Repentance

Luke 22:60 ff.

“Just as Peter was speaking the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.”

In this text we have Peter expressing old-fashioned shame which led to authentic repentance. The New Testament record makes it very clear that after this event Peter was one changed man. This was his humble pie experience and he was man enough to eat it and learn from it. In the future he became known for his courage, the cowardice was forgotten.

George MacDonald once wrote:

“For to be ashamed is a holy and blessed thing….To be humbly ashamed is to be plunged in the cleansing bath of truth.”

In this shameless world there is still a need for the shame that leads to repentance.