Is It I Lord?

It appears to be human nature that when we are a part of something for a long time we become complacent. We think we know everything there is to know about it. We become proud and we lose sight of the possibility of failure. Certainly time and experience give us reason to be confident in our own abilities. Sometimes doing a job and doing it well requires we carry ourselves with confidence. But the life of a Christian should not be compared with the ways of the world.

Listening to a sermon last night on a study of communion and what we commonly call the Last Supper, I caught something in God’s Word, that though I’ve read and heard many times over, brought a fresh insight into my mind. Listen to the story.

Matthew 26:20-22
When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.  And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”  And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”

Jesus has just announced that someone in His closest collection of friends is about to betray Him. As these twelve men hear this each and every one of them suddenly lose the festive mood of the Passover Meal and become filled with sorrow. Being upset over this terrible prediction of treason is a normal reaction. But then did you catch what happened? They “began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”

“Is it I Lord?” Why would each and every one of these twelve men ask that question? Hadn’t they faithfully followed Jesus for some three years or so? We can understand why Judas would feel guilty; he WAS about to betray Jesus. But what led the other eleven to question their own loyalty now?

God does nothing out of randomness and this story is not just there for us to look at in wonder at the weakness of the disciples. The greater question we must ask of ourselves is this; is it I Lord Jesus? Am I going to spend years of my life serving God and believing in Jesus only to in the end to betray Him in some form of Christian treason?

The simple answer from scripture is no. The reason we won’t fall completely into rejection of Jesus is that we aren’t His by our own efforts. We are His because God has chosen us. Far too many Christians refuse to accept the doctrine of election. But it is a crucial doctrine that when properly understood gives us assurance of salvation. My point here is not to teach the doctrine of election, you must read God’s Word and let the Holy Spirit lead you to the truth. But it is important to know that we need to stop placing faith in self and only place it in Christ. Most of us have sang hymns such as In Christ Alone, yet we live out our lives in a state of sorrow because we keep trying to do all this in our own power. Or we live our lives with our heads held up way too high thinking we have got this Christian thing down.

The truth is and the Bible is clear on this; we are going to fall and stumble. There are clear Biblical warnings.

2 Peter 3:17
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness…

The Bible is also replete with the stories of men who did stumble and fall and often after God had used them in mighty ways. There is no greater example than Peter, who just hours after insisting to Jesus that he would go to the bitter end for Him denied he even knew the man, much less was he willing to stand up and die for Him.

The lesson is a simple one. We need to humble ourselves before Almighty God and confess our weaknesses. We need to acknowledge our own sinfulness. One of the best ways to do this is to read God’s Word continually from beginning to end. It has been rightly said that the Bible is like a mirror; it shows us who we are. But only if we look into it deeply can it reveal the true self, because a superficial glance does not show the wrinkles and the scars.

We must beware of pride.

Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

The truth is this; if we are Christ’s then we will persevere.

John 6:37-39
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

But this does not mean we cannot slip off the path and fall to temptation.

I don’t know what was going on in each of the minds of the eleven disciples that night. Maybe they each had some secret sin they were holding on to. Most of us do.

Maybe simply being in the presence of Jesus made them aware of their own humanness and they realized how prideful they had become. Maybe they were remembering the arguments over which of them was the greatest. How often do we look down on someone in the pew next to us?

What matters to us is that we humble ourselves before Almighty God and ask Him to be the power that saves us and the power that sustain us. He is.  Let Him take control. Put your faith only in Him. In Christ alone my hope is found. How about you?