God’s View of Our Failures
Scripture Reading: Luke 23 and Luke 24
Key Verse: Luke 24:12
However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
Luke chapters 23 and 24 are Luke’s description of the events that took place in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified and resurrected. If you can read the two chapters together, I think you will get a sense of the terrible events that caused the disciples to run for their lives.
The disciples had three years with Jesus, and we would think they would be ready for any battle they might face. However, they scattered in fear, and Peter cursed as he proclaimed that He never knew Jesus.
If we are honest, most of us can totally relate to these disciples. All of us at times have totally blown it in our walk with God. We have done things that cause us deep shame. Like the Apostle Peter, many of us have wept after our failures, realizing we know better!
It is important for all of us to remember that our Father has called us to Himself with full knowledge of our weaknesses and future failures.
Peter declared to Jesus that He would never leave Him in His hour of need, but Jesus told Peter that He would deny Him three times before the rooster crows the next morning. In other words, Jesus was fully aware of Peter’s future failure but loved Him anyway.
Chapters 23 and 24 of Luke’s Gospel is really the climax of the story of Grace. The word “grace” means “unmerited favor”. Depending on the version of the Bible you are using, the word “grace” is used somewhere between 170 and 206 times. Grace is the reoccurring theme of the New Testament. The Gospel is all about God’s love and redemption of people that He knew didn’t deserve His love and never would. No matter how good we try to be, we will always “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
The disciples of Jesus were taken by surprise at their lack of courage and were horribly disappointed in their failures during these last hours of Jesus’s life on earth. However, Jesus was neither surprised nor disappointed because He knew that the very reason He had to come to that last hour was the inability of mankind to be good enough for Heaven.
If anyone is going to spend eternity with God, God’s grace has to rule! You and I could make a long list of all the reasons we don’t deserve to be saved, but there is only one reason we can be saved. That is grace, God’s unearned favor toward all of us! May God help us to continually give our best, knowing it’s Grace that carries us home!
Father, I will praise you throughout Eternity for your love and grace that you have shown me. I rest in your care and abide in Jesus. It’s in His Name I pray, amen.