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It is Tabletalk’s normal practice to do one biographical issue each year, focusing on the life and significance of a great saint from church history. Over the years, we’ve devoted issues to such giants as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, John Gerstner, J.S. Bach, John Knox, Anselm of Canterbury, and others. In October, you’ll read about Athanasius, the great fourth-century bishop of Alexandria and opponent of the Arian heretics, who stood contra mundum, “against the world.”
Why an annual biographical issue? Simply because the Tabletalk editorial staff is convinced that Christians need to know their history, including the men and women who have made great contributions to the church’s worship and work. We have much to learn from the pilgrimages of these saints.
Occasionally, however, we offer a “bonus bio,” reaching into the annals of church history recorded in the Bible itself to focus on the life of a Scriptural saint. Past issues on Abraham and the Virgin Mary fit this category, as does this month’s issue on the apostle Peter. These saints, too, have much to teach us about how to live unto God. The difference, of course, is that God Himself, through His Word, is the “authorized biographer” for these believers. Not surprisingly, therefore, their lives reinforce the principals of Scripture with authority and power.
That’s not to say that the lives of the Biblical saints are crystal-clear blue-prints for living. Far from it. God’s biographies are the most honest of all, and they leave no doubt that the human saints of Scripture were as fallen as we (with the exception of the incarnate Jesus, of course). To use a well-worn cliché, the Bible shows us warts and all. Thus, there are times we must emulate the Biblical saints and times we must treat their examples not as snapshots of the Christian life but as photographic negatives.
Does the life of any saint from the Bible more powerfully reinforce Biblical principles—warts and all—than that of Peter? Take, for example, the foundational assertion on human sinfulness that Paul lays down in his great epistle to the Romans: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). If ever there was one who sinned and fell short of God’s glory, it was Peter. Indeed, his sins and failures were legion, and it was he among all the apostles who most frequently suffered rebuke.
It was Peter who himself rebuked Jesus, declaring that He should never go to Jerusalem to die. That brought Jesus’ most stinging reply: “ ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me’ ” (Matt. 16:21–23). It was Peter who refused to allow the Lord to wash his feet, and gave in only when Jesus rebuked him with a grave warning: “ ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me’ ” (John 13:1–10). It was Peter who, along with James and John, fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, only to hear his Master’s saddened chastisement: “ ‘Could you not watch with Me one hour?’ ” (Matt. 26:36–46). It was Peter who again tried to derail Jesus’ mission by using his sword to cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant at Jesus’ arrest. Jesus sternly commanded him to “ ‘Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?’ ” (John 18:10–11). It was Peter who, after affirming his willingness to stand with Jesus unto death, denied Him three times—and was rebuked by a look from the Lord (Luke 22:54–62). And it was Peter who, after dining with Gentiles, began to observe the kosher laws once more out of fear of the Jews—forcing Paul to rebuke him in public (Gal. 2:11–16).
In these failures, Peter powerfully demonstrates the truth of God’s Word. Yes, even Peter the apostle, the companion of the incarnate Christ, was a miserable sinner, just as the Word of God declares all men to be. We can take comfort that, as he was forgiven and restored, we can be forgiven and restored. But we must never see his errors as excuses for unholy living. The fisherman’s failures are not to be our failures.
But there is another side to Peter’s shortcomings, one aspect in which we should emulate him with all our minds and hearts. Peter not only was one who failed to keep the law of God and come up to the glory of God—he was one who knew the depth of his failure, the extent of his shortcoming. Peter truly stood tall in his understanding of how low he was.
It was Peter who, perhaps more than any other of the Twelve, recognized who Jesus was—and the implications of that truth. It’s likely that at least several of Jesus’ followers witnessed the miraculous catch of fish, but only Peter came forward, fell to his knees in a posture of worship, and said, “ ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ ” (Luke 5:1–8). He knew he was in the presence of holiness and was not fit to be there. It was a sense of his unworthiness that drove his reluctance to have his Lord wash his feet. And it was a sense of his sinful failure that led him to weep bitterly over his denial of his Master. Peter sinned most heinously, and realized it. And so, in addition to being a great sinner, he was a great repenter.
Such should we be. Like Peter, we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But like Peter, we are “justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). Praise be unto our saving God.