The greatest privilege is to be acknowledged by the Lord of All, and of we acknowledge Him, then He will acknowledge us. But if we disown Him, He will disown us.
The first of these takes faith, and demonstrates the reality of our faith. For to acknowledge Jesus in the world means we believe that He is indeed the Son of God and the One with all authority, more authority than whatever or whoever would seek to put fear in our heart.
Peter, of course, did disown Jesus. So this poses a question, what does Jesus really mean here? Is He saying that our salvation depends upon whether or not we acknowledge Him before men? Or is He saying something else? Given the example of Peter I am inclined to rule out the first suggestion. This passage is on how to cope in the midst of fierce opposition. In such circumstances the temptation is to deny Christ, but if we do this we will find that we are then without God's help in the situation, and this is indeed what Peter found to be the case. If instead we acknowledge Christ, then we will find that we receive direct help from God. This does not necessarily mean we will be rescued. In Acts there were times when Peter was rescued. Stephen, on the other hand, was killed, but he received a vision of God in the midst of his suffering.
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