Awaken with a Reminder

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Pete

I wake up in the morning with music. No beeping electronic alarm sound for me, jolting me into consciousness. Instead, I want to be gently awakened by one or more songs from a favorite playlist. Melody is what I want to make me aware of the day’s beginning, to let me know it’s time to rise from rest.

But what about being awakened from a slumber of neglect, or a slumber of distraction, or a slumber of misplaced priorities, or a slumber of discouragement? What’s gonna work when you’re snoozing at the wheel while you’re supposed to be following Jesus? Chewing this morning on Peter’s approach, on being awaken with a reminder.

Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me. And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure.

(2Peter 1:12-15 CSB)

The Lord Jesus had let Peter know his days were coming to a close, he would soon lay aside his earthly tent. But before he left, this fellow elder of God’s flock (2Pet. 5:1-2) would continue to shepherd his sheep so they wouldn’t be left to aimlessly wander after his departure. And so, he’d write one more letter. One more recap of who they were in Christ, what they possessed through the Spirit, and how they should live for God. As he had always done, he would continue to always do — I will always remind you about these things.

Peter knew how easy it was to take your eye off the prize and start drowning when you should be walking on water (Mt. 14:28-33). He knew the reality of finding himself suddenly denying Jesus when his intention had been all along to defend Jesus (Mt. 26:33-34). He knew the weariness that could lull you into passing out on Jesus instead of praying with Jesus (Mt. 26:37-40). He knew the need, from time to time, to wake up with a reminder.

And so, he again presents to these precious sheep a reminder of some precious promises. Tells them repeatedly the truths they already knew.

I will always remind you about these things, Peter says, to wake you up with a reminder.

His desire was to arouse them afresh to faithful living. His goal was to stir up within them the divine power granted them in order to live fully into the divine nature gifted them (2Pet. 1:3-4). He would combat every tendency within them to float with the facts that they were born again to bear fruit (2Pet. 1:8). He’d wake them up with a reminder.

Like I said, I wake up with music in the morning. But then, on most mornings, with the help of the Spirit’s prompting and a cup of coffee, I make my way to my desk, open my bible, and get ready to be awaken with a reminder.

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in 2Peter | Tagged | Leave a comment

Grace Multiplied

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Pete

Okay, so this morning’s devo was interrupted by an unplanned hunt — a hunt for a beeping smoke detector. Ugh! Found it. Kinda of. There were two in the room. Swapped out the battery in the most accessible one first. Nope. Not it. Go get the ladder. Ugh, again! All to say that while my reading time this morning stayed mostly in tact, writing time was severely compromised. So, here’s a quick attempt to bullet point what I’m chewing on in 2Peter 1:1-11.

  • While we have been translated into the kingdom of light, our lives now are about entering that eternal kingdom (1:11).
  • The way we enter the kingdom — which is also the way that mitigates stumbling as we follow Christ — is to make every effort to confirm our calling (1:10). Make every effort! We can’t work our way into heaven, but we can work our way into the kingdom. Hmm . . .
  • By making this effort, it keeps us from being “useless or unfruitful” in our experiential knowledge of Jesus. Head knowledge is intended to translate into life practice which is intended to bear fruit for Jesus (1:8).
  • The “every effort” we put in to confirm our calling is the same “every effort” we are to put in to “supplement” our faith. While we are saved by faith alone, we are not saved for faith alone. We are to add to our faith. Faith + goodness + knowledge + self-control + endurance + godliness + brotherly affection + love (1:5) = confirming your salvation.
  • Our effort? Yup. Our ability? Not so much. It’s His divine power that’s given us all we need to participate in the divine nature that we share in through the “precious promises” He has given us (1:4-5) which sources the effort, that adds to our faith, that bears the fruit, that confirms our calling, that allows us to enter into the eternal kingdom now.
  • But, while it might be we who are adding, it is He who is multiplying!

To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

(2Peter 1:1b-2 CSB)

Grace multiplied. Struck me as kind of unfamiliar. Abundant grace? Abounding grace? Amazing grace? Pretty familiar. Multiplied grace? Not so much. Only found here and in 1Peter and in Jude.

So, while I am to make every effort to ADD, He enables me to add by MULTIPLYING. While I work to enter into what I have been translated into, He supplies, and supplies more and more and more and more, what I need as I participate in the divine nature by His divine power.

How’s that for some divine math?

Grace multiplied. All for God’s glory.

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Great Sender

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Pete

Repetition. It’s the great megaphone in Scripture. It emphasizes what heaven wants emphasized when it’s found within a few verses concerning a specific point. But it shouts out the eternal truths heaven wants to shout out when it is found within an entire book. The reverberating rhythm of an often-mentioned reality is laying down something the Spirit wants us to pick up on. This morning I’m chewing on the wonder of the Father being the Great Sender.

As He was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out,”You know Me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on My own, but the One who sent Me is true. You don’t know Him; I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent me.” . . . “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the One who sent Me.”

(John 7:28-29, 33 CSB)

Sent Me . . . Sent Me . . . Sent Me. Three times in my reading this morning it, He sent Me echoes the truth that God the Father is the Great Sender.

Not just found in these few verses, but encountered 14 times so far in John’s gospel. To be encountered another 20 times before John is done writing his telling of the good news so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (Jn. 20:31).

By way of comparison, “sent me” is found once in Matthew, once in Mark, and only three times in the detailed, historic account of Jesus’ life provided by Luke. Each of those gospel writers were inspired to emphasize other things. John, however, would make sure we understood something of Messiah’s deity, that He is God in heaven. But beyond that, because a God in heaven is not what the earth needed, John would be led of God the Spirit to make sure we knew that, because of our sin, God the Father sent God the Son. That’s just part of what the Father does best — “He sent Me.”

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

(John 3:16-17 CSB)

God gave His Son. God sent His Son. That’s one distinguishing act that makes the Father the Father. That’s one of the unique roles He plays within the dynamics of a Triune God — the Father is the eternal Sender. While the Son is eternally begotten, the Father is forever the Giver. He is the Great Sender.

Thank you, oh my Father
For giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit
‘Til the work on Earth is done

(Melody Green, There is A Redeemer)

The Great Sender. Oh, what an act of amazing grace!

The Great Sender. To God be all the glory!

Amen?

Posted in John | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Good, Good, Good!

Posted on October 19, 2023 by Pete

Hovering over some shadow verses this morning. You know, those lesser-known passages immediately following those other passages we tend to remember, quote, and claim. Lesser known, lesser remembered, often lesser chewed on Scripture because the inspired word just before it so . . . well, inspiring!

Hovering over Lamentations 3. Immediately many of us think, “Oh, oh, oh! I know! His mercies are new every morning! Great is His faithfulness!” That’s the mighty oak in Lamentations 3, verses 22 and 23. It’s the great reversal bringing much needed revival after two-and-a-half chapters of lamenting the carnage and collateral damage of God’s judgment on an unfaithful people. It’s the “aha!” the prophet calls to mind which helps refuel within him hope (3:21).

But just after this great hymn is a lesser known chorus. In the shade of new mercies and great faithfulness is a passage that tells us what’s good, good, and good about being in the midst of what’s bad, terrible, and awful.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
to the person who seeks Him.
It is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is still young.

(Lamentations 3:25-27 CSB)

James says we should “consider it great joy” whenever we experience various kinds of trials (James 1:2). Maybe because James spent some time in the shade.

Consider it great joy because GOOD is Jehovah. Consider it great joy because GOOD is waiting quietly. Consider it great joy because GOOD is bearing the yoke of discipline.

There’s something about struggling in the desert which tends to revive the thirst for Living Water prioritizing it above all other thirsts. Something about waiting and seeking while you’re wandering and wondering that provides afresh an opportunity to taste and see that the LORD is good. Yes, and amen — the LORD is indeed good! Not just to those who wait, He is good period. But there is a unique depth of goodness revealed to those who wait on Him in the wilderness, to those who seek Him in their suffering.

It’s also good just to wait. When in a season or situation that you know you’re not going to be able to resolve or redeem on your own, there’s something enlivening to the soul that comes from being dependent wholly upon the Savior. Something pleasant which comes from experiencing your impotence, as experientially you know that His power is made perfect in our weakness (2Cor. 12:9).

And it’s even good to bear the yoke attached to the hard work of enduring patiently. To be trained in the time of trial. To be disciplined in the midst of what seems like only destruction. For in our suffering “God is dealing with you as sons”, leveraging hardship for our “benefit, so that we can share His holiness.” While the yoke seems painful at the time, later “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:7, 10-11).

Good is the LORD. Good is waiting. Good is enduring.

Good because His mercies never end. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. Oh, what blessed shade!

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in Lamentations | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Finished with Sin

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Pete

This morning Peter lays out a bottom-line for his audience. For those who are chosen but living as exiles (1Pet. 1:1), it’s sin or suffering.

Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding ​— ​because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin ​— ​in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.

(1Peter 4:1-2 CSB)

What that “therefore” is there for encompasses a pretty big ask. While the immediate reference is to Christ’s suffering in the flesh, I think that’s but the illustration to contextualize the exhortation that Peter makes of his “dear friends.” “As strangers and exiles,” he urges, “abstain from sinful desires. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles” (1Pet. 2:11-12).

And since chapter 2, Peter’s been laying out what honorable living looks like. It will mean everyone submitting to human authority, even bad human authority. It will mean slaves submitting to masters, even cruel masters. It will mean wives submitting to husbands, even unbelieving husbands. It will mean husbands living with, and loving their wives according to understanding, even when they’re struggling to understand. And it will mean living together as a community of believers, even when the family tends to be dysfunctional at times. You’d like to think that living honorably comes with reward. And it will “on the day He visits.” But until then? Don’t count on it. Because the world doesn’t get honorable living.

Honorable living — living according to God’s will, living for Christ — also means a high likelihood that the culture about them would respond to their “good conduct” with slander and accusation, disparaging their good as evil (2:12b,3:16b). So much so that their sanctified living would bear the fruit of unjust suffering. Just like Jesus.

Therefore, says Peter, since Jesus suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same understanding . . . live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.

And that choice to suffer as followers of Christ reveals another choice, “I’m done with the ways of this world — I’m done with sin.”

Not that I’m perfect, not that I don’t sin or won’t sin, but that I’m finished with living for sin. Finished with “carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry” (1Pet. 4:3). Finished with being like the world around me pursuing “the same flood of wild living” (1Pet. 4:4). Finished with the ways of this world being my ways.

Instead, I choose to follow Jesus. And so, even if it means suffering like Jesus, I’m finished with sin.

That’s the holy determination of a holy people who view themselves as wholly in exile. That’s the desire of disciples wanting to walk in the way of their Master. That’s the aspiration of those who count themselves dead to this world and alive to a better kingdom.

Finished with sin.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Eating is Believing

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Pete

To say that I’m chewing on the latter part of John 6 this morning is an understatement (actually, it’s more like a pun).

Jesus has fed five thousand (6:1-11) and the crowds are pressing Him for more (6:22-26). Jesus seizes on the opportunity of their belly-lust to point them away from “food that perishes” to “food that lasts for eternal life” (6:27). What is this wonder food? Well, it’s “the true bread from heaven” (6:32). But the wonder food is not a what, it’s a who.

“For the bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” . . . “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again.”

(John 6:33, 35 CSB)

Chewing on the Bread of Life this morning (see, told you it was kind of a pun). Actually, I’m chewing on what it means to be chewing on.

“Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

(John 6:47-51 CSB)

Eat this bread, live forever. Check. This bread is My flesh. What?!? The Jews didn’t get it (6:52). Many of Jesus’ disciples didn’t accept it (6:60). But Jesus didn’t back off to try and make it more palatable (pun intended . . . I kill me).

So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

(John 6:53-54 CSB)

What does it mean, then, to eat His flesh and drink His blood? Do the math. You know, that math that says: IF A=B AND B=C THEN A=C. So, IF anyone who believes has eternal life AND the one eats My flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life THEN the one who believes is the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood. Seeing isn’t believing –eating is believing.

Believing that Jesus is God come in flesh. Believing that Jesus gave His body and shed His blood as a once for all atoning sacrifice for my sin. Believing that Jesus bodily rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and now reigns at God’s right hand and intercedes forever for God’s people. Trusting in what is conveyed through the body of Christ and the blood of Christ is eating of Christ. Eating is believing.

And it’s not a one-and-done thing.

“The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.”

(John 6:56 CSB)

Remaining, or abiding in Christ is an eating thing too, a believing thing as well. For to live for Christ is to have to acknowledge that we fail for Christ; that we are weak even though He who lives in us is strong; that we repeatedly find ourselves weary even though He has promised us rest. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). And so, I need to eat again of His flesh, claiming again by faith that He paid the price for my failure. I need to drink again of His blood, believing with all my heart that the blood of Christ continues to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1Jn. 1:9). I need to feed on the risen Christ, believe on the risen Christ, knowing that it is no longer I who live, but the risen Christ living in me and through Me (Gal. 2:20).

Eating is believing. Believing is eating.

“Sir, give us this bread always!”

(John 6:34 CSB)

O, taste and see that the Lord is good.

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in John | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Jacob’s Portion

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Pete

It’s the second time I’ve encountered this name for Jehovah while reading in Jeremiah. A few weeks ago it didn’t register much on the “chew-o-meter.” This time? It spikes the needle.

Hovering over a a two-word moniker (in the CSB) for God. An alias for the LORD of Hosts, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. A way to refer to the One Jeremiah has just reminded his people is He who

made the earth by His power
established the world by His wisdom,
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.
When He thunders,
the waters in the heavens are tumultuous,
and He causes the clouds
to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from his storehouses.

(Jeremiah 51:15-16 CSB)

And what is the Name of the Creator? How might we address the Source of thunder and lightning? In contrasting Him to the lifeless, inert, carved images of Babylon, Jeremiah refers to Him in this manner;

Jacob’s Portion is not like these
because He is the one who formed all things.
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;
the Lord of Armies is His name.

(Jeremiah 51:19 CSB)

Jacob’s Portion. Huh?

Jacob? Like in Jacob the “heel-catcher”? Jacob the supplanter? Jacob the schemer?

That Jacob, who scammed his brother’s birthright (Gen. 25), has a claim on the Creator God? The Almighty is part and parcel of his share? Even though Israel is the LORD Almighty’s inheritance, the LORD Almighty is Jacob’s portion? Yup. (And who said grace was a New Testament thing only?)

Is there a sense in which God has given Himself to His people? Yeah. Promised in Genesis as part of the Old Covenant (17:7-8) and declared three times in Jeremiah as Jeremiah reveals the New Covenant (24:7, 31:33, 32:38), though God says those He redeems will be His people, He also declares, “I will be their God.” Thus, He is our Portion. Huh!

How do you take that in? Try making sense of that wisdom. Jacob, though he became Israel, was still Jacob, still the schemer. He didn’t earn a stake in the Creator. Yet, He was made in the image of the Creator and thus pursued by the Creator and promised of the Creator to be redeemed by the Creator. That God was Jacob’s Portion was not something to boastfully assert but to humbly wonder at.

I am His. I get that. Because of the work of the cross, I have been purchased with the price paid for my sin. But that He is mine? In a sense, it makes no sense apart from a grace which is amazing beyond comprehension.

Jacob’s Portion, not because of Jacob’s prowess, but only because of God’s promise. Jacob’s Share, not because Jacob earned it, but because God determined it. Jacob’s Part, not because God owed Jacob something, but because God unconditionally and eternally gifted Jacob something.

To mess with John Mark McMillan’s words a bit:

So He is our portion and we are His prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

Jacob’s Portion.

My Portion, too? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Only by God’s grace. Only for God’s glory.

Posted in Jeremiah | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Look Who’s Talking

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Pete

Honestly, I haven’t studied the Song of Solomon enough to really understand how it was put together. I know that the headings within the text of my bible aren’t inspired, they weren’t breathed out by God, those handy-dandy summaries weren’t put there by the Spirit. And I’ve been challenged more than once to try and read my bible without relying on them, not counting on these add-ons of men to supplant the illuminating work of the Spirit. But when it comes to the Song of Songs, I’d be lost much of the time without them. Who’s on first?

Sure, sometimes it’s pretty obvious who’s speaking, the man, the woman, or some third party. But others times, maybe not so much.

For example, almost all of Song of Songs 4, in both my ESV and CSB, is attributed to the “Man.” The bridegroom expressing his love for his bride to be. And most of the language in the chapter makes that pretty clear as he talks to his “darling” (4:1), his “bride” (4:8), his “sister” (12). But looking at one of my online helps this morning, I’m asked to entertain the possibility that amidst the doting of the love struck bridegroom there is embedded within it a response by his sought after bride.

You are absolutely beautiful, my darling;
there is no imperfection in you.

(Songs of Songs 4:7 CSB)

So, who’s talking here?

Context says this continues to be the bridegroom’s heart towards his betrothed. What’s more, the original word for darling here is apparently the feminine rendering of a word for companion, friend, or lover. So pretty sure it’s the man speaking. But it’s not a stretch if it were the bride to be who’s responding. Is it?

Hmm . . .

And if I then put on the allegorical filter and chew on this ancient love story as a type of Christ and His church, it still would make sense if either Christ or the Church were the ones uttering such words.

We know that Christ so loved His bride, the church, that He gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so that He could present her to Himself “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that” (Eph. 5:25-27). And so, hear the words of our beloved Bridegroom say to His blood-bought bride:

You are absolutely beautiful, my darling;
there is no imperfection in you.

Yeah, we’re not there yet, but the work is finished, and the outcome is sure. When He sees us, He beholds us as we will be, He dotes on us as He will when we are presented before Him with all the glory He has purposed to clothe us in. Yeah, hear the words of our Beloved, “You are absolutely beautiful!”

But could these be words spoken by the bride as well? Could the church not say also of the One who loved us unto death, redeemed us unto life, and has set us apart for the beauty of holiness:

You are absolutely beautiful, my Darling;
there is no imperfection in You.

I’m thinkin’ . . .

Greatest love story ever told. Greatest love story ever experienced.

I am my Beloved’s, and He is mine. His beauty is mine. His perfection is mine. And, wonder beyond wonder, His affections are mine.

Not because of who I am, but because of what He’s done. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who He is. For He is altogether lovely and there is no imperfection in Him.

Beautiful in grace. Beautiful for His glory.

Posted in Song of Solomon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Favor With God, Favor From God

Posted on October 12, 2023 by Pete

What a big ask! (Actually, it’s a command). If yesterday’s ask was huge, today’s, it seems to me, is even huger (I think that’s a word). Submitting to every human authority (even when that authority is Nero), as Peter commanded in yesterday’s reading, ain’t no gimme. But to submit also to some nobody, cruel taskmaster? Really? Yeah, really.

Why? What’s in it for me?

Other than obeying the God who is to be obeyed? Well, there’s grace.

Household slaves, submit to your masters with all reverence not only to the good and gentle ones but also to the cruel. For it brings favor if, because of a consciousness of God, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you do wrong and are beaten, you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God.

(1Peter 2:18-20 CSB)

It brings favor . . . this brings favor with God. That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

5485, that’s the Strong’s number here for favor. Charis, that’s the original word, the word used commonly throughout the New Testament for grace. So, where the CSB (and NASB) say that such unwarranted submission is a favor thing, the ESV says it’s a “gracious thing.” The NIV and NKJV say it’s a “commendable” thing. I’m just thinking it’s an amazing thing.

God has established lines of authority, all lines of authority. In its time, domestic servant to domestic servant’s master was permitted to be one of those lines. Not a line dependent on the human character of the master, but a line determined by the sovereign purposes of the Creator. And in that line, slaves submit to masters. And when they do, whether to masters kind or cruel, it brings favor, favor with God.

The sense here among the translators is that it pleases God when, because of a conscious desire to obey God, “we endure undeserved pain without vindicating self or fighting back” (William MacDonald). But isn’t there also the sense that when doing that which is at the limits of what we think we can do as humans it also brings favor from God? It beckons grace? It invites a strength and a power beyond ourselves to do that which we are not sure we can do by ourselves? I’m thinking.

In only doing what we want to do, in only doing what we’re pretty sure we can do, we succumb to the temptation towards self-sufficiency, and can fall to the sin of self-reliance. But to submit to someone else, especially when that someone else is a creep boss, is to put ourselves in a place of compromise, a place of vulnerability, a place of weakness, a place of needing something more than us. Cue Paul . . .

Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

(2Corinthians 12:7b-10 CSB)

Paul’s willingness to concede to his thorn in the flesh brings favor — not only favor with God but favor from God. His submission, despite his insufficiency, effectively attached himself to a divine fire hose from which abundant grace, sufficient grace, power-giving grace could overflow into his compromised and weak situation. While he knew the cruelness of this taskmaster sent from Satan, he also knew experientially the power of the risen Christ in him as the Spirit of God lived through Him.

Doing the hard thing because of a consciousness of God invites the favor thing, beckons the grace thing, gets us ready for the-power-of-Christ-in-me thing. It brings not only favor with God, but also brings first hand experience with favor from God.

Such is His amazing grace. To Him be all the glory.

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Slave or Free? Yes!

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Pete

If you’ve ever heard me talk about it, you know that one of the things which I think has weakened the North American church has been a generation of seeker friendly church.

In the name of trying to remove barriers for unbelievers, I wonder how much we also succeeded in toning down the offense of the cross. That many came to Jesus not only because His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Mt. 11:30), but because, as it was presented, His cross was also portrayed as comfortable, and His call compatible with our goals for life. As someone has said, “What you win them with you will need to keep them with” and so, it becomes a pretty hard push to transition people who believed in Jesus in order to fulfill themselves to then buy into the fact that to follow Jesus they must die to themselves (Mt. 16:24, Rom. 6:6, Eph. 4:22). After all, who really knew they were signing up for that?

Why has this come to mind this morning? Something that I’m chewing on in 1Peter.

For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.

(1Peter 2:15-16 CSB)

Free people or God’s slaves. Which is it?

You’d think that being exiles and living as strangers in a hostile land would cut you a bit of slack in also trying to live as the people of God with a holy calling to be holy as God is holy. Evidently not.

So far in Peter’s first epistle, there’s just as much “to do” as there is “to know.” While being reminded of the nature of their salvation and the surety of their hope is vital for keepin’ on keepin’ on as they suffer grief in various trials, so too, it would seem, is being exhorted to live out the life they were born again to live out. And so, says Peter, “Wanna know what God’s will is? It’s doing good. For by your conduct you’ll answer the world’s criticism.”

What’s the conduct in question in particular here? “Submit to every human authority . . . whether to the emperor (aka crazy, anti-Christian Nero) . . . or to governors” (2:13-14). And how come? “Because of the Lord.” Because it’s God’s will.

So, why submit? Because you can. You are free people. Citizens of a different land. Looking for rest, ultimately, in a different city. Storing up treasure in a different place. Living for an inheritance valued by a different economy. Not only freed from the bondage of sin, but freed from the tappings of this world. Free people. Free to submit. That’s who we are.

Why submit? Because we must. Because we are also God’s slaves. Freed to be bond servants. Freed not to live for ourselves — for “you are not your own, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body” (1Cor. 6:19b-20). Freed to serve our Redeemer. Freed to obey our Master. Freed to live in subjection to our King. And if that means submit, then submit we must.

Hmm . . .

So, is the way of the cross the way of flourishing or of hardship? Yes. In Christ am I to live or to die? Yes. In doing life on a day-to-day basis am I to walk as slave or free? Yes.

Only by His grace. Always for His glory.

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment