When Jesus told of His upcoming death, Peter said, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” (Matthew 26:33). However, when it came right down to it, Peter denied Jesus not just once or twice, but three times! Usually, we say the third times the charm but in this case it was the curse. What’s more, it was not what defined Peter from that moment on. Because as soon as Peter realized how he turned his back on his Master, “he went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).
There’s no debating it: Peter felt horrible for what he had done. He was truly remorseful and sorrowful. Nevertheless, that is not enough. The remorse and sorrow need to take us further.
Judas also turned his back on Jesus. Both Peter and Judas felt sorry for what they had done. But the difference between two is Peter changed and Judas hanged himself. Peter repented by taking his remorse and using it as motivation for change in action.
Now, that’s a powerful illustration of repentance.
There are all sorts of times that we can all feel remorseful, regret our actions, and weep all we want. But if our feeling sorry does not change our way of thinking and real change is affecting our lives, then that is useless.
Paul describes what true repentance is in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.
In short, repentance is more than just being sorry, it is the process of asking for forgiveness and making a commitment to turning away from your sin.
And that’s what Peter did.
Let’s be like Peter!
God loves you and so do I,
Alexander Mills