The question Jesus is still asking

Dear friend,

Let me ask you something. Not in a pushy way - just genuinely.

If someone at work tomorrow, or at the school gate, or over lunch, turned to you and said: “Who do you actually think Jesus is?” - what would you say?

Not what you were taught. Not what your parents believed, or what your church says, or what you half-remember from a school assembly. But what you know. For yourself. From your own experience.

I’ve been sitting with that question all week.

It’s the question Jesus asked Peter in Matthew 16. They were in Caesarea Philippi - a busy, noisy, cosmopolitan town, full of temples and competing ideas. Jesus turns to his friends and asks: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” The disciples rattle off the crowd’s theories - John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah.

And then he makes it personal.

“But who do YOU say I am?”

Seven words. And they change everything.

Here’s what struck me. The crowd’s answers weren’t wrong exactly. They were respectful, even generous. But they were secondhand. Gathered opinions, passed along. Paul puts his finger on why that’s never quite enough in 1 Corinthians 2 - the things of God aren’t discovered by collecting opinions or being clever enough. They’re revealed by his Spirit to the heart of anyone genuinely willing to ask.

There’s a wonderful old hymn that captures it. “I know whom I have believed.” Not what. Whom.

That single word is the whole difference between faith that belongs to you and faith that belongs to someone else.

Today’s devotional is Day 1 of a brand new series on the life of Peter - one of the most gloriously human figures in all of Scripture. It’s only five minutes, but I think it’ll stay with you.

Watch it here →

See you tomorrow.

Rob

Read this week’s devotionals here - https://open.substack.com/pub/battledrilldevotional/p/you-already-have-the-key-seven-days?r=643q6o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true