Author: Jay Lehman

Studies in First Peter Part 6

“¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, ¹⁵but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; ¹⁶because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ “ (I Peter 1:13-16).

The ”Therefore” that begins this next section of Peter’s letter is similar to the apostle Paul’s approach in his letters.  Both authors first remind their readers of who they are in Christ and then follow with a call to walk according to our new identity.  Peter has explained who we are in verses 2-12.  We are chosen, sanctified, born again, cleansed by Christ’s blood, empowered to obey, heirs of God, and more.  Starting in verse 13, he moves on to how we live in light of all these descriptions of what Christ did for us and in us and to us and who we now are.

And he summarizes our new identity in one word, “holy”.  Go ahead, act like the holy person you are.  “As obedient children … be holy yourselves in all your behavior.”  Act in ways that reflect your holy identity.  Behave in ways befitting the holy and righteous obedient child that you are.  In your attitudes and actions, align yourself with the new holy nature you have been given.

When you hear a phrase like “be holy in all your behavior,” do you hear a threat or a promise?  For years, I heard it as a threat, basically a “be holy or else.”  “Be holy or evil will befall you.  Be holy because that is what God requires to stay near to Him.  Be holy so God will not be disappointed in you.”  It always carried some kind of a threat.

Or how about the last line, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  This phrase always seemed like a hopeless appeal.  “Be holy, even though it is probably not what you want to do, but you need to try to emulate God who is holy, but you are not God, so you will never attain the holiness that God requires, but keep trying your hardest.”  Yeah, something like that.

But now I see holiness as a promise.  Look at the last line again, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  What does God’s holiness have to do with ours?  Everything.  How can we be as holy as Jesus?  We can only be holy because the Holy One Himself came to live in us.  We ARE holy because Christ made us so.  “The Holy One who called you” made you holy.  It is our identity.

“He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:22).

Our holiness is a promise, not a required action held over us as an unattainable goal, or a yardstick to measure our spirituality, or a threat of any kind.

A plethora of how-to books about holiness have been published over the years.  And I am sure they contain some good advice.  But in all of your holiness reading, have you ever seen this suggestion for holy living; BE YOURSELF?  Holiness is not a list of complicated hoops to jump through.  “Be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” is simply the apostle saying “be yourself” by displaying in your attitudes and actions the “holy” in you.

The call to be holy carries a powerful promise; the promise of God’s holiness living in you.

Studies in First Peter Part 5

“¹⁰As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, ¹¹seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.  ¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things into which angels long to look” (I Peter 1:10-12).

When the prophets of the Old Testament spoke about the coming of the Messiah, they were prophesying about “the grace that would come to you.”  They rarely used the word “grace”.  But looking back, “grace” is entirely the proper word.  Because they were prophesying the coming of the Messiah.  And the Messiah and grace are synonymous.  Jesus is grace.  Jesus is grace upon grace.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth … For of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14, 16-17).  The grace that would come to us is Jesus.

But none of the Old Testament prophets had the whole story.  Each one spoke about the piece of “the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (vs 11) that was revealed to them.  Here are just a few of those puzzle pieces regarding the coming and mission of the Messiah.

• He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)
• He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
• He would be a righteous branch of David (Jeremiah 33:15)
• He would be called Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14)
• A messenger would prepare the way (Malachi 3:1)
• He would set the captive and oppressed free (Isaiah 61:1)
• He would be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6)
• He would announce Himself riding on a donkey into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9)
• He would be crucified (Psalm 22)
• He would die in our place (Isaiah 53)
• He would usher in a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Even John the Baptist, last of the old covenant prophets, did not have the complete story.  He presented Jesus as our Savior from sin, and a truer statement could not be made.  But he also announced Jesus as having the winnowing fork of judgment in His hand (Matthew 3:12) and burning the place down, to use our modern vernacular.

But judgment was not part of Jesus’ first advent.  When John saw that this was missing in Jesus’ ministry, he sent his disciples to question Jesus directly with, “Are you the Coming One, or shall we look for someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).  Of course, Jesus is the Messiah and He sent that reassuring word back to John.  But this is just one more example of the fact that each prophet only had a piece of the puzzle.  How they longed to know the whole story.

The complete story was waiting for us.  The prophets were serving us.  And because we have the full picture, we can go back in time and see the glory of Christ in each of their prophesies.  And we can conclude and rest assured that Jesus – yes, Jesus of first century Israel – is the Jesus of grace and truth; the prophesy-fulfilling Messiah promised in the Old Testament.

Studies in First Peter Part 4

“⁶In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, ⁷so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; ⁸and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (I Peter 1:6-9).

We rejoice in our trials because our place is God’s family is secure and is “more precious than gold.”  We don’t rejoice FOR our trials.  They can be very painful for us and our families.  But we rejoice within our trials.  And this demeanor of faith, this picture of our trust in God demonstrates to the world around that we belong to Jesus.

The word “proof” here can be a bit scary.  Is how we react to trials a litmus test for whether or not we are in God’s family?  Do we have to prove our faith, prove that we really believe, by how we face our trials?  No, we don’t.  Once you believe the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you are in, safe and secure with Jesus.  You are righteous, holy, clean, and close to the Father.

A better way to think of “proof of your faith” might be to think of is as a “demonstration of your faith;” faith that you already have and do not need to prove to anyone.  What this passage is saying is that when you face your trials with the joy of the Lord in your heart, others will see that your faith to face this situation is in Jesus.  Your trust is not in your ability to muscle through.  Your trust is not in the doctors.  Your trust is not in denial.  Your trust is in Jesus.

And when your family and friends see this trust, God is the one who receives the “praise and glory and honor” as Christ is literally revealed in you.

Moving now to verse 8, even though we have not seen Jesus, there are two things Peter knows about how we relate to Him.  We believe Jesus and we love Jesus.  The word “believe” is all over the message of the New Testament.  The old covenant was marked by the word “do”.  It was a list of things to “do” to be made right with God, a list of things to “do” to receive His blessing.

But the new covenant is marked by the word “believe.”  And the main thing we are believing is that Jesus did the “doing” on our behalf.  We believe in Jesus for our salvation and we believe His promises of all He did FOR us and TO us and IN us for living the Christian life.  We “believe in Him.”  Faith and believing are synonymous.  The outcome of believing, “the outcome of our faith, is the salvation of our souls.”

And we love Him.  We love Jesus with the love that He has given us.  “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).  His love literally lives in us by virtue of His Spirit living in us.  And we love Him from this wellspring.  We do not love Jesus out of obligation or to follow a commandment.  We love Him because we have experienced and felt and believed His love for us.

The two great commands of the new covenant are to believe and to love.  “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (I John 3:23).  Peter is encouraging his readers that this is who you are.  You believe Him and you love Him.

Studies in First Peter Part 3

“³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Peter 1:3-5).

God’s great mercy, shown to us through the death of Jesus in our place, is the door through which we have been born again.  And this door to eternal life included the resurrection of Jesus as well.  The resurrection confirmed the complete and finished work of Jesus to take away our sins.  We have been “born again”, born into the family of God.  And we carry inside us a “living hope”, alive because it powered by the unbreakable promises of God, not by some kind of wishful thinking.  And this new birth and living hope have been confirmed in us by “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Entering God’s forever family, we now receive the promise of “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for us.”  Don’t you love these powerful descriptors of our inheritance?  Imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved.  There is zero chance that someone will be changing their will.  Your inheritance is set.  God is your Father.  You are His child.  Your inheritance – His presence in this life and eternal life with Jesus to come – is guaranteed and secure.

Continuing to verse 5, “We are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  Again look at these key words.  Protected, power of God, faith, salvation.  How does our faith fit into this protected by God’s power dynamic?  It starts with the fact that your faith brought you to salvation.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).  This is one of our favorite salvation verses.  And we are quick to focus on “saved by grace” as we should.  But let’s not forget the “through faith” part.  Your faith matters and your faith mattered.  You raised your hand.  You believed.  You expressed your faith in Jesus to save you.  And you were saved.

In the gospels, Jesus chose who to heal, when to heal, how to heal.  But concurrent with Jesus’s actions, the faith of the recipient made a difference based on Jesus’ own words.  How many times did Jesus conclude a healing with “your faith has made you well”?  It’s a bunch.

I don’t know all of the ins and outs of how this works.  I only know that taking Jesus’ words at face value, their faith mattered.  And your faith matters.  Your faith in God’s power to protect you makes a difference.  It secures your peace and joy and calm in the middle of whatever storm you are facing that needs God’s protection.

For Peter’s first century readers, they were facing some challenging trials, and believing in the power of God to protect them was not a theoretical exercise.  It was where they lived.  We will talk about these trials next time.

Studies in First Peter Part 2

“Chosen ²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure” (I Peter 1:2).

When you were “chosen”, when you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you joined God’s family “by the sanctifying work of the Spirit” (vs 2).  Sanctified means “set apart.”  You were “set apart” by the work of the Spirit by being “set in.”  You were “set in” Christ, and Christ was “set in” you.  You were placed in Christ (Colossians 3:3), and Christ came to live in you (Colossians 1:27) the minute you believed the gospel.

We have been taught that we have some role in our sanctification with non-biblical phrases like “progressive sanctification.”  We have been taught that our sanctification is a life-long process of ups and downs, fits and starts, as we get closer or further from our heavenly Father.  But the Spirit already did the sanctifying when you believed the gospel.  “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all … For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10,14).

Your sanctification has already happened.  You are now as clean and close to the Father as you can ever be.  And this vine and branches connection is unbreakable, unshakable, secure, and rock-solid.  It never fluctuates.  Not because of how well you are doing, but by Christ and His Spirit’s doing, making you clean and close forever.

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).

Your sanctification has been sealed and secured by the Holy Spirit that now lives in you.  And one of the beautiful outcomes of being sanctified is that you now have what it takes “to obey Jesus Christ” (vs 2).  Yes, obedience is our journey in this Christian life.  But it is an obedience born of our new identity.  We now have Jesus living though us and the power of His resurrection life indwelling us.  This fuels our obedience.  It is not a begrudging, striving, going against all of our inclinations obedience.  No, it is quite the opposite.  It is living into the power of all that Christ made new in you.  He did it.  He made you new.

Obedience is our new disposition, our new “how we look on the inside.”  Please, please, please hear this.  It is not an obedience to the Law or any other rule-keeping system.  Christ gave us a new commandment for a new covenant, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).  And this “love one another” is fleshed out as we practice the “one anothers” of the New Testament.  This is not a Law-keeping kind of obedience.  It is a freedom kind of obedience.  We are now free and empowered to love, encourage, lift up, and serve our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Finally, this life of obedience through His power will be overflowing with His grace and His peace.  I and a thousand of others in this group will assure you that this is true.