“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.’” John 13:36-38

Jesus had told His disciples that He was going away, speaking of His coming death, resurrection, and ascension, but His disciples did not understand. Peter questioned Jesus about where He was going and why he could not follow Him there now. Peter even told Jesus, “I will lay down my life for Your sake.”

It was then that Jesus revealed the weakness of Peter’s commitment: “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.”

In the Gospel of Matthew (26:35), we read that Peter told Jesus, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

Of course, we know what happened. As Jesus said, before the rooster crowed, Peter had three times denied being a disciple of Jesus (cf. Matt. 26:69-75; Luke 22:54-62; Mark 14:66-72; John 18:15-18, 25-27).

What do we learn from this? Never say never! It is foolish to put confidence in our fallen sinful flesh. It is safe to say that anyone who places confidence in his or her own human strength or resolve does not know the weakness and corruption of our own human nature. Such might consider the word of God recorded by Jeremiah the prophet in chapter 17, verse 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

And yet we think and say, “I would never do that!” Or with Peter, we say, “I would never deny Jesus, even if I had to die for Him!” We foolishly think we would never fall away from the faith!

But look at Peter, a bold disciple of Jesus, the one who confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God (cf. Matt. 16:16). His strength and resolve failed him, and he denied Jesus three times.

But what about you? Have you ever had the opportunity to confess or share your faith in Jesus but shrunk back and said nothing? Have you pretended by your silence not to know Him or be his disciple? And, if you are so confident you will never fall from the faith, consider all the other one-time believers who have fallen away.

Why does Peter himself say (2 Pet. 2:20): “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning”?

And why does God’s Word include the warning of Hebrews 6:4-6: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame”? Why does the apostle John speak of a sin unto death in his first epistle? (Cf. 1 John 5:16; Heb. 10:26ff.)

My point is this: Do not put confidence in your own sinful flesh but trust in the mighty working of God through His Word to both bring You to faith in Christ and His sacrifice on the cross and to preserve You in that faith through the continued hearing and learning of God’s Word. After all, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17), and “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). And remember that “He who has begun a good work in you [bringing you to know and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and making you a disciple of Jesus] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

O gracious and merciful God, forgive me for the many times I have faltered in my faith and failed to confess Your Son and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Give me the wisdom to continue in Your Word that Your Holy Spirit might strengthen and preserve me in the true and saving faith in Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.]