This has been a problem since the beginning of time and it
is still a problem to this day. Some
people don’t think He exists and don’t want to hear anything about Him or have
anything to do with Him. Others think He
is a way to get rich or be popular among certain people and others think He is
the way, the truth and the life as He claimed to be. Jesus asked this question to His disciples at
one point in His ministry, “who do men say that I am,” and their answer is in Matthew
16:13-14, “When Jesus came into the
region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, ‘Who do men say
that I, the Son of Man, am?’ So they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some
Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’”
Then He went on and asked His disciples this in Matthew 16:15,
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say
that I am?’”
Now read Jesus’ reply which is the key to the discussion from
my view in Matthew 16:16-17, “Simon Peter
answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 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.”
I believe, because of the hardness of people’s hearts, plus many
people’s lack of true repentance and their refusal to believe, God the Father
has not revealed who Jesus His Son really is to them. I believe all the things that pertain to God
are spiritual and so to truly know about them would take spiritual discernment and
God revealing them to the person. In the
days prior to the Bible, they didn’t have any Bibles to look at and read like
we do today; so, it would have to take God the Father to reveal things to the
person like He did to Peter. But even
today having God’s word, without God opening a person’s mind, they will never truly
understand, please read 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are
perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine on them.”
Satan blinds the eyes of the unbeliever and for those who
refuse to believe. Now read 2 Corinthians 3:11-16, “For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more
glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—
unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could
not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were
blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of
the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this
day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one
turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
Here is the key to this subject, when a person turns to the
Lord, forsaking their own way and their sinful nature and their sinful desires,
truly repenting and turning to the Lord, God the Father opens their spiritual
eyes and their spiritual minds and they know Jesus, God’s Son, the way He truly
is, the Lord and Savior of mankind to all those who humble themselves and
repent and receive Him by faith!! When
these things take place in a person’s life then they will know who Jesus is and
then they can rightly say as Peter said when Jesus asked who do you say that I am
to His disciples, they will say you are the Christ the Son of the living God!!
I pray that this has been a help and a blessing to all who
read it and may the good Lord bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love
and joy and health and happiness and a super, super year!! And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord
for He is truly, truly worthy!! Happy
New Year to one and all!!
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