The Battleground of the Soul # 2

a. The Ground of satan's power - the World (continued)

Firstly, then, it is very evident that any ground of the world, which in its nature is a kingdom without suffering, without the Cross, without the setting aside of natural life, is the realm of satan's power and authority. It is perfectly clear that, in the case of the Church, speaking fairly generally, and in the case of countless individual Christians, the weakness, defeat and dishonor which characterize them, and which became so manifest in Peter's case, are due to occupying the ground of satan's strength. That ground may be said to be compromise with the world in its principle.

b. Uncrucified Self

In the second place, there was Peter's own self-strength, self-confidence. "Lord, with Thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death." He later found out how unready, how unprepared, he was for that, but at the time it was a case of self-confidence, and that ground brought his undoing and satan's power. The self still alive and dominant instead of dead, put to the Cross, is the ground of satan's power. Not until the soul has been denied and laid down is the power of satan destroyed and spiritual power established in the life of the child and the servant of God. It is a question of the ground - whether it is the world or whether it is the self (another word for the flesh) - that determines how far satan has power and how far we have spiritual power.

The Need for Persistent Determination

Now, what the Lord says here to Peter is very indicative and, I think, very helpful. "Thou art a stumbling block (an offence) unto Me." The Lord had fought out this battle, had taken His ground, put both His feet down upon this way of the will of God for Him, namely, by the Cross to the Kingdom; and it was for Him no easy way. It was not just the being crucified and being killed, but being made sin and all that is involved of ultimately suffering the forsaking of God. It was no easy way, and He had to keep Himself rigidly in that direction, and anything that came along to influence Him otherwise only brought up the new demand for resolution and persistence. Thus it offended Him in the sense that it made it difficult for Him, it made it hard for Him, it was not helping Him. It may have been intended to help, so far as Peter was concerned, not knowing what he was saying, but behind it the Lord saw that it only raised the old issue again, the old battle, and therefore it offended His sense of the will of His Father and stood across His path to make the way more difficult.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 3)