Context for Matthew 16:1-20
What proof do you need that Jesus is the Christ? The world demands signs, and our own sinfulness demands benefits, yet what do those have to do with God’s plan to save us from the sin that has infected us since Adam and Eve first fell away?
The proof that Jesus is the Christ rests in the simple fact that He was who He was promised to be from the very first promise to Adam and Eve to the very last promise through John the Baptist. Either we have faith in the fulfillment of that promise, or we have nothing.
Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ is a beautiful testament to the power of the Word on those who hear it. Peter saw that Jesus was who He was because of the message that was preached to Him from the first moment Jesus called him as His disciple.
So it was by faith that Peter became the foundation for the Church, the very same Church to which everyone who shares in Peter’s faith belongs. It is by faith, then, that we inherit God’s righteousness and become part of the Kingdom of Heaven.
