Peter said, “Never, Lord!” [Peter] said. “This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22)
When Jesus told His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of evil men and crucified, Peter objected sharply, “Never Lord!” You remember the stinging rebuke from our Lord don’t you? Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23).
Well, what was true of Peter’s sinful failure to understand the cross as an almighty instrument of death leading to eternal life is also true of the sinful failure of far too many in the church today to recognize the cross as a way of life for the disciple of Jesus. Let’s take a look at our Lord’s teaching on this matter:
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
Make no mistake, every time we refuse to take up our cross, we demonstrate to our Lord that we do not have in mind the kingdom of our God, but the kingdom of self. The Christian is called by God to live in a culture marked by the cross. We are to deny ourselves — to die to self — and follow Lord wherever He leads, regardless of the cost or circumstance. The apostle Paul living in the culture of the cross this way:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Yet all too often we are marked by the words of Peter more than we are by the cross we are to carry.
- Service over status . . . “Never, Lord!”
- Loving the unlovable . . . “Never, Lord!”
- Giving until it hurts . . . “Never, Lord!”
- Denying the self . . . “Never, Lord!”
- Forgiving someone who has hurt us deeply . . . “Never, Lord!”
Over and over again, we tend to cry out like Peter rather than setting our shoulder under the cross we have been given and following in the footsteps of our Lord. And Satan cheers us on every time we allow ourselves to get caught up in human concerns. Our enemy has been doing that ever since the Garden of Eden, when he convinced Adam and Eve to neglect the concerns of God and focus on their own desires.
Where in your life have you been crying out like Peter? At the office? In your family? At your church? In your community? Where have human concerns held you captive to yourself? Remember, you have been set free, but that freedom is to be understood as a life that is lived for the glory of God and the good of others. And that is a life that can only be lived under the weight of the cross that has been given to you by the One who hung on His to pay the penalty for your sins.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 