What are the consequences of denying Christ?

From verse 32 to the end of the chapter, we have the importance of the confession of Christ, and the effects of it in this world. The first great principle is this: "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven." We have had the Father's care; we have now the Son's confession by and by. The Father's care we know upon earth, whatever may be the trial. The Son's confession of us will be in heaven, when all the scene of trial is over.

So, "if we endure, we shall also reign together." Here need be no question; it is suffering now, not yet reigning with Him. The reading in some ancient authorities of Rev. 5 or Rev. 20 (that the saints reign now) is unequivocal error. It is wrong morally as well as dogmatically. We shall reign with Christ; but even He sits on the Father's throne as yet. He waits to receive His own throne; and so do we much more. Were our hearts right, we should not wish to reign without Him; as we should have a sounder faith, if we held, that He is not reigning yet, but gone to receive a kingdom, and to return. He will come in His kingdom, which He has not yet received. Till then we are called to endure, not to reign; when He shall appear, we shall appear with Him; when He reigns, so shall we with Him.

But there is solemn caution, as well as sure expectation of glory. "If we shall deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself." There was danger in a day of declension particularly of departure not only from this or that divine principle but from Himself, and this permanently. Nor does the apostle bolster up the saints in what is the most dangerous of delusions, that there is no danger. For dangers abound on all sides; and we ought to know that grievous times were to come in the last times. Denying the Lord, so far from being impossible for a servant of His, is exactly what scripture shows us to have been the fact in one most honoured, who had thought that for him, of all men, it was impossible; yet was Peter on the eve of it. No doubt this was but a passing act, however shameful and deplorable, however repeated then, and with aggravation; yet the all-overcoming all-forgiving, grace of Christ rose above and effaced it, turning it even to never-to-be-forgotten profit, and fruitful blessing. But where it is a course of life, as here ("if we shall," not merely if we should as an act), the consequence is, as it ought to be, the necessary vindication on God's part of His injured majesty: "He also will deny us." God would cease to be God, if He acquiesced in the dishonour of His Son. The believer bows and believes, adores and serves. The unbeliever, and the denier if possible yet more, may insult now, but both must ere long honour Him in judgment, "that all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father" (John 5:23).

(Vv. 12, 13). There is, however, the solemn warning, “If we deny, He also will deny us; if we are unfaithful, He abides faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” The denial here is no isolated fall, however shameful, as in the case of the Apostle Peter, but the continued course of those who, whatever profession they make, deny the glory and work of the Son. Such will be denied, as it has been truly said, “God would cease to be God, if He acquiesced in the dishonour of His Son.” Amidst all the unfaithfulness of Christendom to Christ, “He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself.”

To be valued so greatly by the Father surely calls for a fitting response on our part, that response of fearlessly Confessing Christ before men. He is far more then worthy of this. But this too will elicit a response on the part of the Lord Jesus in confessing before His Father the one who confessed Him before men. Wonderful honor indeed given to the wholehearted believer!

But the reverse is true for one who dares to deny Him before men. To be denied by the Son of God will involve for him the greatest dishonor and humiliation. Men do not stop to consider the solemn horror and dishonesty denying the Son of God those rights that are His alone. This is not only an insult to Him, but also to His Father, to whom the name of His beloved Son is precious beyond all we can imagine.

But they must confess Christ before men: whoso confessed Him before men He also would confess before His Father in heaven; and whoso denied Him, He also would deny before His Father ― He could not now say their Father ― in heaven. Grace never sets aside the holiness of God, but conforms us to its conditions; while divine holiness does not set aside the grace, which always receives the penitent: and the chief of the apostles furnishes us with the illustration of this.

It is scarcely a question here of suffering with, or for, Christ. In fact, it is not the usual word for suffering, as, for example, in Romans 8:17. It means rather to endure, or, as it has been well put, "to go through suffering patiently." Consequently it must include suffering with Christ, as every Christian does this, although the measure of it will depend upon his fidelity to Christ, upon his walking in the Spirit, and it may also include suffering for Christ. Still the meaning of the word is that which has been given. To deny Christ, we understand to mean, not a sudden fall into temptation, like Peter, but a total and absolute denial, evincing, whatever the profession previously made, that there had never been any reality in the soul. The use of the word "we" will be understood when it is remembered that the Spirit of God always takes us up on the ground of our profession. The question therefore is not raised whether a believer can finally deny Christ, but the teaching is rather that an absolute denial of Him is the unmistakable evidence that the soul had never been converted. It is as the Lord Himself said, "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." So here those who deny Christ will also be denied; that is, they will be finally and entirely rejected. Then it is solemnly added, "If we believe not" (that is, not, as some have contended, if we are unfaithful as Christians, but if we are positively without faith; for we see no reason for departing from the usual significance of the word), "He abideth faithful (not to us, but to Himself and to His word): He cannot deny Himself." Whatever our vacillation and changeableness He must ever act in accordance with His own nature, His holiness, and His truth. Therein indeed - in His immutability - lies the eternal security for all who, through grace, have been led to put their trust in Him. That He cannot deny Himself is therefore a precious word of consolation for His feeble, tried, and afflicted people.

But ungodliness betrays itself not only in the insubjection of the heart to believe, but in the cowardliness of the soul to confess the Lord (Rev. 21:8); as we see here that "many from among the chief rulers believed on Him, but on account of the Pharisees did not confess, that they might not be put out of the synagogue." And the motive or moral reason is given: they loved glory from men rather than glory from God. They feared the religious world, being keenly sensible of human glory, but dull to that which is from God.242 But we must not forget that, if "with the heart man believes to righteousness, with the mouth confession is made to salvation." (Rom. 10:10.) God makes much of confession of His Son, nor can we safely own salvation otherwise.

The believer is expected to maintain firm confidence in God, combined with wholesome fear, for this God of great glory numbers the very hairs of our head (v.7). Neither does He forget even the sparrow which has so little value to us. Therefore, He will certainly not forget His own people whose value is greater than many sparrows. Believers have therefore no cause of fear. He encouraged them to confess Him before others, saying that He, the Son of Man, will confess before the angels of God. those who confess Him before men. The term "Son of Man" involves His relationship with all mankind: He is in control over all of them. Blessed incentive for our courage of faith! On the other hand, denial of Him will bring denial of us before the angels. What a test of whether our motives are really for His glory! In confessing Him we make it clear that we are fully on His side.

220 But, further, besides the providence of perfect divine goodness and care for His own now, there was the result in relation with the Son of man thus humbled in God's behalf. For whosoever confessed Him before men should be confessed before the Angels of God. There would be a return and answer of glory before the Angels of God, for shame before men, and he who denied Him before men would be denied by Him before the Angels of God, for Christ had taken His shame here below, but all before God would melt, and therefore own Him. He was content with shame, though He felt it far more deeply than any, because His sensibilities and His love were perfect. No entrance of evil or sin had ever hardened His heart; but that God might be fully glorified here, and for the glory that was His there in the presence of God, He bore all. He came to suffer. He had hidden His glory to effect grace. He had come amongst evil and sin, expecting to find it, and to give a subject to divine glory in His humiliation. This was the patience of God. But He was to be glorified, and as He came to do and to bear in a sort of concealment in love, claiming nothing, so the Holy Ghost would come in the title and asserting the glory of God, and in the glory of God, and claiming subjection to this glory, and bearing witness to the grace demonstrating the glory in power. A word spoken against Him would not be forgiven. But here in grace this is attached to the disciples to console and comfort them in their weakness. He might be slighted, but if He by whom they would speak was slighted, it would be unpardonable. Such were the principles, the warnings, the motives, and the encouragements attached to a mission founded on death, and perhaps conducting to it, but which was the bringing in of light by grace into a world of darkness. Accordingly, in verse 11, the Lord applies the presence of the Spirit to their circumstances of trial. If the Spirit was spoken against, it was unpardonable, but when they were brought by the hostility of the world before magistrates and rulers, the Holy Ghost would aid them, or rather speak by them.

Further, the disciples must be prepared to face the enmity of that sect, and to brave it if they would be true to the Lord. Hostility to God and to Christ the Pharisees were displaying. Persecution, then, even to death, the disciples might expect. Hence to the future beyond earth the Lord points them. And that would give boldness, and nerve them for conflict. Men look at the present, and are often dismayed. Bring in the future, and what a difference! It is like the bright light of the sun, penetrating the thick mist which has surrounded one. In a moment objects dimly seen, and which through the mist were unduly magnified, appear in their true proportions; and the field of vision, hitherto restricted to that which just surrounded us, becomes enlarged, and we survey very distant objects. So is it when the future is before us. Hence the Lord continued, "And I say to you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He has killed has power to cast into hell [or, Gehenna]; yea, I say to you, Fear Him." The field of vision is here enlarged, and in spirit we survey what lies beyond the bounds of earth. To fear God, and not to fear man, was to characterise them. God cares for His own. Creatures, birds which are of small account to men, He remembers; and the very hairs on the head of each disciple He numbers. How minute His observation! Then let them trust Him with all their concerns, and confess Christ before men. And here again the future is brought in, and this time by way of encouragement. Their responsibilities the Lord had just pressed on them. There was One who could cast into Gehenna, for God's power was not bounded, like that of man's, by temporal death. He has power over the creature after death. Now, the Lord proceeds to encourage them to be faithful by the assurance that whosoever should confess Him before men, He would confess before the angels of God. What favour will this be! On the other hand, the Lord added: "He that denies Me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God" (vers. 8-9). Boldness or persistent cowardice here will be remembered, and noted on another day; and that in the most public manner possible. Positive blessing, or the reverse, the disciples are here told about. And further, if brought before ruling powers for Christ's sake, they were not to be taking thought what they should say; "for," He added, "the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say" (ver. 12).