The Truest Confession of a Living Faith

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” Matthew 16:16.

“Such… confessions as this, are the truest evidence of a living faith.”[1]

Recently I came across the above quote from the former bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle, who was commenting on Peter’s confession of who Jesus is, as recorded in Matthew 16:16. It was quite the statement: this confession is the truest evidence of a living faith!

My responding thought was to consider some of the various other evidences of a living faith: fruit of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, longsuffering and faithfulness; an obedience and love toward God’s commands; forgiving those who offend us; praying for our enemies; laying down our lives for Jesus’ sake.

These are some of the evidences of a living faith, so is it really true that confessing Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” is the truest evidence of a living faith?

I sat with this thought for a while, and my conclusion was to agree with J.C. Ryle (an eminently far greater divine than I, of course!) – to confess Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” is the truest evidence of a living faith, and there are two main reasons why I am convinced that this is indeed the case:

1.     It is only through the work and illuminating power of the Holy Spirit that we can truly declare Jesus as the Christ and Son of God.

Peter would have looked upon Jesus and saw what, for all appearances, looked like a normal, every-day Man. None of the glorious holiness that caused worshipping angels to cover their faces and feet with their wings in heaven’s throne-room (Isa. 6:2). None of the golden illumination or halo’s as various pictures of children books portray. In fact, we are told that Jesus the Man had “no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him” (Isa. 53:2).

With all of His majestic glory all hidden from their eyes, the disciples would have seen Jesus as a Man who was committed to service and lowliness, who grew tired and weak at the end of a long day, who wept, and hungered and thirsted.

Of course, there was the “astonishing” teaching (Matt. 7:28) and extraordinary miracles, but thousands upon thousands of people bore witness to the same and did not recognise in Jesus, the Christ and Son of God…

But Peter did, and he did because he was able to look upon Jesus with the eyes of faith, as the Holy Spirit enabled him. As the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17).

As a couple of thousands of years have since past, many do not believe that Jesus existed at all. Many historians will admit that a man named Jesus probably did exist, and He may have been a great teacher, but He was not the Christ, nor the Son of God.

There are even Bible scholars, some of whom even call themselves Christians, who deny Jesus’ miracles, virgin birth, and resurrection from the dead, instead crediting them to myth and legend.

The overwhelming majority of people continue to reject Jesus today, so it is clear that, just as Peter, we also need the Holy Spirit’s inner-working and illuminating, enabling us to look upon Jesus with eyes of faith, that we can also see in Him and confess that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

To truly confess that Jesus in the Christ, the Son of the living God, is a testimony to a living faith.

2.     It is only through an experiential acquaintance with Christ that our confession that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God is confirmed and strengthened.

In other words, it is only through a real relationship with Jesus that our confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God can truly be confirmed and strengthened.

Back when I was a very young adult, there was a CCM song that came out and had a degree of popularity at the time, ‘My Redeemer Lives’ by Nicole C. Mullin. Towards the end of the song, her voice rises with a heart-felt confidence, declaring, “He lives, He Lives. I know He lives – I spoke with Him this morning”!

I am glad that Nicole C. Mullin did not say, “I spoke to Him this morning” – we can take a rock from our gardens, paint a face on it and speak to it! Instead, she sang, “I spoke with Him this morning” – affirming that she enjoyed true communion and fellowship with Jesus. As she studied God’s Word, she knew Jesus was speaking to her, as she felt, in the famous words of John Welsey, her heart “strangely warmed”, and as she prayed to Him I am sure she did so knowing that He was listening, as per Isaiah 65:24: “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear”.

What I have found in my own experience as a Christian is that as I learn about Jesus from God’s Word, the Bible, I am able to live out those glorious truths, and experience them in my relationship with Jesus. Truths, such as:

He is my “refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psa. 46:1);

He “will never leave [me] nor forsake [me]” (Heb. 13:5);

He will not break me when I am broken (Isa. 42:3), but will “show [me] compassion, according to the multitude of His mercies” (Lam. 3:32);

He is “my Shepherd; [so] I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For [He is] with me; [His] rod and [His] staff, they comfort me” (Psa. 23:1-4);

“I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine” (Son. 6:3).

I know these things are all true of my Saviour because the Bible tells me, but it is as I live out these truths in my relationship with Jesus, that I experience them, and prove them, and deepen my understanding of how glorious these truths about Jesus really are; and how glorious my beloved Jesus really is. As a result, the more exalted my worship of Jesus becomes, the more cherished in my heart, the more loved, the more honoured in my life…

The more and more my testimony becomes, “Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, as the inner witness of the Holy Spirit is confirmed and strengthened by my lived experienced of knowing Him.

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”

Has the Holy Spirit witnessed to this within?

Does your relationship with the Lord Jesus, confirm and strengthen that witness?

Who do you say that Jesus is?

[1] J.C. Ryle, Ryles Expository Thoughts On The Gospels: Volume One, Matthew – Mark, (London: Evangelical Press, 1977) p.165.