The Rock upon Which the Church Is Built

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”-Matthew 16:15-18 (ESV).

As I select this scripture for our study and meditation today, I realize that it is a controversial passage. Is the rock upon which Christ promised to build His church Peter himself, the outspoken, impetuous disciple who became a leader in the early church, persecuted and martyred for the faith? Or is the church Christ promised to build—and, indeed, did establish and build—based upon all the faithful disciples/apostles who shouldered their share of the task of telling abroad the new faith that Jesus Christ instituted with His coming to earth, with His sacrificial death for mankind’s sin, in His resurrection from the dead, for His ascension back to the Father, and for His eventual Second Coming to receive the church unto Himself?

Or when Jesus responded to Peter’s confession was He referring to what Peter said, his confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Was this the petra, the Rock, upon which Christ would build His church—not on Peter the apostle, whose Greek name likewise means rock?

I remember a Greek class at Mercer University in 1951 with Dr. Johnston as our beloved professor. We had advanced enough in the class after several quarters of study to be able to read (although haltingly) from the Greek New Testament. We were in this very passage I’ve cited for today’s devotional. There followed discussion from students in the class of whether “rock” on which Christ would build His church was Peter or Peter’s confession. With his expertise in the language and with the firmness of his orthodox beliefs, Dr. Johnston led us to see that “this rock” referred back not to Peter himself but to what Peter had said so firmly and unequivocally: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That confession was then the cornerstone of belief upon which the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would be built. Peter and the other disciples were necessary in preaching and teaching the Word of the new faith that would grow and spread throughout the world. But the church was Christ’s own institution, and the cornerstone was in the confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Have you ever experienced an epiphany—a sudden manifestation of insight? That day in that Greek class, this passage of Scripture took on a new and glorious meaning. I understood much more deeply what was the Lord Christ’s church, built up of those, who like Peter, confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Many years later, Dr. Chris Church states and confirms in his commentary: “Peter’s God-revealed confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the foundation of the church which lays siege to the gates of Hades” (Holman Bible Dictionary, 1991, p. 1200).

Take time now to repeat reverently this foundation stone of our faith (and maybe you will like to use the familiar King James Version): “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900) captured the essence of the confession in the beloved hymn: “The church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is His new creation, By Spirit and the Word; From heav’n He came and sought her To be His holy bride, With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.”