Hebrews 9: 24 For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God. 25 Further, he did not enter heaven to offer himself over and over again, like the cohen hagadol who enters the Holiest Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer death many times - from the founding of the universe on. But as it is, he has appeared once at the end of the ages in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment, 28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Proverbs 30:4 - Who has gone up to heaven and come down. Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!

Toward the end of Yeshua's earthly ministry, at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem (John 10:22-39), Jewish leaders asked Him point blank, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly" (v. 24). Yeshua, in no uncertain terms, answered that he was more than the Messiah, He was God! To this they "took up stones to stone Him" (v. 31):

John 10:22-39:

²² At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; ²³ it was winter, and Yeshua was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴ The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." ²⁵ Yeshua answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. ²⁶ "But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. ²⁷ "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. ³⁰ "I and the Father are one." ³¹ The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. ³² Yeshua answered them, "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?" ³³ The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." ³⁴ Yeshua answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'? ³⁵"If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), ³⁶ do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? ³⁷ "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; ³⁸but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." ³⁹Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

The Greek word translated "one" in this verse is neuter, "one thing," not "one person." In other words, Yeshua did not say that He and the Father are identical (in human form, He was accountable to God the Father - the Source!), but rather, He and the Father have essential unity together, that He enjoys exact unity of nature and actions with His Father. The Jews clearly understood this and tried to stone Him for blasphemy.

Romans 11:8 "...God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day."

Some want to believe that "man" is God because Yeshua told them so, using the following verse as proof:

Psalm 82: ⁵ They do not know nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. ⁶ I said, "You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. ⁷ "Nevertheless you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes.

Here Yeshua is being facetious because man has become so enamored with himself, worshipping idols and "doing his own thing." However, notice the small "g" in "gods" and the fact that Yeshua told them they would die like men and fall like any ordinary earthly "royalty." He wanted them to know that, although they were "sons of the Most High," they were still only men.

Many websites try to prove that Yeshua is not the Messiah by various Scripture twisting:

Okay; then what about the following:

To begin with, who do you think Isaiah 53 is all about? This chapter seems to describe the life, trial, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Isaiah 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Micah 5: 2 "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity."

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Colossians 2: ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.

Mat 16:15-17: ¹⁵"But what about you?" he (Yeshua) asked. "Who do you say I am?" ¹⁶Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Yeshua replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

John 1: I and the Father are One, He who has seen me has seen the Father....

John 1 also tells us: ¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness not has suppressed it.

John 3:1-21: ¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Yeshua at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." ³In reply Yeshua declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. ⁴"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" ⁵Yeshua answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." ⁹"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. ¹⁰"You are Israel's teacher," said Yeshua, "and do you not understand these things? ¹¹I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. ¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

John 4:26: Then Yeshua declared, "I who speak to you am he."

John 17:1-3: After Yeshua said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: ²"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Yeshua Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. ⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Yeshua never said He came to "abolish" Torah! He came to fulfill the promise of a New Covenant. God never mentioned ANYTHING about abolishing His original teachings and instruction! The websites that say otherwise are OFF THE MARK! They tend to ignore or twist Scripture. Here's what Yeshua actually said:

Matthew 5: 17-18: ¹⁷"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Have "heaven and earth disappeared?" Has "everything been accomplished?"

The entire New Testament is about conversion! Yeshua went around telling everyone He met about "The Good News" of Messiah. Check out Acts 2:38-47.

³⁸Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." ⁴⁰With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." ⁴¹Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Those who accepted His message and were baptized were JEWS!

How can anyone possibly say that Yeshua was NOT the Messiah - YHWH in the Flesh/an aspect of YHWH - when He was foreshadowed throughout the Tanach, and has already fulfilled the first four feasts? He is the ONLY One Who ever has done, or ever will do the following, as He was:

1. Conceived by a virgin whose hymen was broken from the inside, not by seed of man. (Yeshua was born to Miriam [Mary], virgin bride of Joseph, as foretold and/or evidenced in Genesis 3:15; Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 7:13-15; Jeremiah 31:22; Luke 1:34-35; and Matthew 1:17-20.)
   
   
2. Born of an extremely rare bloodline that includes many of the fathers of Israel. (See geneology from Abraham to David in Matthew 1.)
   
   
3. Born in Bethlehem; descendant of David, traced back to Abraham. (Matthew 1; Matthew 2:6; Micah 5:2.)
   
   
4. Messiah was to a prophet like unto Moses. (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18, 19.)
   
   
5. Messiah would enter Jerusalem in triumph, gentle, and riding on a donkey. (According to Daniel, there would be 483 years between the decree to rebuild the wall and the city of Jerusalem in troublesome times before Messiah would be cut off for the sins of the people. Exactly 483 years after the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its walls, Yeshua of Nazareth offered himself to the nation of Israel. He rode into the city on a donkey to the rejoicing of the people, just as the prophet Zechariah had predicted: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. See Zechariah 9:9.)
   
   
6. Messiah would be rejected by His own people. (Most Jews to this very day reject Yeshua as Messiah. They believe He was just a good rabbi and prophet, and definitely NOT the Messiah. See Daniel 9:24-26, Isaiah 53:1, 3, and Psalm 118:22.)
7. Messiah would minister mostly in Galilee. (Isaiah 9:1-2)
   
   
8. Isaiah and Malachi predict Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner. (Yeshua was very much like Moses: Both were delivered from death as infants. Both were prophets. Both performed miracles. Both were leaders. And both were intermediaries between God and man. No other prophet is as much like Moses than Yeshua. Moses led the Jews out of the bonds of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land of Israel. Moses died shortly before the Jews entered Israel. Yeshua leads people - anyone who accepts Him as their Savior - out of the bonds of sin and into the Promised Land of Heaven. Yeshua died for our sins so that people could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. See Deuteronomy 18:15-18; see also Malachi 3:1-5; Isaiah 9:6-7).
   
   
9. The Psalmists said that Messiah would be betrayed by a friend. (He was betrayed by Judas, one of his 12 disciples. See Psalm 41:9 and Matthew 26:47-50.)
   
   
10. Zechariah said that Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. He adds that people will look on the one whom they have pierced. (Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver, then later committed suicide when he realized the enormity of what he had done. See Zechariah 11:12-13.)
    
    
11. Messiah would be tried and condemned. (Isaiah 53:8)
    
    
12. Messiah was to be silent before His accusers. (Isaiah 53:7)
    
    
13. Messiah was to be smitten and spat upon by His enemies. (Micah 5:1, Isaiah 50:6)
14. Messiah was to be mocked and taunted. (Psalm 22:7, 8)
    
    
15. Messiah was to suffer with transgressors and pray for His enemies. (Isaiah 53:12.)
16. Messiah was to be given vinegar and gall. (Psalm 69:21)
    
    
17. The Psalmists prophesied that people would divide His garments among them and cast lots for His clothing. (Psalm 22:18)
    
    
18. Messiah's bones were not to be broken. ( Numbers 9:12, Exodus 12:46. Often, the Romans broke the legs of their crucified in order to speed impending death, as the crucified could then no longer support their body weight, which would asphyxiate them. God the Father [YHVH] saw to it that Yeshua's bones were not broken.)
    
    
19. Messiah was to die as an offering for sin. (Isaiah 53:5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12)
    
    
20. The Psalms say he was to be raised from the dead/resurrected. (Psalm 16:10, Mark 16:19-20; John 20:1-10; Matthew 28:11-1; John 20:19-23; Mark 16:14; and Mark 16:14-18. Yeshua actually prophesized His own persecution, death and resurrection. He told His disciples that He would go into Jerusalem where He was suffer at the hand of religious leaders before being put to death. He also said that He would rise again on the third day. See Matthew 16:21-26)
    
    
21. Messiah now at God's Right Hand. (Psalm 110:1)
    
    
22. Isaiah 49:6 says God's salvation would reach the ends of the earth. (In Isaiah 49:6, the prophet speaks of a servant of God who would be a light to Gentiles (non-Jews) so that God's salvation could reach the ends of the earth. Christians and Messianic Jews believe that Yeshua is the fulfillment of this promise. Yeshua and His followers who helped spread Christianity about 2000 years ago have certainly been an inspiration to Gentiles - there are now about 2 billion Christians worldwide. And Christians believe that salvation is available to anyone who accepts Yeshua as their savior.)

The Jewish Messiah came 2,000 years ago! No one else could, or has ever, fit these particular qualifications besides YaHashua HaMaschiyach (Jesus Christ), whose very Name means "YHWH is Salvation".

For one thing, those without the Holy Spirit residing within could NEVER understand because the things of God cannot be discerned by our limited, human mindsets. Choose to believe it or not:

Yeshua came to be God's (the Father's) Servant, humbling Himself to appear to us in human form: Isaiah 52:13: ¹³ See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

He took our sins upon Him: Isaiah 53:6: ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was our guilt offering and He was raised from the dead as our accepted sacrifice: Isaiah 53:10: ¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord 's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Yeshua's HUMAN body died physically on the cross, but His Divine Spirit lived on. The fact that there was NO corpse should have been proof that God was trying to tell us something: (1) He didn't WANT there to be a corpse; and, (2) He is God and He can do whatever He wants....

Questions such as the above show the extremes that Jews for Judaism, Outreach Judaism, and their ilk will go to in order to disprove Yeshua's divinity! Is it really so hard to grasp the fact that the same God who is powerful enough to have created the entire universe, is also capable of sending an aspect of Himself down to earth in the form of a human male, so that man could both better understand and relate to Him? (After all, He appeared to Moshe as a Burning Bush and God was with the Jews in the form of "a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night" [Exodus 13:21, 22; Numbers 14:14; Nehemiah 9:12, 19], and they didn't really appreciate or understand Him then, either - as evidenced by their behavior at Mount Sinai while Moshe was receiving the Ten Mitzvot. They didn't appreciate or understand Him throughout the entire Tanach [Old Covenant], because they kept on straying. So, the fact that they are kicking and screaming and refuting Yeshua the Messiah who was foreshadowed throughout the Tanach, comes as no surprise, either. They've never listened before, why should they listen now?....)

1 Corinthians 15 shows that, what happened to Yeshua's human body will happen to our mortal bodies during the upcoming "rapture": ⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

Some websites insist that Matthew 16:15-20 and John 17:3 prove that Messiah is NOT God. What about the OT Scriptures that actually NAME Him as God?

Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means "God With Us").

Matthew 1:23 - "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."

Let's view the God's Word from a completely different angle, rather than the same old, worn-out Scriptures so many people use to try to dispute Yeshua' Godhood and the fact that God has so far revealed Himself to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit:

In Genesis God often refers to Himself in the plural form, which proves He is more than a "singular". Example:

Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Genesis 3:22 - And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

Some traditional Jews like to explain this away by saying, "Well, He said "we" because He was talking to the angels he had recently created, supposedly on the 2nd Day (sorry, but I don't see any angels mentioned there!). Where exactly does it say that in the Bible? How do we even know that angels existed at that particular time, because the Bible never says WHEN they were created. (Perhaps something is mentioned in the Talmud, but that was SPOKEN WORD passed down through the generations, which makes the whole idea a moot point.) The first time we hear anything about angels is in GEN 16:7. If God was talking to the angels in GEN 1, the Bible would surely have signified it in some way.

Next, in Hebrew, the "Shema", the Jewish confession of faith made up of Deut 6:4-9, 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41 is very clear about God being One -- however, it's a PLURALITY of "ONE" as evidenced in the word "Echad": "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohainu, Adonai Echad." (In English: Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One.) The Godhead is "Echad", or "One" -- However, this Hebrew word "Echad" allows for plurality, and that's the word God used in the Bible. Had God meant it to be strictly singular, He would have used YACHID, because it can only be used in the singular (something which is undivided = Yachid, or unit.). For instance: one stone, one desk, one chair, etc. When you use the word YACHID, then plurality is totally out of the question. But ECHAD is anything that can be grouped, such as grapes or people, etc. For instance:

Ezekiel 37: ¹⁸"When your countrymen ask you, 'Won't you tell us what you mean by this?' ¹⁹ say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph--which is in Ephraim's hand--and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah's stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.'

The word used in the original Hebrew to describe the coming together of these sticks is ECHAD, not YACHID. In other words, two sticks come to together to make one stick. The word YACHID would have been totally inappropriate here.

Genesis 1:5 says He made evening and morning which, together (ECHAD) , were the first day. Genesis 2:24 says Man should leave his father and mother to live with his wife. "And the two shall become one (ECHAD) flesh.

If God had wanted to use a word for Himself which would NOT allow plurality in Scripture, He would have used YACHID. He didn't.

Furthermore, one Hebrew word for God is ELOHIM. In Hebrew, everything that ends in "im" is plural. If God were one single unit, He would have referred to Himself as ELoHa. Why did He refer to Himself in the plural? Because in GOD are (at least) three, distinct, separate entities. How do we know there are three separate entities? Well, let's check it out:

Let's dig deeper, beginning with Genesis 18:

¹ Now the LORD appeared to him (Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. ² When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, ³ and said, "My Lord, (notice he didn't say, "Gentlemen"; He said "Lord") if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. (Did Abraham speak to one of them, or all three? Just ONE, because the original Hebrew says he ran to ONE of them and called Him "Lord"! He knew God from a previous meeting in Gen 17: ¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. ² I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." ³ Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, ⁴ "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. ⁵ No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. ⁷ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁸ The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.") In Exodus 6:2 God also said to Moses, "I am the Lord . ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. Exodus 33: ²⁰ But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

The Jewish Apostle John referred to Yeshua as "The Word." What he's saying is, human beings in their present form, cannot see God. Yeshua was the outward visible expression of the invisible God to human beings.

John 1:3:¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Bible teaches us about two comings of the Messiah who comes from the Tribe of David, a human family, and who is absolutely YHWH. Let's go to the text that speaks about the future coming:

Jeremiah 23:5-6: ⁵ "The days are coming," declares the Lord , "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.

This name has no equivalent in the kind of names a Jewish mother or father would dare give their child. They have named their children with the attributes of God, but never "Lord" or "God".

Isaiah 9: ⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Deity is never born; only humanity is. The above Names for Him show that Messiah WOULD be born as a man, but He would also be Almighty God wrapped up in one person.

How - as is alleged - does Matthew 16 "prove" that Yeshua is NOT God? Yeshua is trying to teach His disciples is that people in general must learn who Messiah is through a supernatural revelation of God, not simply because somebody told them. In other words, it must be spiritually discerned for each person. That's why He told them not to tell people who He was. If you will look at vs. 21-25, you will see that Peter was sharply rebuked when he tried to speak against Yeshua' prophesied death; he was, at that moment in time, interfering with God's plan. Yeshua told them that in order to have eternal life, one must "die" to himself in order to be able to "see" the things of God through "spiritual eyes".

Matthew 16:

¹³ Now when Yeshua came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

²⁵ "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Now check out Romans 8:

¹ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Yeshua. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. ¹⁰ If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. ¹² So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- ¹³ for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. ¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. ²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. ²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He alsoglorified. ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Yeshua is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." ³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Yeshua our Lord.