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Matthew 26:33-35
In Matthew 26:31, as Jesus is walking with His disciples as a Shepherd walks with His sheep, Jesus tells them that they will all fall away/stumble from Him. In Matthew 26:33-35 Peter takes a stand against this accusation and lets Jesus know that he will never turn from Him, even if he has to die with Him, he would never forsake Him. We also learn that not just Peter, but all the disciples of Jesus professed this same dedication to Jesus (Matthew 26:35b). But Jesus reiterates to Peter that before morning/before the rooster crows, he would not only deny Jesus, but he would deny Him three times (Matthew 26:34).
This is an example that no matter how close we believe we are to Jesus, we are susceptible to the sinful nature.
This is an example and promise that it is not us that are righteous but only Jesus, and it is His righteousness that we must seek apart from our own self-righteousness.
I know that I am guilty of it; as we strive to seek Jesus in our lives and live as He leads us, we are still prone to sin. Satan picks at us all day long to fall away from Jesus in his attempt to steal us away from Him. This lesson is two-fold: First, as we spoke of in the previous lesson, Jesus alone was required to pay the penalty for sin; His disciples must be separated from Him at this moment for no possibility of assumption that they too could have played a role in this gift from God unto salvation. Jesus states in John 14:6 (NKJV), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” He did not declare, “Through Me and My disciples.” He declared, “through Me.” Second: everyone other than Jesus is sinful, even His disciples needed forgiveness. Righteousness is found only in Christ Jesus, we have no righteousness of our own. Let me reiterate, we have no righteousness of our own. Righteousness knows no sin. Jesus is the sinless One who is alone worthy to pay the price for sin – all sin, because the price must be paid outside of itself; sin cannot pay the price for sin. It is the purity in obedience to the Old Testament Law that is its fulfillment. Jesus declared in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Our righteousness comes only from believing in God. Abraham sets the standard for this in Genesis 15:6 and Paul reaffirms it in Romans 4:1-3. Jesus is our righteousness. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through Him (John 14:6).
Dear LORD,
We are prone to believe in ourselves. We are prone to believe that we are good enough to obtain righteousness on our own, but sin cannot become righteous, and we are sinful. Please forgive us and lead us to the righteousness that comes through our faith – through believing in Christ Jesus; that He alone died to pay the penalty for our sins so that through our faith in Him, righteousness floods our lives through His. In Jesus name I pray, amen.