“WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM”

In Matt. 16:13-20 Jesus asked a question that strikes at the very heart of our perception of God: “Who do you say that I am?” Who is God to and for us?  Have we professed and proclaimed who God is?  Have we declared His role in our life, in the church’s life?  Jesus prophesied that the entire church would be built on Peter’s revelation that Jesus is the Son of God.  God’s church – his body – is built upon the image the saints have of Him.  This view is the very bedrock of our authority.  Confidence in God comes when we understand two things: Who He is, and who we are in Him.  And confidence is faith in the powers and reliability of God -- full trust based on certainty -- in spite of any apparent evidence against it, recognizing His ways are above our ways. Understanding who He is – His nature and attributes -- will upgrade our image of who He wants to be for us. And, this in turn will shape and change who we are in Christ... for we become what we behold.

As a start we can meditate on some of the labels scripture applies to our Lord to extract what they mean to us personally: *Savior *Redeemer *Sanctifier *Good Shepherd *Lamb of God *King Of Kings *Lord Of Lords *The Great I Am *Comforter *Servant *Lion Of Judah *Prince Of Peace *God Of War *Righteous Judge *Holy *God Almighty. And , of course, Abba Father, for our Savior is, in the great mystery of the godhead, also God, our loving Daddy.

Look now at some of the attributes of our Lord: God is independent and self-completing, beyond measure, all-powerful, the embodiment of perfect goodness, infinitely loving, our provider, the only source of perfect peace, just (righteous, fair and equitable),  unique and incomprehensible holy, the healing remedy for mankind’s brokenness, self-sufficient in His own sufficiency, all-knowing, ever present everywhere all the time, inexhaustible merciful, infinitely compassionate, sovereign over all, infinitely wise, infinitely faithful, full of grace, the God of all comfort, and the source of all blessings.

 All that God is He has forever been and will forever be in unchanging perfection, existing uniquely beyond and above His created universe. He is infinitely wise, always acting for our eternal good which is to conform us into the His nature. In this transformation our good and his glory are inextricably bound together. God is our intercessor before the Father and the master of our lives. We live and breathe and have our being under His Banner. As individuals and as the church body we need the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus to overwhelm our hearts, so we can declare with Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

WHO IS GOD TO US…

AND FOR US…