Summary
Courage through the Cross
Christian courage is not self-confidence dressed up in religious language. It is a boldness given to us by Christ crucified—a boldness Peter learned the hard way, and one that every baptized believer is meant to share.
Peter's story stands as a warning against the pride that disguises itself as faith. In the upper room, even as Jesus distributed the bread and cup of the new covenant, the disciples argued about who was the greatest Luke 22:24. Jesus turned to Peter with a sober word: Satan had demanded to sift them like wheat, but Christ had prayed that Peter's faith would not fail, and that when he had turned back, he would strengthen his brothers Luke 22:31-32. Peter's response was full of bravado: "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death" Luke 22:33. Within hours, a servant girl by a fire would unmask that bravado, and Peter would deny his Lord three times before the cock crowed Luke 22:54-62.
The pattern is painfully familiar. We tell ourselves, "I've got this." We carry our pride into the sanctuary and out into the week. We feel bold when we measure ourselves against others, and timid when the world actually calls us to confess Christ or to resist sin. Like Peter, we discover that our courage—rooted in ourselves—runs out exactly when we need it most. As Bonhoeffer put it, the cross of Christ destroys all pride. Standing before the crucified Lord, we find we have no feet to stand on, no gift to bring, only sin and a broken, contrite heart Psalm 51:17.
This is precisely what the cross is for. Jesus does not merely observe the sins we lay before Him; He picks them up and bears them as His own. The pride, the greed, the self-sufficiency, the cowardice—He carries them, and they no longer belong to us. Peter's denial was foreseen, and so was his repentance and forgiveness. Christ went to the cross knowing the whole weight of what He would carry, and He carried it for Peter, and He carries it for you. In the cross, Jesus speaks the final word with finality: I've got this. And the empty tomb on Easter morning is the proof that He does.
Courage, then, is something we receive, not something we manufacture. After the resurrection and Pentecost, we meet a different Peter. Hauled before the council and ordered to stop preaching in Jesus' name, he answers, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" Acts 4:19-20. What changed? The cross. Peter now knew, with Paul, that nothing in all creation could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus Romans 8:31-39. It was no longer Peter relying on Peter; it was Christ in him.
That same word is spoken over you in your baptism. You have been washed in the promise of salvation and sealed by the Holy Spirit, joined to a great cloud of witnesses who looked to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who endured the cross and is now seated at the right hand of God Hebrews 12:1-2. When timidity tempts you this week—when you are pressed to be silent about what is true, or pulled toward the world's idea of greatness—step forward and speak. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. We can finally say, with Peter, "I've got this," only because we know that Christ has got us. This is the heart of Courage through the Cross.
Video citations
- "Courage through the Cross" 3-3-24 — If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, the 22nd chapter, if you're using a Pue edition of the Bible, this can be found on page 71 in the New Testament. We're in Luke the 22nd…