The revelation of the church as the mystery of Christ is based upon the revelation of Christ, the Son of the living God. One day the Lord Jesus asked His disciples a question: “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” (Matt. 16:13). They said, “Some, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets” (v. 14). This indicates that, at most, people can only realize that Christ is the greatest among the prophets. Without heavenly revelation, no one can know that He is the Christ and the Son of the living God (v. 16).
After the Lord asked His disciples to say who they thought He was (v. 15), Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). The Christ, as the anointed One of God, refers to the Lord’s commission, whereas the Son of the living God, as the second of the Triune God, refers to His person. His commission is to accomplish God’s eternal purpose through His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second advent, whereas His person embodies the Father and issues in the Spirit for a full expression of the Triune God.
Receiving the divine revelation, Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The definite article before the word Christ is very important. Christ is the anglicized form of the Greek word Christos, which is equivalent to the Hebrew word Messiah. Both Messiah in Hebrew and Christos in Greek mean the anointed One. The term Messiah, the anointed One, is used in Daniel 9:26. “After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” This refers to Jesus Christ, who is the anointed One.
According to the Old Testament principle, anyone used by God to carry out His administration had to be anointed. For this reason, the kings, the priests, and the prophets were all anointed when they came into function. This indicates that the anointing is for the carrying out of God’s administration. Whatever God wants us to do or accomplish is related to His anointing.
Christ is the anointed One, the One upon whom God has poured Himself out as the ointment to accomplish His administration. Therefore, in Matthew 16 we have Christ with God poured upon Him as the ointment. On the day Christ was baptized, the Spirit of God descended upon Him (Matt. 3:16), anointing Him for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose.
We need to be impressed with the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the particular One, the unique One, who carries out God’s commission. He has been commissioned by God with a great purpose to produce many sons of God. In order to accomplish this purpose, He must be both the Christ and the Son of the living God, for this purpose requires both His commission and His being, His person. In His being, in His person, the Lord Jesus is the Son of the living God.
Christ has not been commissioned by God merely to redeem fallen sinners. Redemption is simply the initial aspect of God’s commission. The ultimate issue is to produce, to bring forth, the many sons of God. Christ’s bringing forth the believers as the many sons of God involves the imparting of His being, of His element and essence, into us. God commissioned Christ not only to redeem us as fallen sinners but also to produce, to bring forth, the believers as sons of God.
This great commission needs Christ’s person, His being, as the Son of the living God. Who can bring forth the many sons of God? Only the Son of the living God can produce the many sons of God. Jesus is the Christ for God’s commission. The carrying out of this commission needs His being, with His essence, element, life, and nature. If the Lord were only the Christ and not the Son of the living God, He would have God’s commission, but He would not have the ability to produce the many sons to fulfill God’s commission. Therefore, for God’s commission He needs to be both the Christ and the Son of the living God. Therefore, the Lord has both the commission and the ability to bring forth the many sons of God. His ability is of His essence, element, life, and nature. He is altogether sufficient to bring forth many sons of God.
After Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said to Him, “You are blessed, Simon Bar-jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens” (Matt. 16:17). “Flesh and blood” here refer to man, who is composed of flesh and blood. Only the Father knows the Son (Matt. 11:27); hence, only He can reveal the Son to us. The source of the revelation of Christ, which is the basis upon which the revelation of the church as the mystery of Christ is given, is the Father.
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