We believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God
The Christ of God
Faith without knowledge is mere fancy.
For the want of knowledge the faith of the ancient Jews gave way in the wilderness. So here the nominal disciples went away because they did not know who He was from whom they went. To the apostles this knowledge gave stability to their faith and they remained.
I. THE TESTIMONY. That Christ was the Messiah.
1. The provision that is by this Christ could not be by any other.
(1) His sacrifice is of eternal worth.
(2) It eternally satisfies the soul.
(3) It is the ground upon which all things work together for good.
(4) We should labour by faith and prayer for this meat.
2. By partaking of this provision we shall never come to want. Away then with anxieties and fears.
3. To accept this provision is the counsel of God to man.
II. THE SONSHIP. Christ is the Son of God in a way no other can be.
1. Because He was born as no other was ever born.
2. Because He was a complex person--God and man.
3. Because of His infallible purity.
4. Because He embodies blessings which no other person ever did.
5. Because He included in His sonship millions of others.
III. THE NOTE OF DISTINCTION. “Living” in contrast to idols and false religions (Isa_26:1-21.). Because God never dies His people can never die.
IV. THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH. (James Wells.)
The threefold Christ
I. THE CHRIST OF PROPHECY.
1. Christ was the Desire of all nations, the Saviour for which all nations yearned.
2. His coming was in accordance with the plan of God from the first. Hence then were preparations not only among the Jews but in general history for His coming.
3. But the Christ who was blindly felt after by sage and seer was the Christ of an assured prophecy in Judaea. Abraham had seen His day. Even earlier to Adam and Noah the promise had gone forth. You know the tenor of Isaiah, Daniel and the minor prophets.
II. THE CHRIST OF HISTORY corresponds in every particular to the Christ of prophecy. Eight different writers record His life, but they all agree in saying that Christ was what many more before He came said He was to be.
III. THE CHRIST OF EXPERIENCE.
1. Christ’s promise was that He would manifest Himself to and live in His people. The Apostles point out this as the central Christian privilege. It therefore becomes our duty, that as there is an indwelling Christ in every true believer, to bring out in ourselves the Christ should be our end and aim.
2. The Christ of prophecy was needed as the initiation of the Divine plan for our salvation. But the benefits of the Christ of prophecy to us are simply that they confirm our faith and raise in us a more exalted idea of His excellence.
3. The Christ of history, too, has passed away, but the Christ of experience is based upon and modelled after and by the Christ of history. (A. B. Livermore.)
A simple confession
I. AN ANTECEDENT FAITH. The disciples commenced their investigations into the theme of Christ’s personality.
1. Not by practising unlimited credulity as opposed to sober inquiry.
2. Not by superstitiously committing themselves to extravagant conceptions as to His rank.
3. By accepting honestly and trustfully the evidence placed before them in the character and works of Jews without partiality or prejudice, and then forming their conclusion.
II. A CONSEQUENT KNOWLEDGE. The result was that they arrived at a clear and intelligent judgment as to who Christ was. The glory of the Incarnate Son having shined into their souls they were enabled to realize the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
