The Truth About Doctrine
Chapter 6 of the Book of Hebrews speaks of six foundation doctrines; repentance, faith, baptism, impartation of the Holy Spirit, resurrection, and judgment and the writer admonishes believers to grow beyond those six doctrines and go on into maturity.
If you think about it, one or more of these six doctrines are the very issues that divide the Baptists, the Church of Christ, the Assemblies of God, the Methodist, the Lutherans and virtually every other denomination around. Nearly every Christian denomination has exalted one or two of these foundation doctrines while minimizing others and have divided themselves off from everyone that is not like minded.
Some preachers teach faith, faith, faith but barely mention the need for true repentance on which to build that faith. Others have become so focused on the doctrine of baptism or the doctrine of the impartation of the Spirit that they have become severely unbalanced in their gospel message making them unable to produce anything but other unbalanced Christians. Some preachers, for their own lack of understanding, lightly breeze over these elementary doctrines and lay little or no spiritual foundation in the lives of their converts and then they wonder why they produce little or no fruit.
The fact is, each one of these six foundational doctrines plays a very important part in transforming sinful man into a new creation and, teaching believers how to abide today in the presence of God. A foundation is not something you use one time and discard or build shoddily because you don't think anyone will ever see it. It is something you must build well because you must use it every day to hold your building up. A weak foundation can only produce a weak building.
Let's look at these six doctrines as they play out in the life of Simon Peter.
Repentance From Dead Works
In Luke 5, we find the story of Simon the fisherman's initial repentance. Simon, who would later be called Peter the Apostle, knew Jesus was someone special and frequently hung around and listened to him teach. On this occasion, Simon had fished all night and caught nothing and while he was washing his nets Jesus told him to "row back out to the deep and let down his net for a catch". Simon was tired and didn't want to go, but turned to Jesus and said, "Master, I'll go because you say to". Simon called him master, which was a word that showed respect for him as a teacher or leader higher in rank than he was, but something happened on the boat that morning that seriously effected Simon's view of Jesus.
Simon rowed out and let down his net and caught a huge catch of fish, more fish than he could haul into the boat, but his mind turned quickly from the net full of fish. Somehow this incident allowed Simon to see Jesus for who he really was. He rowed furiously back toward the shore and jumped out of the boat before it reached the beach and swam and ran and fell and the feet of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." This time he called Jesus "Lord", a word far different than the word master he had used and several hours earlier. This word "Lord" was a title signifying deity, all powerful, the Christ.
Take note of four things about Simon's initial repentance. First, it was brought about by a sovereign revelation of the divine nature of Jesus. Second, Simon immediately acknowledged that he was a sinful man. Third, his repentance was intricately entwined with a "no bones about it" confession of Jesus as Lord. Forth, it resulted in a complete change in Simon's heart and mind and his direction in life. He simply walked off and left, not only the catch of his life, but also his whole way life, his possessions and his means of making a living. He was now totally committed to following Jesus and totally dependent on Him for everything. Now that's repentance.
Jesus said, "Except you repent, you shall likewise parish." 1 He also said "the wise man digs down deep." 2 Repentance is the spiritual excavation work that must be done before building a house of faith. Everything that Simon had previously built his life on was dug out and he was now ready to begin laying a foundation. Had this deep excavation not taken place in Simon's life he would not have been ready for the many trials he was going to face.
Repentance is the only thing that can separate us from the guilt of our past sins, and without a real understanding of how repentance works and that repentance is a foundation stone we must learn to use every day, the enemy can use guilt and pride to drag us out of the presence of God and into our past.
True repentance overcomes our past!
Faith towards God
In Matthew 16 we find another incident in Simon's life that was no doubt a critical moment. Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do people say I am?" They said, "people think you are John the Baptist or Elias or Jeremiah or some other prophet." Then Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" I can't help but believe Simon Peter's mind instantly flashed back to the day of the big catch as he boldly proclaimed, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God."
Upon this proclamation Jesus spoke to Simon Peter saying, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father which is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I give to you the keys to the Kingdom and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Wow! What a powerful word was spoken to this ex-fisherman. His name was officially changed to Peter, He was given a blessing and a promise to possess the keys to the Kingdom and that heaven would respond to whatever words he uttered on earth, and all of this from the mouth of the son of God. I am sure Peter's ego must have jump about three times in size. However, Matthew goes on to say that Jesus began to tell the disciples all he would suffer at the hands of the elders.
Well, I guess Peter's overactive ego just could not resist pulling the Son of God aside and rebuking Him saying, "Far be it from you, this just can't happen." I'm sure that Peter was thinking, "I thought we were talking about thrones! Us, ruling and reigning, and now we are talking about crosses? What about the thrones"? But Peter's rebuke was not as powerful as the one Jesus returned to Peter. Jesus said, " Get behind me Satan, you offend me! You are only thinking about the things of men and not of the things of God".
Whoa! What an incredible fall that must have been for Peter, to have just gotten a powerful blessing and promise from Jesus and in the next breath nearly, to be rebuked and actually called Satan. I‘m sure Peter was devastated. This shows us clearly that it is possible to be truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God but still have no idea what the will of God is.
Jesus went on in Matthew 16 to tell his disciples that, "If anyone wants to be my disciple and come after me, let him deny himself and take his cross up daily and follow after me". True faith understands that it was God's will for Jesus to suffer and die and that this is also His will for us, to deny ourselves and die daily to our old man, his sinful ways and worldly thinking and walk in a newness of life.
Faith is the only thing that can deal with our future and our fear of death and of judgment. Until we can eagerly embrace the will of God for our lives through genuine faith, the enemy can use our fears to drag us into the future out of the presence of God. True faith overcomes tomorrow!
Baptism Unites Us With Christ!
Keep in mind that repentance and faith are not exclusively a part of the new covenant, they were also the basis for an old covenant relationship with God. What was not available under the old covenant was grace and glory. They had no ability to be IN the resurrected Christ or have the resurrected Christ IN them. The old covenant was about being a servant while the new covenant is about being a son and living in the Kingdom of God right NOW.
According to Col. 2:11 the purpose of baptism is to separate us for the old man and bring us into a new creation, free from our sinful nature. A genuine faith cannot be established unless it is built on real repentance, and baptism is ineffectual unless it is built on genuine faith
Endnotes:
To be continued ...