Deeper Life #165

Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off.

—Luke 22:54

WHAT WERE THE CONDITIONS THAT led Peter to his fall? He had followed Jesus Christ out of true loyalty of heart and genuine devotion. He had pictured a great many things that might happen. But he never imagined, in his wildest moments, that Jesus Christ was going to give Himself right over to His captors. When that occurred, all Peter’s thoughts were turned into confusion. His heart was in despair. He followed in that condition “afar off.” And when he was tormented by stinging questions from serving women in the courtyard, he answered with oaths and curses that he never knew Jesus Christ.

That is the condition of a backslider—one who is fully awake to the possibility of carnality within him, who knows what God’s grace is, what sin is, and what deliverance is. A backslider knows the danger of denying the Lord Jesus, but has deliberately forsaken Him because he loved something else better.

Prayer Thought: O God, I understand Peter’s problem of denying his Lord at a time when He needed him. Make me fully aware of a similar temptation in my own life.

SUGGESTED READING: Luke 22:54–62