Have you ever thought or said, “I am a sinful man?” It seems hard for anyone in our society today to even call anything sin. We live in a world where the idea that “what is right for you is not necessarily right for me,” has invaded even the minds of many church-going Christians. For example, they will say, “I don’t believe in doing that, but I don’t want to take that right away from someone else.” What we need is some real, biblical discernment to understand good and evil. I believe, in the Book of Luke, Chapter 5, we see the beginning of Peter’s transformation from a lowly, smelly fisherman to a god-fearing, discerning, sold out follower of Jesus, simply because he obeyed a seemingly futile request of Jesus (v. 4, NASB), “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
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| Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish, in the Sea of Galilee, by Raphael [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
How did Peter’s transformation happen? I believe it started when Peter replied (v. 5, NASB), “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”
When we are willing to obey God, we are willing to do things contrary to our sinful nature. We are willing to rationalize, “Even though I want to do this thing instead, God’s ways must be good.” We disobey our own desires and obey God. The more we do this, the more we become sensitive to the good things from God and the evil things in our world and in our own thoughts. We see the glory of God and the depravity of ourselves and our need for God to forgive us. Peter obeyed Jesus, and saw God’s glory and his own depravity and exclaimed (v. 8, NASB), “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Peter went on to become one of the most significant men in the redemption of the world. His faith and obedience played an immeasurable role in the radical transformation of the known world. If only we all had this kind of response!
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