October 3 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 21:15–19

Devotional

When Peter was translated from death to life, he thought he could do nearly anything for the Lord. He was filled with such love and zeal. He even thought he could lay down his life for Christ. But the Lord Jesus tells Peter that when he is old another will bring him where he does not want to be. For instance, the Jewish Sanhedrin would put him in prison, and enemies of Christ, such as the emperor Nero, would martyr him. But in all this, it was Christ Himself who diminished Peter’s strength. God was going to cut off the wild branches of his self-expectation. In this way Peter had to learn that there was no expectation from him. He had to enter the struggle of being an apostle, as one who had denied the Lord. He had to realize that in the past, in spite of his love and zeal for the Lord, he had spoiled everything. As Peter would increase in age, he would become increasingly dependent on the Lord.

“When thou shalt be old.” Yes, the spiritually old will have to be brought to places where they cannot take themselves anymore. They had not thought they would become so weak. But they, too, have to learn this lesson: Christ must increase and they must decrease.

In their youth, many are willing to do much for Christ, but they can still do so little with Him. And Christ can do so little with them. They are not yet fully thrust upon the Lord Jesus alone. They lean too much on their own strength. Their own abilities and strength have to become less and less. In this regard, they also have to be brought where they do not want to be, because to have to lose self is always painful.

Yet becoming spiritually older is a blessed matter. For when you decrease in the estimation of yourself, the Lord Jesus Christ will increase in value for you. To learn to despise one’s own strength will unite you to Christ. So, becoming older means to decrease in self and so be enabled to stand before God. It means to become less and less, to be able to live more and more for God. In this way one will experience that there will be less ability to believe, less ability to pray, less ability to love, and less ability to stand before God. They become empty, weak, and unable in themselves.

But in all these things, Christ increases in value. He becomes for them their Prophet, Priest, and King. He is raised from the dead. That is for them the life of their life, and the strength of their strength. The workings of love are then not less than in the days of their youth, but they now love Him above all, because He first loved them. Do you also know something of this youthful life and also of this becoming older?

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.