Don’t Jump To Conclusions

“From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

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.” (Matthew 16:21-23)”

The Jews had long believed that the Messiah would come to earth as the great king, and set everything right, and Jesus disciples were no exception.   After all, there were numerous prophecies such as Isaiah 9:6-7 that referred to him as the great king.  “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” 

When Jesus began to talk about being killed, it seemed like a contradiction of everything the scriptures said about the Messiah.  Peter was convinced Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, and he could not believe such things would happen to him.  Jesus rebuked Peter sharply for his insistence that it could not be true.  Like the other Jews, he was ignoring prophecies such as Isaiah 53:3-9.  “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” 

It was crucial that Jesus came and paid for people’s sins.  If he did not, even the strictes Pharisees could never be saved, because the rules in the Law were never intended as a means of salvation.  Romans 3:20 tells us, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”  The law only made people aware of their sin, it did not tell how to get rid of it and as Romans 3:23 tells us, “…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  Without Jesus death on the cross no one could qualify as a citizen of the kingdom. 

Like the other Jews, Peter was only focused on the result he wanted, and ignored God’s plan.  Sadly, many times we do the same thing today, focusing on a few verses that support our ideas or positions, and ignoring those which do not.  As a result, we may find ourselves teaching or acting against Christ and his plan, sincerely thinking we are right.  We need to remember that as II Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” and that as II Peter 1:20 tells us, “…no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”  Every teaching of scripture is equally true.  Apparent contradictions indicate that we are not understanding them correctly and need to study more fully, rather than picking a position and ignoring things that do not seem to agree.    This is true, whether we are discussing salvation, the gifts of the Spirit, church polity, prophecy, or any other religious issue.  Conflicts are invariably the result of a lack of study of the scriptures or an unspiritual attitude.   Don’t jump to conclusions on the basis of one or two passages.