"For
whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew
16:25).
---After
Peter receives the revelation from the Father that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the second
revelation from Jesus, that the church would be edified
in Him, Peter was reprimanded by the Lord with the following
words: "Get behind me, Satan!" (Matt.
16:23). Immediately, Jesus urges his disciples to take
the cross because whoever wants to save his life, will
lose it and whoever loses his life for His sake, will
find it.
---When
the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write the scripture
in this way, he had a precious revelation for us. First
of all, we need the revelation of the person of Christ
as the Son of the Living God. This is the mystery of
God that can only be revealed by the Father, and for
this we were separated by his grace (Gal. 1:15-16).
The second revelation is the mystery of Christ: the
church. The multifaceted wisdom of God known to the
principalities and powers according to the eternal purpose
that he did in Jesus Christ our Lord.
---This
was very glorious for the disciples, but then the Spirit
shows us how Peter fell short. Jesus talks about taking
the cross and then takes him to the Mount of Transfiguration.
How can this be? This text sometimes intrigues us because
in this moment of a revelation so great, how could Peter
allow Satan to use him? And how was Jesus not affected
by it, since he immediately takes his disciple to a
higher level of revelation.
---Here
the Lord teaches us a very precious lesson. Even if
we have the revelation of Christ as the Son of the Living
God and his church, we need for the cross to execute
its job of mortification in our soul because this is
where the enemy works.
---Peter
was not possessed by Satan, but in his soul he gave
room for self-compassion. He desired man's glory that
would come as a result of being the Messiah's disciple.
He did not want for the Lord to have a shameful death
because it meant his shame as well. What would they
think of him? It was so, that when he saw Jesus being
scoffed, he denied him three times.
---We
received the Lord as our life and we have received the
revelation of the church, but our self-compassion is
still present in our soul. Due to our self-compassion,
we tend not to believe what others think of us and we
try to do things by our own methods.
---This
is our life, the life of the soul. If we try to save
it, we will lose it, but if we take our cross, for love
of him, we will find it. The Lord perfectly knows what
our soul is like, since he lived in the flesh. For this
very reason, he did not condemn Peter and neither does
he condemn us for this, but he tries to make us understand
that this life, without the treatment of the cross,
is a fertile land for the enemy.
---He
teaches us to take our cross because his purpose for
us is not the holiness of our soul, but the glory revealed
in the Mount of Transfiguration.
(Translation:
Betsy Calvo, USA).
