Peter Speaking with Jesus Beside Fishing Netsby CBPepper
18:28Luke 18:28
Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee.
Peter declared that he and the other disciples had left everything behind and followed Jesus. His statement came in the account of the ruler who asked how to have eternal life, and it voiced the disciples' concern over what they themselves would receive for abandoning their former lives to follow Christ. The occasion revealed that the disciples were still not wholly free from the idea that God's favor and the reward of the righteous could be earned by their own works. It therefore opens the teaching that God's grace is free and cannot be gained by a grasping, self-interested spirit. In verses 28-33 Jesus set before them a hope to cherish, yet they had nearly all forgotten it.
Leaving all to follow Christ springs from rightly estimating the value of the soul. That estimate is formed by studying the plan of redemption and realizing what Christ's sacrifice cost to uplift and ennoble humanity and to save sinners from perishing unto eternal life. Those who grasp this turn away from the attractions of the world and fix their eyes on heaven. They count no sacrifice too great to fulfill His purpose of love, lay all they are and all they possess at His feet, and make doing His word their highest aim.
Peter declared that he and the other disciples had left everything behind and followed Jesus. His statement came in the account of the ruler who asked how to have eternal life, and it voiced the disciples' concern over what they themselves would receive for abandoning their former lives to follow Christ. The occasion revealed that the disciples were still not wholly free from the idea that God's favor and the reward of the righteous could be earned by their own works. It therefore opens the teaching that God's grace is free and cannot be gained by a grasping, self-interested spirit. In verses 28-33 Jesus set before them a hope to cherish, yet they had nearly all forgotten it.
Leaving all to follow Christ springs from rightly estimating the value of the soul. That estimate is formed by studying the plan of redemption and realizing what Christ's sacrifice cost to uplift and ennoble humanity and to save sinners from perishing unto eternal life. Those who grasp this turn away from the attractions of the world and fix their eyes on heaven. They count no sacrifice too great to fulfill His purpose of love, lay all they are and all they possess at His feet, and make doing His word their highest aim.