Peter’s Repentance

There are two great powers fighting each other – the self-nature in the power of sin, and Christ in the power of God.  Either [one or the other] of these must win.

Absolute Surrender, Andrew Murray

When we look at [the apostle Peter’s] character, so full of failures, and at what Christ made him by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is hope for every one of us.

Peter, too, was a fallen man.  The same man who, when Jesus first called him, came at once, also was the man who denied Jesus at the most important hour.  He was a man of absolute surrender and ready obedience, clouded by, well: “Get thee behind me Satan…”  Jesus followed this with:

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Peter said he would not deny Christ.  He was certain of this; he had self-confidence.  Yet, we know he did, three times. 

Peter denied his Lord thrice, and then the Lord looked upon him; and that look of Jesus broke the heart of Peter….

He wept, bitterly.  Hopeless despair and shame; humiliation.  Then came Pentecost; a changed man, only thanks to the Holy Spirit.  Just as strong and bull-headed as ever, but now consistent in direction, clear, unequivocal.  A far more effective sermon of evangelization than anything preached by Jesus.

Peter’s whole nature was changed.  The work that Christ began in Peter when He looked upon him, was perfected when he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

For example, he would write:

1 Peter 4: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

And, to the extent we know, he lived and died just this way.  After the Holy Spirit perfected the work Christ began. 

Peter was earnest, godly devoted.  Yet the power of the flesh was very strong in him.  He had cast out devils and healed the sick.  Yet, his flesh took over when asked if he knew Jesus, if he was one of His followers. 

It was the work of the Lord to reveal the power of self within Peter – the look of Jesus after Peter denied Him three times broke Peter.

Peter was humbled; he was ready for the Holy Spirit to do His work.

Conclusion

That story must be the history of every believer who is really to be made a blessing by God.  That story is a prophecy of what everyone can receive from God in Heaven.

Epilogue

I think the apostle Peter gets a bum rap.  Not by God, but by us and by history.  We remember that he promised he would not deny Jesus, then the next thing we remember is that he, in fact, did deny Him.

But what happened in between?  Peter pulled out the sword.  He did not deny Jesus; he was ready to fight and die for Him.  Jesus had him put the sword away.  At that moment, Peter may have felt denied by the Lord!

The best way I can make sense of the confusion that the disciples often portrayed regarding Jesus prior to Pentecost is that they struggled with what was commonly understood to be the role and purpose of the Jewish Messiah: an earthly ruler, here to free them from bondage; a revolutionary.

Peter was struck full-force that this was not the case.  Don’t fight, even though it means death for your revolutionary leader.  And this on command of the leader!

Now what?  Hide the relationship: all revolutionaries were at risk, and this for a lost cause, a cause even betrayed by the leader…. or so he and many of Jesus’s disciples may have thought.

They hid, they were scared.  Then the Holy Spirit came upon them.  And nothing on earth could scare them again.