69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” 71 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the cock crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
But now, as to Peter's denial, does it not seem almost incredible that a man who had had three years' constant companionship with Christ - with all this meant of love and care and the intimacy of the inner circle - should have thus denied Him - not once only, in the spur of the moment, betrayed by a wayward impulse, but three times, and therefore consciously and deliberately. A failure, a lapse, and a mistake we could understand, but this? - To deny that he knew Jesus? There is an answer to this question, and it is implied in Luke 22:31, 'Satan hath desired...'. We must bear in mind that this was the crisis hour in history building up to its climax. Dark malignities were about that night, and cosmic currents were flowing with sinister flood tides. It was in this that Peter was caught and involved. Small wonder that he was swirled like a cork in a raging stream. This does not excuse his fall, but it serves to explain how such a disastrous fate overtook him. Christ had seen it coming, and knew that Peter, being the man he was, would never stand. Only a spiritual giant could have, one who was utterly crucified to self and therefore having access to spiritual power and grace.