Confession is Not Completion

Matthew 16:13-28
Jesus asks his disciples who people say he is, then asks them who they say he is.  Peter confesses him as the Christ, the Messiah, their Savior, the one who was promised.  Jesus confirms Peter, telling him that his Father in heaven, God himself has revealed that to him.  Peter has had his eyes opened by God and sees Jesus for who he really is.  And yet that is not enough.  Just a few verses later Jesus rebukes him because he has the things of man in mind and not the things of God.  Jesus has told him that he must suffer and die and Peter rebuked him, telling him he would never allow that to happen.  Peter sees death as bad as undesirable, as a tragedy that cannot take place.  Jesus tells him that this mindset is of man, not God.  In fact, Jesus goes on to say that not only will he suffer and die, but anyone who would follow him must suffer the same.  This is the mindset of God and not man.  Death is good and, in fact, required for any follower of Jesus.  Peter does not understand this because his mind is still set on the things of man and not God, even though he just confessed Jesus as Christ.  A confession of Jesus as Christ is not enough, one must continue on to suffer death, if he is to be a true follower of Jesus.  A servant becomes like his master (John 15).  Taking Jesus' rebuke into consideration, we can infer that basically Jesus is saying to Peter, "Peter, your confession of me as the Christ is incredible, and was given to you by God himself, but that is not enough, you still have the things of man in mind.  You have to set your mind on things above, on the things of God.  Then you will see that confession is not enough, that death must come and it is good and necessary.  Then you will have the things of God in mind."  We cannot stop at confession and think we are there.  We must suffer death.  We must die to ourselves and our flesh.  We must lose our life if we are to save it.  Simple confession is to set one's mind on the things of man and avoid death and denial of self, and ultimately a loss of life, real life.  Real life embraces death and denial.  For what does it profit a man if he saves his life, prolongs his desires and gain and survives?  This is not exchangeable for one's soul.