A lot of questions we ask are not life or death questions. Your answer to the question of your favorite ice cream flavor doesn’t determine if you’ll live forever. But there is a question that does—Jesus’s question: “Who do you say I am?”

The gospel clearly teaches that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the always-existing Son of God. We need to know who Jesus is, just like Peter did. But we also need to know what he came to do. Did he come to rule as earthly kings ruled? No. Jesus came to suffer and die; Jesus also came to rise from the dead. And through his suffering, death, and resurrection he took the penalty we deserve and brought the kingdom of heaven down to earth. First comes the cross, then comes the crown. If we trust in Jesus—that he came for us, suffered and died for us, and rose from the dead for us—we will live forever in his perfect kingdom.