I had a very special conversation with a friend via e-mail recently and I couldn’t think of a better way to express the very ideas the Lord has been teaching me in the last two weeks as I study 1 Peter. Her words are in red, mine are in blue. The few edits I’ve made are to secure her identity and to fix grammatical errors. I submit this here with her blessing.
We're wrapping up the Bible study on the life of David, and it has been so good. God knew it was EXACTLY what I needed. We've dealt head-on with so many of my issues with God - the legalism, the harshness, etc....
One thing that God has been doing in my life is showing me that by trying to hide what I've been through, I'm robbing myself of being able to share the wonderful work He's doing in my life.
The other day, I was praying for a "so far" experience with God (when David just fell back on his knees and asked God, who am I and who is my family that you've brought us this far?). And, suddenly, He opened my eyes and I realized that He has given me a 'so far' experience already. I've just been spending the last several years trying to make sure no one ever knew that I was divorced, had been in an adulterous relationship, etc. And, by doing that, I haven't been able to see or admit how far God has brought me. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and God with all his heart, I have incredible children, etc etc etc.
If you look at who I was toying at an affair with and what my life would have been like with him, it's INCREDIBLE to see what my life is now. God's mercy and grace were poured out on me lavishly all along the way, and I never even recognized it.
I am still struggling to believe in my heart that God has forgiven me and loves me, but I'm so much closer to believing that than ever before.
My friend, have I got some words for you. I've been learning the same thing over the last few weeks and most profoundly in the life of Peter. I have to walk you through this...this is the product of two different teachings/studies I've been part of in the last two weeks.
Let's start with Peter denying Christ. Mark Chapter 14 is the account we studied in Church. In Verse 31 it says: "But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all." In verse 31, Jesus predicted he would deny him before the cock crew 3 times. But Peter strongly denied that. And sure enough, 20 or so verses later, Peter denies Him 3 times each followed by a cock’s crow.
Luke 22:32 says: But I have prayed for thee (Simon/Peter), that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. This is additional information from the same denying conversation and it will make sense in just a second why I put it here.
Then we went to John 21 and saw Peter in his boat, fishing after Jesus died...and catching nothing. Then Jesus shows up, they pull in the big catch and Peter joins Jesus at the fire where there is already fish roasting on the fire. This is the conversation where Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him and Peter answer 3 times that He does.
The picture of conversion (Greek word for Convert in Luke 22:32 is epistrephō which is a picture of turning back). In Jewish teaching, Rabbi's are skilled at teaching in a circular way. They start at a point and then kind of walk in a circle seeming to stray until it all comes "full circle" and the point is seen. The same picture is seen of repentance. Not just a turning back, but a returning to the start and doing it over. So in Luke 22:32 we see that Jesus has prayed for Peter very specifically. And then in John's fish supper account, you see Jesus turn Peter back around so he may begin a new as a disciple again. We never see Peter the same again. In fact in Acts Chapter 2, 4 and 5, we see a very different Peter. A Peter who is bold and who stands in front of the very men that killed Jesus and says "I will not stop preaching Jesus...we will obey God, not men".
And I'm sure you know that Peter's name was Simon, which means rock or stone and Jesus named him Peter which also means rock but the picture is of a HUGE CLIFF sized rock...not just a stone. Jesus called Peter Big Rock long before he became one. Because God sees us from our future, not our present or our past. He knows what we will become and speaks of us as if we are already there.
So now, here is the coolest part. In my Bible study, we are studying 1 Peter. We began last week in Chapter 1 verse one and that is as far as we got. Because it reads: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
What’s the big deal? It’s how Peter introduces himself. He does not identify himself as Simon. Or Simon Peter. Or Peter the son of Jonas. Or any of the many ways people could and did qualify themselves in that day. He was just Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. That is a bold, strong and honest statement. But more importantly, Peter only identified himself with who he was in Christ presently...but he no longer identified himself by his past. He was not Simon Peter, Son of Jonas, denier of Christ three times and a fisherman. He was Peter, big cliff rock, and not only a friend of Jesus, but His disciple. A leader. A teacher. A fisher of men.
So here is my point. We don't have to hold on to our past identifiers...we are new creations in Christ. We can pull on past experiences to give comfort and counsel, but they no longer define who we are. We do not have to feel the sting of our past sins. We can walk in freedom.
"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
Guess what? I am divorced, but now I am married. I have been an adulterer, but I now I am faithful. I was a liar, but now I walk in truth. I once spoke only words of death, but now I speak the Words of life. I've done so many horrible things and yet, I have been made new. I don't have to identify myself with those sins because they have been confessed, forgiven and covered in the blood of Jesus. They are things I once did, but they are not who I am. I don’t do all things perfectly, but by God’s spirit inside me I am constantly being made new. When I fall, Jesus is always there to pick me up. I am free from the bounds of sin.
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36
You have a choice, we all have a choice...to accept the Words of Christ that tell you that you are free from your sins...or to listen to the accuser and the enemy of our souls who continually strives to remind you of what has already been washed away.
Me too.
Thank you for sharing the very, very good study on Peter. A lot of what you said hit home.
For me, I was so dead set at the time it all happened that I was not going to let anyone find out that for a long time, I rejected repentance - b/c I feared God would require of me for it to be brought into the open. Ridiculous, I know, but that's where I was at the time. And, since my ex-husband certainly had done more than his fair share of destroying the marriage, I could easily lay all the blame with him and walk away.....or so I thought.
Through the last 13 years or so, I've walked through repentance, but hanging on to the secret for so long has really hindered my life in so many ways. It's very sad how self-destructive we can be. I haven't been able to walk away from that sin, b/c I was hiding it, protecting it, carrying it everywhere with me in a little veil of secrecy.
Well, no more. I don't plan to sit my parents down and tell them everything or anything like that. But, I'm done carrying the responsibility of trying to hide it. I've laid it down. Funny though, when you carry something for so long, you find yourself looking for it when the load feels lighter.........
Thank you for sharing with me. The things you've brought back to my memory about Peter and his life will be very helpful to me as I walk for the first time in years without my sin!
It's so COOL that you included this: Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36
Because I was just, 5 MINUTES AGO, reading this: Hebrews 12:7,8 .....God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
For YEARS, I've equated discipline to punishment and punishment to the fact that God doesn't love me. This morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks that God disciplines me BECAUSE He loves me not because He hates me. Easy truth, right? First grade Christianity, but it's something that doesn't come naturally to me....believing God loves me.........believing love can be given to imperfect people.
But, by His spirit and His word, He is changing my views. So, not only am I a son of God, a permanent member of the family and free, but I am also loved enough to be disciplined when necessary. If I reject that discipline (which I have done in the past), then I am relegating myself to the life of an illegitimate child........missing out on all the blessings of being a true son of God.
Just before I opened your mail, I told God that I am finally ready after all these years to learn the lessons of the discipline He has been handing out as a result of my sin. I'm taking hold of full sonship, not settling for being anything other! It's not going to be an instant change, I'm sure, but it's coming. So, pray for me that God will keep this all fresh in my spirit as He heals and restores me.
Oh, and one other really cool thing about being a son of God. Notice I didn't say 'child of God.' I was reading somewhere a while back about the Jewish culture and how sons were the only ones who received an inheritance from their fathers and how when Christ died for us, He provided a way for us all to be adopted into God's family in the position of sonship............fully eligible to receive the FULL blessing and inheritance of God. I'm a SON of God!!!!!
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I don't have much time but first things first...I'm so excited for you. God's timing is perfect. Much of Beth Moore's ministry is because she walked in chains similar to yours for so long. But God used that as part of her testimony to call others to freedom. And He'll do the same for you. Because He works good in all things for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose...to make us more like Him. Someday you will share this truth with someone who needs freedom from a sin as much as you did/do and you will share it and the sting will not be there. It will just be a fact.
The other thing is when you were talking about sons and men. It dawned on me. Israel is always called God's wife and He their Husband. For the Christian, He is our Bridegroom and we are the Bride. Think of this...we have no eternal inheritance without our spouse or espoused. We are all women in need our man's covering for life. And if we choose to reject that relationship, we are in a sense, walking out in the desert without a covering and we are food for the enemy of our souls that moves to and fro through the earth in search of whom he might devour.
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