New Testament Characters
(Editor's Note: This is the sixth in a series of articles by Dr. Theodore Kalivoda on the shortcomings of Bible characters. The article is written for exclusive use on the Grace Community Chapel website.)
It's a new ball game as we look at characters in the NT. That's because these people had a different type of communication with God compared to that of OT saints. The latter received oral messages direct from God, a powerful incentive to follow His instructions. Christians, on the other hand, have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit - a part of the triune God — to serve as counselor (John 14:16). Yet like OT saints, first century Christians failed their Lord at times. Through their blunders we will learn valuable lessons.
Peter
Peter's choleric temperament got him into trouble on several occasions. But his biggest blunder was his denial of Jesus. It's hard to imagine his motives beyond the simplistic explanation that he wanted to avoid incarceration and maybe death. Certainly doubt must have entered his mind at that time about the authenticity of Jesus' messiahship. After all, it was a gloomy picture - the Messiah taken prisoner and about to be killed. But that may have been a fleeting thought overtaking him in a moment of fright and desperation for self-preservation.
Whatever influenced Peter's behavior, his better judgment told him that Jesus was the Son of God. It was hard for him to put it all into context with Jesus' arrest and abuse, but there was no way he could have forgotten the miracles he experienced with Jesus. After all, he accompanied him in public ministry over the span of three years. He knew that no ordinary man could perform the things that Jesus did — healings, dead people resurrected, and many more. Peter himself was involved in spectacular happenings, such as walking on water, healing a crippled beggar, a supernatural release from prison, and catching a miraculous boatload of fish.
Here was the apostle who had witnessed extraordinary happenings, yet when the chips were down, he denied his Lord. Luke tells us that at that moment Jesus stared at Peter, and that look devastated him. So broken by it that "he went outside and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62). His was a blunder surpassing all blunders.
But wait a minute! We too sometimes deny our Lord, not in the same way as did Peter, of course, but we avoid identification with him in more subtle ways, like failing to stand up for our faith in situations begging our verbal association with Jesus. We would do well to envision Jesus' sad stare as we participate in that sort of denial.
But there's good news. You would think that Peter's heinous act would have caused him troublesome guilt feelings the rest of his life. But Jesus forgave him, and the restoration turned him into a dynamic messenger of the gospel. It's a signal to us, that when we sin we not allow its guilt to rule over us. We are forgiven! The negative is put behind us to allow our going forward (Phil. 3:13). Forward? Yes! God has work for us to do, just as he had for Peter, instructing him to "feed my sheep." Fallen but forgiven - a fact that impels us to carry the joyous news of the Gospel to others. God has work for us to do, too.
Ted will be happy to respond to any comments or questions from readers via E-Mail: 
