I Think Peter Can Live in Peace...

In the chapter on human wickedness, Lewis brings up a point that He believes God may look at us and see every sin we have committed against Him throughout our lifetime. He suggests that every time God sees Peter, He sees Peter denying Jesus. What a powerful and humbling claim? In all of my life, I have never heard of this assertion, but I must say that it really made me think. When I think of Christianity, I see God extending His forgiveness to all of those who have received Jesus into their heart and have proclaimed that He died for us and rose again from the dead. But because of Lewis’ claim, I can’t help but wonder what does God’s forgiveness mean? Do we need to ask for forgiveness for every specific time we fall short of God’s expectation and glory? Or does God forgive everyone who has proclaimed that Jesus Christ is Lord and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior? So the scenario that keeps coming to mind is whether or not I am forgiven for all of the sins I have committed, yet have not asked for specific forgiveness for those sins. I have just assumed that God has forgiven me because I love Him, and I desire to live my life for Him. I am a person that feels the emotions of guilt and shame quite easily, and I like to beat myself up for all the mistakes I make during the day. I also struggle with talking to God about all of my sins because I just feel like it’s a never-ending list. Because of these feelings, I have always thought God used time to bring healing to my heart and to my conscience, and then I could start a new day with a brand new slate ready to live for Christ. Unfortunately, Lewis has pointed out that this is a huge mistake in my walk with Christ. We need to be humbled before God and see that we are broken creatures who fall short of God’s glory every single hour of every single day. I just wonder if I am forgiven even though I have so many times not asked for forgiveness for the many sins I commit. I don’t know if I could ever come before God if I knew that He would just see all of my sin because I would just feel so much shame and guilt all of the time. And after thinking, I just can’t help but feel that this claim is against who God is. We look through the pages of the New Testament, and the main theme throughout the entire book is love, love acted out through sacrifice, forgiveness, and grace. I believe that our God is just, and He hates sin with more hate than we could ever know possible. But the fact is He loves us. And out of that love for us, He sent His one and only Son to earth so He could look at us with pure love. He doesn’t see our sin, our shame, and our guilt; He sees His Son and the blood He shed for us at the cross. So I guess I think God’s heart breaks for us, but I believe He looks at us with pure and genuine love because He sees His Son. Even though I believe that God sees Christ when He looks at us, I also believe that we can learn a lesson from Lewis’ claim. We need to be humbled for all of the times we let God down and fall short of His glory. We need to understand how broken and unworthy of God’s love we are. And out of that confession of brokenness and sinfulness, we can learn to love God more and worship Him with true reverence. In conclusion, I guess I believe Peter can live in peace knowing that Jesus doesn’t see His denial every time He looks at him.