Peter's Denial

"Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and death. Jesus said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow three times this day, until you deny me three times that you do not know me" (Luke 22:33-34)

Peter's response resonates with me: In the height of spiritual fervor, Peter thinks he is finally ready to give Jesus his "100%," but Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. It was why He came into the world. We have an complete inability to earn God's favor on our own. Jesus, in His omniscience, knew what Peter was going to do in all of its horrible detail. That's what omniscience means--Jesus knows all of our pasts and all of our futures in full HD.

Considering this, I got to thinking about the times I come to Jesus, promising to do all sorts of things for Him: "Oh yea! I'm gonna tackle the Word. I'm gonna do this and that, I'm ready to do anything for you Lord." Little do I know that, in under an hour, I'll end up screaming at a car that cuts me off, or fall into some other sin.

Yet, this passage is not just another reminder about the depravity of man; it reveals something extraordinary about the God we serve, His faithful love. He knows everything we are going to do, and yet does not cast us off. Though Peter denied Jesus, the Lord of all, Jesus never denied Peter. As Christians, we can be comforted by the fact that our sin does not take God by surprise. He knows what we are going to do in EXACT detail. It did not stop him from going to the cross. And because of the cross, we can have confidence that God is always pleased with us, and that He is doing something real and absolutely effective about our sin.

So, do you find yourself you discouraged by your failures or taken by surprise by your sin? Don't be, God's not. He is saying to you, "I know you failed, I knew you were going to fail the last time you came to me in prayer, and exactly when and how. But you are still my child, what you did was paid for with the blood of my son, you are justified."

This does not mean we should be slacking in personal holiness, but should enable us to pursue holiness in the freedom of knowing, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord"(Romans 8:39).