A Devotion from J.D. Jones

“You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).
-John 1:42 nkjv

I [can] not discover a more beautiful illustration of the charity and hopefulness of our blessed Lord than I find in his first words to Peter. For when Simon came to him that day he was anything but a rock. He was a man of sand that day and for many a day after that. It took a lifetime to turn Simon into Peter—to turn the man of sand into the man of rock.

It is the man of sand who ran away in the garden and who denied Christ. But in the book of the Acts, on the day of Pentecost, at the temple gate called Beautiful, before the Sanhedrin—he is Peter, the Rock.

And this first I get from Simon Peter’s history: a new and subduing idea of the forgiving grace of Christ. Friends may cast you off, parents may disown you, but there is mercy with Jesus Christ. Men and women laden with iniquities, sinning and sinning and sinning again, I know of One who has not despaired of you; I know of One whose patience has not failed. Come to Peter’s Savior.

And this second thing I learn from Peter’s story. I get a new idea of the restoring power of Christ. To turn Simon—the unstable, unreliable, vacillating Simon—into a rock! What a work was that! There is not a person, however wicked and broken and helpless, that Jesus cannot restore.

And Peter’s chief virtue, his saving grace, was his love. Peter loved the Lord with all the strength of his eager, impetuous heart. It was love that made him leave all and follow him at the first. It was mistaken love—but still love—that would have saved Christ from the Via Dolorosa. It was love that made him say at the supper, in his own impulsive way, “You shall never wash my feet,” and then, when he knew what the act signified, “Not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Yes, whatever charges may be brought against Peter, this at any rate may be said in his favor: he loved his Lord with a deep, passionate, enthusiastic love.

Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Can you say as did Peter, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you”? Then blessed are you and when you leave this earth the gates of the city will open to welcome you and the trumpets will sound for you on the other side.