LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Two Revelations
When the Lord took the disciples to Cesarea of Philipi, the Father revealed Christ in the heart of Peter. This revelation shows two facets of the Lord Jesus: one describes the relation with what He is, and the other with what He has done. One has to do with His nature and the other with His Person. Peter said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God".
In all the Scripture there is no greater revelation than this, because it is the one that the Father Himself makes about His Son. To mention any other title or facet of Jesus does not touch the central point. Here we have the substance of what Jesus is and has done.
Now well, of all the New Testament writers, it is John the apostle the one that retakes with greater strength this double revelation in his Gospel as well as in the First of his Epistles. It seems that when he wrote at the terminus of the first century, he had neglected the foundation of the faith, and it was necessary that he would restore it. That is why, as he himself tells us, he wrote the Gospel so that all would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that believing, we would have life in His name (20:31).
If we look with more attention, the Gospel is impregnated with this revelation. In fact, all the studious coincide in the fact that John shows the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. In the first chapter we already have this double revelation announced by Andrew, referring to His condition of Christ (1:41), and by Nathaniel, regarding to His condition as Son of God (1:49).
In the Gospel of John we find two episodes -the only ones in the four gospels- in which He reveals Himself to men. In one of them He reveals Himself as the Christ, and in the other as the Son of God. Coincidence? We believe that with God nothing is accidental or coincidental.
In the surprising conversation of the Lord with the Samaritan woman, we come to the point in which the woman says: "I know Messiah will come, the One called the Christ. When He comes, He will declare everything to us". To which Jesus replies: "I am He, the same One that is speaking with you" (4:25-26).
A little later, in the episode of the healing of the man born blind, after he is expelled from the synagogue, the Lord seeks and finding him says: "Do you believe in the Son of God?". The healed man answers: "Who is He, Lord, so I can believe in Him?". Then Jesus answers: "You have just seen Him, and it is He who is talking to you right now. To which he replied: "I believe, Lord, and he worshipped Him" (John 9:35-38).
Here we have an amazing thing. The wonderful double revelation of Jesus is granted to two persons considered socially substandard and vile: a woman of licentious life, and a man born blind. Never before nor afterwards either the Lord showed Himself that way to men. Never before nor afterward did He grant such a wonderful double revelation to man or woman, where He was talking about Himself.
Thus the Scripture is fulfilled which stated: "The vile and rejected things of the world are the ones that the Lord has selected" (1st. Corinthians 1:28), and "Has not God chosen the poor of this world, to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom He has promised to those that love Him?" (James 2:5). Are you one of those so blessed?