Human Effort Rowing vs Faith Transportation
“And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, 17 And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. 18 And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. 19 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. 20 But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid. 21 Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” John 6:16-21
Galatians 3:3 says that once we are saved we can’t then be perfected by the flesh. Flesh means and is translated “human effort.” We can’t grow or be sanctified by human effort although this is what 99 per cent of all believers are trying to do today. No! We are sanctified the same way we are justified, by faith, our faith cooperating with “the faith of Jesus Christ.” (Colossians 2:6)
Rowing in the above passage signifies human effort in order to reach the shore of heaven. It symbolizes sanctification by works. Notice it was only when they quit trying to row that they were “immediately” at the shore. But they had to trust through some terror. This signifies trusting through the cross. The cross is the rough seas, high winds and dark times of life. This is where you meet Jesus.
If we trust Him thru the cross moments, He (not we) will take us to our glorious destination.
Jonah told the sailors to take him up and cast him into the sea and the stormy sea would be made calm but they refused to listen. They kept rowing. When they finally trusted Jonah and cast him in the sea, the tempest was calmed. This is a picture of Jesus being baptized into His death at Calvary in order to calm the chaos of Satan, sin, self, the world, and the flesh in our lives. Jonah 1:11-16
Only He can do it. We can’t do it. When will we learn to stop rowing and start listening and trusting, trusting thru the terror? Only then will we see quelled the tempests of life.
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