Peter's Pen 1st Peter 4:17-19

1st Peter 4:17-19

17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And

 “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.   ESV

Some key points:

Judgment begins with the household of God.

That being the case, consider the plight of the ungodly and the sinners.

If you suffer here and now - according to God's will - trust God and keep serving Him.

A powerful contrast for us to consider.  Judgment of us and judgment of "not us."  

Judgment is a scary thing - period.  Well it should be.  Having known the conviction of the Spirit concerning out condition outside of Christ we can extrapolate what it will be like at the throne.  

Note Peter writes:  "If the righteous is scarcely saved . . . ."  That ought to get our attention.   "Scarcely" means "with much work," "with difficulty."  Let me give you a picture of this:

Eph. 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

8 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.    ESV

We can never rightfully conceive of the cost God paid for our redemption.  Certainly He chose a manner of death for His Son that demonstrates the pain and horror of that price but we will never comprehend the true meaning or the agonizing experience of those moments when Christ called out:

Mark 15:34

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  ESV

One has to wonder how hard it was for God to put His Son through that.  I know, I can't know the mind of God - and I don't want to humanize Him - but though the suffering of crucifixion is mind boggling - being abandoned - even for a nano-second - by God with whom He had experienced intimacy and glory is utterly beyond my ability to comprehend - or even attempt to comprehend.

We can not afford to ever view our redemption as a minor thing.  If we ever do we must know that our hearts have grown hard and calloused.  Somehow we must keep in the front of our minds the fact of the cost of our redemption.  Think brother and sister, He suffered the punishment for our sin - indeed He became sin for our sake and took upon Himself the whole wrath of God that was rightfully ours to bear.

While Peter's "therefore" is to admonish us to trust our souls to God when we are suffering it is also to turn our minds from our suffering to the great grace and mercy of God poured out for us through Christ.  It is a, "remember," admonishment.  If indeed God has saved us from His wrath why would we doubt Him when we suffer?  Why would we "go on strike," or cease our exercise of our duties just because it's hard?  

The truly "hard part" involves another - we are just the blessed recipients.  We could do nothing and were not asked to do anything in order to be redeemed.  Not only that but we are not required (as if it were possible) to do anything to stay redeemed.  We are simply admonished to trust God and continue to do good (His good).  Certainly - not the hard part!!!!!!!  

2 Cor. 4:17-18  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 

This and That - Occasional faith-faithfulness?

And it is an argument of very mean attainments, of a low and weak degree in this frame of heart, or in our being spiritually minded, when our thoughts of spiritual things do rise or fall according unto renewed occasional convictions. If when we are under rebukes from God in our persons or relations, in fears of death and the like, and withal have some renewed convictions of sin in commission, for omission of duties, and thereon do endeavor to be more spiritually minded in the constant exercise of our thoughts on spiritual things, which we fail in, and these thoughts decay as our convictions in the causes of them do wear off or are removed, we have attained a very low degree in this grace, if we have any interest in it at all.

Owen, John (2011-09-27). Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded [Illustrated] (Kindle Locations 468-473).  . Kindle Edition.

Does your attention to the duties and disciplines of our faith wax and wane according to the nature of your circumstances?  Mine did – and I pray won’t any longer.

It is a commonly accepted thing that we are never more active in our faith than when it becomes obnoxiously obvious that we are not in control.  When things hit the oscillating blades we are very quick to hit our knees – but where were we before?

Faith may have medicinal benefits but it’s like many medicinal remedies – you have to stick to the regimen for the medicine to be effective.  Or consider physical exercise – if it’s not regularly engaged in then its value and effect is irregular – even useless.

Faith must be exercised or it will atrophy.  Prayer, study, fellowship, worship and good works are all part and parcel of our faith.  At its most basic it is a matter of obedience.  If we believe that Jesus is Lord of lords and that He is our Lord then we have to believe that obeying Him is the only course we may take.

This has been written of and debated to the point of silliness.  A King is a King is a King.  A subject is a subject is a subject.  A subject OWES the King their allegiance, their obedience.  When they withhold it, it is treason, rebellion.  When this happens it is in the King’s authority to have the rebel executed, banished from the Kingdom or at the very least denied the benefits of being a subject of the King.

When our obedience, “do rise or fall according unto renewed occasional convictions,” we are not faithful subjects – we are rebels and justly deserve to be seen and treated as such. 

To deflect the just and rightful response from the King we are prone to engage in hyper-loyal activities and attitudes.  But, when the King restores us we are prone to lay aside the duties and obligations we own our King.

Owen rightly states that, “these [spiritual, obedient, submissive] thoughts decay as our convictions in the causes of them do wear off or are removed, we have attained a very low degree in this grace, if we have any interest in it at all.”

For me it was a painful cycle of hitting a wall – getting all Christianly energized, calling out to my sovereign Lord to intervene and then when I felt I was over the wall I told Him, “Thank you, I’ve got it from here.”  To which I’m sure He must have snickered and thought, “Yeah, right, will you never learn?”

It’s a failure on our part to really work to see, “What God has done for us lately.”  We look for the goodies we want from Him the kudos even worldly kudos and when we don’t see them, we don’t think He’s done anything for us lately.  OK – at least I did.

But, for me, this last wall has been different.  Not worse than any previous wall but different.  The big difference is that I have recognized that since I hit that wall I have not had a single day when He did not provide everything – and I mean everything I needed for that day.

Oh, I have needs I see out ahead of me but He’s there, I’m not, so it must be His problem.  If He shows me what I can do today to prepare of next Thursday then I will do it.  But today at 11:30 am I am simply preparing for 11:31 am.  I might not be alive at 11:31 am but I’m preparing for it.  I am asking Him for all I need for (ok time moves) 11:32 am because I don’t know I will be alive at 11:33 am.

In my work as a consultant and counselor I cringe when people tell me they are really good under pressure.  That usually means they work to keep themselves under pressure so they can be “good.” 

When we get in the rut of doing it on our own and not exercising our faith obediently, regularly and diligently and we get used to falling to our knees in desperation we are in deep trouble.  I’ve had folks say things like, “Every time I outrun God He rescues me,”  “Every time I get in trouble I go to God and He helps me.”  Ultimately I have to ask – “Why don’t you go to Him all the time – regularly and work to live obediently.”  They don’t like that – so I’m a legalist.

Yes, things come our way that are tough but we don’t need to be unprepared.  God does not have to be the last resort when He’s the everyday resort.  We don’t have to run to the throne if we live at the foot of it.  We don’t have to run around seeking God it we keep ourselves continually in His presence.

I used to brag that God had to hit me in the head to get my attention.  A brother who loves me said, “That’s pretty stupid Michael – why do you make Him do that?”  Ouch!  But my brother was absolutely right.  If I pay constant attention to Him, He always has my attention.  If I am dutiful in my duties them I am always ready. 

In his huge but wonderful book The Christian in Complete Armour, William Gurnall makes the point that we are told to put on the whole armor of God but we are never told to take it off.  His point being that we must put it on and keep it on – 24/7/365-.

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:2

(1Pe 1:2)  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

You’ve heard the saying, “He said a mouthful.”  Well, Peter says several mouths-full in this verse.

Peter gives us a box in which we can see something about our lives in Jesus.  Our lives in Christ are:

1     1.  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

2     2.  in the sanctification of the Spirit

3     3.  or obedience to Jesus Christ

4     4.  or sprinkling with his blood

Look at each point this way:

1     1.  You are His and that is no surprise to God He knew it and if He knew it He brought it to pass.

2     2.  You are His inside and out, over and under and His “seal” of the relationship, the Spirit, is in you an        

             upon you – and that Spirit works in you making you like Him.

3     3.  We couldn’t and wouldn’t obey without 1 and 2.  Now we can and do.  Don’t go all legalistic on me 

            now - !

4     4.  Huh?  This means you are His forever.  His blood has cleansed you and made you His dear child – and 

            this blood will always have its effect. 

I would love to launch into a lot of information about the broad and deep meaning of this passage but I won’t.  What Peter is telling you and I is that we are His – period – not questions on His part and that ought to help us when we question it on our part.  He did it – it is done!

One little – kool beans part.  Notice that Peter tells us 1 and 2 were done for obedience and then he mentions the sprinkling of the blood.  For me that’s a comfort.

When I read “for obedience,” my flesh is very quick to tell me how poorly I obey.  I get this big spreadsheet of all the rebellious and unthinking ways I disobey.  I’m sure Peter knew all about this.  I wonder how often his flesh reminded him of his sins (see Peter in the Gospels). 

So knowing that we would iinstantly default to our weak and struggling obedience Peter with the Spirit’s guidance brings up the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

This knee jerk to our weakness/sin is what I call a “Romans 7 moment.”  Get your Bible and read Romans 7.  Ouch!  But please do not skip verse 25!!!!! 

From there Paul writes:

There is therefore now

no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus.(Rom 8:1)

There we are – this are us.  This is YOU!

Brothers and sisters, “in Christ,” no failure is ever final.  No one and nothing can undo what God has done.  Our hope here and our hope for heaven is secured by Him – not by us.

“Walk behind Him leaning forward.  If you fall, fall in His direction.  If you smack the ground, crawl towards Him.” MS