How have you denied Jesus this week? You didn’t? Are you sure?
Peter denied Jesus without knowing. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day denied God without knowing. Look at this passage that caught my ears:
“Then they (the religious leaders) led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.” John 18:28
Did you catch that? These religious leaders wanted to participate in a religious holiday by keeping themselves pure as they were delivering Jesus to death!!
In their minds, they were perfectly pure and acceptable before God. They were keeping the purity law by not entering into a gentile’s house (the Roman governor’s). But all the while delivering the Son of God – the very giver of the law – into death!
How abominable! How subtle! How fearful!
I could be denying Jesus without knowing right now. I could be perfectly justified in my eyes and yet I could be going exactly the opposite of where God wants me to go. After all, this was also the case for Saul of Tarsus before he became Paul. He was zealous for the Lord, or so he thought…
– We deny Jesus when we make Christmas about our family.
– We deny Jesus when we look forward to getting a break from work more than celebrating His birth.
– We deny Jesus when we make our physical necessities the determining factor over our spiritual necessities.
If you deny Jesus, you are denying yourself the eternal life.
PH