How Do You Know?

A comment was recently made to me concerning proof of Yeshua’s Messiaship and how we know of its authenticity. Is there a litmus test to tell us once and for all if He is truly the Messiah? Can we know with absolute certainty? This question has haunted believers since our Savior walked the earth. C.S. Lewis concluded in Mere Christianity that either Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be or else He was a raving lunatic, and there could be no middle ground.

What about you? Have you gotten quiet enough before Him to hear Him whisper to you, “Whom do you say that I am?” Have you come to a conclusion or have you allowed the jury of your mind to remain sequestered, deadlocked in never ending deliberation? (See Matthew 16:13-20)

I am struck by the fact that Yeshua posed this question to an ignorant, belligerent fisherman plagued by small-man syndrome. Why didn’t He ask the same question of the religious leaders? Why was Peter’s answer important enough to be recorded in Scripture? Why, after Peter gave an answer that would rock every religious establishment to the core of its being, did Yeshua tell the disciples not to tell any one else of their conclusion?

We can see several things that must be brought into our decision making process here:

• Whatever conclusion we come to must NOT be based on academia…Peter had none!
• Our conclusion must be based upon a simple, yet spiritual event…a revelation!
• When revelation is received, my personal lack of ability to explain every nuance of that revelation becomes secondary…The important thing is, “I once was blind, but now I see” (John 9:25).

I believe the reason that Yeshua didn’t ask the religious leaders this question is because He understood the trappings of religion and academia (religion and academia without revelation is a lethal combination). The ability to fully explain the four levels of interpretation (according to a Hebrew mindset) of every scripture well enough to write our own commentaries…without a personal revelation of the Sonship of Messiah is mindless drivel! If the question of the identity of our Messiah was to be settled by scientific proof, wouldn’t the Creator of all science have been able to make that proof as succinct as the law of gravity? Just as our elementary textbooks explain the simple rules of mathematics, our place in the Creator’s universe would be taught in every school in the world. THAT WAS NOT HIS PLAN! It was, now is, and always will be a matter of personal revelation!

Revelation allows us to put things in proper order. God allows us to see who He is knowing that we can NEVER understand Him or His ways. Being able to prove my point through scripture is far less important than the personal revelation. While scriptural understanding will add color and clarity to the revelation, it must never supersede it. Academia allows US to figure it out….Revelation concludes the matter from YHVH’s perspective!

Shalom