Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” Matthew 16:16
As stated in its “About” page, the Christian Lawyer Directory “Provide[s] a platform for lawyers to declare their faith and Savior in the public domain.” Let’s examine this purpose, using the Apostle Peter as our exemplar.
One day, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Their answers seemed to be largely ignored by Jesus, who immediately shifted his focus away from the crowds and to his disciples.
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Matthew 16:15.
Peter’s answer (listed above) pleased Jesus, and rightly so. The truth of Jesus being “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” was the rock upon which the church would be built, a foundation that would allow it to withstand even the forces of Hades.
“Who is Jesus?” is a profound question with eternal implications. Former atheist C.S. Lewis’ analysis of the question bears repeating.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952)
“Who is Jesus?” is a great start to a gospel-centered dialogue. But recognize that Jesus’ question was even more probing. “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” His question begs not just for a mental conclusion, but also for a public profession thereof. Jesus wants us to resemble the Apostle Peter – by concluding and professing Jesus’ divinity.
