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Peter Walking on the Water Blows Your Antiquated Theology Out of the Water

“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a spirit;’ and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.’ And Peter answered him and said, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” And he said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, ‘Lord, save me.’ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ ”

Matthew 14:25-31, KJV.

We rail against Pentecostals and Charismatics for preaching “word of faith” ideas. We say things like: It’s selfish; they’re just teaching people to get what they want. They’re trying to make money off the listeners by saying, “Send me and my ministry money, and God will bless you.” We accuse them of teaching that God gives to us at our command, denying God’s prerogative as the Sovereign. We argue that the gifts they are talking about ended with the Apostles or when “the perfect came,” that is, the bible was collected and confirmed as the inspired scripture. We argue that the miraculous signs which Jesus performed were given for only one reason – to confirm His and His Apostles’ legitimate claim to be God-ordained messengers to mankind. How legitimate is this criticism?

Not very. I watch these TV preachers, and I see very little of a base, commercial fleecing of the flock. I know it has happened and does happen, but most of what I have seen is some solid bible analysis. I think we judge them superficially without looking at what they’re actually saying, especially when we call them “name-it-&-claim-it” teachers. They talk about the actual words used in the scripture and the need to seek God’s will and not just try to self-aggrandize but seek the glory of God. In other words, the teaching is not “Just say the word, and you get what you want.” Their preaching inspires my faith, and it challenges my faith. They make me learn about God’s covenant with men of great faith, like Abraham and Jacob and David and others who leaned on their covenant with God, the God who rewards those who trust Him and seek after Him. In fact, I have learned more about the covenants and their details, including the rewards, regarding the Abrahamic to the Mosaic, from Charismatic preachers than I have from Reformed (aka Covenant Theology) preachers. It is good to serve God. He doesn’t reward us with disaster and disease; he uses those to show He’s sovereign. But His regular dealings with His faithful ones are good gifts. See Job and James 1:17. Remember that “all the promises of God in [Christ] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” II Corinthians 1:20, KJV.

As for the theological concerns, look carefully at what happened with Jesus walking on the water. First, once Jesus had told the Disciples to “be of good cheer,” at that point, any purpose of demonstrating Christ’s credentials as Messiah and God Himself was satisfied, right? Walking on the water of a large lake during a strom is a hard trick with which to fool people. The Disciples were convinced of his magnificence as a miracle-worker from God and more. We would be convinced if it ended there. In fact, that’s where Mark and John end their telling of the event in Mark 6 and John 6. But Matthew, who was present in the boat and was an eyewitness (as was John), goes further in his telling. And I know of no one, who accepts Matthew as a God-inspired author, who also questions the authenticity of Matthew’s addition of this detail to the account.

We are stunned by what Christ did and wonder, even at our most faithful, “How on earth did He do that?” But we then solace our fleshly brains with, “Oh well, He was God after all.” And we walk away from the story, legitimately convinced of His deity. But Peter, that’s a different matter. Do we need that to believe in Jesus’ deity or to trust that Peter was a true Apostle? None of the other Disciples walked on the water, and we are perfectly fine with them as authorized, ordained Apostles. Matthew could have never mentioned Peter’s walk, and we would be none the poorer in our faith in the Apostles and Christ. Peter’s walking on the water was completely unnecessary for the theological purpose of showing Christ’s credentials as God and man or the Disciples credentials as future Apostles of His Church. How can we explain his short walk? Why did God have Matthew include that part in the account?

The above questions undo the argument that the miracles were for the sole purpose of authenticating Christ’s deity and the Apostles’ authority. We can’t even say that Christ had compassion on someone, and thus, His love for humanity was the motivation for this action. He neither healed anyone nor delivered anyone from a demon. He performed a completely gratuitous miracle, and then one-upped Himself by inviting Peter to join Him in the miraculous walk. He could have said, “Peter, really? Don’t you initiate and speak up enough without wanting a joyride with me?! Look, man, this whole story is about Me, not you. Get over yourself and quit wanting to be in on everything. Learn a little patience and humility and think about someone else beside yourself for a change! Jesus is sovereign after all.” If we Reformed had been in the boat, we might have rebuked him like that.

Second, the fact that Christ allowed Peter to indulge himself is telling. What was Peter thinking? I would have been thinking this way: “Wow! Jesus is truly someone above and beyond a mere prophet. He must be someone much greater than I had ever thought.” I could be wrong, but I don’t think I would have asked him to invite me to join him. I mean, why step out on a limb like that? Ah, and there’s the rub. Faith involves not irresponsibility; faith calls us to responsibility. What did Jesus tell His Disciples when He sent them out on a missionary trip?   “Freely you have received, freely give.” If they hadn’t received, there’d be no obligation, right? You see, in everyone’s mind there is this responsibility part of our consciences which says, “I’m just a person like anyone else, and if God gives me something totally out of His grace, who am I to keep it to myself?” If I paid for it, I might have an argument that I can keep it to myself. Another problem with the false doctrine of salvation by works.

We could speculate as to what was in Peter’s mind, as some no doubt have done, but I think it’s safe to assume that it wasn’t this: “If I walk on the water with Jesus, then it will cement my credentials as an Apostle so that my future writings will be considered divinely-inspired.” Nor was it: “What a chance to unselfishly point out the glory of God!” Here’s my contemporary speculation as to what was in his mind: “Whoa! That is so cool. I want to do that. I can trust that Jesus wouldn’t command me to do something unsafe.” Or it might have been: “I want to do that before one of the other Disciples gets the idea.” In other words, it’s hard to imagine Peter having some pure, unselfish motive for asking, actually telling, Jesus to command him to come to him on the water. No one gets healed or saved. Peter simply gets to do something no other average (not Jesus) human in the history of the world has ever done. Bragging rights anyone? I’ve got nuthin on Peter.

How many opportunities have you passed up by not asking God for a miracle? Perhaps instead of asking yourself, “Oh my, I don’t know if I have the right motive in asking God for” fill in the blank, we should be asking ourselves this: “Why am I afraid to ask God for this? What responsibility am I avoiding, knowing that I’ll be obligated to testify about it to give glory of God? Or maybe even pass it on to someone? Do I want to receive the credit for fixing this instead of asking my Father in heaven? Do I have a defective faith in the God in whom I claim to believe? Would it just be more comfortable and easy for me if I continue sitting in “the boat” as opposed to walking on the water, even if remaining in the boat involves suffering?” Here’s a very probing question: Is it easier for us to sit where we are and even suffer than to exercise our faith and call upon God? You see, Peter was safely in the boat; he was not in an emergency situation, which required that he call on Jesus to save him from it. That ended up being the case later because he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the surrounding circumstances, but he didn’t begin there. He began in safety with absolutely no need to be met. He just wanted to walk on the water and go to Jesus, not in some symbolic act of showing He’s the savior. No, he went for the fun of it.

Is your faith fun? Or is it bogged down with theological arguments about what cannot be done? And that is the favor done us by the “Word of faith” preachers, the Charismatics, and the Pentecostals. Their message challenges us to step out and makes us face our fears, our unbelieving hearts, our false humility, our excuses that do NOT glorify God, even though that is one of our excuses: “That passed away with the Apostles. Who am I to presume that I could ask for such a miracle? Anyway, I don’t want to be greedy. (Better to suffer here than to stand out and be ridiculed like those preachers, btw.)” How can you be greedy with God?! He can tell us “No, don’t come, right?” He is sovereign after all.

Is your heavenly Father going to give you something you asked for with the wrong motivation and allow it to harm you? Peter knew otherwise. Why else would he ask Jesus to command him to come to him? He knew that with Jesus nothing could go wrong, and even if it did, like his weak faith failing him, Jesus was there to pull him up. And the neatest part of that was that they both had to walk back to the boat together. How’s that for getting what you want from the Lord?!