Skip to main content

Saving Our Lives

                 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matthew 16:24-27)

                There’s a saying that has been going around for a while. “When God put a calling on your life, He already factored in your stupidity.” Peter seems to me to be a great example of this. The passage above comes right after Peter gets done scolding Jesus because Jesus told the disciples He was going to die. Jesus had just called Peter, “Satan” (which is part of my argument against the nonsense taught by some that Satan’s goal was for Jesus to die on the cross). Then, Jesus turned to all of his disciples with the teaching quoted above.

                Peter might be an example of God factoring in stupidity when He calls someone, but He also seems to factor in cowardice. Consider Moses. Consider Gideon. Consider Barak, who wouldn’t go to war without Deborah. And then there are folks like Jonah and Samson. And David, who could go into single combat against a giant one day, and cower in a cave the next.

When God calls someone, He takes into account our humanity, our fallenness, our stupidity, and our other weaknesses. But that doesn’t mean God smiles indulgently and accepts these things. When we cross some line (we may not have known was there), He does respond. When we do something stupid, He will correct us. And He regularly challenges us to step beyond ourselves as we are.  In today’s passage, that’s made clear. If we seek to save ourselves, we’ll lose ourselves. It’s only by losing ourselves in a Godward direction that we can be saved. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more