Musings on 1 Peter (1:13-25)

13-16: With mercy as a backdrop, we move forward with gratitude. Having been given life, we must live it. Life looks different than death. Life takes action. Life works and acts. Not that works and acts are the basis for salvation. May it never be. But good works have been prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. We must work out our salvation, and we only work out what God is already working in. Therefore, Peter says, get up! Get ready! Set your Hope on Christ. Keep Jesus as your center. Rest fully in the grace that has been showered upon you. This requires sober thinking. We must concentrate, and understand it, chew on it and mentally digest it. For grace is a strange thing indeed to the unregenerate heart and mind. It doesn’t make sense. Even to the redeemed, grace has a way of undoing us. It is powerful, and strong. Therefore, be sober-minded, and set your hope fully on the grace that Christ offers. Grace is eternal. Grace has been extended to us from the beginning. Even the act of creation is an act of grace, an act of bestowing and giving. We have received grace upon grace. And yet we still are waiting for more grace at the appearance of Jesus. We have the grace of His second coming to look forward to. Then we shall know Him. Then we shall see Him face to face.

As we wait with eager expectation, we must be formed by the preaching of the word. Our lives are living testimonies of God’s grace. We bear witness of God’s grace with holy living. We are but children in the Lord, and as such are to be obedient to the desires of our Father. Much like earthly fathers know more than their children, and give them commands to follow in order to teach them to grow well, so our Heavenly Father has given us commands to obey, that we might grow straight and true. How can we who have been given a knowledge of the Lord, and have experienced His grace, return to acting as if we knew nothing of what we’ve been taught? How can we return to lives of ignorance? We can see now that it was not simple ignorance, but vile rebellion. How can we who have been shown such mercy, return to lives of disobedience? Is it not the core of ingratitude? Should we not say thank you in how we speak to one another? Should not our actions at work say thank you to a Father who provides? Should we not say thank you with the attitudes we harbor in our heart regarding life’s circumstances? Every breath we take is gift and mercy. Every moment of the day is a moment in which the Lord blesses us with grace and mercy. Should not every breath we take and every moment of the day be an opportunity for us to express our gratitude? In fact it is. We express either gratitude or ingratitude with every step we take. There are only two ways of doing/saying/thinking things. Either we do/speak/think by faith, or we do/say/think apart from faith, and anything not done in faith is sin. There is no middle road. Every thought/word/deed must be taken captive to the obedience of Christ; otherwise it is allowing ourselves to be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. Our Father is Holy. He is Holiness. We are to be like Him. We were created to be like Him, made in His image. But in the garden we despised the gift. Therefore a new image was needed. The image of God had been defiled. So God made Himself in our image. In Christ we have the first fruits of redeemed mankind. And so now we are remade in the image of Jesus, the image of an obedient and faithful Son. Therefore let all our conduct be reflective of the new life we have been given; let it be a reflection of the image we have been recreated to bear. Let us be holy, as our Father in heaven is Holy. By the power of the Spirit, we can.

17-19: The Lord God Almighty sits enthroned in the capitol city of Heaven. He judges the nations of men. He rules with a rod of iron, brings justice to the poor, and is the strong right arm of the weak. We call on Him as a Father, as our Father, for so He is. He created us. He brought us into being out of nothing. He formed us in our mother’s womb. Therefore let us fear Him. Let us honor Him as God and give Him thanks. Let us not despise His word, nor trample underfoot the vineyard of His mercy. For we were nothing, and He gave us everything. We were a pile of bones, and He wrapped us with sinews and flesh. We were empty of life, and He breathed into us the fresh wind of the Spirit. We were sons of Adam, and He has purchased us with the priceless blood of His Son, so that we might be the adopted heirs of His riches. The spotless blood of the Lamb of God cleansed us of our iniquities, purchased for us freedom, and redeemed us from the futile ways of our forefathers. Therefore, again, let us fear our God with every fiber of our being. Let us honor and obey His word. How else do we say thank you?

20-21: Our God is eternally triune. Father, Son and Spirit. From before time existed, God has dwelt in community and in fellowship. This is why He is love. The monotheistic god cannot be love in himself, for there is no one outside himself to love. And true love is never self-love. True love always has both a subject and an object. True love always flows out. In the mystery that is the Trinity, our one God exists as three Persons, able to show love for one another. In the Trinity love is modeled for us. Love was shown in the manifestation of the eternal Son of God in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He took on flesh and dwelt among us to show perfect love, to show the greatest love. In Love He laid down His life for His friend, His bride, His Church. The Father showed love in honoring the sacrifice His Son had made; raising Him in new life, He defeated the enemy’s last stronghold. He gave the Son glory so that we might find our faith and our hope in Him. For no man can thwart the plans and intentions of God.

22-25: We have been made new. We have been washed with the purified water of the Spirit. We have dedicated our lives to obedience and faithfulness. Therefore let us love one another. With obedience comes love. Love for God and love for each other. We are family, united by a stronger blood than our own. Let us love one another with a pure heart as well. Peter knows the inclinations of our flesh. He knows we lean toward selfish desires, even as redeemed children of God. Our desire to love will be beset with temptations to demand love in return. But that is not our calling. We are to love with a pure heart, a heart that truly loves others for the sake of others, and not for anything we might receive in return. Peter calls us to love with purity because we have been born again. It does not fit the born again to love selfishly. The husband, newly married, cannot return to pursuing other women. It does not fit. It is off-key and out of tune. Furthermore, we have been reborn from imperishable seed. We were previously born of our mothers like the withering flower of the field; delicate and beautiful, but unable to last. We are now reborn of the living and abiding Word, who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. In Him we will abide forever. Unlike the flower of the field, the one who abides in the Lord will never fall, but will flourish for eternity. This Word is the good news that was preached to us. This is our Gospel hope.

Musings on 1 Peter (1:1-12)

Chapter One
1-2: Peter has written a letter. He has written a letter of encouragement to his brothers who can no longer live in their homeland. The people of God have been sent into the world. The end of an age is approaching; the end of temple worship is at hand. No longer will God’s people center around a particular place in geography. No longer will His children journey to a certain city on a map. They have been “dispersed” among the nations. And this, according to Peter, was accomplished by the foreknowledge of God the Father, so that they may be sanctified by the Spirit. The priestly people have been sprinkled with a blood better than bulls and goats, and therefore have been washed for worship. They have been prepared to kiss the Son, and obey His Word. They have been prepared to receive in abundance both grace and peace.

This is a good thing. This is a good place to be. This is a fertile field where the grace of God and the Peace of salvation can abound, and find increase. It is in the dispersion that we see God provide. It is in exile that we find our true home. For our home is no longer a place. It is no longer a destination. Our Home is a Person. Our Home is Christ. It is our purpose that we find here, surrounded by fields ready to be sown. Our theater for observing God’s abundance is on earth, but our Center is in Heaven. That is where we have citizenship. Therefore our calling is this: To go to all the nations with the grace and peace that has been bestowed upon us, and that is being multiplied within us. Being sent out of our ‘homeland’ we have been made priests, sanctified for ministry. We are to bring the nations before Him who dwells on the Mercy Seat. We hold healing and salvation in our hands, for we hold the blood that washes clean the covering that is cast over all peoples.

Still, life is difficult. We often find ourselves in spiritual, emotional or physical wastelands. Often we feel like exiles; sent away from the comforts and securities of home, be it our physical or emotional home. We have seasons of dryness; deserts, with oases few and far between. But this is where Peter encourages us. Though we find ourselves home-starved, and weary, we have been sent out by the foreknowledge of God our Father, for the sake of obedience to the Son, through the sanctification of the Spirit. This means our dispersion is purposeful. We are to remember that in Christ, we are never far from Home, because He is our Home. We are never truly exiled because the nations belong to Christ. We can never be completely undone because the circumstances we find ourselves in belong to the one who made us, remade us, and ordained us in the ministry of His life. Having been purposed for this world, we can understand our place in it. Struggles, trials, difficult circumstances are all avenues for the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They become the fire and the anvil and the hammer, as we are being shaped and honed. Being dispersed reminds us that the things of this world are not to be our primary focus. We have been foreknowingly sent into the world, exiled in strange and alien countries so that we may proclaim the glory of God. We do this with our lives, our actions, our words, our habits, our time, and our thoughts. As we find our home in Christ, our lives take on the shape of our home; as we focus on our center, our lives become centered on the Truth. This life is the life that is taken to the nations. This is the act of obedience that Peter speaks of. Not only are we sprinkled by the blood, being priests and living sacrifices, but we are to sprinkle the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, teaching them to obey all that we have been commanded. And behold, He is with us, even to the end of the age.

3-5: What joy we find in Christ. May our lives truly say, “Blessed be our God and Father.” It was His mercy that brought us life. It was His love that brought us hope. In the resurrection, and only in the resurrection, is found living hope, hope that does not die. Wishful thinking dies away. Hope, true hope, will never pass away, for it is grounded in the death of death, and therefore cannot die. Not only have we been raised to new life in this hope, we have been given an inheritance that cannot die either. Our inheritance sits at the right hand of the Father, and has already died once. The promise land of eternal life is freely given, and cannot pass away. Nor can we, for we are being guarded through faith, through the faithfulness of Christ, for a salvation that will come. Full and final salvation awaits, and is the answer to every question that arises in the desert. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. It makes every season worth it. It makes every trial and every struggle seem bearable, nay, hopeful.

Peter’s encouragement begs us to have this hope now, in the middle of the trials, in the middle of the struggles. To have the perspective of heaven means to see everything that happens here and now as a preparation for that day. These are the months and weeks and days leading up to the Royal Wedding. All preparations are being made. The heads of state are being notified. Invitations are going out. The Bride is being fashioned and beautified. All of it points to the day that is coming. Not one day of preparation is without purpose or importance. The Bride, pressured and stressed, sees the joy that is coming, understands the trajectory of it all, and rests in the faithfulness of the groom to be there at the altar on that coming day. To see Him there makes it all worthwhile. That is our unfailing hope.

6-7: In this we rejoice. We find joy in hope. When hope is sure, there is no room for despair. Even though the externals of this world and its circumstances are painful, difficult, or seemingly impossible. We have all been grieved by various trials. We have all seen and felt and undergone painful and trying events. Whether it be a loved one dying, loss of income, estranged friendships, infertility, family tragedy or whatever; life is hard, life is real, and the hardship and pain is real too. But the trials really do have purpose. Its one thing to say that, and another thing to have that be the mold that forms our attitudes while in the midst of the trial. But Peter declares that these trials, these very real hardships are testing the genuineness of our faith. This is not for God’s benefit either by the way. God knows if our faith is genuine. God knows better than we do ourselves. If our faith is genuine, our faith can only be strengthened that we might see God strengthening it. This changes us. It does not prove anything to God. God is proving something to us. This can only result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter may be referring here to the final coming of Christ, when all shall be revealed. But I believe it is also true that when we are being tested, and the genuineness of our faith is being proved, Jesus Christ is being revealed…in us! And this is what we give praise to God for. What started as a lump of clay, is now being fashioned and formed by the Master Potter into glorious vessels of mercy. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in and through us. This is the purpose of trials: that Christ may be revealed in us, that Christ might be shown to the world through our lives. This tested faith takes on more value than gold, which perishes though tested with fire. It is more valuable because it will not perish. It will go on, into eternity.

8-9: We have not seen Jesus face to face. Not then, not now. But we love Him. We believe in Him. This can only be a work of the Spirit. How can an unregenerate heart love someone they have never known? How can an unregenerate soul believe in someone they have never seen? Our hearts truly have been made new. How else could even the idea of loving and believing in Jesus sound plausible? Truly we have been reborn through the Spirit. In this love and through our faith, which is pure gift, not something we have accomplished, but rather something we have obtained, through this faith we have seen salvation. We have tasted life. Salvation has been given to us. And because of the pure grace of it, the undiluted mercy shown to us by God our Father, we find ourselves unable to adequately express the joy that fills our hearts. It is inexpressible. Joy cannot be explained or diagramed. It can only be eaten, laughed, shared, cried, drunk. Words fail our finite tongues. Raising a glass begins to scratch the surface of what this joy means. It means glory. Our lives now take on the weight and the purpose of glory. Our Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father, and the Spirit together is worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. We now partake in that glory, for we partake of the Father, in Christ, through the Spirit. It is what we are saved to. This glory then fills our lives, transforming us from one level to the next, overflowing into our workplaces, our neighborhoods, and our markets. This salvation, this joy, this glory becomes the center that defines our lives. It becomes the mold that shapes our reactions to trials of varying degrees of difficulty. Salvation and glory and joy are the liquid that the sponge that is our life soaks in, so that when squeezed, the liquid of glory and joy comes rushing out. This is our gospel witness. This is true evangelism.

10-12: This story is not a new one. It has been foretold from the beginning. The seed of the woman would destroy the seed of the serpent. Throughout history we see the two lines warring and attacking one another, with the seed of the woman always coming out on top. The prophets saw this, and proclaimed the Word of the Lord, declaring the coming sufferings of Christ along with His subsequent glories. Here we are again. Glory is not an add-on. Glory is not like a sticker that you put on your window. Glory does not adorn anything. Glory is the product of trial. Christ suffered, tremendously. Because of His suffering He obtained glory. We who are in Christ, participated then, through faith, in the sufferings He underwent on the cross. We also live out the cross in our daily lives, bearing the pain and trials of living in a sin cursed world. But we also, through faith, obtained the glories of resurrected life with Christ as He ascended and took His throne above. We also, having taken up our cross daily, and having died daily to the temptations of our flesh, join in the glory of the resurrection now. It was revealed to the prophets that we were the reason Christ would come and suffer. Their writings were intended for our elder brothers the Jews, so that they may obtain hope. We, as true Israel, are served by the prophets therefore in being the recipients of the good news which was preached to us. This gospel was brought to us through the Holy Spirit who was sent from Heaven. This story of grace is so marvelous, so stupendous, so ridiculously beautiful that angels long to understand the theme. They long to see what it is God is doing. They are desperate to look into the book of grace that is being enacted daily in our lives. We have experienced something that no other creature, in heaven or on earth, can experience. That something is mercy.