THE KING’S BUSINESS
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again. To Peter as one taught of God who had faith in Him as the Son of God, Jesus gave the “keys of the kingdom of heaven,” i. e., power to open the door of that king dom by his teaching and thus to let men in. We see Peter using the keys in Acts 2 opening the door to the Jews and in Acts 10 opening the door to the Gentiles. As a Spirit-taught man, he should also know the mind of God and what he bound (i. e., forbade) would be bound in heaven, and what he loosed (i. e., permitted) should be Having clearly revealed to the disciples that He was the Son of God and the Mes siah, the time was now ripe for Jesus to declare to them His approaching rejection, suffering and death. He tells them he “must" go to Jerusalem;, “must’’ suffer; “must” be killed; “must" be raised again. There was an imperative necessity for these things. Why must He die? That we might live (John 3:14; Heb. 9:22; Isa. 53:4-6; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). But there is another glorious “must,” “must be raised again” (Rom. 1:4; 4:25; 5:9; John 14:19). Peter again rushes to the front but not this time with a God-given confession of faith but a flesh-given protest against the cross. And now Jesus pro nounces him no longer Peter (rock-man) but Satan (an adversary) and a “stum bling-block.” All this downfall and hu miliation came from Peter’s not minding the things of God but the things of men. To face the cross is the mind of God; to shun it is the mind of man. Then, to follow the wondrous words that set forth in the clear est and most searching way the conditions and cost of real discipleship: (1) “Let him deny himself.” Real self-denial is the de nial of self. The word translated “deny” means to affirm that one has no acquaint ance or connection with the one denied, just as Peter on a later occasion .denied his Lord (Matt. 26:72; Luke 22:34). To deny self then is to say to self when it comes loosed in heaven. Monday, March 8. Matt. 16:21-27.
forward with its claims, its demands, its interests, its desires, its opinions, its strength, its anything, “I don’t know you.” It is to renounce self with all that belongs to it, its ideas, hopes, plans, purposes, am bitions, strength, all. (2) “Let him take up his cross.” The cross .is the suffering and shame that lie in the 'path of loyalty to God. It .meant literal execution on the cross for Jesus, and it means persecution for all who will live godly in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:12). To take up our cross is to go right on in the path of duty and meet the suffering and shame and crucifixion that always lie there. To compromise with the world in order to avoid this is to re fuse the cross and to cease to be a disci ple. (3) “And follow Me,” i. e., to have the mind of Christ. What that mind is we are told explicitly in Philippians 2:5-8 R. V.; 1 Peter 2:19-21F. This looked hard to the disciples; but Jesus went on to show them how well it paid, that a man made a bad bargain if he gained the whole.world, and in doing it lost his own soul, or life Jesus is coming again in the glory of His Father with His angels. In that day every one shall receive according to his deeds. Tuesday, March 9. Matt. 16:28-17:8. Verse 28 of chapter 16 belongs properly with chapter 17. It was in His transfigura tion that three of those standing there, Peter, John and James, saw “the Son o{ Man coming in His kingdom.” This ex perience was not granted to Peter, James and John for their own blessing alone but that they might become channels of bless ing to others. It qualified them to be more efficient witnesses for Christ. Jesus went up into the mountain to pray (Luke 9:28) and took them along as companions (as in Mark 5:37; Matt. 26:37, 38) and as He prayed He was transfigured. The latter part of the word translated “transfigured” has the same root as the word translated “form” in Philippians 2:6, 7. There also we see a transfiguration of Jesus, putting off the form (or “figure”), of God and
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