Add to your faith… (2 Peter 1:1-11)
Ron White - September 7, 2008
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1 Introduction
1.1 The apostle Peter is nearing the end of his life and mindful of what Jesus told him after he had risen bodily from the dead, but before he returned to heaven that when Peter was old he would be made to go where he did not want to go and that in his death Peter would glorify God (John 21:18-19 and 2 Pet 1:14-15). He is now concerned that before he died Christians should continue to grow in their faith and have something to remember the truths which he had taught.
In this brief letter of 3 chapters he tells us about:
- Foundational Truths in chap 1;
- False Teachers in chap 2; and
- Future Things in chap 3.
1.2 Let us now explore the first chapter of foundational truths together. Firstly we will look at what we are to believe (vv1-2); secondly what we should do about it (vv3-11) and thirdly why we should believe i.e. what is the evidence to back up what we are to believe (vv12-21).
2 What we are to believe.
2.1 In the very first verse Peter says that through God acting righteously we have received a faith just as valid and as valuable as the faith Peter himself enjoys. Importantly he does not point us to tradition, or the church or religion but to a relationship a relationship with Jesus. Peter, who knew Jesus personally, saw his miracles, heard his teaching, witnessed the crucifixion and met the risen Christ, says our faith is in no way inferior to or different from his. What is it that Peter wants us to believe about Jesus? There are two things I should like to highlight from verse 1.
2.2 Firstly Jesus is our Saviour. In this short letter Peter calls Jesus Saviour 5 times (1:1, 11; 2:20; 3:2, 18). But what is it that Jesus saves us from? This is an extremely important question. Peter tells us that Jesus deals with our past. In v9 Peter tells us that we have been cleansed from, that is forgiven for, our past sins. Wait a minute you ask how can a holy God righteously forgive sins? If God is holy and hates wrong doing it has to be punished. Suppose some thug was brought before a judge having killed a child while robbing a house. If the jury found the thug guilty and then the judge merely said, well I can`t see what all the fuss is about I will let the prisoner go free, there would be outrage wouldn’t there and rightly so. How would you feel if the murdered child was your child, or brother or sister? God cannot, and will not turn a blind eye to any wrong doing, be it great or small. If so then what is to become of us. The great news is that God has provided a way of forgiveness that is righteous and just. When Jesus died on the cross he was taking the punishment for our wrong doing. Peter told us in his first letter (chapter 2 vv 22 and 24) that Jesus Christ walked this earth as the perfect man, that despite all the temptations and hostility he endured he was without sin, and this is the free testimony of an eyewitness who walked by his side everyday for about 3 years. Jesus as perfect man, not in any way deserving death, died a terrible death on the cross. In that death Peter says he bore in his own body the just penalty for all our sins. All mine and all yours. There is no wrong doing, no sin, so trivial that it does not need the forgiveness that is freely available because of the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no wrong doing so big, so terrible, that it cannot be entirely, fully and freely cleansed by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. With Jesus as our saviour we can look back on our past with perfect peace.
2.3 As Saviour Jesus deals with our past. Peter also tells us that Jesus also saves us in the present. We read in 2:20 that we “have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. In case you have not noticed it, there is a lot of bad stuff out there! You might well ask with so much evil around me, bombarding me every day how can I possibly live a decent life, the sort of life that God expects? Well the answer is trust Jesus to keep you. He is our Saviour in the day by day battle of taking up our crosses and following him. With Jesus as our Saviour we can face the present with confidence.
2.4 Jesus is our Saviour from our past. He is our Saviour for the present and he is our Saviour in the future. What does that mean? In 3:15 Peter writes “that our Lord`s patience means salvation” Peter has just been explaining about the exciting truth that Jesus will be returning to this earth one day. Peter had not forgotten that when, with the other disciples he saw Jesus ascend to heaven they were told that “This same Jesus…will come back in the same way you have seen him go (Acts1:11).” When Jesus returns he will return as Saviour and Judge. For those who trust him, he will be their Saviour. For those who do not, he will be their Judge and the consequences do not bear thinking about. If he were to return today would you be ready to meet him? With Jesus as our Saviour we can face the future with hope.
2.5 But isn`t this all unrealistic? Making all these claims about a man that lived 2 thousand years ago? Well I said that there were 2 things I wanted to draw to your attention in verse 1. The first is that Jesus is our Saviour; the second is that he is “our God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. Peter here attributes unambiguously full deity to Jesus Christ. I am not at all stretching the text; the grammar and the context allow no other meaning. All that I have said about Jesus as Saviour is true precisely, and only, because he is God. He is God the Son, the second person within the Trinity, which is a tremendous truth. It is a very sad comment on Bible teaching and understanding that the Trinity is viewed as a problem rather than the most exciting truth about God in the Bible. That Jesus is perfect man and fully God is clear from the rest of the bible. In John 20:28 the newly risen Lord Jesus confronts Thomas who in response says to Jesus “My Lord and my God”. In Revelation Jesus is worshipped as God in the same way that God the Father is worshipped. A number of times in his letters Paul stresses the deity of Jesus, for example when he calls Jesus “The Lord of Glory” and in Titus 2:13 he writes of “the glorious appearing of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. Another writer exclaims of Jesus “Your throne O God will last for ever and ever” (Heb 1:8).
2.6 What does this mean to you? In verse 2 Peter says that we get God`s blessings through our “knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” By “knowledge” Peter does not mean mere information about Jesus. He uses a special word for knowledge. He means knowledge that comes from personally knowing Jesus. What was Peter`s knowledge about Jesus. It was not something that he had learnt from tradition, but from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Peter could say, not arrogantly, but as a matter of simple fact, that he knew Jesus personally as a friend and Saviour. He does not want us to have a second hand faith, but a genuine one exactly like his. Have you got a personal relationship with Jesus as your God and Saviour? Because of his death on the cross, Jesus, our God and Saviour is now standing, with arms wide open to welcome you into in his kingdom, to fully and freely forgive every single thing that you have thought, said or done that is wrong. There is absolutely nothing that you have done that cannot within the next moment be forgiven. Come on what are you waiting for? Why don`t you just tell him that you are sorry for all the bad stuff in your life, for all the wrong things that you have done and ask for his forgiveness this very moment. He is waiting for you to ask him and is longing to forgive you now.
3 What should we do about it (vv3-11)?
3.1 Perhaps you have put your faith in Jesus as your God and Saviour already and you are wondering what next? Or perhaps you have put your faith in Jesus and now things seem a bit flat and you are not sure if it is real.
3.2 We have two massive resources given to us to help us live for Jesus. (vv3-4). Firstly Jesus “Has given us everything we need for life and godliness (v3)”. He has given us everything and everything means just that. If you are finding it a struggle right now remember that in Jesus you have all you need. You do not need anything else. As Paul says in Eph 1:3 we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. There could not possibly be more available to us. But you ask it does not feel like I have got all I need. In fact nothing much seems to have changed. But, are you using what you have? How can I use it? This is the second resource “he has given us his very great and precious promises (v4)“. Look again at verse 4 which reminds us that God has given us great and precious promises. Imagine some guy living far away from home, he has not got a job, he has run out of money, now he is starving and afraid of being thrown out on the street because he cannot pay the rent. But each week he gets a letter from home telling him the local news and with every letter there is a cheque. Each time he takes the cheque out of the envelope, smoothes it out and then pins it on the wall. He has now got half the wall covered and he is starving and thinking of giving up. Wouldn`t you think he was crazy, wouldn`t you tell him to get down to the bank as quickly as he can and cash those cheques. God`s promises in the Bible are a bit like cheques, they are not there to be admired, discussed and pinned on the wall they are there to be trusted. And those promises are so great. Here are some: I will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able. My grace is sufficient for you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. And there are many more. But in order to benefit from them we need to know them. There is no better way to get to know them than to read a bit of your Bible every day and pray for God`s help. Then we will find as John Wesley wrote in his journal “All these days I scarce remember to have opened the New Testament, but upon some great and precious promise. And I saw more than ever, that the gospel is in truth but one great promise from the beginning of it to the end.” However most marvellous of all is that (verse 4) we are to participate in the divine nature. In Christ we become incorporated into him, part of the body of Christ. What are we to do with all this?
3.3 There are some wonderful qualities to develop (vv5-7).
“This sounds exciting” you say “I have trusted Jesus as my Saviour, I want to get to know him better, Jesus has given me everything I need to follow him and I have loads of wonderful promises in the Bible. But, I still don`t know what to expect. What does it mean to live a godly life? Do I have to become a nun or something? Or spend all my time in church? Or wear special clothes?”
3.4 Peter now sketches out what it means to be a follower of Jesus, the life style changes we will need to make. He lists 7 great qualities that we should all strive to develop. [Read vv 5-7.] Don`t you think they are wonderful? Supposing everybody was doing this, wouldn`t the world be really great? Wouldn`t most of our social problems pretty quickly disappear? Don`t you want to be like this? However, there are two wrong approaches to developing these positive character traits. One is to try and do it by yourself. That is like having an apple tree and going round to the supermarket and buying loads of apples and some string and tying the apples on to your tree. That would be daft. Also it doesn`t work, the apples would soon go mouldy and rot. We do not need to go and get anything extra. In Christ we already have all we need to grow as Christians? The other mistake is to say “Goody, I have got all I need, now I need to do nothing, but just leave it all up to God.” Wrong again.
3.5 Peter talks about us making a lot of effort, doing our utmost, trying our hardest, but not in our own strength. Paul writes about “struggling with all [Christ`s] energy which so powerfully works in us” (Col 1:29). We are to add to our faith by taking what Christ has and through faith making it ours. We take from the resources that are in Christ`s character and add them into our own. How does this happen? Mostly it happens in the ordinary course of life. Somebody is in a spot of difficulty and it is in our power to help. It may be a bit inconvenient but nevertheless we help. In doing that as we trust Jesus to help us, so we add in some goodness to our character. Everyday will give us all some opportunity to develop in this way. Every challenge we face, however small or great, is potentially a growth point.
3.6 I will not go through all the virtues that Peter lists here, but it would be good to read and think of them when you get home. I will though comment on just two of them. Both of them are in verse 6: knowledge and self-control. The knowledge Peter is referring to here is the knowledge you get by reading your Bible, learning more about Jesus from the Gospels, more about God and more about what we should do and the things that we should steer clear of. Knowledge which we gain by attending church regularly and participating in home groups or youth groups where there are opportunities to discuss how these things work out in everyday situations and to share problems and to pray together. Self-control is particularly important today. We live in a culture that makes celebrities of pop stars, actors and others whose lives display anything but self-control. We live in a society that must have it now, that wants to throw off every constraint, that is essentially utterly selfish and in which self-control is abhorrent. We therefore have to make a special effort not to get sucked into the vortex of unrestrained self-indulgence.
3.7 Peter now gives us a warning. If we do not do these things then we are short sighted and blind, even worse we have forgotten that we have been forgiven.
3.8 But better he gives as some incentives. To add these qualities means that:
- We will be fruitful in our knowledge of Jesus (v8);
- We will have increasing conviction that we are truly his i.e. we make our calling and election sure (v10); and
- We will receive a great welcome when we finally enter heaven. What a spectacular welcome our athletes got when they returned from the Olympic Games. Well that is the sort of welcome Peter says is waiting for us if we strive like athletes do to become more like Jesus by developing these qualities in our characters. But we do not do it in our strength, but in His (v11).
4 Conclusion
4.1 Finally, do you know Jesus as your saviour? Have you got a personal relationship with him? If not why not start right now where you are, by confessing your sins and putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your saviour? If you have put your faith in Jesus and it is feeling tough right now, press on, trust his promises and keep on growing by adding the qualities goodness, faith etc.