Page 13 - Of Course You Can Walk On Water - eBook

hydrodynamics, which made it impossible for me to walk on water. For God has done
what that law, hampered by the flesh, could not do; sending His own Son in human flesh,
He walked on water in that flesh, in order that the law, which required us also to walk on
water, might be fulfilled by us, who accomplish this, not according to the law of physical
hydrodynamics, but according to the higher law of faith, which makes it possible for us to

do the impossible.

We are inclined to take God's commands too lightly; we limit the Holy One of Israel, and
place our own interpretation, subconsciously or otherwise, upon His biddings. Thus,
when He says, "Go, and sin no more," we tend to understand it, "Go, and sin as little as
possible."

With such an attitude our faith is too weak to permit us to step out of the boat and walk on
water. Or we may leave the boat from a conviction that we ought. But immediately we are
struggling in the water of our sin because our faith is not strong enough to enable us to
surmount it. And when this happens we think, This demonstrates that it is not possible to
walk on water (to fully overcome my sins). I stepped out, and sank. But, "'according to

your faith be it done to you.'"

Two ideas are implicit in what we have been saying: We must obey God, but we cannot
obey-of ourselves. This serves to thrust home the fact that, all the responsibility to obey
rests on us, but all the power to obey comes from God. When Peter walked on the water
Christ did everything Peter couldn't do, but He would not do anything Peter could do.
Peter could climb out of the boat, and he could take one step after another. He could do
nothing about the buoyancy of the water. Because he had faith, Jesus looked after that.

"Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act" (Ps. 37:5).

"When He Saw the Wind"

Peter was striding along over the waves, feeling, no doubt, an exhilaration he had never
felt before. But there is an aspect of his experience that brings some questions to mind.
What are the implications of the words introduced after he is described as walking on the

water: "But when [having taken his eyes off Jesus] he saw [became aware of] the wind,
he was afraid" (Matt. 14:30)?

It seems to be the wrong place to mention the wind. Surely he had "seen" it before.

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