“But Peter denied it. “Woman, I do not know Him,” he said.”
Peter was a leader among the disciples, a self-assured fisherman…The only human other than Christ to walk on water… He was a man’s man, who once cut a guys ear off while he was defending Jesus…And he swore to go to his grave protecting his Lord….Yet, here he denies Jesus because he is afraid of a servant girl.
How many of us are too much like Peter?
How many of us have accomplishments in our lives which make us believe we have something to offer God? We think since we are disciplined - we can show God how worthy we are…but when we are challenged we collapse.
Peter…the man that Jesus named “The Rock” and said He would build His church on…crumbled under sin. Without the Holy Spirit, the “Navy Seal” of the disciples retreated when challenged by a young girl.
This verse is not intended to preserve Peter’s failure - but to speak to those of us who are too much like him.
It does not matter who the world thinks you are, you are a slave to sin without Christ. Without the Holy Spirit you, like Peter, are a failure who is defenseless against temptation.
If that were not true - the cross would not have been necessary - and if it were not necessary - it would never have happened.
Peter was transformed by Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection – which paid his debt to sin and redeemed him – this was the only thing that could make him a vessel worthy of the Holy Spirit – and that is what changed him.
It made Peter a fearless warrior who later, when condemned to be crucified, would demand to be turned upside down because he was not worthy to die like his King.
Man’s stumbling block is pride.. thinking we can do it on our own. But regardless of worldly achievement, we cannot…so we must die to ourselves so the Holy Spirit will live in us and permanently transforms us.
This is the only path…The Holy Spirit is the seal of our salvation and He alone can give us real courage and change us from slaves to sin, into soldiers for God.
“When we have the Holy Spirit, we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.” - Aiden Wilson Tozer
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