What did Jesus mean when He said, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you" (Matthew 16:17)?

There is an instance of what I was speaking to you about just now — having divine certainty. This one knew Jesus; he was taught of God. It was not flesh and blood, as we know from another gospel, that revealed this to that man. Man never reached that truth; never scaled its heights, nor fathomed its depths. Flesh and blood, in this connection, means that which comes within the region of man as he is now constituted; man in his present condition; a poor, wretched, feeble creature. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 1 Cor. 15:50. So here, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee" — you have no power to discover this by man's wisdom — "but My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 16:17.

There you have one of the most remarkable instances of the absolute certainty that the soul taught from on high has. Peter says, "The Christ of God." Do you think he was afraid to say that? Was there any uncertainty? He knew it. How? Not because of the effect in his own heart; not because there was happiness in his own breast. It was a revelation to him. And that is what all truth must be — a revelation out of Scripture by the Holy Ghost to faith. That is to say, what is revealed from God in Scripture is understood by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. And so Peter had certainty. He knew God, and could say without any question, "The Christ of God."

Peter comes magnificently to the front again, at this juncture of national indifference to the Messiah. In the buoyancy and fulness of his heart, as well as in real faith, and true attachment to the person of His Lord, he answers, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Heaven-born deliverance! and how grateful to the ear and heart of the blessed Lord it must have been. It was a beautiful confession, and carried with it lovely consequences. Equally so does confession of His name now, for "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," is the word of assurance to us in this day. Blessing rich and full always follows simple and true confession of Christ.

Observe what the Lord says to Peter immediately on his confession, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father which is in heaven." The soul that knows Jesus as the Son of the living God, He, Himself, declares to be blessed of the Father. No doubt Peter had learned much of the Lord, as he had followed that lovely, and blessed life of devotedness, and self-sacrifice, but the Father had taken hold of that uncultured, and unlettered Galilean fisherman, and taught him the truth, that the blessed Man he was following was the Son of the living God. The Father Himself alone can teach you this blessed truth, my friend. No university curriculum, no human teaching, can impart to your soul this knowledge of the Son; but the Father loves to teach the willing, and Christ-seeking soul, the divine and moral glories of that rejected One, who is at once His eternal Son, the lowly Son of Man, and, blessed be His peerless name, the Saviour of the lost.

The Father's love has wrought in us in revealing His Son unto us. When our Lord said to Peter, "Whom say ye that I am?" and he replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus immediately said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 16:15-17.) Thus we see that every one who has apprehended the person of "the Christ, the Son of the living God," has only done so because of a distinct revelation of the Father to him. Without this, whatever else we may have known, we should have been in darkness as to the person of the Son; concerning whom it is said, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:12.) To apprehend the person of the Son of God is entirely beyond the scope of the natural man. He may have heard of His name and of His works, he may be acquainted with the external circumstances of His death on Calvary, and of the fact of His resurrection, and yet not know Him. Though to the natural eye Jesus was like another man, "in the likeness of sinful flesh," yet Peter saw, by the revelation of the Father, that He was "the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Let the Christian reader seriously ponder the Scriptures of divine revelation we have thus far glanced at, as most plainly and repeatedly revealing the personal glory and Deity of the Son. We are well aware that it is not by a course of reasoning on this most glorious subject that the natural understanding of man will be able to perceive this great mystery of godliness, "God was manifest in the flesh." When Peter was closely interrogated by our Lord as to His own Person, and he replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus not only pronounced to his having been the object of divine blessing, but also to his having been under the ministry of a divine revelation, in thus discovering that "the Son of man" then addressing him was also "the Son of the living God." "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 16:15-17.) Blessed indeed are those who have had the Son revealed to them and in them; for Jesus also said, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him;" and "every man that hath heard, and learned of the Father, cometh unto Me." (John 6:44-45.) We have no hope therefore of convincing the natural man of the truth of the Deity of the Son by argument, or by any proof whatever apart from the action of the Holy Ghost; for not only did Jesus say to an apostle, "flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee;" but we are also told that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God."

A question of real importance, however, is now addressed to the disciples, "Whom say ye that I am?" There is no hesitation in the precious answer of Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Both the Messiahship and the deity of Christ are clearly confessed by one who can speak for every true child of faith. "Son of the living God" implies that God is not a mere duplicator, but characterized by living power in all His works, and in Christ this living power is perfectly manifested. The Lord's response to this is precious too. Peter was deeply blessed because he had received this truth as a revelation from the Father, not from any human source. The unquestioning conviction with which he spoke was evidence of this. Indeed, no-one lays hold of this truth in reality apart from the Father's revealing it to him (Ch.11:25-27).

Simon Peter was a blessed man. From God Himself in heaven, whom Jesus spoke of as "My Father," there had reached him a revelation which never could have come to him from man. His eyes had been opened to see in Jesus the Christ. That was His official position as God's Anointed One. But who was this Anointed One? Peter discerned that He was "the Son of the living God." This was truly a striking confession. God is the living God, infinitely above the power of death. Jesus is the Son in the eternal Godhead, equally above all the power of death. This thing had evidently come to Peter as in a flash by Divine revelation. He was not yet established in the full understanding of it, as we see half a dozen verses lower down. Yet he saw it was so, and he confessed it.

To the little group of disciples His grace had gathered around Him He then says, "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter, to whom the Father had revealed His Son, furnishes the answer of faith. He now apprehended Him to be much more than the Messiah, the fulfiller of promise and prophecy, and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (ver. 16). Full, blessed confession, in which was no uncertainty of mere human opinion, but the result of the revelation to his soul of the Person of Christ, which the Father had been pleased to make to him, as the Son of God in a power of life superior to death.

But this rich and true confession was by no means the fruit of the natural mind. Such knowledge does not originate in the heart of man. It was communicated to Peter, said the Lord, by “My Father which is in heaven.” It was necessarily a direct revelation.

But this rich and true confession was by no means the fruit of the natural mind. Such knowledge does not originate in the heart of man. It was communicated to Peter, said the Lord, by "My Father which is in heaven." It was necessarily a direct revelation.

Obviously the official title "Son of Man" does not cover the whole truth of His Person. Titles are, in themselves, descriptive of offices which the bearer of them fills. Names are descriptive of the Person who fills them. So then, Son of Man is one of His official titles. "Son of the living God," as confessed by Peter, is His Name. Thus then the Assembly would be founded upon who He is. Peter had replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." "Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona," thus our Lord addressed him on the ground of what he was naturally in view of the fact that the confession had not emanated from some natural conjecture, rather was it the result of divine revelation: — "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." This unique revelation came from the Father, out of heaven.