Waggoner on the Gospel of John - Ellet J. Waggoner

this, that he lays down his own life, and takes the
life of Christ, so that it is no longer he, but Christ
who lives and walks about among men. The old
man is declared to be dead, and the new man who
takes his place is the Man Christ Jesus. So he calls
himself by the name of Christ--a Christian. Now so
long as he professes to be a Christian, he says by
everything which he does, "This is the way Christ
does; this is Christ's character." But if he does
those things which are inconsistent with the
character of Jesus of Nazareth, then he is denying
Him as surely as Peter did, and his guilt may be
even greater than was Peter's.
One may deny Christ by his association with
others, even though he utter not a word. Peter's
mingling with the rude, unfeeling crowd in the
court room was in itself a denial of Christ. Not that
it was wrong to associate with sinners: this Jesus
Himself did; he went in with publicans and sinners
and ate with them. But it must be remembered that
when Jesus associated with sinners, He did not try
to make it appear that He was one of them. He
associated with them to win them by His kindness
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