LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 117

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but upon the ministry of the confession which
Peter made, in which he proclaims that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. He accordingly addresses him as a minister: Upon this rock, i.e.,
upon this ministry . . . For He built His Church
not upon man, but upon the faith of Peter. But
what was his faith? “Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God.” And [fourth-century
Church Father] Hilary says: To Peter the Father
revealed that he should say, “Thou art the Son
of the living God.” (Treatise 25, 28–29)
Therefore, the building of the Church is upon this
rock of confession; this faith is the foundation of
the Church.
To explore more deeply what this phrase means, it is
worthwhile to investigate the four central themes of
Peter’s confession. These central themes incorporate
Jesus as the living God, Jesus as the expected Messiah,
Jesus as the Son of God, and Jesus as the cornerstone
(Eph. 2:19).
Jesus as the Living God
The first key affirmation of Peter in his confession
was the fact that Jesus is the living God. The church
is the community who confess that Jesus is the living
God. The phrase Jesus is the living God carries deep
understanding of God. First, it implies that He is a
living God. This is the very nature that makes Him
different from dead idols of the Gentiles. Here Peter
affirms that Jesus of Nazareth is not an ordinary
religious leader but rather the living God. By this
he implies that in Him there is the same life that is
in the Father. This implies the fact that Jesus is life
Himself and also the fountain of life to others. Peter,
in this regard, had a profound understanding. He had
confessed similar testimony about Jesus in another
instance. According to the Gospel of John, when the
multitude who followed Jesus after the miracle of the
bread murmured and drew away because they stumbled over Jesus referring to Himself as the “bread
of life,” even His own immediate disciples struggled
with Jesus’ difficult word about being the bread of
life. Then Peter said, “Lord to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life, and we have believed,
and have come to know that you are the Holy One of
God” (John 6:68–69). This implies how much deeper
his understanding of Jesus was. For Peter, Jesus is
more than the physical bread. He had realized that
“Rejoice—The Church Is Built on the Rock”

He is the bread of life. This profound testimony is the
real foundation on which the real Church of Christ
is built.
Jesus as the Expected Messiah
The second key affirmation of Peter is the fact that
Jesus is the Christ of God. In other words, this means
that Jesus is the true Messiah, promised by God,
prophesied by all the prophets from the beginning of
the world, and expected by the people of God. This
includes all His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King
for which He is anointed by God, and that this Messiah was not a mere man but a divine person.
Here the Greek term “Christ” equals “the Messiah” in
Hebrew. In the Old Testament, God never promised a
coming “Messiah”—at least the Old Testament prophets never used that exact title. And yet pervading the
entire Old Testament was this promise and expectation of a deliverer whom God would one day send
to free His people from all bondage and oppression.
And so “Messiah” became the title that God’s people
used to sum up all of their hopes and expectations for
the coming deliverer and King—the promised Son of
David. In the Book of Matthew, the title “Messiah”
or “Christ” appears only six times. Five of these times
are in Matthew’s own narrative comments (four of
which are in the introductory first chapter), and the
sixth time is when Herod inquired about where the
Christ was to be born. In all of His preaching and
teaching, Jesus never once claimed this title for Himself. And yet Peter, having listened to Jesus’ preaching
and teaching, and having understood the meaning of
His miracles, now for the very first time assigns this
title to Jesus. He implies that Jesus is not simply one
of the prophets; He is not one among many; He is not
a forerunner preparing the way—rather, he affirms
that Jesus is the true Messiah, the deliverer. This
affirmation is the other key statement on which Jesus
built His Church. The real Church is founded on the
testimony that Jesus is the Christ of God.
3

4

5

Jesus as the Son of God
The third affirmation of Peter in his confession is the
fact that Jesus is the Son of God. This affirmation, as
some scholars state, connotes the interpretation that
3

livingwordbible.org/Sermons/Matthew/Matthew16.13–18.pdf

4

Ibid.

5

Ibid.

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Essay

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