Matthew 26:35
Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
How many times have we all said this? How many times have we all made a commitment to Christ to not deny Him, sin against Him, live life without Him, or simply forget to honor Him as the Lord of our lives? Peter i the picture of us all. He points out for us all the truth that we don't like to believe: We all fail when it comes to following Christ. Yes, there is the pious man and/or woman of God who wants to make us believe they have everything together. However, like Peter's bravado, they make the talk, but fail in the walk. We might all be aware of Paul's confession to the Roman Christians:
Romans 7:14-20
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Sin is dwelling in us and that means our desire to do "what is right" is under constant attack by the "sin that dwells within me." God saved us from the results of sin (death) and someday He will deliver us from the presence of sin (in heaven). But, in the mean time we have to deal with sin in our flesh, in which "dwells within" us. Our salvation is not instant deliverance from the power of sin in our flesh. We do have deliverance but it comes from faith in Christ and yielding to the indwelling Spirit of God has He empowers us to walk. Like Peter we step out out of the boat to walk on the water by faith only to take our eyes off Christ to behold the waves and we begin to sink in our work of flesh (Matthew 14:30). Like Peter we promise never to deny Him and then in the middle of the accusations that we are a Christian and in the midst of an opportunity to confess our allegiance we hide and back away to the sound of the rooster confessing our failure. And, like Peter we deny the power of Christ to save Jews AND Gentiles and we start placing one "brand" of believer ahead of another and we need a man like Paul to confront us to our face (Galatians 2:11). The truth is we all deny Him. But, the great truth is that even though we fail to be faithful to Him, He will never deny us!! Note Paul's statement to Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:13
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
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