John 18:25-27
Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “ You also are not one of his disciples, are you? He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
Peter is wretchedly alone in such a hostile and dark world. He’s been separated from his Lord and, while also isolated from his fellow believers, he falls to this desultory state that was unimaginable to him just hours ago. We do well to remember that we are never so well, and our circumstances ever so high, that a mere hour can’t change all.
This scene of Peter seeking warmth and denying Jesus is packed with heavy theology and yet a most practical event for us to consider.
First, we note that the most intrepid disciple is easy pickings for the enemy when left to face the world by himself. Confidence and bluster are not a qualities that Scripture encourages in disciples. We’re shown again and again throughout the holy pages that when a believer grows over confident in their own abilities, they invariably grow lazy too. Ah, but they might be a whirlwind of activity and all might seem rather well to the outsider and observer. “Oh, pastor such-and-such, or he or she, is always up to good things,” they say. “They are on this committee and they serve here and there.” These outward adornments of faith and service are well and good unless they mask spiritual atrophy. Peter didn’t pray when Jesus told him to. Is this descriptive of us too? If we neglect time with the Word and prayer, then assuredly our faith will wither. Jesus has just told Peter hours before that He was the true vine. Peter heard these words himself just as we read them today. Yet, despite this, we spend our time on Facebook and watching TV when we could be in prayer or reading the holy and life giving Word.
We are picked off by the enemy and we deny Christ before men when we live in such a fashion. There’s no other place to go but down when we neglect the spiritual disciplines of Christianity. A heart that doesn’t yearn to spend time with its King, in prayer and reading, is soon too cold to spend time with other believers too. Soon, there is dreadful danger and the enemy pounces.
The second point flows forth from all this. Didn’t Jesus prophecy as much? Didn’t He tell Peter, despite the fisherman’s protestations to the contrary, that this very thing would befall him? And didn’t Peter do exactly as Jesus had foretold?
So, what does this do to our understanding of free-will? We see that Peter acted freely. The Scripture doesn’t suggest anything but that he acted of his own volition. Peter made real choices. But the Scripture also shows us that Peter, like all of us, does exactly what is foretold. This is a great and deep mystery, but the Bible, as it always does with such things, simply lays the facts before us. At every turn of the page we see the Bible’s deep and unshakeable conviction that God is absolutely sovereign in every issue and matter. Even still, we see the great mystery of predestination played out in the lives of the disciples. Peter freely chose exactly what Jesus said was going to happen. Indeed, how inscrutable and incomprehensible is our God. These mysteries are deep – so very deep but we know that at the end of them is our Lord, going meekly to the cross for us – us who fail Him, deny Him, and reject Him. How precious is our Lord!
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