Peter's Denial of Jesus

 Peter's Denial of Jesus

 

John 18:24-27 『Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not..One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.』

Simon Peter denied being a disciple of Jesus three times. Peter wanted to get out of the situation because the threat was immediately given to him. Luke records this content in detail. In Luke 22:59-62, 『And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him: for he is a Galilaean. And Peter said, Man, I do not know what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.』

Luke reveals that when Jesus was in the courtyard of the high priest and Peter denied Jesus for the third time, a rooster crowed and Jesus and Peter’s eyes met. All the stories and heart-warming events that Peter had experienced while following the Lord for three years collapsed in an instant. Peter confessed that Jesus was the Son of God and called Him Lord, but he collapsed before his fleshly self. Even though he did not think of Jesus as a powerful Messiah like Judas Iscariot, the Bible tells us that Peter’s fleshly heart denied Jesus in the face of death. That is why we must know the identity of the fleshly heart.

Romans 8:5-9 『For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ(Christu Pneuma), he is none of him.』

Here, Christu pneuma is translated as the Spirit of Christ, which means that Christ exists and his Spirit is not separate, but that Christ exists in a state of spirit. In other words, if there is no Christ, then one is not a person of Christ, and therefore follows the flesh. However, even a person of Christ has two minds.

Romans 7:21-25 『I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh(sarki) the law of sin.』

The mind means the mind of the spirit. That is, the mind of the spirit that is guided by the law of the Holy Spirit. However, when faced with a certain situation, there is a conflict because there is a flesh that wants to follow the law of sin, contrary to the spirit. Here, the word sarki translated as flesh does not mean the flesh, but the fleshly mind.

It is a spiritual war between the spiritual mind and the fleshly mind. The spiritual mind is guided by the Holy Spirit, but the fleshly mind is a mind that comes from the flesh. It is the nature of the flesh, blood relations, experience and knowledge, thoughts and ideologies, religious feelings, self-righteousness, and the desire to dominate. There is a fear of death in human nature. Even Jesus prayed with tears of blood before his ministry on the cross out of fear of death. There is a scene in the Bible where an angel appears and gives strength. Anyone with a body has such fear.

Peter denied Jesus three times and ran away. Fleshly thoughts act in the direction the flesh wants. The source that causes the flesh to move in the direction it wants is A.I. (Angel Intelligence: the collective thoughts of evil angels). This is the desire to become like God, and it is the desire of Eve in the Garden of Eden to become like God and eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The story of the Garden of Eden symbolically shows the appearance of angels who sinned in the kingdom of God. Some say that Satan is the cause of fleshly thoughts, but Satan is simply an angel who is in charge of carrying out God's commands. 1 Samuel 18:10 "And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul's hand." Evil spirits refer to Satan or the devil, but they are angels whom God commands.

In the fleshly heart of man, there is hidden the heart (idol) of an evil angel opposing God. This is the heart that wants to be like God. The Bible calls this sin. Therefore, it tells us to die to sin. God tells us to die on the cross with Jesus and be born again from heaven. This is the secret of being born again. The power to overcome the fleshly heart is possible when we receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit works in the Word. This is because the power of the Holy Spirit suppresses the old man who wants to follow the flesh in our hearts.

The resurrected Jesus Christ breathed on his disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:21-23『Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.』