Saturday, July 31, 2010

Gospel Christ or Righteous Christ

Matthew 16:17
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 16:23
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Peter hears from our Lord one of the highest compliments and the harshest rebukes almost the one right after the other.

It provides us with a warning that walking with Christ must be done diligently and with care moment by moment. Not that Peter could have lost his salvation; it is obvious that his relationship with Christ continues, and that unaffected, but that closeness, blessedness of daily rejoicing in Christ must be tended to. Satan is ever diligent to throw us off track. We must be therefore so much more diligent to watch the track.

And see where Satan threw him off: on the doctrine of the Gospel. Satan's message through Peter was that we do not need the Gospel Christ, only the righteous Christ. We do not need, so said Satan, a substitute, we only need an example and an encourager. If only we had Jesus as a leader, says Satan to man, we would not need a Saviour.

May God helps us to always see and be happy to hear rebukes that lead us back to the Gospel.

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