Study of Peter: response to grace

When Peter betrayed Jesus, while he was overwhelmed with grief over his sin - it never crushed him. His love for God was greater than shame for himself. Through his repentance, it drew him closer to God and expanded his love for Him. 

Continuing our Lukewarm Church series with our study of Peter’s emulation of a Christian. We’ll talk this week about the response to grace.

In the Christian church, we talk about confessing sin a lot. But I wonder how often we take the time to reflect on who we are offending before we jump into conviction and confession.  

Know who you’re offending

Peter emphatically denied being associated with Jesus, declaring that he didn’t even know him. 

He was asked three times and each time he persisted more emphatically. In Matthew 26:74 reads:

“Then he began to curse and swear, ‘I do not know the man!’ and immediately a cock crowed.” 

Peter’s purview was unique - he saw first-hand Jesus receive punishment for the sin he just committed. His eyes met Jesus’ the moment he realized what he had done. He knew it grieved Jesus and so it grieved him too.

When Jesus was being tried and beaten, He never denied who He was. All the while Peter denied him at the first sight of danger. The very sin Peter is committing, Jesus later perfectly models how to withstand the temptation of denying God.

Jesus then goes on to get punished by not only an earthly perspective but from God. And at the pinnacle of pain, He gets abandoned by His own, loving Father. Peter gets a front-row seat, of grace played out in front of him. He sinned and watched as Jesus bore that sin on Himself, freeing Peter of his guilt.

We don’t get to see first-hand how our sin grieves Jesus like Peter did. It’s far easier to slide by and minimize or excuse our sin. No matter how much we minimize our sin, it will never reach perfection on its own. 

And, the longer we sit with our sin, the more comfortable we get with it. The more excuses we make for why we don’t obey Him. Many times, sin starts out as a good thing.

Perhaps we are only looking out for the best for our family, or trying to help a friend. And slowly it can shift further away from loving God and more on loving ourselves for our own good deeds. And we start to think we may just be good without God’s help after all. 

Grieving your sin is a crucial step to repentance. If you don’t recognize the hurt you cause someone, how can you authentically apologize and reconcile with them?

It must have been significant to Peter’s repentance knowing that Jesus knew he was going to deny Him and yet He loved him no differently while He was still with him. The realization of Jesus’ immovable and unconditional love is what pulled Peter out of his grief. And it was that love which gave Peter the confidence to not remain there.

The reason Peter was able to live in the freedom of grace was because he knew the heart of Jesus deeply. He understood His unconditional love. Which drove his heart closer to God and not further away as we see in Judas’ case. 

What makes the acceptance of grace so difficult is that it starts with the humility to see an accurate view of God.

View of God

Repentance of sin is absolutely critical in our relationship with God. When we understand the gift of our undeserved salvation, it makes our sin more personal. With a view of God as all powerful but not all loving, sin isn’t personal. You’re able to separate or dissociate it as a personal offense.

If we don’t have an accurately central view of God, our version of grace will be skewed and ultimately lead us astray. 

View of ourselves

And while our love is conditional, His love is not.

We believe that we’re worth being loved if we can measure up to the standards we’ve created. This puts a primary focus on ourselves, whether we’re consumed with our inadequacies or own morality. Not only do we miss God’s forgiveness but we miss His love. His gifts towards us suddenly don't feel like gifts, but rather they seem like our rights. 

The way you believe God feels about you, will project onto how you treat and feel about others. If you are free in His grace, you’ll freely extend grace to others. If you feel ashamed and disgusted by your sin, that will eventually be projected onto others. 

God waits to be gracious to us

The depth of God’s love isn’t to be compared to the weight of our sin. He is waiting for us to receive His forgiveness. 

Isaiah 30:18 says, “Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

Isn’t that the most incredibly sobering and wonderful thing you’ve heard? We sin against Him, willingly, repeatedly and often. And yet, He is waiting for us to receive His forgiveness. Because His love isn’t dependent on our love, it’s just continuing to bubble over. 

Sin separates us from God. And He’s desperate to close that gap. What did we do to deserve this perseverant pursuit of our love?