Luke 5:4-11 NASB95
When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” [5] Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” [6] When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; [7] so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. [8] But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” [9] For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; [10] and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” [11] When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
In light of the miracle Peter just witnessed, he fell down at Jesus’s feet, saying (the grammar here is “repeatedly saying”), “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Peter had been trained all of his life as a Jew and therefore had a good dose of religion in him. Religion says that because I have imperfections, God wants to distance himself from me, but the gospel is just the opposite. Jesus came incarnationally to clothe Himself in our weak humanity, to change our destiny. Jesus wasn’t surprised to discover that Peter was a sinful man. This was not new news to Him, and yet His response to Peter was to tell him not to be afraid, and from that point forward, he would be a fisher of men. The law and religion say that God wants to run from us because we are weak and imperfect, but grace says that God runs toward our weaknesses so that in our weaknesses and imperfections, His strength can be made perfect. If you as a Christian still believe that God wants to distance Himself from you when you’re imperfections show out, then you need to hear at a deeper level the truth about the Gospel of God. The good news is, God is not threatened by our imperfections; He is attracted to them, not because He celebrates our sin, but because He has come to liberate us from our sin, and He can’t do that from a distance. He clothes Himself in our humanity that we might clothe ourselves in His deity, transforming our destiny.