Jesus was judged worthy of death for saying that He was the Christ, the Son of God. He could have lied and saved His life. Would you hold fast to integrity if it meant losing your life?

We have to trust God for the strength to do so when we are faced with the choice of sin and saving ourselves or righteousness and losing our lives, in whatever form that looks like.

They then condemn Jesus to death for saying He is who He is, and then they slap Him and tell Him to prophesy who hit Him. He could have told them. He could have called the temple to fall down on them like Samson taking out the Philistines. He could have called for blindness on anyone hitting Him. He could have defended Himself. He trusted God, His Father, for His defense. He didn’t try to save Himself.

We then have one of the saddest stories in the Bible. Peter, who was sure he wouldn’t seek to save himself but give up his life for Christ, does just the opposite.

Peter seeks to save his life. He defends himself, lying about knowing Jesus. He was willing to sin to save his life. All his assurances about himself weren’t true.

We don’t have strength. There is a warning in First Corinthians to not think we are strong, lest we fall. We can’t rely on ourselves to be people of integrity. We can’t keep ourselves.

We need a savior. We need someone to keep us from sin. We can’t do it in our own strength.

We have a savior in Jesus Christ. We have His overcoming power through the Spirit in us. Peter, once filled with the Spirit, is able to go to his death not seeking to save himself, but having on his mind honoring the Lord in his death.

Peter weeps bitterly over his sin. It was sin to seek to save himself. It was sin to hypocritically speak with bravado and then act in cowardice. It was a sin to lie.

God uses it in Peter’s life. He had to be torn down to be built up. This moment prepared Peter to be the head of the church. He learned his weakness so he could learn to rely on the Lord’s strength.