Calvary greetings to you all at #steemchurch. I sincerely want to appreciate 
Today, we’ll be looking at a statement made by Christ Jesus which so many persons today are yet to catch what Christ really meant by the statement because of the ambiguity of it. Our anchor scripture is taken from
Matthew 16:15-18
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
On this rock I will build my church. Was Peter the rock Christ was referring to Or was it Peter’s statement? Let’s do proper exegesis to be able to unveil the answer to this question.
Prior to this ambiguous statement, notice that what Christ wanted to do was to discover who men say He is and He got diverse answers but Christ wanted more than what the society could say about Him, He wanted to know what those whom he calls His family (Matthew 12: 48-50) {His disciples} think He is. So He posed the question to them and Peter answered.
The first thing Christ did after Peter answered was to point the source of the revelation which is His Father. This implied that Peter’s answer was not premeditated rather, it was revealed to him.
Back to our question, in all honesty, from Christ’s wordplay, one would easily think that Christ was referring to Peter being that the meaning of Peter is “rock” but then, looking closely at the scripture, the use of this points to the revelation Peter got from the Father and not Peter himself. If Christ was referring to Peter, then there would be no need distinguishing between the rocks- Petros (Peter) and Petra (rock). He would have just said: “You are Peter, and upon you I will build my Church..”
Why can’t Peter be the rock referred to here?
- Scripture says in 2Corinthians 13:1 that
in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
Aside from this scripture (Matthew 16:18) where there seem to be an ambiguity, the rest of the scripture refers to Christ as the rock. Some of these are (Acts 4:11-12, Ephesians 2:20, 1Corinthians 10:4, etc).
Even Peter referenced Christ as the rock (1Peter 2: 6-7)
No doubt Peter was one of the pioneers of the early church but, Peter didn’t die for the sins of the world. He couldn’t even help himself from drowning. Christ alone took away the sins of the world by shedding His precious blood on the cross of Calvary to redeem man.
The Church does nothing in the name of Peter but The name of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:9-11)
Salvation can only be gotten by believing on Jesus and not Peter. Peter puts it this way in Acts 4:12,
“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
- Christ is not only the Chief Cornerstone but is the head of the body- the Church. (Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 5:23).
All these and many more go to show to us Christ Indubitable stand as the Rock of the Church.
I hope this blessed you.
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Your beloved,
Aj.