We come to him, we repent of our sin, we believe in Calvary, we receive the new birth, our hearts are changed, we have come to the Lord, but so much progressively needs to be done in our hearts. We have given by a miracle of grace illumination, understanding of the Gospel and the way of salvation. Great changes have already taken place in us, but there is more to be done.
In looking at this passage, we are confronted by something which at first seems strange. Why does the apostle John intertwine the trials of Christ with the failings and the poor reactions to circumstances of Simon Peter? Here is the Saviour of the world, allowing himself in apparent weakness to be arrested and bound and taken and subjected to a series of grossly unjust hearings prior to his crucifixion on Calvary’s cross, and yet intertwined with this are the failings of a man – an apostle to be, but a man. Here are great events mixed with great failing. One of the reasons is possibly so that we can see something of the deep disappointment that was given to Christ even by his disciples during his trials and leading up to his execution on Calvary. He knew that Peter was denying him, Peter who had been so bold – ‘Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.’ As God, of course the Lord could endure the disappointment presented by Peter, but in his perfect and sensitive human nature, he would have known and felt the pain of Peter’s denials.