Discipleship – The Perfect Life

Luke 5:1-39

Law will not save us despite its wide existence in our world. The Apostles were people like us and Peter is a good example of any of us common folks today.

Peter’s personal experience therefore must be a joy to each and every human being looking for a perfect life. A life of no pain, no dissatisfaction, and no eternal death.

Peter had not experienced before such existential divine power in his life and this was due to lack of knowledge. This knowledge is ours today and consists of the following:

1. The Law
2. The Gospel
3. Discipleship

1. The Law

Peter and his friends had worked all night in vain without any catch; this is the journey of our life here on earth. Suddenly a strange man stepped into their boat and told them to cast their nets into the deep – a startling command. It was as though ignorance had prompted the carpenter’s son to tell them to do what looked ridiculous.

The fishermen knew from experience that the time to cast the nets into the deep was in the afternoon instead of the morning but Jesus meant what he said. “Having labored the whole night, we caught nothing”, was Peter’s reply. Jesus was asking too much, but Peter said, “On thy utterance will I lower the nets”. (Verse 5)

Peter acted counter to his knowledge and relied solely on Jesus’ Word and the results were unforgettable. Peter hauled in a huge catch.

• Jesus exhibited his absolute power over nature, his power over the world.
• Jesus’ word is simply victory of action commanded; he created, controls and condemns the world at will.
• Peter did not marvel so much over the catch as he did at the man whose heavenly words had such a powerful reaction.

This divine power in the Son of God is Law; it demonstrated Peter’s ignorance about the Lord Jesus. In other words, Law reveals the sin of rejection of God. Every written law reveals ignorance, disobedience and rejection which is still ignorant of the divine power, the sin in the world today.

It is the purpose of “the Law” to reveal our sin of rejecting God; known as godlessness in the world. The law is intended to bring about contrition; the guilt, by which God condemned the world to death. In turn, this should reveal the contradiction in humanity to use law as the means of governance instead of the Gospel which alone corrects human behavior.

If the whole world had come to the true knowledge of the Gospel, there would have been a total transformation of man, full of joy and praise; but with Law, chaos will increase until the end.

It is this guilt of sin (ignorance) which Peter felt. It prompted him to fall down on his knees in deep humiliation and repented. He realized the deity (or the Lordship) of Jesus and his own unworthiness to be in the Lord’s presence.

Law reveals us humans as having rejected God. Sin existed even before law came into the world. Law cannot change anything except to reveal sin, but the Gospel does change human behavior and produces life eternal after repentance. So the more decrees; the more guilt is established. It is then the work of the Gospel to heal the guilt and sin as well. Law is the wrong means to attempt correction of bad human behavior such as crimes, hatred; in short all sin.

If all Governments had this knowledge, the Gospel would occupy the central stage in all fields of life and governance. Lack of knowledge of God is the sin of the world which brings about all the chaos in our world today.

Peter felt his wretchedness and sinfulness because he had not known who the author and controller of his life was. Amazement enveloped Peter, James and John (Zebedee’s sons). Yet the miracle was only a small element of God’s omnipotent power which Jesus demonstrated while he still walked on this earth.

All creation demonstrates his power but the greatest of God’s wisdom is His Love which is the power of the Gospel.

2. Peace on Earth – the Gospel

Christ is the supreme Law because he reveals SIN to the whole created world, as well as its condemnation of death. In the Gospel he demonstrates his LOVE to the world.

His love is the Gospel – God’s love to the world which cleanses the sin of the guilty ones. Without the Gospel, there would be no human existence on earth. It is of absolute importance therefore, that humanity understands the purpose of the Gospel.

Jesus was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy, upon seeing Jesus, fell on his face and begged him to cleanse his sins. It is most remarkable that this leper understood his sinfulness as the cause of his physical incapacitation. It is true that chaos, lawlessness, all pain and death is a result of sin.

His guilt for sin far exceeded the physical pain. He was willing to remain in his defiled condition rather than suffer eternal death which is God’s verdict for sin. No one knows where he had received this spiritual knowledge but most importantly, he knew the one person who could remove sin and to his request, Jesus replied:

“I will, be thou clean” (Verse 13). This man was to be a witness of this cleansing power to all priests of the world. This witness drew huge crowds from Galilee and Judea for all who were sick with different ailments.

More eloquent than words was the prostrate form of the man who was lowered through the roof to Jesus’ feet. Jesus saw the man’s bodily affliction as others also did; but Jesus saw more in this man. He saw the man’s guilt, his repentance and the strong faith in his heart which others could not see; hence the words:

“Dismissed for thee are thy sins.”

The release from sin is still the main point of the story. The physical healing is the proof for sins’ removal. The sin of our rejection of God is the cause of all suffering in the world. Sin and suffering are interlinked.

In John 5:14 a man with an infirmity for 36 years knew perfectly well his sinfulness. There is no one here on earth who does not face all manner of calamities. For we are all condemned to death, eternal death.

The Jews abandoned the truth of God’s word – the Law and the Gospel; and instead built their own religious cultures filled with ceremonies, traditions, customs, alms giving, sacrifices, tithes etc. None of these superficial works will ever bring about life eternal and peace in our world until the end of time.

No one could see sin vanish into thin air but all could see the man made whole, pick up his pallet and walk away. This was the ocular (visual) demonstration of the power of sins removal. All humanity suffers from sin. Only Christ’s love reaches out to cleans us from sin.

3. Discipleship (The Perfect Life):

Discipleship is faith in Christ. It is the correct response to God’s law and God’s Love. Peter spoke for his fellow fishermen; they became disciples when they accepted Christ as their Savior.

Few in our generation have yet felt the sting of death as the wage of sin. Only Christ can save humanity from this daily holocaust of destruction and slaughter due to sin.

Levi a tax collector constantly felt these pangs of sin through the Law which hung over his head like the “Sword of Damocles”, an ever-present danger of death. It was this wretchedness which prompted Jesus to call Levi, and faith was kindled in his heart. For him, there was a small financial loss but a great benefit, the spiritual gift of God’s love through faith in Christ, with his sins removed.

Levi invited his fellow tax collectors to be freed from their guilt of sin. This is the great feast to which all sinners are invited. It is the feeling of wretchedness which Christ looks for in our hearts.

Those who can fulfill all the demands of the Law don’t need God’s grace. Only those with the guilt conscience – where the first and second table of the law is active – such as the robbers, the tax collectors, prostitutes and all who feel the pangs of sin and death. This invitation is out to all but those satisfied with life and the rewards of this world do not need this invitation, like the ignorant yet educated Pharisees.

Christ freely absolves all sin and offers the gift of a new life. This is the call of the Gospel to receive Christ with his gift of life.

Christianity of our day confuses and mixes legalism, formalism and religious traditions, with grace. It includes, a bit of fasting, charitableness, tithing, Holy Communion, plus all our Christian works towards the poor, disabled, religious traditions etc.

All these and more are not bad per say, but they are the old robes. Grace throws out all religious attachments, outward observance of Law and false righteousness etc. Mathew 5:20

We must put on the new garment of righteousness through faith in Christ and throw the old one away.

Grace and faith with its spiritual life cannot mix even with the smallest part of religiosity of our day.

Traditions may be good but excellence (holiness) with it is quite another. People just don’t care to change, they ought to abandon the old and rejoice in the grace we have in Christ.

The sweet new wine of Jesus never changes in purity and excellence. It removes every element of paganism when we realize our sinfulness, accept God’s gift of grace through faith in Christ.

Apollo Kikule – True Faith revealed