THE HOPE OF PETER

Romans 3:19-25
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human beingwill be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.


God is angry at you because of your sin. God will judge you for the full guilt. You may laugh it off or you may be filled with guilt feelings; it does not matter; God holds you guilty.

The gospel is not that God is so loving that in the end he will forgive everybody their sins. If that is the case, Jesus is not needed.

Nor does the gospel message teach that his death covered the sins of everybody regardless of their attitude towards him.

The Scriptures teach that it is by faith in Jesus that his salvation comes.

Will you turn to him? Without him, you have no hope and the smallest of sins condemns you. With him, you have a hope that is made sure through whatever pitfalls await you.
Peter learned the hard way that no promises of his to be good could be fulfilled.

As sincere as he may be, and as hard as he may try to be good, he could not escape the fact that at heart he was a denier of the man he loved the most.

But Peter also learned whose effort to count on, whose promises could be trusted.

Listen to what he had to say years later after denying his Lord:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).