Even before Christ took humanity upon Himself, He saw the whole length of the path He must travel to save the lost. Every grief that tore His heart, every insult heaped on His head, every deprivation He was called to endure He saw clearly before He laid aside His crown and royal robe and stepped down from the throne to clothe His divinity with humanity. He knew the anguish that would come upon Him, and yet He said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the Book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O My God, and Your law is within My heart.” Psalm 40:7, 8.3TC 265.2

His earthly life was full of labor and self-sacrifice, but He was cheered by the possibility that by giving His life, He would win the world back to its loyalty to God. Although He must first receive the baptism of blood, although the sins of the world were to press on His innocent soul, although the shadow of an unspeakable distress was upon Him, yet for the joy set before Him, He chose to endure the cross.3TC 266.1

The time was near when His chosen companions in ministry must see the One they loved and trusted hung on the cross of Calvary. Soon He must leave them to face the world without the comfort of His visible presence. Bitter hate and unbelief would persecute them, and He wanted to prepare them for their trials.3TC 266.2

Jesus and His disciples had now come into one of the towns near Caesarea Philippi. They were beyond Galilee, in a region where idol worship was widespread. Around them they saw forms of superstition that existed in all parts of the world. Jesus wanted their exposure to these things to lead the disciples to feel their responsibility to the heathen.3TC 266.3

He was about to tell them of the suffering in store for Him. But first He prayed that their hearts would be prepared to receive His words. He did not tell them immediately what He wanted to share with them, but He gave them opportunity to confess their faith in Him. He asked, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”3TC 266.4

Sadly the disciples acknowledged that Israel had failed to recognize their Messiah. The crowds at Bethsaida had wanted to proclaim Him King of Israel. Many were ready to accept Him as a prophet, but they did not believe that He was the Messiah.3TC 266.5

Jesus now asked a second question, relating to the disciples themselves: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”3TC 266.6

From the first, Peter had believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Many others who had accepted Christ began to harbor doubts about John’s mission when he was imprisoned and put to death, and they now doubted that Jesus was the Messiah. Many who had expected Jesus to take His place on David’s throne left Him when they saw that He had no such intention. But the shifting behavior of those who praised yesterday and condemned today did not destroy the faith of the Savior’s true follower. Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He did not wait for kingly honors to crown his Lord, but accepted Him in His humiliation.3TC 266.7

Peter had expressed the faith of the Twelve. Yet the opposition of the priests and rulers still troubled them greatly. They did not see their way clearly. Their early training, the teaching of the rabbis, the power of tradition still blocked their view of truth. Precious rays of light were shining on them, yet often they were like people groping among shadows. But on this day, the Holy Spirit rested on them in power. Beneath the appearance of humanity, they discerned the glory of the Son of God.3TC 267.1

Jesus answered Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”3TC 267.2

The truth that Peter had spoken is the foundation of the believer’s faith. But God had not revealed it to Peter because of any wisdom or goodness of his own. The fact that Peter recognized the glory of Christ was an evidence that he had been “taught by God.” John 6:45; see also Psalm 25:14.3TC 267.3

Jesus continued, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The word Peter signifies a stone—a rolling stone. Peter was not the rock on which the church was founded. The gates of Hades, or hell, did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. The church was built on One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail.3TC 267.4

Christ Is the Rock

Moses had pointed to the Rock of Israel’s salvation. See Deuteronomy 32:4. The psalmist had sung of “the rock of my strength.” Psalm 62:7. Isaiah had written, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, ... a sure foundation.’” Isaiah 28:16. Peter himself applies this prophecy to Jesus: “You have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house.” 1 Peter 2:3-5. “No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11. “On this rock,” said Jesus, “I will build My church.” Christ founded His church on the living Rock—Himself, His own body, broken and bruised for us. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church built on this foundation.3TC 267.5

How feeble the church appeared when Christ spoke these words! There was only a handful of believers. Demons and men would direct their power against them, yet they were not to fear. They could not be overthrown.3TC 268.1

Peter had expressed the truth that is the foundation of the church’s faith, and Jesus now honored him as the representative of the body of believers. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”3TC 268.2

“The keys of the kingdom of heaven” are the words of Christ. All the words of Holy Scripture are His. These words have power to open and shut heaven. The work of those who preach God’s Word is an aroma of life unto life or of death unto death. 2 Corinthians 2:16.3TC 268.3

The Savior did not commit the work of the gospel to Peter individually. Later, repeating the words spoken to Peter, He applied them to the church and also to the Twelve as representatives of the body of believers. If Jesus had delegated any special authority to one disciple above the others, we would not find them arguing so often over who would be the greatest. They would have honored the one Jesus chose. Instead of appointing one of them to be their head, Christ said, “Do not be called ‘Rabbi.’” “And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.” Matthew 23:8, 10.3TC 268.4

“The head of every man is Christ.” God, who put all things under the Savior’s feet, “gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 1:22, 23. The church is built on Christ as its Foundation. It is not to depend on any person or be controlled by human wisdom or power. Many claim that a position of trust in the church gives them authority to dictate what others must believe and do. The Savior declares, “You are all brethren.” Matthew 23:8. We cannot depend on any finite being for guidance. The Rock of faith is the living presence of Christ in the church. Those who think that they are the strongest will prove to be the weakest, unless they make Christ their Source of power. See Jeremiah 17:5; Psalm 2:12.3TC 269.1

Jesus instructed the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ. The people, and even the disciples, had such a false concept of the Messiah that a public announcement would give them no true idea of His character or work.3TC 269.2

The Disciples Had Not Envisioned a Cross to Come

The disciples still expected Christ to reign as an earthly prince. They believed that He would not always remain unknown and that the time was near when He would establish His kingdom. The disciples had never entertained the thought that Christ would be rejected by His own nation, condemned as a deceiver, and crucified as a criminal. Jesus must alert His disciples to the conflict before them. He was sad as He anticipated the ordeal to come.3TC 269.3

Until then, He had held back from telling them anything about His sufferings and death. In His conversation with Nicodemus, He had said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:14, 15. But the disciples did not hear this. Now the time had come for Him to pull back the veil that hid the future. “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”3TC 269.4

The disciples listened, speechless with grief and amazement. Christ had accepted Peter’s acknowledgment of Him as the Son of God, and now His words pointing to His suffering and death seemed incomprehensible. Peter could not keep silent. He took hold of his Master, as if to draw Him back from His approaching doom: “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”3TC 270.1

Peter loved his Lord, but Jesus did not praise him for the desire to shield Him from suffering. Peter’s words were not a help and comfort to Jesus in the great test ahead of Him. They were not in harmony with God’s plan of grace toward a lost world nor with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example. The impression Peter’s words would make was directly opposed to the one that Christ wanted to make on the minds of His followers, and the Savior was moved to speak one of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”3TC 270.2

Satan Was Trying to Get at Christ

Satan was trying to discourage Jesus and turn Him from His mission, and Peter was the one speaking the temptation! The prince of evil, the author of the thought, was behind Peter’s impulsive appeal. Satan had offered Christ the rulership of the world, if He would only forsake the path of humiliation and sacrifice. Now he was trying to fasten Peter’s gaze on earthly glory, so that he would not see the cross. Through Peter, he was again pressing the temptation on Jesus.3TC 270.3

But the Savior did not respond to the temptation. His thought was for His disciple. Satan had come between Peter and his Master. Christ spoke to the one trying to separate Peter from his Redeemer: “Get behind Me, Satan!” “Let Me come face to face with Peter, so that I may reveal to him the mystery of My love.”3TC 270.4

It was a bitter lesson, and Peter learned it slowly: the path of Christ led through agony and humiliation. But in the heat of the furnace fire, the disciple was to learn the blessing of that path. Long afterward, he wrote, “Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:13, NRSV.3TC 271.1

Jesus now explained to His disciples that His own life of self-denial was an example of what theirs should be: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” The cross, associated with the power of Rome, was the most cruel and humiliating form of death. Criminals were required to carry the cross to the place of execution. Often when it was laid on their shoulders, they resisted with desperate violence until the soldiers overpowered them. The disciples only dimly comprehended Jesus’ words, but they recognized that He spoke of their submission to death for the sake of Christ.3TC 271.2

The Savior’s words could not have pictured any more complete self-surrender. But all this He had accepted for them. He left heaven for a life of reproach and insult and a death of shame. He was rich in heaven’s priceless treasure, but He became poor so that through His poverty we could be rich. We are to follow in the path He walked.3TC 271.3

Love for others means crucifixion of self. Those who are children of God should look on themselves as links in the chain let down to save the world, one with Christ, going forth with Him to seek and save the lost. Christians have consecrated themselves to God, and in character they are to reveal Christ to the world.3TC 271.4

“Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Selfishness is death. The heart that fails to send its lifeblood to the hand and the head would quickly lose its power. So is the love of Christ spread through every part of His spiritual body. We are members one of another, and whoever refuses to give will perish. “What will it profit a man,” said Jesus, “if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”3TC 271.5

Christ pointed the disciples to His coming in glory with the angels of heaven. Then He said, “He will reward each according to his works.” And for their encouragement, He promised, “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”3TC 272.1

But the disciples did not grasp His words. They were focused on the poverty, humiliation, and suffering. Did this mean that they would not see their Lord exalted to the throne of David? Could it be that Christ would be despised, rejected, and put to death? Sadness filled their hearts, for it seemed unbelievable that the Son of God would suffer such cruel humiliation. Why should He voluntarily go to Jerusalem to meet the treatment He would receive there? How could He resign Himself to such a fate and leave them in greater darkness than they were groping in before He revealed Himself to them?3TC 272.2

The disciples reasoned that in the region of Caesarea Philippi Christ had nothing to fear from the hatred of the Jews or from the power of the Romans. Why not work there? Why give Himself up to death? If He were to die, how could He establish His kingdom so firmly that the gates of hell would not prevail against it? This was indeed a mystery.3TC 272.3

Even now they were traveling toward the city where all their hopes were going to be crushed. They talked together in low, sorrowful tones about the future. Perhaps some unforeseen event might avert the doom that seemed in store for their Lord. In this way, they doubted, hoped, and feared for six long, gloomy days.3TC 272.4

The True Sign

Jesus Transfigured