Competing For 'I Am' -- Part 2
If you read Part 1, then you saw the two options when it comes to competing for ‘I Am’ — For God or against God. Let’s take an even closer look at the ‘against God’ part today. There’s ‘against God’ and then there’s ‘AGAINST God’! In the options I laid out in Part 1, I was actually thinking that in both cases those were Christians. If someone wasn’t even making an attempt to follow Christ, then there would be no struggle at all. That person would simply live as if he was lord of his life and not even consider a relationship with Jesus or following Him as a way of life. We’ll address that person in a second. First, let’s talk about the struggle. Let’s consider a guy like Peter and some of the times he was ‘against God’.
One amazing account in the Bible is when Peter is first called by Jesus. There is an account in each of the 4 gospel books, but Luke’s has the most detail. Check this out —
Luk 5:1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,
Luk 5:2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Luk 5:3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
Luk 5:4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Luk 5:5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
Luk 5:6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
Luk 5:7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
Luk 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Luk 5:9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,
Luk 5:10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
Luk 5:11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
—Luke 5:11
Let’s take a look at the parts I highlighted in bold. Peter’s response to an encounter with Jesus is an admission he is a sinful man and unworthy of being in Christ’s presence. Jesus reassures him and tells Peter of the calling He now has for him. Peter left the life he knew and followed Jesus. This is a point of no return. Jesus has chosen Peter to be ‘for God’ and there is no undoing that. In the bending of Peter’s will to Christ’s will, we see times Peter is ‘against God’. Let’s note some of those:
Matthew 16:13-23 - In these verses Peter goes from confessing Jesus as God to rebuking Him for daring to say He was going to be killed and resurrected. He claims this will never happen (Peter’s will). Jesus turns around and delivers this blow to Peter — “GET BEHIND ME, SATAN! YOU ARE A HINDRANCE TO ME. FOR YOU ARE NOT SETTING YOUR MIND ON THE THINGS OF GOD, BUT THE THINGS OF MAN.” Woah! Interestingly enough, the next few verses are when Jesus tells His followers to take up our crosses and live a life of self-denial if we are going to follow Him. Coincidence? Nope!
John 18:1-27 - In a wild scene when Jesus is arrested and brought before the high priest, Peter cuts off a dude’s ear in his best attempt to stop this from happening (Peter’s will). Jesus heals the guy’s ear (not noted in this particular account) and rebukes Peter again. Peter still follows Jesus, but as Jesus goes in to be questioned Peter is busy warming himself by a fire with servants and officers where he proceeds to deny Jesus 3 times.
Clearly these are not Peter’s finest moments. We, like Peter, will have some awful moments of acting ‘against Christ’ in our lives. However, if we’re called by Jesus and He has given us the desire to truly follow Him, then we’re still going to be counted as ‘for God’. Letting go of our own will does not come easy, especially when we are fighting to keep it alive. Jesus does not hold these failings against Peter or any of His true followers. He will use us as He sees fit.
Now, how about those who are ‘AGAINST God’? These are not the Peters or others who God causes to persevere to the end. These are the people who do one of two things — give lip service to believing in God and/or reject Christ outright. The latter is obvious, as folks are quite literally choosing another path in both word and deed. You can do every great thing there is to do and wow people with your kindness, but if you’re not ‘in Christ’ it’s all for naught. The former can be tricky to deal with, especially when many of these folks are in our churches. They may give lip service to God and even spout out some Bible verses or Christian lingo they’ve picked up over the years, but in reality their hearts have not been given over to God, and more importantly God never chose them. Their lives will reflect people living mostly, if not completely, for their own will. You may hear them referred to as ‘Sunday Christians’ or ‘Christians In Name Only’. This isn’t a popular opinion, but it’s true — Many of those folks know Jesus like Satan knows Him — as His enemy! Like those ‘Christians’, Satan acknowledges God, but refuses to glorify Him, and lives a life according to his own will which focuses on working against the will of God. It’s often said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world he didn’t exist. I’d say a close second, if not even greater trick, is how the devil convinces professing Christians they have been chosen and saved by God, but can continue living mostly unchanged lives according to their own wills — AND GOD’S OKAY WITH THAT! He most certainly is not okay with that! The gospel message which saves is ‘repent and believe’ not ‘remain unchanged and acknowledge’.
For those of us struggling to follow Jesus, I hope the story of Peter encourages us. We are in good company if we recognize our sin, desire to follow Jesus, mess up along the way, but keep following. However, for those who don’t care enough to struggle, embrace ‘easy-believism’, or outright chose a rival path to Christ, then these words today (as well as other warnings from Jesus) should shake you to your core. There is no salvation without repentance. That’s simply not a biblical definition of ‘faith’. It may be your definition of ‘faith’ but it stands in contrast to God’s. Do you know where that ultimately leaves you? AGAINST God. That’s not a place you want to remain! Hebrews 10:26-39 is a good passage to read on this, especially the part about how it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. On that note, have a lovely day…