Read Mark 14:66-72. What is sin? Many of us, including many Christians, name sin as an action or series of actions. We could name several of them: murder, theft, gossip, greed and so on.
But sin is deeper than the action. It is a condition. It describes a broken relationship with God from which negative actions may flow. Sin is the attitude that we know better than God how to run our lives.
Peter wept because of his sin. He thought he knew better than Jesus. Any one of his eleven fellow disciples might deny they knew Jesus, but he never would. Peter would defend Jesus to the death. In the end, he didn’t even have the courage to make a stand for Jesus. He denied him three times instead.
You might think that would be the end of Peter. Like me, there might have been times in your own life when you have let Jesus down and thought there was no way back for you. But for those of us who have been beset by sin, perhaps the two greatest words in the Bible are those found in Mark 16:7:
Mark 16:7 NLT
Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died”.
The angel outside Jesus’ empty tomb specifically included Peter when he instructed the women to go and tell his disciples that Jesus was risen from the dead.
His sin was not the end for Peter! It’s not the end of the story for us either. We simply need to understand we have no power to overcome sin by ourselves. Instead, we must rely on the forgiveness of Christ, just as Peter had to learn. Peter was able to start again with a clean slate. So are we!
Think It Over
Think about the following:
• Do you believe God will forgive your worst sin? Why or why not?
