Matthew (26): Christ's Faithfulness

If you ask anyone to describe a moment from the Gospel accounts, most people would choose some scene from Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. In fact, even those who have never opened a Bible, even those who aren't Christian could probably tell you something about the way Jesus died, at least some of the details of His crucifixion.

In fact, is there any human death in all of history that is better known and more remembered than Jesus' death? The story of Jesus' death is so widely known, and yet at the same time, the purpose of His death so poorly known, that is, why He died, that you understand the mission of the Church. It's in the telling of this story so that we can explain the meaning of it by the ministry of the Holy Spirit working through us. 

So that's the purpose here as we embark on this study of the final hours of Jesus' life, His sufferings, to the going to the cross as He dies to save us from our sins. As we go into that study, we want to understand not only what happened, we also want to understand why it happened and what it means for us now, today and for the world at large.

And we begin with the first of Jesus' sufferings, which takes place in a place called the Garden of Gethsemane. But interestingly, Jesus' sufferings do not begin with beatings or scourging. And they don't come at the hands of heartless Romans or hardhearted Jewish authorities. No, they begin with a rejection by His closest friends, the disciples. We begin there in Matthew 26:30. 

Mat 26:30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Mat 26:31 Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED.'

Mat 26:32 "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee."

Mat 26:33 But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away."

Mat 26:34 Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."

Mat 26:35 Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." All the disciples said the same thing too.

The scene that we're looking at here in verse 30 picks up right after the Last Supper. Matthew’s rendition of the Last Supper is among the shortest in the Gospels and if you want more detail, you need to go read John's Gospel, because John devotes five long chapters to the conversation that took place in that upper room. And among the things that John gives us there that we don't get from Matthew is a moment in which Jesus told His disciples that He’d be leaving soon. Of course, He's referring to His death and His resurrection and ascension. 

Now, when He said that, Peter asked Jesus, “Where are You going? Cause I want to go with You.” And Jesus responded, “Well, you can't go right away. You'll follow me later.” And what He was referring to, of course, was, ultimately, these men die, and when they do, they would enter into heaven with Jesus. Naturally, when He said that to Peter, Peter didn't understand what He was saying. So in John 13, Peter responds at that point in the upper room that he would lay his life down for Jesus. That was mostly bravado on Peter's part, he probably just wanted to impress Jesus or maybe encourage Jesus. But Jesus at that time saw through it. And so in that moment in the upper room, John tells us that Jesus told Peter then that he would deny Him three times that night. 

That was the first time that Jesus told that to Peter. And here, now, in Matthew 26, we’re reading the second time that they've had this same exchange. Jesus and the disciples have left the upper room now, by the time of Matthew 26, and they are in the Mount of Olives now. They came back out of the city of Jerusalem, up the Kidron Valley and into the Mount of Olives. And as they reach a garden that was positioned somewhere on that western side of the Mount of Olives, a garden called Gethsemane, Jesus returns to the same conversation that He had just been having in the upper room. In verse 31, He says, not only will Peter fall away, but all the disciples will abandon Jesus later that night. 

And to support His prediction for them, Jesus quotes from Zechariah 13:7. The prophet says: 

Zec 13:7 "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate," Declares the LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.

So Jesus says - in Zechariah’s prophecy – that the Shepherd will be struck down. God's Associate - that's a reference to Jesus, the Messiah. And as that happens, His sheep, His followers will be scattered. And as Jesus quotes from Zechariah, He says to these men, “This was speaking about Me, and it was speaking about you, the sheep,” that Christ’s abandonment by His disciples was the first of all the suffering Jesus would know on this night, on His way to the cross. He suffered witnessing His friends leaving Him and denying Him in times of need. Just as you and I would feel the same way if somebody walked away from us under those same circumstances. 

Obviously, God does not depend on His creation for emotional support. We're not saying God needed the disciples for any reason. He's sufficient in Himself, Scriptures tell us. But Jesus, being man, also had emotions. He had feelings, and He was facing an unbelievably devastating experience, which was made all the worse by having to do it alone. Not having the support of friends in a moment like that was not meaningless to Jesus just because He was also God. It had an impact, and the disciples, as they abandoned Him to His fate, they magnified His sorrow and His disappointment, even as He knew it was going to happen. 

Moreover, Zechariah 13 proves to us that the disciples leaving Jesus in this time was actually a part of God's plan. You notice, at the end, He says, “I will turn my hand against the little ones.” That's God saying that He will bring about these circumstances, obviously, for some good purpose. And Jesus says that after they disavow Him at His death, He will meet them later in Galilee once He has been raised from the dead. 

It’s fascinating how Jesus nonchalantly moves from explaining how they will abandon Him, to looking forward to their next meeting. Clearly, Jesus is not viewing their failure to stand by Him in His time of need as an end to their relationship or an end to future opportunities to minister together. He clearly sees this relationship continuing, and Jesus' statement to His men in this moment is more important than you may have considered. And it certainly deserves our attention for a moment.

That exchange teaches us something very important about the nature of our relationship with Jesus. Jesus’ disciples are going to reject the Messiah during His greatest moment of need. And yet Jesus is not going to reject them. This is a cornerstone of the Gospel. This is a major point of theology in the Christian faith, and it is a powerful source of hope for every believer. And to understand why, we need to go just a little further in this text and focus in on one man specifically, the example given to us here in the chief apostle, Peter. 

Back on the Mount of Olives, Peter speaks up at this point to what Jesus has just said, and here again, for the second time now, he declares his undying support and commitment to Jesus. He says, “Look Jesus, even if all these other guys fall away, I will never fall away.” And the term “fall away” there in Greek is “skandalizo”, and it literally means to stumble so as to separate from someone due to an offense. We get the English word “scandalize” from this same Greek word. And “skandalizo” is someone who becomes a pariah and as a result, leads others away from them to abandon them. That's the idea of the word. 

Peter is just telling Jesus here, there is nothing that could ever offend Peter such that it would lead Peter to consider abandoning Jesus. Now, in Peter's case, he promised that he could resist any force that might come upon him, demanding him to reject Jesus. That's what he's saying. He underestimated the power of his own fear at watching Jesus being arrested and threatened with crucifixion. And he overestimated his willingness to suffer death with Jesus when that time came.

Know that crucifixion is probably the most painful way that humanity has ever devised for killing a person. And Peter just couldn't bear the thought of experiencing it. And really, who could blame him? And so, Peter makes a promise that he couldn't have kept in the end, and Jesus knew this would happen. And so at this moment in this exchange, Jesus gives Peter a sign to assure Peter that what He's saying will come to pass. And He uses a colloquialism of the day. Jesus says to Peter that Jesus would be denied by Peter three times before the rooster crows, which is just a way of saying before sunrise. 

It was bad enough for Peter that Jesus would suggest that Peter had the potential to reject Jesus at all. But then to say that it will happen not just once, but three times, and in a matter of hours from that moment, that was probably more than Peter could stand. And so an indignant Peter at that point just responds defensively, maybe pridefully. And in the process, he throws his fellow disciples under the bus, and he says, “Look, I don't care what these other guys do. They're probably going to reject you, but I'm never going to reject you.” Clearly, he's not thinking, not at all. He's just reacting. And Jesus just lets the comment go unaddressed, because He knew soon enough Peter would see that He was right. All of this would happen. Matthew records Peter's three denials later in this chapter. 

At this point, we need to appreciate the significance of this exchange and why it's such a powerful source of hope for every believer. And to begin, you may have heard that it's possible for a Christian to become unsaved, that a Christian who professes Christ and is saved and then later, for some reason, denies Christ, will then lose their salvation. Or, you might say they reject their salvation, and it goes away.

And they might try to support that notion using various Scriptures that they think teach such a thing, and in all cases, they are simply misinterpreting or misusing those texts. But look, even if you don't have a deep understanding of biblical soteriology or whatever it comes with that, you can know that your relationship with Jesus does not end in such a fashion simply by looking at Peter.

In Peter, you have a case study here, a case study to understand, what the Lord do with a disciple who repudiates Him publicly. Peter is denying Jesus here. And when we get to the later part of this chapter, you'll see he does it vehemently. He does it repeatedly. He does it publicly.

How did Jesus respond? Did He accept Peter's resignation from the faith? Did Jesus reject Peter when Peter rejected Jesus? No.

In fact, Peter's denial here of Jesus is exactly the kind of rejection that some would say results in a loss of salvation. And look, Peter is vehemently denying he knows Christ. There is a point later in this chapter where Peter actually swears an oath that he does not know Jesus. You cannot get any stronger in your denial of something than swearing an oath in that day. This would then match the claims or the circumstances that some say results in us becoming lost again, losing our salvation through our denials of our faith in Jesus. So Peter gives us this test case, doesn't he? He gives us an opportunity to understand how the Lord respond to someone who does that.

Let's look at how Jesus handles Peter's unfaithfulness, and it begins with Christ’s statement in verse 32. Jesus says that after His disciples have rejected Him, including Peter, after they've abandoned Him, He'll meet them in Galilee. Does that sound like the Lord preparing to break off a relationship? Earlier in the Gospels, Jesus told Peter, “You're going to be my rock on which I build the Church, and you're going to have the keys to the Kingdom.” It clearly seems as though Jesus has no intention of holding Peter's denials against him.

And we find even more compelling evidence in one of the other Gospels. In Luke's rendition of this same moment, we get a little more detail, in Luke 22:28. We're back to the same moment, and look at how Luke records it. Jesus says: 

Luke 22:28 "You are those who have stood by Me in My trials;

Luke 22:29 and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you

Luke 22:30 that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now, directly from that comment, look at what He says next. Verse 31, 

Luke 22:31 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;

Luke 22:32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

Luke 22:33 But he said to Him, "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!"

Luke 22:34 And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me."

Luke’s writing about the same moment here, same scene as the one in Matthew 26. But notice how the conversation starts. According to Luke, Jesus tells His disciples they're the ones who have stood by Him in His trials. And because of that faithfulness, they will have eternal rewards. Now remember, it’s the same setting as Matthew 26. This is the same moment where Jesus also told them, “You know, according to Zechariah, you're going to scatter from Me. You're going to abandon Me. You guys are all going to leave me.” So obviously that momentary failure that Jesus said is coming is not indicative of their hearts overall. They're going to run in fear, yes, during an intense moment of persecution. But that doesn't mean that they lack faith in Jesus. 

Their experience here is merely an example of how the weakness of our flesh will, at times, cause us to live out our faith in an inconsistent fashion, even to the point of denying Christ. And Peter, among all these guys, is the poster child for unfaithfulness under those circumstances, because he alone denies Christ three times publicly, and it's his situation we need to focus on for that reason.

In verse 31, we're finding out why this happened. At Luke 22:31, we discover Peter's denials of Jesus were not merely a personal failure or personal weakness on his part. They were also the work of Satan. Jesus says Satan has demanded permission from God to sift Peter like flour. And so what Satan is asking for is the opportunity to search for impurities in Peter's faith, in Peter's heart. He wants to disqualify Peter, likely because he knew that Peter was the leader among the disciples. He had been given the keys to the Kingdom. So Satan is thinking that he can bring threats of persecution against Peter sufficient to crumble Peter's devotion to Jesus. And as he does that, as Peter falls, he expects the Church to fall, because from what Satan understood, the Church was resting on Peter. After all, Peter is the rock, as Christ had called him. 

Now, as we know, Satan is partially right here, because Peter does fail this test. The pressure that Satan brings is enough to cause Peter to do the wrong thing and renounce Christ publicly and not just once, but three different times that night.

But Satan was also wrong, because he was wrong in his assumption that the impact of Peter's faithlessness would in the end destroy the Church. Peter's failure, as it turns out, did not put an end to the Church, and that was Satan's miscalculation. His miscalculation was assuming that the Church's existence rests on the faithfulness of Jesus' disciples.

Yes, that’s the mistake that Satan made - his thinking that the success, the permanence, the opportunity of this Church relies on our faithfulness.

But it doesn't. And that's why God granted Satan the permission that he wanted to test Peter, because God knew that Peter would fail the test, and He wanted that example in Scripture for Peter's sake, and for our sake. 

Jesus wanted His church to learn something. He wanted us to learn from Peter's experience what happens when faithfulness falls short. Because despite our best intentions, we all depart from Jesus routinely in our actions and in our words. We say we love Jesus. We say we want to follow and we want to obey Jesus. But then we spend the rest of our life off and on doing exactly the opposite. We make promises, we make commitments, we make appointments, we make goals, we make resolutions, and then we break many of them. In times of stress, Christians can even come to the point of denying they know Christ rather than face those consequences of faith. 

And that's the reality of sinful, weak flesh. We are weak. We are prone to wandering, Scripture tells us. And so, if it were the case that believers can only have eternal life without fear of rejection from God based on our faithfulness to Christ, well, God help us, sincerely, because we cannot be faithful enough, given the weaknesses of our flesh.

And that is the primary error that Satan made. And it's the primary error that Peter made. And I would add, it is the primary error of those who believe salvation can be lost.

It is not their assumption that salvation comes and goes. That, too, is wrong, and there is Scripture to counter that.

But their primary error is in assuming that a Christian is ever truly faithful to Jesus.

The presumption that anyone could be faithful enough is folly.

The only way that you believe that you are faithful enough to Jesus to retain or maintain your own salvation is if you don't understand how high the standard is. 

God's standard for faithfulness is the same as His standard for all behavior - perfection, zero error, zero loss of faithfulness. Only perfection meets the standard of God for holiness and righteousness. And that's why the Bible says, we've all fallen short of that standard of the glory of God.

So thinking that you can be faithful enough to maintain this relationship that you have with Jesus is the same kind of arrogance and pride that stumbled Peter. Peter declared twice in the span of a couple hours to Jesus, “I will never abandon you,” only to deny Him three times later that same night.

And anyone who thinks that their own convictions hold them to Jesus is equally self-deceived. 

If our faithfulness to Jesus was the criteria for maintaining our salvation, we would all be in big trouble, because we all routinely act contrary to our profession of faith. We all disobey. We all live in ways that are contrary to our confession. We all give in to worldly thought, worldly behavior. We all live in our flesh, and if pushed hard enough, we would deny Christ.

Now, at this point, maybe you're saying, “No, I know that's what Peter did, but I know myself. I'd never deny Christ.”

Look, if that's you, you need to go back to Peter's example. The rock of the early Church, the man who walked with Jesus in person for three years, that man rejected Jesus mere hours after telling Him definitively He would never do it. The Lord permitted Satan to intimidate Peter and to frighten Peter with threats of persecution. And when it came, Peter crumbled. Do we honestly think we’re stronger than Peter and better than the apostles that we could go into that same situation and come out differently than Peter did? 

If you're feeling secure in your relationship with Christ simply because you've never publicly denied Christ, that just means Satan hasn't asked to sift you yet. And God forbid he ever does. The fact that Jesus told Satan, “Yes,” is our evidence to know that holding onto salvation by our own faithfulness is not what Christ is expecting because you can't be faithful enough. And in the day when Satan makes you a target, you'll find out how weak flesh can be, but what you will experience in that moment, if that moment ever comes, is how thankful you are that your salvation doesn't rest on your faithfulness to Jesus, but it rests on Christ's faithfulness to you. 

The Bible says your salvation came by grace of God through a faith that is not of your own. It is a gift of God. You did not obtain salvation by your own strength, and you aren't holding onto it by your own power. In fact, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:30, 

1 Co 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

1 Co 1:31 so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."

Paul says, by His doing, you are in Christ Jesus, which means you didn't even come to Jesus on your own. He brought faith to you, and at that moment, He became your righteousness, Paul says, speaking about your justification.

But Jesus' work didn't stop there. Paul says, Christ also becomes your sanctification and your redemption, ultimately. He does it all. He finishes the spiritual work that He began in you so that all who are saved ultimately can come to glory boasting in what Christ did for us, not the other way around.

And Peter's example is proof to you that your faith and your salvation does not rest on your faithfulness, but only on Christ faithfulness to you and to His own Word. Remember, in Peter's case, He promised Peter he’d have the keys to the Kingdom and that Peter would lead the Church. In fact, He said, “I'll promise to meet you again in the Galilee.” 

Jesus promised Peter, “After a while, you'll join Me in heaven.” These are all things that came out of the mouth of Jesus. They're all the Word of God, literally, and there is no power in the universe greater than the Word of God.

So even when you and I disobey Jesus, which we do a lot, or disregard His instructions, which we also do, or perhaps walk away from Him, the Bible says the Lord remains faithful to what He promised you. And you might say, “Well, how can a righteous God remain so faithful to faithless people?” And the answer is because Jesus died to forgive that faithlessness. In Luke 22 verse 32, notice Jesus tells Peter that He prayed for Peter, that his faith would not fail during this test. 

And that’s an interesting comment because Peter did deny Jesus. But now here's Jesus saying, “No, your faith won't fail. I'm praying for that,” which is His way of saying, “I've ensured that this will be the outcome. Your faith will not fail.”

So how do we reconcile that? Peter denied Jesus, which from our standpoint, looks like his faith failed. But Jesus said, “No. In that moment, your faith will not fail. I am behind you. I am supporting you.”

What it tells us is this. Peter's denial of Christ three times does not mean that his faith was gone. In fact, even as he's making those denials, Jesus is working in Peter's heart to maintain his faith. His faith, in other words, was being preserved by the power of God, not by Peter's own strength, and his behavior was not indicative of his heart. 

Now, just as some who lack faith can act in charitable ways, can seem to be loving and godly to strangers or others by what they do or what they say, that is not indicative of the love of God in their heart. It is something motivated by other desires of their own.

And the reverse is true for a Christian. Just because you have the love of God in your heart and you know Jesus does not mean that every action you will take on is indicative of the love of God. That's what's called sin.

So even as Peter's actions demonstrated faithlessness, Peter could take comfort knowing Jesus told him that he will remain in covenant with the living God, because Jesus is taking care of that problem for him. And that's why He added, at the end of verse 32, “And when you've turned again, Peter, strengthen your brothers.” 

The key words here are “when” and “again.” Jesus says “when” Peter turns, not “if” Peter turns, because He knew Peter was going to turn, because Jesus was going to turn him.

And Jesus said, “Turn again,” because Peter's first turn would not be his last one. In the end, Peter would come back because, in spiritual terms, he never left. That's why, Jesus said, “When this happens, I want you to strengthen your brothers.”

And here Jesus probably means that Peter’s example of failure and restoration is going to become a source of reassurance to his brothers, in fact, to the whole Church, even to us now. When you fall short in your faithfulness to Jesus, you just have to remember Peter. Thank God for Peter. Peter fell first. 

And if you've ever wondered after some bad episode, some bad season perhaps in your life, “Is Jesus going to take me back after what I've done, after what I've said, how far I've run away from him?”, you just need to remember Jesus was telling Peter about his restoration even before he fell.

And maybe you think, “But I've done worse things than Peter. I've done things I don't think Jesus would ever look over and forgive.” Here again, remember Peter, because you could do no worse than Peter. Swearing a public oath to not know Jesus is as far from a confession of faith as you can go.. And yet, Jesus never rejected Peter, and He said, “You'll turn again.” And He says, “I'll see you in Galilee,” and He says, “You'll be with Me in heaven.” And He says, “Strengthen your brothers.” He was looking past that as if it never happened. 

Later in his life, a mature Peter wrote a letter to the Church, his first letter we call 1 Peter. And in the beginning of that letter, he reflects back on his own experience here, probably, in giving us wise counsel. 1 Peter 1:3, he says:

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

1 Peter 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,

1 Peter 1:7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

Here’s a Peter who thought back to what he experienced and saw how God used it in his life and marveled at the power of God to preserve his faith. He describes our salvation here as an act of God's mercy in which He caused us to be born again, a living hope we have now in the resurrection of Christ. And he says, that hope knows that we will obtain an eternal inheritance reserved for us in heaven that cannot be taken away.

And then he says, that eternal future is protected by the power of God through faith. He didn't say it’s protected by the power of your faith in God. No, it's protected by God through a faith that He gave you.

Which is why Peter goes on to say that you can rejoice greatly even as you may be distressed from time to time with various trials. Because, he says, those trials ultimately only serve one purpose, and that is to prove that you have an imperishable inheritance, to prove that you have a faith protected by God, so that when things come against you, that under any other circumstance should have resulted in hopelessness, the abandonment of Jesus and all that you know - when it doesn't turn out that way, it's just more proof you're being preserved by God. You're being protected. 

And as you reflect on Peter's whole experience, you should come to realize that his actions did not nullify the faith that God puts in his heart. Quite the contrary, his actions demonstrate the power of his faith, because if a man could do what Peter did under those circumstances, there's nothing you can do to separate yourself from the love of God. Peter says, in a day to come, Christ's faithfulness to us will be so evident, we'll all be up there with Him, praising Him for the fact that He has held us to Himself. 

That's why Paul tells us in Romans that there is no reason for any Christian to ever fear anything in this life separating us from the love of God, because our eternity is set. In verse 33 of Romans 8, Paul says, 

Rom 8:33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;

Rom 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Rom 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Here Paul is asking rhetorically, “How can a Christian be condemned by Jesus, if Jesus is the one interceding for us?” He's saying that no matter how faithless you are, you have a faithful advocate who is securing forgiveness for you, for that unfaithfulness, at all times.

And so, just as He interceded for Peter when He says, “I prayed for you that your faith would not fail,”, that's an example of what He's doing for you every minute of the day. And because of that intercession, Peter was restored. So Paul asks, “Knowing that that's how it works, could you name a worldly pressure, a worldly circumstance that could ever come against you sufficient to separate you from Christ?” 

Now he's not saying those things won't result in a denial of Christ. They did in Peter's case. They might in our case. That's not the question. The question is what comes out of that. And if Satan could bring full force of persecution against Peter, leading Peter to deny Christ, and yet it made no difference in his relationship with Jesus, what could possibly put anything between you and Jesus?

If you were subject to famine or peril or the threat of death, it might be enough to cause you to stop living your faith. It might cause you to be so scared you never left your house. It might cause you to be so scared that you denied you knew Jesus. You might cast the whole Christian thing out the window, because you'd rather live than live for Christ.

And there are times in people's lives when they make that poor choice. It's called faithlessness. It's what Peter did. It can happen to any of us. But what Paul is saying is, “Do any of those things stop Jesus from interceding? Do any of those things get in the way of what Jesus is doing for us faithfully at the right hand of the Father?”

Every time we do the wrong thing, whatever it is, He intercedes and obtains forgiveness by His blood. 

So when you fail Jesus, and we do all the time, He comes through for us, because He is faithful.

In fact, Jesus' protection of His sheep is so complete that Satan has to ask permission to sift us. He can't do it without Jesus’ go ahead, which means even if the testing comes in some form, then you know that it's come for some good purpose in the economy of God.

And if it results in us failing because of what we face, Jesus is prepared to stand by us. And even if you renounce Christ, Jesus forgives that offence too.

So, if you are out there today believing, for one reason or another, that salvation can be lost, that someone could repudiate Christ, they could walk away from their salvation, Peter's story was written for you.

Satan was allowed to sift Peter for a purpose, and that purpose was so that you would understand better what you have in Christ, so that you could see conclusive evidence of the faithfulness of God even in the face of our own unfaithfulness. 

You didn't earn Christ’s mercy in the beginning. You didn't impress Him by your confession of faith, such that He felt compelled to come down from heaven and give you salvation. The Bible says, He saved you as an act of His own mercy by His grace and without regard to anything of yourself.

And in fact, the Bible says you were dead in your trespasses and sins, even as you were being saved. So clearly, Jesus saves faithless people, because that's where you started.

And Peter's account is your assurance that your hope is resting in Jesus, not in yourself. And there's one verse of Paul's writing that sums this up so clearly. In 2 Timothy 2:13, he says, 

2Ti 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

If Jesus were faithless to us, Paul says, it would be Him denying Himself, because He means Jesus would be denying His own word. He'd be going back on His own promises. And that is not something God can do.

Rejoice in the salvation that you have, made sure by the faithfulness of God who keeps His promises, and give not another thought, waste not another day worrying about something that the Bible says you have nothing to worry about.

And we’ll end by going back to 1 Peter. We read earlier a passage from the beginning of his letter. And this is how he ends that letter. 1 Peter 5:10:

1 Peter 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

1 Peter 5:11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.