But Because You Say So

“Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’”

“When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.” (Luke 5:5-7 NIV)

Jesus wanted to perform a miracle in Peter’s life and in the lives of these other fishermen. Yet, Peter’s first response was to think in human terms. And I believe the Lord wants me to focus some time and attention on that first (initial) response before moving on to Peter’s second response. And this is going to include all people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, whether or not their faith in the Lord is genuine God-persuaded faith or not. 

The Scriptures teach us clearly God’s plan of salvation from sin. So they teach us that the way to the cross of Christ and to salvation from sin and to eternal life with God is not something that we can generate in our own flesh, of our own fleshly good works. There is nothing that we can do, in and of ourselves, to ever be good enough to earn the right to eternal life with God, because we are of the flesh, and not of God, in our sin natures.

Then we learn that the only path to salvation from sin and to eternal life with God is if God the Father first draws us to Christ, i.e. if he first persuades us of his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness and of our need to repent (turn from our sins) to follow the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, which can only happen as empowered by the Spirit of God. And even the faith to believe in Jesus Christ is not of ourselves, not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but it is of God, and it is gifted to us by God, and it is persuaded of God, so it will align with God’s will and purpose.

We also learn that Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross, not just to forgive us our sins, and not just so that we can go to heaven when we die, which is conditional, but to deliver us out of our bondage (slavery, addiction) to sin so that we will now honor God with our bodies, and so that we will live free from slavery to sin and in the power of God’s Spirit to live holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient lives to our Lord Jesus until the day that he returns for his bride.

But this is not going to happen in the flesh. We can work hard to do what is right and to not do what is wrong, but if we are operating in the flesh, and not in the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us, our efforts are bound to fail and to not produce the yield that we had hoped for. And if they fail, we may get discouraged and just give up and then go ahead and give in to the flesh, deciding that this is just an impossible situation that cannot be accomplished. Have you ever been there? I have, formerly.

But our Lord did not set before us an impossible situation and then just leave us to flounder, as some would have you believe. He made the way of escape for us out from underneath our slavery to sin. We just have to take the way out provided for us. But so many people these days want to skip over that part, for truly they do not want to relinquish control of their own lives over to God, and they don’t really want to be free of their sinful addiction or else they would take the way out God provided for them.

Instead, many of the sinfully addicted who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ will try to circumvent the Lord’s way of escape and they will try to work it out in their own human efforts, and it just doesn’t work that way. So they elevate and raise up a cheapened, diluted, and altered version of the gospel that Jesus taught in order to ease their consciences. And they go after their sinful passions and to please themselves rather than to raise up Jesus Christ and his gospel and moral purity, honesty, and righteousness.

But the only way that any of us are going to find true freedom from slavery to sin so that we can now walk (in conduct, in practice) in moral purity, honesty, faithfulness, righteousness, and obedience to our Lord, is via full surrender of our lives to Jesus Christ and to his will for our lives, which can be illustrated for us here in the story of Peter and the catch of fish. For in the flesh, he and his companions caught nothing. But as soon as he/they submitted themselves to the Lord’s command, they caught plenty.

So, let me say here that the Scriptures teach that we cannot walk in slavery to sin, in practice, in conduct, as a matter of lifestyle (habitual and cyclical) and be in a genuine faith relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not saying that a true follower of Christ can never fail or that he can never wander from the faith, for a time, for I believe we have biblical examples of that. But the Scriptures are clear that if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, and not righteousness, we are not born of God, and we will not inherit eternal life with God, unless we repent and obey God.

So don’t believe the lies which tell you that you are saved from your sins and on your way to heaven on the basis of lip service only while you continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord Jesus. That is just not biblical! By faith in Jesus Christ we are to be those who have died with Christ to sin, and who are denying self, and dying daily (in practice) to sin, and who are following our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, in practice, though not necessarily in absolute perfection. But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual (addictive) sin against God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

Hear My Cry

By G. M. Eldridge

When my soul is worn and weary

And my eyes are filled with grief,

When my hands in desperation

Reach to heaven for relief,

Would I find the words there waiting

If I had the strength to start?

Could a mortal tongue interpret

All the sorrow of a heart?

Spirit, search me in my weakness,

And discern this growing gray.

Intercede in understanding,

Hear the things I cannot say.

Hear my cry, heav’nly Father,

You have known my ev’ry pain.

You have seen all my sorrow,

Hear my cry once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOJiTN56xTg

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