When Jesus and His disciples came to the city of Caesarea Philippi on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, He asked them, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Matt. 16:13). Said question seems relative when considering that the Lord has told them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). Later in this very conversation, He will tell them that He will give unto them “…the keys of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19). That being the case, it seems reasonable that they should have some idea of who the people thought that Jesus was. They answered Jesus that the people thought that He was one of the various prophets, specifically naming Elijah and Jeremiah and John the Baptist. None of those mentioned were people held in low esteem but were instead those that the people had much respect for. Yet, great though these men were, they still paled in greatness when held up beside the Son of God. Jesus then asked His apostles, “But whom say ye that I am? (Matt. 16:15). Peter’s answer was one that was given to him by the Holy Spirit (verse 17). Jesus was indeed “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), but even these apostles had not yet fully come to realize this. It took the resurrection from the dead to prove Jesus “…to be the Son of God with power” (Rom. 1:4). Yet, Jesus had gotten His point across, He was the Son of God and it was based upon that rock-solid truth that He would establish His kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19). He promised to build His church, the spiritual kingdom of heaven, even if He passes through death into the spiritual realm. Jesus did just exactly what He promised to do and the church was begun on the first Pentecost following the Lord’s crucifixion (Acts 2).
But all of this skips over what we wish to zero in on here. When Jesus asked the apostles, “But whom say ye that I am,” He was pointing to the fact that it is going to have to be a personal understanding of and dedication to the King of kings. In their teaching, what those they were teaching believed did matter, but in their own lives, it was really a personal thing. It was about what they believed and did. When one considers just what it is that one must be saved from, it becomes easier to see how personal one’s salvation must be. It is sin that separates man from God (Isa. 59:1-2). When one violates the word of God, either by commission or omission, that person has sinned. The apostle John wrote, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4). Some try to apply the guilt of the sins from Adam to present on those living at present, but such is foreign to God’s word. Sin is something that a person does personally, not something that someone else has done that is charged to that person. Ezekiel said long ago, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezek. 18:20). Just as one cannot sin for you, one cannot be saved for you. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give account for that which we have done in this body in which we currently abide. Paul said that “…we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (II Cor. 5:10). Solomon wrote, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc. 12:14). And John the revelator said, “And I saw the dead, small and great; stand before God; the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Rev. 20:12).
According to the apostle Paul, when the Lord returns He will take vengeance on those that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thess. 1:7-9). No one can obey the gospel for you that you become one of God’s children. That is really a personal thing. When you have been baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins, you are raised to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4), not someone else. No one else can then walk that Christian life for you! It is the one who has become a new creature in Christ that must walk the walk (Rom. 6:4; II Cor. 5:17; Col. 3:1-4). No one can worship God for you (John 4:23-24). It really is all a personal thing. It is appointed upon men once to die and after that the judgment (Heb. 9:27). No one can die for you and no one can stand in judgment for you.
God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have all done their part is providing eternal life for every one of us. Now, it is really a personal thing, now it is up to us what we will do about it. When we stand before that judgment seat, if we hear the Lord say, “depart from me”, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.