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Who Do You Say He Is?

             "But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 15:15-16)

 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13)

  This is the Gateway.com verse of the day, and it presents to us a cringy question. Who do we say that Jesus is? Yes, the good Sunday School answers all pour forth: the Son of God, the Messiah, the second person of the Trinity, God, our Savior, our Lord, our soon and coming King, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, El Roi, El Shaddai, Jehovah, Jehovah Jireh, etc. And some of our quick answers would be wrong because they are names that were always applied to the Father, and not to the Son, but we would have meant well in our mistakes.

Let’s stack all the Sunday School answers on the shelf for the moment, because most of them are wrong in another sense. They aren’t really who we say He is. They’re who our teachers, other people we respect, say He is. In the second verse above, Hagar named God, “El Roi,” or “the God who sees me.” So, skipping the language translation, who is Jesus to you? What is your name for Him?

My answer to this question goes back to the well-intentioned error of the first paragraph. I think my first answer would be “Guide.” This might also be rendered as “Teacher” or other similar terms, but I can’t say that this name applies only to Jesus. Does it matter? I don’t know, but I suspect they are not competing for the titles. Logically, calling the Son, “the Father” would not make sense, but Guide, Teacher, Leader, or even Shepherd could easily apply to all Three.

Guide is both the name by which I’ve most often experienced God, and it’s one of the biggest requests I make to Him: wisdom, direction, and attitude. What’s yours?

Along with that, is there a name by which You would like to get to know Him? Again, my answer doesn’t necessarily fit Jesus alone. I’d like to get to know Him better as “Creator,” as “Gardener,” and as “Protector.” That last one is a little scary. What’s your answer? 

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