“If we deny Him, He also will deny us…” This phrase from 2 Timothy 2:12 has often stirred fear in the heart of believers. Is this verse teaching that a moment of weakness (such as denouncing Christ to avoid persecution or questioning our faith while wrestling with unrepented sin) can cause a believer to lose his or her salvation? Are there magic words, which, once uttered, can doom us to eternal separation from God? Is there a line between doubt and denial that we must never cross or else be lost forever?
We did not have time to develop this on Sunday, so let me suggest a couple reasons why this passage should not cause a believer to panic, but should instead give us comfort, even in the moments of weakness on our part.
The first reason we can take comfort is because this warning concerns where we end, and not where we are. The denial on our part, and the reciprocal denial on the part of Jesus are both in the future. Sin and weakness are part of the life of every believer, but the good news is that the door to repentance remains open. This is the difference between Peter and his fellow disciple Judas. Both denied the Savior, but only one remained in that state. Peter, stricken with grief over his denial, was restored to Christ and went on to live a life of bold Gospel proclamation which he sealed by a martyr’s death. Judas, on the other hand, never turned to Christ, but went through death into judgment in denial of the Savior he had spent so much time with. We ought never to think in this life that we have committed any sin so great that it can overcome the power of God to forgive by the merits of Jesus’ blood.
A second reason we can take comfort is found in verse 13. Paul anticipates our fears concerning this warning against final denial and points us for encouragement to the unchangeable promises of God. To enter eternity having rejected Jesus as the Savior is to have no hope. However, to have moments or seasons of faithlessness here on earth is common. In such times, contrary to rejecting us, we are reminded that God remains faithful. When our hands of faith have a weak and faltering grip, God’s grip upon us remains firm. Why? Because “He cannot deny Himself.” There are promises involved, oaths, in fact. There are commitments that God has made to His children that He has obligated Himself to keep regardless of our condition in the moment.
The author of Hebrews reminded us of this fact in Hebrews 6. In that great warning passage we were given some of the strongest words in all of Scripture about the danger of denying Christ. Yet, in the same chapter, we are also reminded that when God came to Abraham, He made promises to bless Abraham that were completely independent of how Abraham would respond. No matter what happened next, God would bless Abraham. Guess what?
Sure enough, that’s exactly what came to pass (Heb 6:13-15). In the same way, God has made commitments on behalf of those who trust in Christ. Thus, we read:
17 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:17–20
God cannot lie, and He cannot be untrue to Himself. If you try to enter His presence in any way other than by the sacrifice of Jesus, you will be denied entry by Christ Himself.
If, on the other hand, we have trusted in Christ, then the faithfulness of God will keep us to the end, and grant us endurance, even through seasons of our own unfaithfulness. It is not ultimately possible for the true child of God to deny in the end the God who is undeniably faithful to His own.