THE CHURCH IN PROGRESS:
CONFESSION
(Continued)

The Jews, now subject to the Romans, did not have the power to execute the sentence. So they took him before Pilate and accused Him of claiming to be King of the Jews. This would be tantamount to sedition to Caesar. This is punishable by death. Jesus’ second trial contains the same charge. Jesus made no answer. Pilate marvelled! Art thou the King of the Jews? Thou sayest. This involves his being the Christ. Pilate understood this. Then the negotiation began. “Whom shall I release unto you? Barabbas or Jesus? Barabbas! What shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?”

Jesus’ confession before Pilate was the same as before the San Hedrin-the Son of God. This was the good confession made by Jesus that Timothy made before many witnesses. It was the confession that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah expected by the Jews.

The confession was not always made in the same words. Variety is a safeguard against the tendency to create a formula that would cause it to lose its meaning. Sometimes the confession is brief and sometimes lengthier. The terms, Christ, Lord, King, Son of God, and Son of the Living God are combined for greater emphasis. Jesus’ claim before Pilate to be the King of the Jews was the same as before the Jewish Sanhedrin as being the Christ, the Son of the Living God. As king, He was the one anointed of God to be King-kingship of the Messiah, the Christ. To say Jesus is the Christ is to say he is the Son of God, and Lord (Psa. 110).

The Pharisees asked: “Does the term, the Christ, include being the Son of God? Jesus one time asked: “What think ye of the Christ, whose Son is He? They said: “David.” He said: “That is true, but not completely, for David called the Messiah, LORD, implying that Jesus was higher in nature than himself. The main reason the Jews refused to accept Jesus as the Christ was that he claimed to be the Son of God (Matt. 22). Jesus is to be the Son of God as well as the Son of David. Therefore, the identity of the King of the Jews includes the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Lordship. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God” (1Jn. 4:15). “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God” (1Jn. 5:1). “Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9). To summarize: The stating that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God is a defining phrase, showing Divine Sonship, Lordship, Kingship, Davidic Sonship.

When Paul preached to Jews he proved from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ” (Acts 9:20,21). When he preached to the Gentiles he found the word Lord as the best, the summary of all that Jesus, the Christ, claimed to be-a divine Saviour with sovereign power. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord” (2Cor. 4:5).

-Gene A. Ellmore-