When I Survey the Wondrous Cross / Isaac Watts / Lowell Mason
When I survey the wondrous crossSpeak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read the remainder of Mark 7 and I read Mark 8. When I got to vv. 31-38 of Mark 8, I knew this was the passage of scripture that went with this song, so I pray the Lord will grant me the understanding of His Word today that he would want me to have for myself personally and for me to share with others.
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Mark 8:27-38:
Peter’s Confession of ChristMy Understanding: At the beginning of chapter 8, I read how Jesus fed the four thousand, a similar story to him feeding the five thousand. I found it interesting how, even though the disciples had witnessed his wonderful miracle of the feeding of the five thousand previously, when Jesus presented them again with the opportunity to feed such a large crowd, they still replied in the thinking of the natural man by asking where they would get enough bread to feed so many people. Yet, Jesus again asked them how much food they did have, he blessed it, gave it to them to distribute, and just like with the five thousand, there were even leftovers.
27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus Predicts His Death
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Following this, the Pharisees (religious and political leaders; teachers and interpreters of the law) began to question Jesus and to test him. He responded to them this way:
He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.” Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.
Following this Jesus told his disciples to watch out for the “Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod.” The disciples thought he was saying this because they had forgotten to bring bread. Again, they were thinking with natural minds. Jesus replied to them in this way:
“Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?” (Here he reminded them of the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand and how many basketfuls of food was left over each time.) Then he said: “Do you still not understand?”
So, in the first half of Mark 8 we have a picture of Jesus’ miracles being repeated and man repeating the same mistakes of thinking with natural minds and of failing to understand who Jesus really is. Even though they watched him perform this miracle of feeding a mass crowd previously, still the disciples went right back to thinking in the natural realm. Even though the Pharisees also saw Jesus perform miracle after miracle, they still did not believe in him, and they still made it their goal to destroy him, and to discredit him, etc. They saw him as a threat instead of seeing him as the Son of the Living God.
Jesus warned his disciples against these religious leaders and their teaching. Yeast is a living organism but it is also a fungus. It feeds on sugar and it grows and multiplies as it spreads throughout the whole batch of dough. So, Jesus was warning his disciples concerning the teaching of the Pharisees because, like yeast, it would get into their lives and thinking and would grow, multiply, consume and takeover their thinking and belief system. Interestingly enough, when I looked up the word “fungus” it led me to “mold” and when I looked at “mold” in a thesaurus, it rendered these words: “norm; tradition; rulebook; shape; pattern; fashion; model,” etc. (MS Word). The Pharisees were all about traditions and rulebooks and about shaping others to be just like them, which is why Jesus warned his disciples, because he did not want them to be like the Pharisees.
Then, following the recording of the healing by Jesus of the blind man, we have Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ. Matthew recorded Peter’s confession in this way:
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
It is interesting to me that this same Peter is the one who ended up denying Jesus Christ three times after he is arrested, yet later was asked by Jesus to reaffirm his love for the Lord three times. So, even after Peter had this great revelation of who Jesus is, still he turned right around and responded with his fleshly man nature when things got tough. And, this is true of Peter here when Jesus began to tell his disciples about how he, Jesus, was going to suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed but after three would rise again. Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Jesus. Matthew’s gospel records it in this way:
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”How interesting, again, that after Peter had this wonderful revelation of who Jesus is, and had made a great declaration of that fact, yet he turned right around and rebuked Jesus for saying that he would be rejected and that he would die but that he would rise again. Again, Peter was thinking in the natural realm. Jesus was their teacher. Their lives were wrapped up in him. They believed he was their Messiah and that he was going to set up his kingdom on the earth and that he would deliver them from everything and everyone who were oppressing them. They did not want to believe that Jesus was going to die, and I am certain they did not comprehend why he must die or that he would rise again. Peter was in denial.
Jesus responded to Peter in an interesting way. He said:
“Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Jesus understood the real source of Peter’s confusion and of Peter’s fear of losing Jesus. The source was Satan. He is the one who puts doubts and fears in our minds. He is the one who tempts us to doubt Jesus even after we have seen miracle after miracle. He is the one who entices us to think like natural men even though we have partaken in the Spirit and have even walked in the Spirit and have obeyed our Lord. He is the one who whispers lie after lie into our ears and minds so that we become dull of hearing and understanding; so that we lack true spiritual insight into the things of God. That is why Jesus said to Satan, “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” And, that is really what this whole chapter is mainly about up to this point, i.e. men thinking like men instead of thinking, seeing and hearing with spiritual minds, sight and hearing.
So, what is the solution to all of this? How do we keep from thinking with natural minds; from having in mind the things of men instead of the things of God? How do we keep from being dull of hearing and understanding so that we still don’t get it even after we have seen miracle upon miracle of God’s grace in our lives? The answer lies in these last four verses, which is what this song is really all about. If we want to truly come after Jesus and become a follower of Him, we must deny ourselves, i.e. we must reject thinking like men and having in mind the things of men instead of the things of God. We must die to our old way of thinking, seeing, hearing, acting, and behaving by taking up our cross daily and following Jesus, putting the old behind and pressing on toward our heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
We must be willing to give up whatever Jesus requires us to give up, i.e. anything in our fleshly lives that stands between us and our pure devotion to our Lord. Jesus said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” The writer of the song said: “My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.” Ephesians 4 has much to say on this subject of the putting off of the flesh. Yet, this is not just about what we must give up. It is also about what we gain and what we put on in place of what we have taken off. So, when we put off thinking like men, we must put on thinking like Christ, and the only way we can do that is to fill our minds with the things of God instead of filling our minds with the things of this world. What we take into our minds affects how we think, how we feel about ourselves and society, and that ultimately affects how we behave.
And, we must be willing to give all to Jesus. The writer of the song says it this way:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Jesus is not looking for us to dedicate ourselves to the things of this life, i.e. of this world and to call that our gift to him. Romans 12:1-2 tells us the kind of offering he wants from us. He wants our bodies (our whole being) as living sacrifices to him, for us to not be conformed to the pattern (mold; fungus; yeast) of this world, but to be transformed and renewed in our thinking and actions. The amazing love of Jesus Christ for us in being willing to suffer, to be rejected, to be persecuted and to die for us and for our sins demands our souls, our lives and our all! Yet, many believers in Jesus Christ still don’t get this and they are still walking according to the flesh and are thinking like natural men and have in mind the things of men instead of the things of God and Jesus Christ is still asking us, “Do you still not understand?”
Lord Jesus, I pray today that you would help me to see where I am still thinking in the natural mind even after I have seen miracle upon miracle of your divine grace in my life. Help me to put off thinking like men and having in mind the things of men instead of the things of God, and help me to give my soul, my life, and my all to you daily. In Jesus’ name I pray these things. Amen!
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