“Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee” (Matt. 16)
IT may at first sight seem a small thing for Simon to submit, in his own ship, to have his course and work directed by Jesus, and that in a matter in which he might reasonably claim to have had considerable experience. In letting down his nets for a draft, he set aside all confidence in his own judgment and that of the fishermen with him. Granted, that it was no great matter; the smaller the occasion, the more manifest the principle. Happy the believer who can take his stand from the first on this high round of the ladder of faith, and conduct his business, not as a man of the world, but by the word of the Lord. It will keep him out of much more. Of course, such a believer in Jesus for everything, small or great, cannot pledge others to this practical, every-day, obedience of faith: Simon did not. He simply said— “I will let down the nets,” whether his partners would join him in it, or not. There was no looking to them, or waiting for them. His faith was personal. He knew the mind of Christ and obeyed, looking to Him alone for the blessing of obedience. It was a very real beginning. From that time his path was clear. He had Christ to follow and around him precious souls to win.
There was a long interval between this, his first act of obedience to his Lord and. Savior, and his last; and much happened in the interval that showed he was a man of like passions with us, a man tempted as we are, and with the same evil tendencies of the flesh; but the grace that enabled him to say at first— “Master, at Thy word I will let down the nets” —gave him strength to say at last— “Shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.” In his old age, he was called to stretch forth his hands, and another must gird him and carry him whither he would not, even the executioner to a violent and cruel death. Again, it was the mind of Christ, and he obeyed: a touching and noble close. The life and testimony of such a man is worthy of serious consideration in these days of moral laxity. It strengthens us in self-renunciation and in striving against sin, recalling to our hearts the constraining power of the love of Christ that overcomes even the love of life.
And sin was to him a grievous thing. His testimony against it in his second Epistle is, with the exception of that of Jude, the most powerful in the word of God. It is an appalling account of the ruin it has brought already on angels and men. What will their final doom be? And his own judgment of it in himself was unsparing. There is a depth of feeling against it in his cry— “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” —which only He could fathom to Whom it was addressed; and Simon was prepared by grace to receive with unquestioning faith the answer of the Lord to his cry. Happy, if rare, posture of soul, when His word, and His alone, decides the momentous question as to its state for eternity! We say—if rare because souls, now, in like spiritual condition, are, for the most part dealt with by men, it may be sincere, God-fearing men, but men who are not free from their own thoughts, and who, however earnest and devoted, are a hindrance to the anxious one getting the mind of Christ. When Simon's eyes were really opened Godward, he was blind to everything of man, and sought to see only as Christ gave him to see.
Now, as Lord of all, Jesus preached peace before He made it through the blood of His cross. In the case of the man “sick of the palsy” in Matt. 9— “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” In that of the woman (Luke 7), “Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.” To Zaccheus in (Luke 19), “This day is salvation come to this house. And to the robber (Luke 22), “Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Jesus' word, before the cross, gave immediate joy to the contrite ones. And it is very clearly taught in these and other instances that, while salvation is one, and the joy of it common to all who receive it, yet, as ministered by the Lord, the enjoyment of it is various. Individuality is preserved, while with it there is the heartiest sympathy and communion, each with the joy of others. Thus, with Peter, the word of Christ had cast out fear; to the man, it gave good cheer; to the woman, peace; to Zacchaeus, salvation; to the robber, the assurance of heaven that day with Christ.
Yet beautiful and blessed as was the preaching of peace to sinners before the cross, the sufferings and death of Christ, as the alone ground of it give to it unspeakably greater value. This Peter, at first, not only did not understand, but, yielding to nature, refused. In reply to the touching words of Christ, that He “must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day,” he said, “Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee.” And it is the more remarkable that he should say this so soon after he had received, by revelation of the Father, a new knowledge of the person of Jesus (Matt. 16:13-22). Various were the opinions of men as to Him, but Peter confessed Him openly to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This divinely imparted knowledge of the person of Christ was much more than relief of conscience, yet both failed to keep Peter from falling a victim to self. The mention of the cross detected his weakness. His thoughts and feelings were no higher or more true than those of unregenerate men. Shame on us, Christians, when this is the case with us!
All the disciples, with the exception of Mary of Bethany, appear to have been more or less ignorant that the path of Jesus, the Messiah, should be through death to His glories. The prophets had prophesied of this, as Peter says (1 Peter 1:10, 12); but until the Lord in resurrection opened their understanding to understand the scriptures, they were foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. They looked for His redeeming Israel by power, as He assuredly will one day, but not for His first giving His life as the ransom. Ignorance, however, is one thing; it is quite another for Simon presumptuously to counsel the Lord as to His path—to bid Him spare Himself, avoid the cross, be indifferent to the will and glory of God, and the salvation of sinners, and set aside the whole purpose and end of His coming into the world. At that moment Peter, who began so well, was led by Satanic guile—the only wisdom that unregenerate men are capable of—and became an adversary of His Lord. There was nothing of God in his thoughts or words. Though deeply taught, neither his peace of conscience nor his knowledge availed him at this moment to adopt simply the mind of Christ. The severe rebuke the Lord administered is recorded, because it was not for him only, but for many after him— “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense to me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
And are we in danger of being beguiled by this serpent—wisdom, so congenial to the natural mind, we who have so much more spiritually than Peter then had? The conviction presses on us—that we are. The preaching that gives life and peace and resurrection blessings, but ignores or conceals death with Christ, “death,” as Peter says, “unto sins and life unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24), approaches dangerously near to his thoughts. It hides the cross, saves self from bearing it, and makes a true following of Christ most unimportant. Has not the cross of Christ a voice to us as well as for us? Did not the Lord immediately after rebuking Peter say, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me”? If self be not denied, we fall into the error of Balsam, who preached the perfect standing of Israel, but corrupted their state. Let us carefully, earnestly, distinguish them; but perish the doctrine that would divorce them! Paul wept over those who in their walk were enemies of the cross of Christ, and indulged self. He, we fear, would have many to weep over now. If self, by grace, he not denied, it conquers. In the most deeply taught, it will still come before Christ; and no rebuke is too severe for that. His woundings are better than the world's kisses: so may we hear His rebuke. Peter, after it, was taken by Jesus up the holy mount (Matt. 17).