“Fear not.” – Luke 5:10
THE blessing of God on Andrew's faithful testimony— “We have found the Messiah” —led Simon to Jesus, and we may readily believe that at that time a work of grace was begun in him. At Gennesaret, as we have remarked, there was a further dealing of the Lord with him. This poor Galilean fisherman was to learn from the beginning the personal interest which the Messiah took in him, an interest that never wearied, and the blessed character of which, and its results, are disclosed for our profit in his writings. Throughout his course, in all his temptations, trials, weaknesses and failures, he proved the sufficiency of Him to Whom his brother had led him. He found the difficulties of a true Christian life insurmountable but for His unchanging faithful care, and he sums up in a sentence (the last from his inspired pen) his desires for us: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” It is not enough that we should be “established in the present truth.” To escape the many and various entanglements of the world we must be diligent in cultivating a personal acquaintance with Christ, and see to it that by “adding to faith, virtue” &c. (2 Peter 1) our knowledge of Him is not barren or unfruitful. “Diligence” is, with Peter, a favorite word— “earnestness;” and if we trace this in his style, we see it in himself. He wrote experimentally, and while he does not question the faith of those whom he addresses (“they have obtained like precious faith with him),” or cast a doubt on their love for Christ (“Whom not having seen ye love),” he yet warned them, as beloved ones, to “beware lest being led away by the error of the wicked they should fall from their own steadfastness.” Christ must be sanctified as LORD in their hearts (1 Peter 3:15, R.V). They must give to Him the supreme place there, for it is in the heart the conflict will go on to the end. Whoever has possession of that has the whole moral being. A like tone of “earnestness” pervades both Epistles, as it characterized his life to its close (see 2 Peter 1:12, 13-15); a solemn testimony against the indifference, and love of ease of some.
Few, perhaps, have experienced greater difficulties, from within as well as from without, than Simon Peter. By nature of an easy and accommodating disposition, when grace wrought in him he took things very seriously, though it cost him not a little. His inconsistencies are a witness to this, and his grief over them yet more so.
At the very beginning of his spiritual life he had a severe but very needful experience. He was happily serving the Messiah and obeying His word when he was terribly cast down by the discovery of his own sinfulness. All appeared to be over when he had scarcely begun. Not that his service and obedience were not precious in the eyes of the Lord; but they were not to be a cover for his condition as a sinner, nor to be a balm for a wounded conscience, nor to give rest when the spirit was afflicted and broken because of sin. How many there may be, even now—who are happily serving the Lord as he—exposed to the same danger of appropriating to themselves, in a way favorable to self-complacency, the work of grace wrought of God in them! and, even more than this, are led to believe that it affords them a ground of confidence in view of the judgment of the great day. In this they greatly err, as Simon's case in the ship at Gennesaret might show them. He lost all peace in a moment. In the wisdom of God, inward quickening brings exercise, especially of conscience. The work of Christ for the sinner will alone give peace: or, as with Simon, His word based on the work.
There is a danger on the other hand, and it is a more perilous one, of slighting altogether the necessity of a direct work in the soul if any are to be saved. “Numbers are acted upon by rousing appeals to the affections, and taught that there is nothing in their nature to prevent their reception, there and then, of the truth that saves. They are taught that they need no new power, no further operation to enable them to believe.” But scripture must be contradicted by all who affirm that the sinner is not dead in his sins as well as guilty of them, and, that to live to God he must be “begotten of God according to His abundant mercy “; “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.” What is this, but a new operation, of which Peter could write as one who had experienced it (1 Peter 1:3-23)? Of course to a mind not subject to the word this truth is attended with difficulty. Are sinners, then, to say they have no responsibility, for what can they do if they are dead in trespasses and sins? Their first responsibility is not to deny what the word of God plainly declares concerning them. If they will own that they can do nothing, there will be no pretension; and they will find in genuine confession of their helplessness the abundant mercy of God and His sufficiency. Two short sentences as to this are well worthy of quotation. “Realities find their answer in God “; “Things as they are, seen and acknowledged, is a primary element in our individual dealings with God.” Peter knew and confessed that the faith he had, he “obtained,” and so with those to whom he wrote (2 Peter 1:1). He was singularly happy in the human instrumentality used of God in his conversion.
The one great truth which filled Andrew's soul was, that Jesus was the Messiah, and in a plain and artless way he set this truth before his brother. In his own case, John the Baptist pointed him to Jesus— “the Lamb of God.” It was a Person that was then preached to him, whatever he may have heard from John before. And it was a Person he spake of, and a Person to whom he brought Simon; and it was as brought to the adorable Person—Jesus—that Simon learned his need of Him, and that an indissoluble link was formed in his soul with Him. This is not the time to open up this line of truth; but who will deny that that which preeminently characterized gospel preaching at first was, that it was the gospel of Christ? A Concordance will show how often it is thus called. We little know how much we lose when our Christianity is little more than a system of doctrines, however pure and perfect. We need, oh! how deeply, the work of Christ too, all He has done, all He is doing, all He will do for us; but beyond this, we need Himself, His adorable Person, to dwell in our hearts by faith: Himself, the sovereign gift of God, Whose infinite worth He alone can know; Himself, in whom every moral excellence was displayed in a world where there was none; Himself, as One Whose perfect walk when here we should closely study, that we may follow Him in every step; One Who is the test of all real truth, of, all sound doctrine, whether it be concerning God or man, sin or righteousness, this world or heaven, life or death, time or eternity; One
“In Whom, most perfectly expressed,
The Father's self doth shine:
Fullness of Godhead, too,
the Blest, Eternally divine.”
This adorable Person must be received for salvation; but it was for Simon to learn, at the outset, that a work immeasurably greater than that of subduing his naturally hostile will, and of opening his heart to receive Christ, was necessary, if he were to be saved. Others with him were awed by the miraculous draft of fishes; but he was more than awed, he was prostrate in humiliation and grief. For one just drawn, by grace, to Jesus, it was a great and bitter cry— “Depart from me, O Lord.” But how could the Lord, consistently with His glory, abide the presence of such a man as he? Simon had no answer to this. If the Lord had been silent to him, he would, indeed, become like to them that go down to the pit, to them who say “Depart from us” for a very different cause (Job 21:14). But the Lord was not silent; He never is to such as Simon. “Fear not,” were words of authority and power which only He could speak Who, on the cross, would put away to the last spot the deep stain of sin that made the sinner unfit for His holy presence. Simon believed Him, and all was peace. Would that every Christian had this deep concern for the glory of the Lord Jesus. Simon had his moments of forgetfulness and failure, but few have wept more bitterly than he because of them.