……….I will lay down my life for your sake…….John 13 : 37.
I will…….., I pledge………, You can count on me…….., I commit myself…….
I shall be true to you till death do us part…….
How many pledges have been made with the best of intentions?
And how many pledges have we been able to live up to?
Peter must have meant it sincerely, when he pledged to lay down his life for Jesus. That’s the kind of man he was, impulsive, but true.
Jesus quickly pricked that balloon of self-confidence.
Jesus must have loved his loyalty and idealism, but he also knew it was rooted in the wrong soil. The soil of confidence in self, the soil of what the Bible calls flesh.
What is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the Spirit is spirit, John 3:6.
Jesus said something like: “Peter I love you, but you know what? Before this very night turns into day, you will have denied your association with me three times”.
Peter was to find out that night the unreliability of what the Bible calls flesh.
Intentions, plans and decisions that have their origin in the human brain, rather than the counsel of the Spirit of God.
Yes, it is in Him (God) that believers live and move and have their being, Acts 17:28.
But God allows his people the choice to live after the Spirit or after the flesh,
Rom.8:5, 6 (KJV).
Being transformed by the renewing of the mind, seeks to end living after the flesh and more and more live after the Spirit, Rom.12:2.
Many a well intentioned church program is born of the flesh, rather than Spirit. Usually there is dissention, strife and frustration in such programs. And those programs have a way of petering out.
Any decision or program that calls for haste is always suspect as being not of God.
In the night of denial Peter came face to face with himself. The Bible says that after the deed was done, Jesus turned and looked at Peter and instantly Peter knew what a dismal failure he really was.
When he realized what he had done, he went outside and wept bitterly. Everything had come to an inglorious end. Judas betrayed Jesus into the hands of the authorities and worst of all he himself had proven to be a most unreliable friend.
There was nothing left but to take up his former profession, he returned to the fishing boats, John 21:3.
Did any of the other disciples go through a similar experience? We do not know.
Except we do know that the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus was forcefully confronted with the fact that his zeal for his God was born of the flesh.
The younger son in Luke 15:12 came face to face with being a failure when he was tending the pigs and decided to return to his father.
There is always a way back to the Father, for the younger son, for Peter and also for Paul.
Blessed are the believers who are so confronted with their being a failure. Not so much as having failed in a certain endeavor, but being a failure.
And for today’s believer there is also always a way back to the Father.
As a matter of fact, the Father was in all of whatever befell us from the beginning with the purpose to form in us the character of Jesus.
It is the Father himself who allows us, His children to wander far from Him into the realm of the flesh, with the inheritance of His life, eternal life in our possession.
Only those believers who recognize and admit their failure to even begin to meet God’s standard of living the Christian life, will return in repentance to the Father.
The majority are so busy struggling on in that mess, that confronting themselves does not even occur to them.
Any effort of service we do for God in expectation of reward is born of flesh.
Any effort of obedience to gain God’s favor is born of flesh.
Any effort at self-improvement is born of flesh.
Any effort of obedience for the sake of obedience is born of flesh.
Any effort that requires God’s help is born of the flesh.
A harsh diagnosis? Absolutely, but just the same, no less true.
Only those activities that are born of the Spirit have lasting value.
So, where do we begin when we conclude: “There must be a better way?”
A good beginning would be to pray Ps. 139: 23, 24.
“Search me O God and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked (fleshly) way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”.
Tell God that we give Him liberty to do with us and to us whatever it takes to conform us to the image of His Son Jesus Christ.
It also means that all the accumulated knowledge about living the Christian life is up for serious review, except the very foundation doctrines, such as who God is, who Jesus is and who the Holy Spirit is.
Those of us who come face to face with our own total failure to live the Christian life and cast themselves upon God’s mercy will find a Father waiting with open arms to receive us. He will not even mention to remind us of the futility of our former wanderings in a far away country. He will only rejoice because of a sheep that was lost and now is found.
And how do we go from here? Do not worry, rest in Him, He will guide, He will direct and bring to pass what is needed.
When all this happens, then this prophesy has come to pass:
“Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
I, even I am He that comforts you”. Is.51:11, 12.
St.Thomas. May/2007. Simon VanderKooy.
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