April 03, 2020-Chapter 4: "Peter's Repentance- Question 2

QUESTION: 2

Peter was a strong and devoted follower of Jesus…He walked closely with Jesus for three years. Peter walked away from everything in his life to follow Jesus. Why is it not enough in a Christian’s life to say we are truly committed to Jesus? (Page 40)

ANSWER To Question 2 (As stated by the Author)

Peter was a man of absolute surrender; he gave up all to follow Jesus. Peter was also a man of ready obedience. You remember Christ said to him, "Launch out into the deep, and let down the net". Peter the fisherman knew there were no fish there, for they had been toiling all night and had caught nothing; but he said: "At thy word I will let down the net" (Luke 5:4, 5). He submitted to the word of Jesus. Further, he was a man of great faith. When he saw Christ walking on the sea, he said: "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee" (Matt. 14:28); and at the voice of Christ he stepped out of the boat and walked upon the water.

And Peter was a man of spiritual insight. When Christ asked the disciples: "Whom do ye say that I am?" Peter was able to answer: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Christ said: "Blessed art thou Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." And Christ spike of him as the rock man, a devoted disciple of Jesus, and if he were living nowadays, everyone would say that he was an advanced Christian. And yet how much there was wanting in Peter!

You recollect that just after Christ had said to him: "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," Christ began to speak about His suffering, and Peter dared to say: "Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee." Then Christ had to say: "Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt. 16-23).

There was Peter in his self-will, trust his own wisdom, and actually forbidding Christ to go and die. Where did that come? Peter trusted in himself and his own thoughts about divine things.

You see many of us struggle as Peter did. We believe we are doing the work of the Lord, but were doing it in our own wisdom and on our own self-will and not going in prayer to God first and ask for His Holy Spirit to lead us, not us leading ourselves.