Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:17 & 19

1Pe 1:17-19  And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,  (18)  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  (19)  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

This can be a chewy passage if we’re not careful.  What Peter writes in verse 17 makes one quiet uncomfortable.

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”

In vs. 17 we see that, this is our God and this is what He does and we need to always keep this in mind.  How poor we are when we forget where and how we once stood. 

Eph 2:12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The cost of not remembering that truth is beyond measure.  When we forget this prior state, we are going to stumble.  When we do not keep it in mind in our prayers, meditations and conversations, we can all too easily begin to rely upon ourselves and upon other things for our hope and security.  When that begins, it’s a very subtle and slippery slope.

But, even though Peter and Paul call us to keep our dearest and deepest need ever before our eyes and foremost in our hearts, they do not leave us there to squirm and suffer for there is no reason for us to do so.

1Pe 1:18  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

And what, pray tell, are these futile ways?  Simply put, idolatry and autonomy (which is pretty much self-idolatry).  Our “forefathers” looked to deities they created and/or to their own abilities to live, to have power – for provision.  They rejected God and turned from the creator to the creature.

Isa 57:13  When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Jer 10:2-5  Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,  (3)  for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.  (4)  They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.  (5)  Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

We, followers of the Christ, have been RANSOMED/REDEEMED.

We WERE slaves to sin and self and for that we stood condemned.  A price was demanded, justice had to be served and so it was done.  Not by anything we could or would do.  Not by any riches we might amass and offer not by any power we could gather and hold:

1Pe 1:19  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

Gal 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1Pe 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Eph 2:8-13  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  (10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (11)  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--  (12)  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  (13)  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In the early days of the church our faith was known as “the Way” (Acts 24:14) and I believe we have lost a lot in losing this name.  When we look at our lives as lives following the Way, we have to remember that where we are is not where we began and hence we remember where we began. 

John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, wrote:

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

And

“Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

Let us pray we REMEMBER~!