Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

This is the second installment in my series of posts on Jesus’ disciples

If there’s one disciple whose life proves that God’s patience never runs out, it has got to be Peter. No matter the situation, Peter’s reactions are always extreme, yet not always consistent. He is extraordinarily human—his enthusiasm so often outruns his wisdom that it leads him in the wrong direction.

In Matthew 16, we read, “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (v. 13-16). Peter’s response is a really big deal. No one, especially not a Jew, would make such a profound claim about just anybody. So many people misunderstand Jesus’ words because they refuse to believe He is who He said He is.

Not too far into Jesus’ ministry, some of His teachings start to challenge people more than they’re comfortable with. Many of his early followers fall away because they weren’t willing to forsake their former lives for the calling of Christ. In John 6:67-69, we read, “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.’” We all have to come to the same point that Peter came: the point where we decide whether we will cling to Christ or cling to the rest of the world. For the Christian, it’s not about choosing Jesus among a list of goals or pursuits. It’s not about making sure Jesus is a part of your life. It’s about saying with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes this: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher… Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Lewis clearly articulates the truth that Peter lived out two thousand years before—the truth that it matters what we do with Jesus. What the world doesn’t seem to realize is that saying Jesus was only a good man or a wise teacher has the exact same implications as saying He doesn’t exist. Why do people like the idea of a Jesus who is the best man who ever lived, yet not God? It’s simple: if we call Jesus human, and nothing more, than His teaching becomes a mere matter of opinion to which we can agree or disagree. But if we admit that He is the Son of the living God, than we are admitting that He gets to define truth because He impersonates it.

Yet even Peter, the disciple who declared he would never deny his Master, said three times in one night that he did not even know Jesus. After the last time, we read, “The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61-62). I wish I could say we’ll never give in to temptation as Christians. But the truth is, we are still vulnerable to the traps the world sets for us. The Lord forgives us over and over again, even for things that we never know about. That doesn’t give us a license to sin though. As I heard a pastor say once, “We aren’t called to pursue forgiveness, we’re called to pursue holiness.”

After Jesus ascends into heaven and the Holy Spirit comes upon the believers at Pentecost, Peter’s faith is tested by fire. Acts 4:18-20 says, “And when [the religious leaders] had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’” Peter and John’s lives had been so drastically changed by Jesus Christ that they could not be quiet about it. The identity of Jesus made a difference, and they knew it. What about you? What difference has Jesus made in your life? You have a choice to make: is Jesus Christ a man who lived and died two thousand years ago—or is He the Creator of the universe, the sacrificial Lamb of God, the High Priest of a perfect covenant, and the holy and righteous Judge of all mankind? Make your choice—the answer has eternal consequences.