By Martin Morrison
Failure can haunt you. The memory of past sins can debilitate you in your Christian journey. The reminder of errors in judgement can paralyze your walk with God. That sudden and painful thought that wakes you up in the middle of the night and refuses further sleep. No matter how much you lecture yourself to quieten your mind, the thought resurfaces when least expected. It is strange how your mind is able, so to speak, to have a mind of its own!
“He has risen. He is not here. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you”, Mark 16:6 – 7. That was the advice of the young man in the tomb, given to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome when they came to anoint the body of Jesus after his crucifixion.
The key phrase is, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter”. Thomas Brooks, commented on this verse and especially the phrase, “and Peter”. I paraphrase:
“What love! What mercy! Christ looked more upon Peter’s sorrow than his sin, more upon his tears than his oaths. The Lord will not cast away weak saints for their great unbelief. Or cast them away for their seasons of hypocrisy, seasons of pride, seasons of passion. We will not throw away a little gold, because of a great deal of dross that clings to it; we will not throw away wheat because it is mixed with chaff, and will God?
We do not throw away our garments because of spots, or books because of some blots, or jewels because of some flaws. Will the Lord cast away his dearest ones, because of their spots, blots and flaws. Surely no! God looks more at the garment than the spot. God looks more at the book than the blot. God looks more at the jewel than the flaw.
Weak Christians are more apt to look upon their infirmities than on God’s grace, and because their gold is mixed with a great deal of dross, they are ready to throw away all as dross.
Well remember this: the Lord Jesus has as great an interest in the weakest saints as the strongest. He has an interest as a friend, a father, a husband. Yes, though saints are weak, very weak, he cannot but overlook their weakness, and keep a fixed eye on their graces”.
Despite Peter denying his Lord and Saviour not once, not twice, but three times, Jesus longs to see Peter after the resurrection in Galilee. He longs to restore him, he longs to embrace him in his arms, he longs to commission him again to service.
In God’s economy, human failure, can never be the last word. In God’s family, failure can never exclude you from membership or service. How can it? Your entrance into the family was not through victory. It was through grace. So how can failure exclude you? You were not included because of success, so how can you be excluded because of failure? God’s love and grace will always trump or conquer our failures. Big and small. Otherwise it wouldn’t be grace. Otherwise God wouldn’t be God!
For Further Reading: The Works of Thomas Brooks.