The Difference Between Judas Iscariot and Peter

“How you feel about Christ, how you view Him will determine your heaven or your hell. Peter was a betrayer. And we could see how it happened. He boasted too much. He prayed too little. He acted too fast–drew out a sword and wanted to make a war. He followed too far; he stayed off in the shadows. So you can say, ‘Yeah, there were some factors in overconfidence and lack of prayer and impulsiveness and cowardice. But Peter was no final disaster.’ He was no final disaster. Grace was operating in Peter’s life. Grace was not operating in Judas’ life. Grace was operating in Peter’s life because Peter loved Jesus Christ. And John tells us in 1 John 4, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ Jesus had set His love on Peter and Peter loved Him in return. They had a relationship of love. That is the deep and compelling attitude of the true believer. It comes down to this: the true believer’s love for Christ is the evidence of salvation. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16:22 Paul says, ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned.’ It comes to that.   Continue at Eric T. Young

What Are the Keys of the Kingdom?

Yesterday I promised to offer my interpretation of Jesus' keys of the kindom passages in Matthew 16 and 18. The following excerpt comes from Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, due out in April from Crossway. For a significantly longer discussion of the keys, see chapter 4 of here.  

Excerpt begin:

One day, Jesus warned the apostles not to trust the teaching of Israel’s leaders (Matt. 16:1-12). Their term of office had expired, and they would be vacating the capitol building shortly, carrying the contents of their desks in boxes. Then he asked them who they thought he was. Peter, probably on behalf of all the apostles, answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus affirmed Peter’s answer, saying that it had come from the “Father in heaven.” Then he continued:

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16:18-19)

This is the first of two times Jesus uses the word church. Here he is talking about the universal church: the assembly of all Christians from all ages who will gather at the end of history. Jesus will build this end-time assembly.

How will he build it? He will build it “on this rock.” What rock? Theologians have long debated whether the rock is Peter or Peter’s confession. In fact, I think you have to say both. Theologian Edmund Clowney writes, “The confession cannot be separated from Peter, neither can Peter be separated from his confession” (The Church, 40). Jesus will build his church not on words, and not on people, but on people who believe the right gospel words (like the Word himself who became flesh). Jesus will build the church on confessors.   Continue at Jonathan Leeman

Are the Differing Narratives of Peter's Denials Reconcilable?

Jack C. from Chicago asks:

Regarding Jesus' prediction of Peter's denial and the ensuing narrative that describes the denial, Matthew, Luke, and John disagree with Mark in such a way that seems like an irreconcilable contradiction: both accounts logically cannot be true. No commentary has provided a satisfying explanation. Can anyone? Should this interfere with our belief that the Scripture is inerrant?

We posed this question to Craig L. Blomberg, distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado.

A generation ago, Harold Lindsell in his widely quoted Battle for the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, pp. 174-76) found the differences between the Gospels' accounts of Peter's denials so great that he postulated that Peter actually disavowed knowing Jesus six times! The problem is that every one of the four Gospels has Jesus predicting that Peter would deny him three times and then going on to describe only three denials by Peter. The kind of harmonization Lindsell suggested unfortunately discredits the whole enterprise in many people's minds. But better ways exist to deal with the apparent discrepancies.  Keep Reading >>>

The Look of Love

Each of the four gospel writers record that faithful night when the apostle Peter denied our Lord with three statements of increasing rejection. They tell us of Peter’s bitter weeping when he realized that Jesus correctly predicted his denials before the rooster crowed. But Luke includes a profound little detail.

Luke 22:61 says that just as Peter was denying Jesus for the third time and the rooster crowed, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him….”

That look must have killed Peter a thousand ways! When the Lord looks at us in our sin and rejection we can’t help but be stricken with grief. And the truth is, the Lord sees us all the time in our various faults, sins, denials, and rejections.

But what was this look. What did Peter see in Jesus’ eyes? Did the look say, “I told you so”? I don’t think Jesus was gloating over Peter’s failure.

Did Jesus look at Peter with eyes of fire, angry. I don’t think so. Jesus will not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoking candle.

Did the look say, “How could you?” I don’t think the look communicated personal hurt. Jesus did not come to burden us with guilt, but to take it away. Read the rest HERE

How Were Judas and Peter Different

My point to you is this:

The ONLY difference between you (if you belong to Christ) and all the poor wretched souls who are and will spend an eternity in hell - that outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth - is that you have God Himself on your side, and they do not. You have a Mediator between yourself and the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not. You have been given to the Son by the Father. They have not. You have been born from above by the Holy Spirit. They have not. You have been spared the cross. They have not. You have received mercy. They have received justice.

I hope and pray that you will realize that your salvation has nothing to do with what you have done, or what you have decided, or what you have prayed, or what aisle you have walked. You have not been reconciled to God because of your repentance. You have been reconciled to God because the Father chose certain people, and He gave those people to the Son, and the Son lived perfectly and died vicariously and rose victoriously for them, and the Spirit regenerates them in God’s perfect timing.

The difference between you and all the damned in hell has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with God. Praise Him for His wonderful grace! (Voice of the Sheep)