From a book I’m reading:
To the question “Who do you say that I am?” we cannot give a merely theoretical or theological answer. What answers it, in the final analysis, is our life, our personal history, our manner of living the gospel.
Peter’s affirmation, ‘You are the Christ,’ is fundamental. But what is demanded is that we make that affirmation the guiding thought of our life — accepting all the consequences, as dire as they may be. Only so is our response valid, as honest and sincere as it may be without it.
Our response to the question, ‘Who do you say that I am?” does not end with a profession of faith or a theological systematization. It is a question addressed to our life and that of the entire church.
From Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People (p. 51).
Do you agree?
I can hear Jesus saying, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’… but only those who do the will of my Father in the heavens.”
Gutierrez is pointing at the kind of issue that I think is critical: and it is behind my One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow.
Comment by Scot McKnight — March 17, 2011 @ 12:53 pm
Yes. I think St. James said it first, though, in a matter of speaking….
Comment by JoeyS — March 17, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
I agree. If Jesus is the Christ then He is the Lord our life. He’s not just the central point of a belief system but our entire life. In fact He is our substitute for living this life. We have died with Him and it is no longer us that live but Christ through us.
The same applies to the Church. So often we get distracted and caught in “things” of God and things about Jesus rather than Jesus Himself. His riches and depths are too endless for Him to center of all things in our individual and corporate life.
Comment by Quincy Zikmund — March 17, 2011 @ 12:56 pm
This is good. Our answer to this at the end of the day, isn’t theology as much as trust and following. Case in point, when Peter answers this here he still has yet to discover and sort out everything this would come to mean to him, that’s the way it’s been for me as well.
Comment by Randall — March 17, 2011 @ 1:28 pm
Thomas Oden in Classic Christianity talks about this as a relational question as well. Jesus is not talking about a theory about some object; instead it makes each one of us have to look at our relationship and connection with Him.
Comment by Rick — March 17, 2011 @ 1:42 pm
In the final justification we will not be asked doctrinal questions. We will be evaluated on: Did we feed the poor, clothe the naked and visit the oppressed in prison, etc.?
Comment by John W Frye — March 17, 2011 @ 2:21 pm
Over the last 4 years I’ve been through a refining process that has stripped everything down to a simple faith in Jesus, God incarnate, Creator, Redeemer, Ruler, Brother, Victor.
Comment by Tom McGee — March 17, 2011 @ 2:25 pm
I don’t know about all these responses. I mean I like the simplicity of the question, but to say the answer is neither theoretical nor theological is inaccurate. I agree there is a practical component, but the question and its answer is a theological one.
What do you believe about Jesus? Is your belief such that you can confess Jesus of Nazareth as the Incarnation of God and the Risen Lord? If not, what then do you believe? Are you hoping something will occur to move your faith from where it is now? What do you hope for? Are you comfortable with your faith life?
However you frame your confessional response, how does/has this confession change/ed your life – both in terms of how you will act in the future and in how it changes your spiritual horizon/imagination?
The answer to the simple question are anything but simple – to claim otherwise is to avoid the challenge presented by the question.
Comment by JohnMc — March 17, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
In the end both a merely practical and merely theoretical confession are innccurate. We need both. And that isn’t just a way of saying that I take the middle position. We need to confess with our mouth and with our actions. One of Mark’s purposes in writing is that we might confess with our lips that Jesus is the Messiah, like Peter. But like Peter, we must realize that to confess Jesus is also to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Only the person who has truly embraced Jesus as Messiah can do that, however. I think the quote is potentially misleading.
Comment by Ncik — March 17, 2011 @ 4:31 pm
So in light of earlier blog posts, what is the bare minimum that we have to acknowledge about Jesus? Peter’s answer was good for his time but we don’t really need to say the WORDS do we? If we go with the conclusion John @6 sets out, the confession of an actual string of words is not all that important. Or am I misunderstanding something?
Comment by Daniel — March 17, 2011 @ 9:39 pm
I think one of the many reasons that Christians believe that simply intellectually and verbally affirming Jesus as the Christ is enough is that we have may have missed the point as to what it means to be baptized “in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit.” I posted on it today and would appreciate feedback. Perhaps, if we treated baptism as a deep committment to a life of loyalty to King Jesus rather than some type of abracadabra voodoo then it help to put people on the road to a life of trust in and loyalty to Christ. Just a thought.
Comment by Pastor Matt — March 17, 2011 @ 10:05 pm
I think all these response have merit, but I think Matthew was getting at something else in Peter’s confession… “You are the Christ” is actually “You are the Messiah.” In that context, suddenly, everything is larger than life…. this is the promised one, the King of the Coming Kingdom, THE ONE who will rule on David’s throne for all the nations to come in… This was no mere theological or salvation or practical statement. To make it a spiritual statement diminishes it. This was a political statement of heaven coming to earth of the highest order.
And from there we can extrapolate for salvation, theology and practicality on what that means, how grounded that statement is in Jewish history and Jewish promise. There is no question whether to believe a statement or whether to make him Lord in your life… to ask such a question would have been like asking if the sun was bright. Of course he’s the Lord, he’s the Messiah, I tell ya. He’s real, he’s come, and he’s here!
I’m sure Peter was elated to get that one right.
Comment by Dale Fincher — March 17, 2011 @ 11:06 pm
“Surely, when the day of judgement comes we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done, not how well we have spoken but how devoutly we have we loved”.
Thomas a Kempis
Comment by Mick — March 17, 2011 @ 11:46 pm
The other point that we have missed is that biblical faith(fulness) doesn’t exist in a vacuum (the mind?) but always has hands and feet.
Comment by David Gallaugher — March 18, 2011 @ 9:11 am
I don’t want to be misunderstood in my comment #6. I am not suggesting all who feed the poor, clothe the naked and visit the oppressed in prison, etc. are authentic Christ-followers. While mental assent to codified doctrine is not sufficient to save in itself, there is an energetic Trinitarian, Christ-centered Story with crucial details to which faith unites us; actually unites us to the Hero of the Story. This union must exist and it is not automatic to all people everywhere in all time.
Comment by John W Frye — March 18, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
I agree but need grace to live out the implications, glad you are reading the book. Shalom!
Comment by Tom Smith — March 18, 2011 @ 2:30 pm