Why did the disciples say, "Truly you are the Son of God" after He calmed the storm (Matthew 14:33)?

Having viewed the testimony borne to the Sonship of Christ by individuals, we will now, though not in strict chronological order, look at the united voice of the disciples. We read that after witnessing the miracle of Peter’s walking on the sea, and the ceasing of the wind when Jesus came into the ship, “then those who were in the ship came and worshiped Him, saying, Of a truth You are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). It was not that they did not so believe before, but they were so overwhelmed with the greatness of the miracle, and so awed by the power and presence of the Lord then in their midst, that their hearts bowed down before Him in holy adoration and believing love, as the very Son of the eternal Father, and as such possessed of all the power and glory of the Godhead. Can we suppose that their minds were taken up with speculations such as daring men have since invented to deny and dishonor both Father and Son; or did not rather their simple, childlike, and divinely-inspired faith at once embrace the blessedness of the mystery that the Jesus whom they saw, and at whose feet they fell, was the Son of the Father in truth and love?

As soon as the Lord got into the ship the wind ceased, and John 6:21 adds, "Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went." How beautiful! How calm everything is as soon as you get into the presence of the Lord! And now they worship Him, saying, "Of a truth thou art the Son of God." Peter had learnt Him as Messiah in the 1st of John; he had learnt Him as Son of Man, and Lord over the fish of the sea, in Luke 5; and now, as he sees more of the moral glories of His person, he gets another most precious lesson, that this One who is the Messiah, and the Son of Man, is also the Son of God.

It was the display of Christ's omniscience that convicted this latter of His Divine Sonship. The same holds good of the disciples in the storm; they knew nothing of the circumstances of His birth, but they saw His omnipotence writ large in His power over the waves, and accordingly acknowledged Him as Son of God. Had Peter received his knowledge of Christ as Son of God, from Mary, the Lord's mother, it would have been "flesh and blood" that had revealed it to him, but this Christ specifically rules out, and ascribes it to the revelation of His Father in heaven; and so with the Centurion at the cross, and every other witness to His Divine Sonship, recorded in the Scriptures, including that of Thomas after His resurrection. It was by the resurrection that to this last-named apostle, as to numberless others since, Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God.

The Lord came over the waves seeking a spirit of fidelity and confidence in the hearts of the disciples, but He found instead deadly dulness and spiritual insensibility. There was hardness or blindness of heart in them as well as in the Pharisees (Mark 3:5), in Israel (Rom. 11:7, 25; 2 Cor. 3:14), and in the Gentiles (Eph. 4:18). Thus Jesus discovered no response in the apostles to the labours of His love, and when He delivered them from the fury of the storm, against which they were vainly battling, they were excessively astonished. If they expected deliverance at all, they did not expect it in that manner. However, their hard hearts were melted, and "they that were in the boat worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God" (Matt. 14:33).

He calms the storm; He calms their fears. A very present help in time of trouble is Jesus our Lord! True, their faith was weak, as we speak, for they might have calmly reposed in the midst of the storm, even as He was doing; but He responds to that appeal, which, after all, owned Him, and showed that He was their resource; and His divine glory is, so to speak, unveiled to them in answer to their cry, for "the winds and the sea obey Him."

The disciples came and “worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the SON OF GOD.” He accepted their homage. He was their Lord and their God. No testings which we pass through are wasted upon us when Jesus Himself is better known to our glad hearts, and responsively, we worship him, singing,

The disciples were in the storm-tossed ship. Jesus drew near. “Be of good cheer,” He said, “It is I, be not afraid.” Peter answered, “Lord, if it be Thou command me to come to Thee on the waters.” And He said, “Come.” Peter walked on the waters to go to Jesus. That was victory, truly!—victory over the elements that would have engulfed him! It is not surprising that directly he looked at the boisterous storm, and got his eye off the Lord, he began to sink, needing to be saved by that ever-ready hand, and taken into the ship. When they were there the storm ceased, and those that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, “Truly Thou art the Son of God.” How precious in the sight of heaven! What a delight to the Father to see His Son, the darling of His heart, thus honoured!

Indeed, this Figure on the water is not seen except by faith; even those who are disciples may count it an "apparition" only, and fear, instead of being drawn by it. Notice, that it is to the soul that invites the invitation that the Voice says, "Come." It speaks to no other. Nor does it speak other than approvingly, though the one inviting it proves thoroughly his weakness in his response to it. But he gets no rebuke for a rash venture. The other disciples might have given him that: there are many who are in no danger of this kind of failure, who would justify themselves by it from all such attempts; but the Lord says only, "Wherefore didst thou doubt?" And surely this doubting is as foolish as disastrous. For the moment, at least, he had proved the power of Christ: he had actually walked upon the water, and why should boisterous winds put him now in fear? The power was not his own; and he might reckon on it as much for rough water as for smooth. But with the eye off Christ, one cannot reckon right. He doubts and he begins to sink; but at his cry there is a Hand outstretched to him, and he is held up. It is not the ship that rescues him, nor is he taken from the path, but supported in it. Good is it to remember and realize this as grace which acts towards us in our failure now.

Peter and his Lord come back to the ship together; then the wind ceases; and those in the ship come and worship Him with the acknowledgment, "Indeed Thou art the Son of God." This is again not difficult to understand; for when He returns to Israel, we shall be with Him still, and for them and us the wind will be at rest. Satan's power will be over, himself shut up in the bottomless pit, the power of Christ supreme over all.

Jesus having entered the ship, the wind ceases. Even so it will be when Jesus returns to the remnant of His people in this world. Then also will He be worshipped as the Son of God by all that are in the ship, with the remnant of Israel. In Gennesaret Jesus again exercises the power which shall here after drive out from the earth all the evil that Satan has brought in. For when He returns, the world will recognise Him. It is a fine picture of the result of Christ's rejection, which this Gospel has already made known to us as taking place in the midst of the Jewish nation.

Then Jesus goes up in His human character on high to pray, and the disciples are sent away alone on the stormy sea first, and He dismisses the multitude of Israel, taking the other place of intercession on high. When going to rejoin the disciples He walks on the sea; I apprehend the church's or Christian's place, the path of pure faith or of power, and faith in power with no ship, no boat, as a refuge: nothing external or human, as Israel was. The question then and particularly at the close, as a fact, is faith, personal faith in the Lord Himself. "If it be thou." Then if the eye is off Jesus, we are in no place at all for man to walk in. Peter began to sink. We can easily understand this, but it was really folly. He saw the wind boisterous, but He could no more have walked on a smooth sea than on a rough, and if the Lord was there on a rough as well as on a smooth. It was a question of faith and looking on the Lord, not on the sea, and so of himself. But Jesus will enter into the ship, again the earthly and human order, though glorified not humbled; then the wind will cease, and all in that ship will own Him Son of God, and the world that once rejected Him will own His power and presence, and gladly.