Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
Jesus turned His questions about the identity of Christ to the Pharisee leaders gathered around Him. He tested their faith in His divinity, whether they regarded the Christ as merely a man or as the divine Son of God. Their united answer was the Son of David, the title prophecy had given the Messiah.
That was the same title used by people whose healings and raisings from the dead had revealed His divinity. It was the same cry made by the Syrophenician woman and blind Bartimaeus and many others pleading for mercy, and the same shout of hosanna given only a few hours before when He rode into Jerusalem. Yet calling Him by that title did not mean people understood His full identity.
Jesus then appealed to David speaking by the Spirit, whose inspired words call the Christ his Lord. He pressed how the Christ can be David's son if David calls Him Lord, showing the Messiah is David's Lord as well as his descendant. No one could answer Him.
The Messiah is thus David's Lord in His divine character and David's son by direct descent in His human lineage. David foresaw Christ's ascension and His place at God's right hand. At Pentecost the outpouring of the Holy Spirit testified that Jesus had received authority in heaven and on earth as priest and king and was the Anointed One over His people.
The question asks each person personally what they think of Christ, and it is the all-important question every person must answer and study. It probes whether faith is centered in Him as Redeemer, whether He is believed to save from sin and to impute His righteousness. Its meaning is whether He is received as a personal Saviour.
That receiving Him is the truth to be cherished, loved, honored and obeyed that enables winning the salvation of the soul, for to all who receive Him He gives power to become sons of God. Confessing Him as the Son of the living God means receiving Him as personal Saviour and owning Him as Ruler. Looking to Jesus brings a person to Him and changes that person into His likeness.
The warnings in the chapter apply to everyone in every age who refuses to receive Jesus as Redeemer. The judgment they foreshadow will come upon the unrepentant.
Jesus turned His questions about the identity of Christ to the Pharisee leaders gathered around Him. He tested their faith in His divinity, whether they regarded the Christ as merely a man or as the divine Son of God. Their united answer was the Son of David, the title prophecy had given the Messiah.
That was the same title used by people whose healings and raisings from the dead had revealed His divinity. It was the same cry made by the Syrophenician woman and blind Bartimaeus and many others pleading for mercy, and the same shout of hosanna given only a few hours before when He rode into Jerusalem. Yet calling Him by that title did not mean people understood His full identity.
Jesus then appealed to David speaking by the Spirit, whose inspired words call the Christ his Lord. He pressed how the Christ can be David's son if David calls Him Lord, showing the Messiah is David's Lord as well as his descendant. No one could answer Him.
The Messiah is thus David's Lord in His divine character and David's son by direct descent in His human lineage. David foresaw Christ's ascension and His place at God's right hand. At Pentecost the outpouring of the Holy Spirit testified that Jesus had received authority in heaven and on earth as priest and king and was the Anointed One over His people.
The question asks each person personally what they think of Christ, and it is the all-important question every person must answer and study. It probes whether faith is centered in Him as Redeemer, whether He is believed to save from sin and to impute His righteousness. Its meaning is whether He is received as a personal Saviour.
That receiving Him is the truth to be cherished, loved, honored and obeyed that enables winning the salvation of the soul, for to all who receive Him He gives power to become sons of God. Confessing Him as the Son of the living God means receiving Him as personal Saviour and owning Him as Ruler. Looking to Jesus brings a person to Him and changes that person into His likeness.
The warnings in the chapter apply to everyone in every age who refuses to receive Jesus as Redeemer. The judgment they foreshadow will come upon the unrepentant.