2 Timothy 2:12-13 (ESV)
There is a difference between denying Jesus and being faithless. “If we deny him, he also will deny us.” That is consistent with Jesus’s own teaching (see Mt 10:33). To deny is to contradict, repudiate, disown. To reject Jesus is to result in him rejecting us. To be faithless means to betray a trust, or to be unfaithful. Think of the difference between Judas and Peter. Judas, in betraying Jesus to the authorities, made the choice to reject Jesus. Peter, by denying that he knew Jesus, was unfaithful to Jesus but he did not reject him. If we endure with him, we will reign with him. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. On either side of the statement about denying Jesus are these two statements about his faithfulness. If we bear up under suffering as Jesus did, we are assured that we will also reign with him for his is Lord. If we are faithless, as Peter was faithless, it does not change the faithfulness of God. He remains faithful to his word. As Dr. Don Carson has said, “We overcome him by the blood of the lamb. There is the ground of all human assurance before God. . . . It’s not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith that saves.” Thank God that his faithfulness is not dependent on my faithfulness, but on the cross which he endured. In that I rest.
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
There is a difference between denying Jesus and being faithless. “If we deny him, he also will deny us.” That is consistent with Jesus’s own teaching (see Mt 10:33). To deny is to contradict, repudiate, disown. To reject Jesus is to result in him rejecting us. To be faithless means to betray a trust, or to be unfaithful. Think of the difference between Judas and Peter. Judas, in betraying Jesus to the authorities, made the choice to reject Jesus. Peter, by denying that he knew Jesus, was unfaithful to Jesus but he did not reject him. If we endure with him, we will reign with him. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. On either side of the statement about denying Jesus are these two statements about his faithfulness. If we bear up under suffering as Jesus did, we are assured that we will also reign with him for his is Lord. If we are faithless, as Peter was faithless, it does not change the faithfulness of God. He remains faithful to his word. As Dr. Don Carson has said, “We overcome him by the blood of the lamb. There is the ground of all human assurance before God. . . . It’s not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith that saves.” Thank God that his faithfulness is not dependent on my faithfulness, but on the cross which he endured. In that I rest.
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