4.3 Who Do You Say that I Am?

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” (Matthew 16:15-16). Jesus asked this question as a personal question to each one of His disciples. Peter’s answer was “correct,” but consider this fact. Peter was not born again; he had not yet been filled with the Holy Ghost as on the day of Pentecost. More than that, Peter had no knowledge of Paul’s gospel, that this same Jesus would live inside of him.

But Jesus continues to ask this same question directly to you and directly to me – Who do you say that I am?

Our Answer. It’s not important what someone else says, not even all the apostles put together. The only thing important to me is my own answer, and the only thing important to you is your own answer. And that answer cannot be something we read in a book, not even the Bible, or something we know with our intellects. Our answer must be the full reality of our own hearts.

Now, this is a text on interpreting the Bible. Let me place this chapter into that framework. My Bible tells me that every Word in the Bible is the Lord Jesus in Person and that this same Person lives inside of me, in my heart, and that He lives there as every Word of the Bible.

A Letter of Christ. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart (2 Corinthians 3:3). Let’s paraphrase these words according to the actual Greek wording as well as remove the negative, thus making the positive fact stand out. – You are a letter of Christ made visible, with us under your service, written, inscribed with living Spirit on tablets of fleshy heart. – The negative is important, however, for Spirit replaces ink, but does the same thing, and heart replaces stone written with God’s instructions, and is the same thing as the Bible itself.

Jesus in Me. Those words etched on my heart by the constant presence of the living Spirit are every word in the Bible and they are the Person of the Lord Jesus Himself. Is that not what God says? Christ lives in your hearts through faith? But if it is what God says, then why is this reality of Jesus in me missing from too many Bible interpretations? You see, when Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” it’s not that he was not speaking the truth; it’s that he had no idea what on earth that meant.

When we place Father and Son far away from us, then the Bible means one thing, but when we place Father and Son inside of us, according to the Scripture, then the Bible takes on a meaning we had never known.

Two Bibles in One. Where you and I place Father and Son – far away from us as humans, or inside of us in all glory – means that we have two entirely different Bibles inside of one book. Every word in the Bible means one thing in one place, and something quite different in the other place.

Let’s see exactly how that works. Here is a word of the Bible. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:3-4). The difference in interpretation is simply staggering.

Before you continue reading, tell yourself what you think these words mean; note that these words are very personal.

Christ Far Away. A Bible of Christ far away. 

I am dead (only I know I am not, so this must mean I have to die) and my life is hidden far away from me in this formed and separated Christ who is over there, inside of God. What my life is doing over there I have no idea, maybe it means my life in heaven after I die. Or maybe it means that God has my actual life far over there, keeping it away from me. Then, when Christ who is my life (either my future life or a present life far away) appears someday, again far separate from me, then, suddenly, I will be there with Him in heaven, which must be what glory means. So, I guess this verse is talking about the rapture, someday.

Christ Inside of Me. A Bible of Christ in me.

I am dead. Good, that is finished. And my life, all that I am, all the energy and dynamics of my living spirit, my living soul, and my living flesh, is inside of this Jesus who lives in my heart.  Just as Christ is in me and I am in Him, so this Jesus in me is entirely inside of God. And this Christ IS my life. Since I am dead, it is clear that I have no other life. There is no other force animating me every moment than Christ my only life. And as I see this Christ by faith, as He appears to me, I know that I am utterly with Him in all the revelation of the Father.

Ideas or Faith. In the first approach to the Bible, the intellect approach, there is no direct connection of faith between the believer and the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, rather, the believer’s mind is filled with partial ideas of things he or she does not understand.

In the second approach to the Bible, the spirit-knowing of personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus, faith is full, faith sees Christ as He is inside of us and walks in the present life of Christ. Any ideas in this second approach are simply expressions of a present personal relationship between two. When the Bible is alive, it becomes personal to Christ, and thus, since He is our life, it becomes personal to us.

Believe in Him. This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent (John 6:29). If Jesus is in me, only the Father could have put Him there. For that reason, when we relate with Christ, we are relating with this One SENT into us. We do not believe in a Thing far away from us, but this One who is not only inside of us, but our very life. Is that not what Paul said, that Christ is our life, and that, since we are dead in ourselves, we have no other life?

Who do you say that Jesus is? But it’s not me asking for an academic answer; it’s Jesus asking you personally – “Who do you say that I am?”

Two Trees. Is this seeming split in what the Bible means and says placed there by God in the same way and for the same reasons that God placed two trees in the garden? Remember that one tree was about knowing right and wrong so that we could direct our own steps by God’s wisdom. And the other tree was something entirely different, something humans know nothing about – Life. 

Consider this scenario. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them (John 12:36). Notice how Jesus speaks His word, and then disappears from their notice. The word remains, what will they do with it?

The Word God Speaks. Now, God has stated in no uncertain terms that the Word is the Lord Jesus Christ, whether He is visible to human sight or not. And remember that we walk by faith in that word, not by what our eyes see outwardly. Then Jesus said this: And if anyone hears My words and does not believe… and does not receive My words… the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day (John 12:47-48). 

Two questions here are actually asking the same thing. What do you do with the Word God speaks? and – Who do you say that I am? Ideas for my intellect as I remain in complete control of my own life with Christ far away? Or Christ Himself now in me, the only life I am?

Yet Believing. To receive Jesus’ words is to receive Him, for He is those words. And to receive Jesus is to believe that He is in us, the only life we are.  And we believe that Christ is our life against all the evidence of our senses and all human judgment – no matter that He is not outwardly visible.

Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). Notice that we are full of glory now. That glory means Jesus Himself as the revelation of the Father.

Two Bibles in one: a Jesus in us Bible or a Jesus faraway Bible.

My Own Response. Daniel, who do you say that I am? 

Jesus, you are the Christ alive and real inside of me as the very image of God, living now in full union with me, the only life I am.

DANIEL – Who do you say that I am??????

Jesus, You are my closest and dearest Friend; You are the only life I am; You are my very heart. And as my own heart, Jesus, as my own spirit, one with Your Spirit, and as my own body, flesh of Your flesh, you have become me. Jesus, I live only and utterly inside of all that is You. I never see You except inside of me, and I never see me except inside of You.

Who Does Jesus Say That You Are? Now, God presents these two questions to us in this way in order to catch our attention and to draw us near to Himself. But each of these two come out from a deeper question, a question we begin to hear as we answer the first question by life and not by knowledge.

What do you do with the Word God speaks becomes – What is the Word God speaks doing with you? Who do you say that I am becomes – Who do I say that you are?

We read the Bible, asking God to let this Word be and do in us what He is, and as the Word God speaks engages with us, He begins to say to us, “Daniel, who do I say that you are?”