sure foundation.” Isaiah 28:16. Peter himself applies this prophecy to Jesus: “For you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house.” 1 Peter 2:3-5, RSV. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11. “Upon this rock,” said Jesus, “I will build My church.” Christ founded His church on the living Rock—Himself, His own body, for us broken and bruised. Against the church built on this foundation, the gates of hell shall not prevail.
(HLv 278.4)
How feeble the church appeared when Christ spoke these words! There was only a handful of believers, against whom the power of demons and men would be directed, yet they were not to fear; they could not be overthrown.
(HLv 279.1)
Peter had expressed the truth which is the foundation of the church’s faith, and Jesus now honored him as the representative of the body of believers. “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
(HLv 279.2)
“The keys of the kingdom of heaven” are the words of Christ. All the words of Holy Scripture are His. These words have power to open and to shut heaven. The work of those who preach God’s Word is a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
(HLv 279.3)
The Saviour did not commit the work of the gospel to Peter individually. Later, repeating the words spoken to Peter, He applied them to the church, and also to the Twelve as representatives of the body of believers. If Jesus had delegated any special authority to one disciple above the others, we should not find them so often contending as to who should be the greatest. They would have honored the one chosen. Instead of appointing one to be their head, Christ said, “Be not ye called Rabbi.”“Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.” Matthew 23:8, 10.
(HLv 279.4)
“The head of every man is Christ.” God, who put all things under the Saviour’s feet, “gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 1:22, 23. The church is built on Christ as its foundation. It is not to depend on man or be controlled by man. Many claim that a position of trust in the church gives them authority to dictate what other men shall believe and do. The Saviour declares, “All ye are brethren.” Matthew 23:8. Upon no finite being can we depend for guidance. The Rock of faith is the living presence of Christ in the church. Those who think themselves the strongest will prove to be the weakest, unless they make Christ their efficiency. See Jeremiah 17:5; Psalm 2:12.
(HLv 279.5)
Jesus charged the disciples to tell no man that He was the Christ. The people, and even the disciples, had so false a conception of the Messiah that a public announcement would give them no true idea of His character or work.
(HLv 280.1)
The disciples still expected Christ to reign as a temporal prince. They believed that He would not always remain in obscurity and that the time was near when He would establish His kingdom. That Christ would be rejected by His own nation, condemned as a deceiver, and crucified as a malefactor—such a thought the disciples had never entertained. Jesus must open to His disciples the conflict before them. He was sad as He anticipated the trial.
(HLv 280.2)
Hitherto He had refrained from making known to them anything relative to His sufferings and death. In His conversation with Nicodemus He had said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:14, 15. But the disciples did not hear this. Now the time had come for the veil that hid the future to be withdrawn: “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
(HLv 280.3)
Speechless with grief and amazement, the disciples listened. Christ had accepted Peter’s acknowledgment of Him as the Son of God, and now His words pointing to His suffering and death seemed incomprehensible. Peter could not keep silent. He laid hold on his Master, as if to draw Him back from His impending doom: “Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.”
(HLv 280.4)
Peter loved his Lord; but Jesus did not commend him for the desire to shield Him from suffering. Peter’s words were not a help and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in harmony with God’s purpose of grace toward a lost world, nor with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example. The impression which his words would make was directly opposed to that which Christ desired to make on the minds of His followers, and the Saviour was moved to utter one of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” RSV.
(HLv 281.1)
Satan was trying to discourage Jesus and turn Him from His mission, and Peter was giving voice to the temptation. The prince of evil, the author of the thought, was behind that impulsive appeal. Satan had offered Christ the dominion of the world on condition of forsaking the path of humiliation and sacrifice. Now he was seeking to fix Peter’s gaze on earthly glory, that he might not behold the cross. Through Peter, he was again pressing the temptation on Jesus.
(HLv 281.2)
But the Saviour heeded it not; His thought was for His disciple. Satan had interposed between Peter and his Master. The words of Christ were spoken to the one trying to separate him from his Redeemer: “Get behind Me, Satan.” Let Me come face to face with Peter, that I may reveal to him the mystery of My love.
(HLv 281.3)
It was a bitter lesson, which Peter learned but slowly: the path of Christ lay through agony and humiliation. But in the heat of the furnace fire the disciple was to learn its blessing. Long afterward he wrote, “Rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:13, RSV.
(HLv 281.4)
Jesus now explained to His disciples that His own life of self-abnegation was an example of what theirs should be: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The cross, associated with the power of Rome, was the most cruel and humiliating form of death. Criminals were required to bear the cross to the place of execution. Often as it was laid on their shoulders, they resisted with desperate violence, until they were overpowered. To the disciples Jesus’ words, though dimly comprehended, pointed to their submission to death for the sake of Christ.
(HLv 282.1)
No more complete self-surrender could the Saviour’s words have pictured. But all this He had accepted for them. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and insult, and a death of shame. He who was rich in heaven’s priceless treasure, became poor, that through His poverty we might be rich. We are to follow in the path He trod.
(HLv 282.2)
Love for souls means crucifixion of self. He who is a child of God should look on himself as a link in the chain let down to save the world, one with Christ, going forth with Him to seek and save the lost. The Christian has consecrated himself to God, and in character he is to reveal Christ to the world.
(HLv 282.3)
“Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” Selfishness is death. The heart, failing to send its lifeblood to the hand and the head, would quickly lose its power. So is the love of Christ diffused through every part of His mystical body. We are members one of another, and the soul that refuses to impart will perish. “What is a man profited,” said Jesus, “if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
(HLv 282.4)
Christ pointed the disciples to His coming in glory with the hosts of heaven. Then He said, “He shall reward every man according to his works.” And for their encouragement He promised, “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom.”
(HLv 282.5)
But the disciples did not comprehend His words. Their eyes were fixed on the poverty, humiliation, and suffering. Were they not to see their Lord exalted to the throne of David? Could it be that Christ was to be despised, rejected, and put to death? Sadness oppressed their hearts, for it seemed incomprehensible that the Son of God should be subjected to such cruel humiliation. Why should He voluntarily go to Jerusalem to meet the treatment He was there to receive? How could He resign Himself to such a fate, and leave them in greater darkness than they were groping in before He revealed Himself to them?
(HLv 283.1)
In the region of Caesarea Philippi, the disciples reasoned that Christ had nothing to fear from the hatred of the Jews or from the power of the Romans. Why not work there? Why give Himself up to death? If He was to die, how could His kingdom be established so firmly that the gates of hell should not prevail against it? This was indeed a mystery.
(HLv 283.2)
They were even now journeying toward the city where all their hopes were to be crushed. They talked together in low, sorrowful tones in regard to the future. Perhaps some unforeseen circumstance might avert the doom which seemed to await their Lord. Thus they doubted, hoped, and feared for six long, gloomy days.
(HLv 283.3)