New Thoughts: (10/11/13-10/15/13)
I see that I have found much to comment on in these dense passages. They are dense not by reason of obscurity, but by reason of Peter saying so much in so small a space. Seeing the quantity of points ahead, I am hopeful that I can touch on at least some of them more briefly than has been my habit of late. We shall see.
Rebirth (10/11/13-10/12/13)
I begin with a reminder as to the nature of those to whom this letter was written. Peter addressed them as a diaspora, as seed scattered throughout the region. But, there is something about seeds. They are not native to the soil. The soil is dirt. The seed is not, at least not yet. Oh, to dust we return, but there is this time during which we live, we are from the dirt, but for the present we walk upon it rather than lying in it. If one wished to push the image a bit farther, we could view the growth of that seed into plant as an attempt by the soil to expel this foreign object.
This is, it seems to me, of a kind with the picture that Peter is painting here. You have been scattered amongst the nations as seed. You are growing well, but that growth is, after its fashion, evidence of the attempt by these nations to expel you. That is the pressure you feel. The seed, as Scripture points out elsewhere, cannot grow except it first fall to the ground and die. It is, then, through this dying that you live.
So here we have a people drawn to Christ from their native societies, but left there in the midst of those very societies. They are very much like ourselves, or we might say we are very much like them. This is the setting into which Peter’s letter is sent. The Church in Asia Minor in that period is much like the Church in the West in our own. It is not the systematic attempts to eradicate believers from the world. It is the more mundane, more invidious pressure of rejection. But, it is a pressure that produces in us a bounteous, marvelous growth.
This is the nature of rebirth. If we return to the life-cycle of the plant, the seed is in itself often a last dying act of the plant that was. The flower, that beautiful object for which we planted this thing, has come and gone. The beauty has faded, and all that remains is a clump of seeds, a last gasp on the plant’s part. If those seeds remain up on the stalk, then this is the end. If the birds come and make their meal of those seeds, then it is still the end, at least for the plant. But, if they fall to the ground, something amazing happens. The dirt, while it lets the seed in, does not fully accept the seed. So soon as that seed is in the dirt, there is pressure applied to drive it back out. But, it is not a pressure that destroys. It is a pressure that strengthens, brings growth, until one sees the green of a new life poking up out of that dirt in which the seed was buried.
I am, perhaps getting a bit ahead of my narrative, but I would note this point. The seed is largely passive in this whole operation. Yes, I understand that there are biological functions which inhere to the seed by which it is processing nutrients from the soil, navigating its way to the surface to send up that first tendril antenna by which to receive solar energy, and converting that solar energy into power by which to grow further. Yet, for all that, the seed is passive.
It certainly did not bring itself into existence. That was the work of the flower which produced it. It did not thrust itself into the dirt. Gravity and wind conspired to lay it on the ground, and the rains softened the ground to give it entry. Perhaps it took some critters wandering through, scratching the soil yet uninterested in the seed itself to really get the thing implanted deep enough to matter. Or, perhaps it is some industrious gardener who has preserved this seed through the winter, and poked it into the ground come spring, ensuring it receives sufficient water, chasing away bird and rodent that might otherwise have made that seed a snack. But, the seed itself has done nothing.
It now sits in the soil, and the soil exerts its own influence. If that soil lacks sufficient minerals, there will be no growth. If the waters which fall upon the soil are too much or too often, the seed may rot rather than grow. And, once that stalk has broken cover, what if there be too much shade, too little sunlight? What if a hedgehog decides it looks tasty? There are any number of things that can go wrong, and nothing that seed can do about any of it. It is wholly at the mercy of things outside itself.
Likewise, the seed of man. For all that some Eastern philosophies would have it that the child conspires in the planning of its own birth in some mystical interstice between lives, no such thing is true. The counsel of Scripture would lead me to believe that even the parents did not, at least in the final measure, create the child. Yes, they are involved biologically, and in many cases intentionally. But, over and over again we see God credited. If He does not open the womb, then all the effort in the world will produce nothing. If He does open the womb, then I dare say that all the effort in the world will not succeed in preventing it from producing.
Carry that point into the matter of rebirth, and it should become clear that you, the reborn person, have been utterly passive in the process of rebirth. You cannot cause yourself to be born. It is just as impossible for you to cause yourself to be reborn. Notice the equation of verse 3. God the Father, under the direction of nothing other than His own mercy towards us, caused this rebirth. He caused it. He did not allow it. He did not suggest it as one of several options. He did not, ever the gentleman, ask if you would mind terribly were He to do so. No! He caused it. He purposed it. He determined it. He empowered it. He produced it. One could happily argue that those four statements are but repetitions of the exact same statement. For, God’s purpose, being God’s, is incontrovertible. What He purposes happens. End of story. And, He alone is in a position to so certainly promulgate His will.
Now then: What does this rebirth look like? What new stalk has come up from the ground of our lives? The fundamental sense of this business of being born again is quite simply this: That we have undergone a thorough change of mind. Our perspectives, our thought processes, our constitutions, have been rewritten such that we now live a life conformed to God’s will. That’s it! Of course, this must lead to questions in our own minds. First and foremost, this life I’m living doesn’t look to me like a life conformed to God’s will. I know myself well enough to recognize that quite often, perhaps even most often, I pursue my own will even when it’s clearly in opposition to God’s.
Yes, we redeemed, reborn, perfected adopted children of God continue to sin. It is not a badge of pride, but an admission of failure. And yet, we know ourselves reborn. We know that, as much as our will rises up in rebellion, our great preference is that this would not be the case. We want nothing so much as to obey this God who has given us so much, who has given us life. And yet, the soil of this fallen world around us does exert pressures on us, and we have enough of that soil left in us that we feel certain sympathetic vibrations to that pressure. There is much in us that is only too willing to go along. But, there is One in us who is greater than that. And, He has overcome the world, He has power over the soil as well as the seed. And it is He who has Himself begotten us again.
Let me stress that once more. He and He alone is the active agent in this rebirth. We are the passive beneficiaries. And, frankly, the soil of the world has no say in the matter whatsoever. It may be ever so hostile to this business, and so what? The soil is every bit as subject to the Creator as the seed. And, the best thing that can happen to that soil is that it too is changed by the presence of the seed, and that will be likewise a thing subject solely to the will of the Creator, who gives Life to whom He wills.
He has begotten us again, and why has He done so? Was there something so grand about us to recommend such a thing? Never. No, Peter is clear on this, and Wuest makes it clearer yet in his translation. God the Father did this because He was “impelled by His abundant mercy.” Here’s the thing about God. He is impelled. But, He is impelled, compelled, only by Himself. No other can exert pressure upon Him. No other can command Him, nor even make recommendation to Him. His own council is all He requires. The only thing that binds Him to act is Himself, His own character, His own essential being. God is Just. Therefore, He cannot undertake any pursuit which is unjust. God is Love. Therefore, He cannot undertake any pursuit which is unloving. God is Who He Is, and cannot be otherwise.
As I have been teaching through Judges this semester, this point has become central to the message. Here were a people whom justice demanded must be punished. But, here were also a people whom mercy demanded must be rescued from their own mistakes. Indeed, God being True, and no lie being found in Him, His own word had bound Him to somehow preserve this rebellious people. What to do? This is the marvelous message of the Gospel! God had come up with the one possible means by which to be Just and the Justifier of those who have faith in Jesus (Ro 3:26). It defies us to arrive at such a solution, but not Him! By His own right arm, He has done it, and it is done, imperishably, unfailingly, irreversibly done.
And what is it He has done? He has caused us to be reborn, and that rebirth is into an inheritance. Much is said of our status as adopted children in God’s family, and there is sound basis for this. I recall, in particular, a sermon pointing out that while parents may disown you, adoption carries stronger legal bonds and cannot be revoked once entered into. Be that as it may, this speaks of a stronger certainty. After all, even if one’s parents disown him, they cannot change the biological reality. Owned or disowned, he remains a son, and should a matter of inheritance arise, I doubt there’s a court in the land that would deny him the right, whatever the strains on that relationship.
It is exactly that level of certainty that Peter declares in a beautifully alliterative fashion. This inheritance is aphtharton kai amianton kai amaranton. Three nots are specified, nearly synonymous, so as to emphasize the permanence of this new situation into which we have been born. The inheritance is not perishable. The body of flesh in which we live certainly is, but this inheritance is not. The soul cannot die. And that soul has been transferred by God’s power from the fallen family of man into the family of the risen Christ. The inheritance is not defiled. There is not one least trace of sin to be found in it. That comes in clear contrast to our present estate, even though we have already entered into the inheritance! This is a certainty with a promise. You shall not always be as you are now. You will grow. You will mature. And then, the inheritance will not fade away.
Here, we come to a term unique to Peter’s letter. The general sense is that Peter is thinking back on Jesus’ comparison of man to flowers. The flower fades so quickly, its beauty is so fleeting. And yet, He says, Solomon at his height was no match for their glory. This drives to the point that God having taken such care for the splendor of so fleeting a thing as that flower, you should have confidence in His care for that creature He created as the pinnacle of Creation, which is man (Mt 6:28-30). See your inheritance! It is made certain for you. There is no question of it disappearing before you come into it. There is no thief who can steal it away. There is no corrosion that might spoil it. It is reserved with your name on it. It is, as the Amplified Bible puts it, “beyond the reach of change and decay”.
Let’s stop for just a moment and consider that first not once again: not perishable, not subject to decay. Even the most permanent of materials we know cannot claim such a characteristic. The earth itself cannot claim permanence. Indeed, the universe, if one listens to the physicists, is impermanent, must eventually come to a conclusion and cease to be. Not so, Peter says, your inheritance! And in making this claim, as Zhodiates points out, it bears the stamp of deity. There is but One in all existence Who can claim this attribute, and that is God Himself. He alone persists forever unchanged. We shall all taste eternity, some an eternity of blessed life, some an eternity of horrific judgment. But, we must be changed to become fitted for eternity. That holds as much for the blessed as for the cursed. He Who makes the change, though, is Himself unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable. And it is this Unchanging One Who has decreed your inheritance. It is this Unchanging One Who has brought you into this second birth, into this Life finally worthy of the name.
The Source: God (10/12/13)
With that thought, we are prepared to proceed onward to verse 5. Here, as in his greeting, Peter presents us with the source, the means and the purpose (1Pe 1:2). In the NASB, that verse presented us with according to, by and that. As discussed in the previous study, this presents us with a firmly triune perspective on God’s work on our behalf. I would, however, suggest that by, through and for would better convey the sense to our ears. Chosen by the Father, through the Spirit, for obedience to the Son.
Here, we are presented with those very words: By, through and for; en, dia and eis. The previous passage had kata, en and eis. So, I suppose we can accept the variation. The key for us in the present verse is that the inheritance previously mentioned, being established by God and reserved for us by God, is by Him. It is established by Him. It has its being, just as we have our being, by Him. And, having been brought into being by Him, both that inheritance and we who shall inherit are protected by Him. Were it not so, there could be no imperishable attribute of the inheritance. And, as to ourselves, left in this body of flesh, left amidst a world of sin, scattered amongst the nations of unbelief on a world under Satan’s sway, Peter gives us the greatest of hope! We, too, are protected by the power of God.
That is the ‘by’ of verse 5. God is the source. He is the source of our status as inheritors. He is the source of our salvation. He is the source of our hope. God is the source. He initiates all. He sets His power upon us. I was tempted to write that He sets His power at our disposal, but that is a horrifying misconception. Yes, we are granted to call upon His power. His power, however, is not beholden to us. He is not someone we can command, or even cajole. This is an idolatrous view of faith that has become sadly common in our day and age. No doubt it has been common down through all the ages. But, we really ought to know better by now. We cannot control God. We cannot appease God. We cannot bind God to our contractual terms. There is nothing we can ever do that would force His hand; that would require Him to do our will. However such efforts may be couched, whatever words we might use to pretty up our intentions, these attempts to direct heaven’s King cannot be other than a violation of the command, “Thou shalt not test the Lord your God.”
The whole point of this is that God is the source. God initiates. God knows, foreknows, which is to say God decrees. Recall that by, through, for of 1Pe 1:2. The ‘for’ is for obedience. It is not for wielding power. It is for obeying command. This is our role. This is why the Apostles, the chiefs of this new tribe of Christians consistently speak of themselves as bondslaves of this Christ they obey. If there is power, it remains God’s power. If it is displayed on our behalf, it is because He has decreed it, not because we have demanded (or even politely requested) it. God may choose to send His angels to us, but they never were, never are, never shall be ours to command. God may choose to move in power as He did in the days of Moses, but it shall never be because we have some commanding authority over Him. How could it be? How can we be so foolish? We are, let’s face it, not any brighter than Adam our forebear, than Eve our mother. We still fall for the most grievous heresy that we are god and God is our minion.
The Means: Faith (10/12/13)
Having firmly established God as our source, the Source, we arrive at the ‘through’ of faith. We are protected by God. We are protected through faith. How shall we understand this concept? We dare not wander into the wasteland of thinking faith is some form of power, some muscle that would suffice for our need if only we exercised it sufficiently. We cannot work up faith. We cannot add to faith. Neither can we subtract from it. Faith, after all, is from God, lest we think our faith something to boast of (Eph 2:8-9).
So, then, how is it we are protected through faith? May I suggest that there is an intentional parallel here with the threefold nature of 1Pe 1:2? Of course I can. Chosen by the Father, protected by His power: There is the first correlation. Moving forward, we are the chosen by (through) the sanctifying work of the Spirit, protected through faith. Therein lies the how. The sanctifying work of the Spirit is that which has transformed our hearts from stone to flesh, enabling and empowering us to heed the call of our Father in heaven. Except He had first come to prepare our soil, the seed of the Gospel would find no root. Except He had come and peeled away the blinders from our eyes, we would never have seen anything in God to desire. Except He had broken our chains, we would not even know enough to dream the dream of freedom!
If it is through faith that we are protected, it is yet nothing of our own doing, but truly the work of God the Holy Spirit within us. As I seem to find constant need of emphasizing (particularly because of the weakness of my own flesh), this is no excuse for idleness or laziness. Salvation comes from the Lord, and salvation depends on the Lord for its fruition. Sanctification is from, by and through Him as well, else it is a hopelessly quixotic pursuit. And yet, Scripture everywhere insists that we pursue it wholeheartedly. Whether there be any truth to the old adage that God helps those who help themselves, there is truth in this: God sanctifies those who sanctify themselves.
I arrive back at my favorite footnote, taken from the Harper Study Bible, commenting on Nehemiah 4:9. “Prayer and works are perfectly illustrated here. We are to pray as though we had never worked and work as though we had never prayed.” This same, most beautiful balance must be held as a tension in the matter of sanctification. We pray that God will sanctify, with the intensity of those who know we can never even begin to get the job done ourselves. We then heed Paul’s advice, and work out our own sanctification in fear and trembling (Php 2:12). Yes, that verse again, and as ever, it must needs be followed with the clarifying reminder of the verse which follows: “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Php 2:13). Same balance. You work. But, work, knowing that it is God who is really working.
Faith? Apart from God the Holy Spirit you could have no faith. No argument would ever suffice to convince you of the Truth of God. Look around you at an unbelieving world, and that fact must surely become obvious. No one comes to the Father except through the Son, and none can come to the Son unless the Father draws them. That is the combined exclusivity clause of the Gospel. Father is in charge. Period. Where He has determined to make Himself known, Holy Spirit comes to prepare the way, to open the ear, to liberate the will, and faith comes – the gracious, free gift of God Himself to His new child.
The Purpose: Salvation (10/12/13)
Given this progression, it becomes incumbent upon us to note the paralleled ‘for’ clauses. We are chosen for obedience to the Son, and we are protected for salvation in the Son. For from Him, through Him, and to Him be all things (Ro 11:36). By, through and for. It’s the same message. If we are protected for salvation, called for obedience, it is not so much because of our own need as it is for God’s own glory. He loves us, yes, and loves us in a fashion that far and away exceeds all other loves, with the possible exception of His love for Himself, the which has no relationship to narcissism. Yet, as much as He loves us, we are not the point. He is the point. We are the pinnacle of His creation, but He is the pinnacle of all Creation, being outside of Creation, and Creator and Controller thereof.
So, then, we are protected for salvation in Christ Jesus. We are protected through that faith which has been brought to us by the Holy Spirit, Who Himself is sent by the Father and the Son. And, then, we are protected by the power of the Father. Understand this: That power, is, as Thayer offers, such power as exists by virtue of the nature, the essence of that which contains or wields the power. It is, then, power because God. It is an expression of His essence. Were it our power, were we the wielders of such power, that power must be of our essence. It should be painfully obvious that any power that was the expression of our essence would be as weak and miserable and corrupt as ourselves.
We have not yet arrived at salvation. We have not yet attained to this sanctification, this holiness which Peter, Paul and John all tell us must be our goal. We are still works in progress, and as works in progress, we have no power in ourselves. We are dependent upon the power of God which He alone may wield, for it is Him. He is the Light which darkness cannot comprehend, cannot overwhelm. He is the Life which has conquered death and taken it captive. He is the King Who has conquered and subdued the usurping prince of the air. He is the efficient cause. He is the instrumental cause. And, He is the reason for the cause. The result or purpose of all He does on our behalf is that we may be matured into creatures worthy to be in His presence, able to be in His presence.
He has come to give life, and that abundantly more than we ever imagined it could be! How can we, then, be so ungrateful as to insist on pursuing our former ways? How can we be so ungrateful, so downright stupid, as to continue in our sins, to thumb our nose at this God Who has reached down to lift us up? How can we continue to choose the mud of the pigsty, when He has put mansions at our disposal? What is wrong with us? And, if I may add a wonder to this dismay, how can He put up with us?
Yet, He does, and this is perhaps the grandest mystery of them all! My God, in Whom I trust, upon Whom I most thoroughly depend as a pine tree depends from the face of a mountain cliff, hanging on Him for dear life, is somehow able to not only be near me, but in me. He Who can abide no slightest wisp of sin in His presence is yet present in me. How can this be? I don’t know. We say it is because He only looks at us through Jesus. We say it is because of the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit. We say any number of things, but the truth is we just don’t get it. It defies us to comprehend, as well it should. But, He is God, and who is going to gainsay Him His choice of dwelling in the likes of me?
For my part, I am forever stunned by this thought, and pray that my awareness of His residence within me would only grow. For, as I grow in awareness of His abiding presence, can it be possible that I would not likewise grow in sanctification? Is it likely that I would sin if my thoughts were truly filled with awareness of His presence? No. Were He visibly standing with me in this room, there’s no way. But, He is standing with me in this room. My eyes are just too weak to see Him. Oh, that I might see with the eyes of the mind! Oh, that my soul would thrill to His nearness, and find in Him the strength to walk worthy of this God Who has taken up residence in me.
The Nature of Trials (10/13/13-10/14/13)
Moving into verse 6, Peter introduces the motive for this letter. You have been distressed by various trials. But, notice that he doesn’t start from that point and then offer perspective. No. He starts with the protecting power of God. Only with the absolute certainty of God established does he begin to address the trials, and even that begins with a positive assertion. You greatly rejoice in this salvation that God has established, guaranteed, and continually protected. Bring that perspective with you to this matter of trials, and you will surely understand that they are only matters sent to prove your faith, and your faith will be proved because your faith is the product of God’s work in you, not your works for God.
But, before we move to that matter, let’s establish just what kinds of trials we’re talking about. At this point in history, it would be highly unlikely that these folks are facing the sorts of state-sanctioned persecutions that led to Christians dwelling in the catacombs, meeting in secrecy, and developing codes to recognize one another safely. These are not the days of men burned at the stake, fed to lions, or crucified along the streets of Rome for no greater crime than proclaiming their belief in the One True God.
Instead, what we are seeing addressed in this letter is a more general pressure, a disdain for these believers. It is the still very much typical effect of being in the world but not of it. We in the church of the west today are very much like those in Asia Minor then, at least as to situation. We have been called to a life that departs from societal norms. We do not wallow in hedonism as the rest. We do not celebrate the evils of the age as being merely freedoms which all should not merely accept, but should actively condone and promote.
The world around us is merrily pursuing its course as it always has. Things grow darker, but those around us, rather than being alarmed, celebrate the gathering gloom. All is pursuit of pleasure at all costs. Gone is the age of responsibility, and by and large, gone is the age of reason. There is only satisfaction of every urge, and the vague sense that the world owes me everything. This is our society. It is become an old axiom that the one who would make a fortune in technology must feed the gaming sector, the entertainment industry. Making something that actually serves a purpose, fills a true need, solves a real problem? That’s a loser’s game.
But, for all its dark and disheartening influence, we are not, absolutely not, called to separate from society. We are not permitted the easier course of monasticism or gated communities of faith. We are left to pursue our life of faith as Jesus pursued His, in the midst of sinners, as a friend of sinners. We are required, not by society but by God Himself, to continue operating in this world of fallen men. We go to work amongst them. We buy our goods from them. We sell our products to them. And, if we are true to our calling we do all of this while proclaiming the Gospel to them. Right up to that last point, they were with us. We may have some weird personal practices that they don’t quite comprehend, but it’s each to his own, right? It’s only when we suggest that our own really ought to be theirs, too, that things grow tense.
General pressure. Hey, man, don’t be talking about your religion here. We don’t discuss such things in polite society. It’s like politics. It’s a conversation killer, because there’s bound to be disagreements, and those disagreements are bound to be heated. So, we just don’t bring it up. That’s level one pressure, if you will. There is also that aspect of disdain. We get plenty of that too. We are the last remaining acceptable target for bigotry. One may not mock any race, any gender, any gender confusion with impunity. No, and one certainly would not mock these foreign religions. That would be rude, socially unacceptable. But, Christianity? Open season, baby! Say what you like, laugh all you want, point at them and call them names, exclude them from your social circle if you know what’s good for you. You wouldn’t want your name associated with their like.
This is more the sorts of trials Peter is addressing. It’s not life threatening persecution. It’s the day to day challenge of living by God’s direction in a world that rejects His rule. What is the impact of this? We probably don’t need Peter telling us. It makes one sorrowful. It causes us grief. If we are still young in our faith, it probably even makes us feel a tad uneasy. Wait a minute! This isn’t what I signed up for. If God’s power is backing me up, even filling me up, why should I have to deal with this kind of garbage? Part of the problem, at least in our day, is that we have sold this as a garden walk, not a jungle trek. We have misrepresented the Gospel and the God of the Gospel, and therefore when the reality of the Gospel hits, and the true depth of the demands of discipleship on the disciple, it’s a bit of a system shock. I don’t honestly think this part applies to those Peter addresses. I find it very difficult to picture Paul soft-selling the Gospel. It just doesn’t fit.
Now: Let’s address one potential misconception right away. Nowhere in this does Peter suggest that we do, or ought to rejoice in in these trials. Not at all! At best, the point is that we rejoice in spite of the trials, because we understand the big picture. Looking at the structure here, the “In this you greatly rejoice” clause is not looking forward to various trials, but backward to that salvation ready to be revealed, or perhaps farther, to the certainty of God’s protecting power.
Taken from that point of reference, it demonstrates a certain depth of understanding. You rejoice in God’s protecting power even though you face these trials. You rejoice in God even though these trials quite naturally cause you very real grief. Yes, trials are distressing. Nowhere in Scripture are you going to find a command to pretend it is otherwise. Nowhere in Scripture are you going to find an instruction to pretend that reality is not what it is. No! The call is to recognize that there is more than the bare data of physical reality, that reality contains a spiritual component as well. The call is to understand that what is playing out in our daily lives is not mere happenstance, but the outworking of God’s own providential will.
“In this you greatly rejoice.” Twice, Peter uses this phrase, and in both cases, the referent is salvation. In salvation you greatly rejoice. And, what does this mean, to greatly rejoice? It means we delight, as it were, to excess. It means we experience such heights of joy as put us in mind of the ecstatics. Dare I say, it makes me think Peter is describing something in the nature of a charismatic experience? But, it is not in the gifts that the cause for rejoicing is found. Neither is it in exorcisms or healings or health and wealth. These may be byproducts but they are not the cause. No, the cause for rejoicing is in salvation, in the assurance of salvation, in the knowledge that the same God Who brought about that salvation is Himself your protection.
Note this, as well. Peter’s choice of phrasing here describes an ongoing, continuous action. It’s not that in the first blush of discovering yourself saved you had cause for such excitement and now, with maturity, you’ve settled into a more stoic faith. Not at all! You rejoiced then, and you continue rejoicing now, and the implication would be that you shall continue rejoicing for the foreseeable future, indeed right on into eternity. Why would you not? Salvation continues into eternity. Your need for that salvation never ceased, nor did your possession of that salvation. Why then would one ever find cause to stop rejoicing? What exactly is the basis for somberness?
Is it these trials? To be sure, nobody in their right mind thrills at the opportunity to suffer. Nobody enjoys being the reviled outcast, not by nature, anyway. Even disciplinary measures, things we know are for our training and improvement, are unwelcome. Oh, we know they are necessary, and we will put up with them in knowledge of what they will produce. But, you can’t make us like them. Nor is that expected. But, look! This isn’t just mindless opposition. This isn’t just abuse heaped upon you to no clear purpose. Indeed, the purpose is not as those who are harassing you intend. The purpose is to prove your faith.
Now, let’s get this clear: God doesn’t need proof. The Holy Spirit indwelling you doesn’t need proof. He wrote out the decree of your salvation, He dealt with the legal proceedings. He knows, and He knows perfectly. Frankly, the devil has no need of proof, either. He plays his accusing games, and will certainly do all he can to convince you that there’s some doubt in the matter. But, the truth is that he knows better than we just how certain is the power of God to save and to preserve. No, my friends, it is you, it is me that needs this proof. And, we need that proof in part for the very reason that the Accuser continues to do his thing. We need that proof in even larger part because we remain in this fallen condition. We see our sins more clearly than ever, and it must make us wonder at this pure and holy God Who yet indwells us. No! It cannot be. I must have misunderstood something in this. I must have been deceived by my foolish dreams of freedom.
But, here’s the wonderful part: Here’s the reason that we cannot stop rejoicing! It’s all true. Somehow, though I cannot fathom the how of it, God truly is able to indwell. He has made a way. He has resolved His own paradox and found just cause in Himself to declare us just. These trials, then, do not come to discredit us, to show us just how lame we are. No! They come to give us confidence as we see our response to trial exceed our own self-estimate.
At risk of bragging, I would look back to that accident so many years ago, when we were rear-ended waiting to turn into my father’s driveway. Listen! For a guy that used to curse incessantly, never mind when under stress, it amazed me that not one inappropriate word crossed my lips nor, I think, even my mind in that moment. My care was a wreck, my family shaken up, and my pleasant visit with my folks rearranged into an emergency room visit. Yet, it was OK. God was with us. Now, I can tell you from more current experiences that it is not this man who held his tongue, but another held it for him. I have still a temper, a fast path to frustration, and yes, if I am not careful, old linguistic skills will return to the fore. But, God! God was showing me, in this trial, that the salvation He had given was real. The rebirth He had begotten in me was growing. Yes, there are these most incredibly stubborn bits of old growth in me. Yes, there is a lifetime of pruning to complete, more that must be chiseled away to reveal the sculpture God had in mind. But, the picture is emerging. The lines are beginning to show, the form becoming discernible. It’s far from perfect, far from complete. But, then, it’s in His hands. I am in His hands. Therefore, however miserably I may rank my progress, yet I can rejoice, for I know that in Him, the work is finished though I see it not so.
Consider the comparison that Peter provides for comparison. Gold, that metal we value so highly, and it seems mankind always has done so, is made more valuable, proven more valuable by refining. How is it refined? It must be heated to melting, allowing all the impurities to burn off. Only then is it really worth much. Only then is it fit to be worked into jewelry or plate or what have you. Peter points us to this, to the effort required to purify this precious metal. And then he notes that in the end that gold will still pass from existence. He surely thinks of those days he will write about in the next letter, when the very elements of the earth are burned off to make way for the new earth. But, here’s the wonderful bit: Not so your faith! That faith through which God is working out your salvation, that faith which He continues to uphold by His own power. It never fades; never ceases. The grave will not hold its remains. The enemy, for all his accusations, cannot alter your inheritance. You are receiving the goal of your faith (verse 9).
Understand that the goal is one thing: Salvation. Anything else is, quite frankly, a bonus. Let me bring Paul in here. “In my view, the sufferings of the present can’t even begin to compare with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Ro 8:18). “This momentary, light affliction is producing an eternal weight of glory that is infinitely beyond comparison” (2Co 4:17). Good health is a great boon. Never doubt it. But poor health, even debilitating chronic disease, is nothing worth comparing with salvation. Healed or not, the quality of salvation is unchanged, the value of salvation is unchanged. You may be rich, you may be poor. You may dwell in grand houses or on the streets. It doesn’t matter. You may have it all, you may have nothing. It doesn’t matter. “I’ve learned the secret!” Paul says (Php 4:12). I am content. Give me plenty or give me nothing, it doesn’t matter. God cares for me. God has my back. God has my front. God has me, and knowing that, nothing else really matters at all.
Paul is not denouncing the material world, declaring it evil in some fashion. No, he is merely putting it in perspective. Gold? Compared to the marvel of faith, it is worthless. Health? If it can be turned to God’s service wonderful. But, then, if my sickness serves God, that’s just as wonderful. Trials? Opposition as I preach the kingdom? It’s par for the course.
Listen, the nature of our trials are not the issue, it’s the nature of our endurance. In this, there is something that needs saying. It is not sufficient to endure. It is not sufficient to face the present with dour faced determination. Look again at Peter’s description of you. “You greatly rejoice.” Why? Because you know where this is leading. These things, annoying as they are, depressing as they may be, are only here to prove the legitimacy of your faith. And how shall faith prove itself legitimate? Not by merely enduring; but by joyful endurance. That gold which has endured the process of purification has a warm glow to it, a sparkle that catches the light and tosses it back to you. What better image can we have for our own comportment?
The Nature of Faith (10/14/13)
With that point, I have already begun to transition into consideration of the nature of faith. But let me develop this a bit further. See, our salvation is by faith. That is made abundantly clear in the record of Scripture. And Paul, lest we are left with any misconception, stresses this: “That faith is nothing you produced. It is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). And on the off chance that this is not sufficiently clear, he elsewhere points out that God did not save us because we had done something particularly great or righteous. No, this salvation that is ours comes as an expression of His mercy (Ti 3:5). This faith that He has commanded for us, that He has provided for us, through which He is saving us, has saved us, is but an expression of His mercy.
We get so worked up about faith. We’ve had teachings that sought to convince us it was some power we could draw on, or some muscle we could exercise. We’ve been told by some that any sickness we continue to experience must necessarily reflect a lack of faith. We have, in many and sundry ways been given to understand that faith is work. It turns the whole system back on its head, leaves us responsible for our own salvation, and thereby leaves us utterly without hope! No! Stop it! Don’t buy into it. Faith is a gift. Faith is of God. Apart from Him we cannot have faith, and apart from Him faith can neither increase nor decrease. If faith is growing, it is because God is at work. If faith is growing, it’s no cause for us to be preening and patting ourselves on the back. It’s cause to praise the God Who, in His mercy, has caused faith to abound.
But, as I said in the previous section, faith is demonstrable. James, of course, tells us that faith is not only demonstrable, but must demonstrate. If faith has no works to show, then faith is no faith at all. Without such works in evidence, faith is dead. It is not faith. It is self-delusion. It is lies from the enemy sent to lure us into a false sense of security. It is cognitive dissonance at its worst. How, then, does faith make itself evident? Yes, there are any number of good works spelled out in Scripture: Caring for widows and orphans, seeing to the sick as best we may, comforting those who mourn, and so on. But, here is another evidence, and in its way an easier evidence: One’s response to distressing trials. How do you react? Do you respond to trials with the confidence of God’s backing? Do you see them as coming to prove your faith, or are they still merely annoyances?
When once we have God firmly fixed in our minds as being in charge, these trials must necessarily become easier to face, easier to withstand, easier to take with cheerful grace. God cannot but prove true, and it is His faith that is in me. Therefore, I can be confident that faith must prove true. And, if faith is to prove true, then – wonder of wonders – I must prove true. If faith is a matter of my ability, my constancy, my strength, then none of the above holds together. Maybe I’ll prove true, maybe not. Maybe faith will sustain me, maybe not. You see, this is what distinguishes faith from delusion, the hope of Scripture from the wishful thinking of modern man. Faith, being founded in Truth, in God Himself, must hold. Delusion may have all the confidence of faith, yet when put to the test, it will fall apart, for it is confidence misplaced.
This does not leave me passive, a mere puppet on the strings of a holy God. It is one of the great mysteries of faith that, while faith is most certainly per God’s order, through God’s strength, and for God’s glory, yet it is I who must prove true in faith. I must be tested. I must be tried, found wanting in myself, found perfect in Him. I must work at it, even though works have no value. I must work out my salvation in fear and trembling even though my salvation is absolutely certain and assured in Him. He is working in me, and I must needs be working in Him.
But, see, I can go at this work with a secret weapon, if you will. I know it is He Who is at work in me, else I would be wholly unwilling to the work. But, it gets better! I know I shall be proven true and faithful. As truly as I know myself a wretchedly unfaithful child of God, yet I shall be proven true and faithful. It is not, after all, upon my efforts that the labor rests, but upon His. I dare say I only make His task that much harder the more I try to help. But, He commands me try. He rejoices to see me trying. My love for Him is great enough that I want to try. I want so very much to succeed. I kick myself for every failing, or would were I not so resigned to it. But, even resignation comes and goes. Through it all, though, God remains faithful. He remains constant. He remains in me. How can it be? You’d have to ask Him, I’m clueless. But, He does. Of that I am far from clueless! He called me, He shall prove me, and He shall see to it that I am proven true and faithful. By His own right arm He shall do it, and I? I shall be made worthy to be part of His family.
The Paradox of Faith (10/15/13)
I have already begun to approach this point, but let me meet it head on. There is a paradoxical aspect to faith. Faith, if it be faith, is wholly by, from, through and for God. A faith that was in the least whit really my own would be incapable of producing its salvific effect. A faith that was merely what I had worked out, worked up, concluded from my limited cognitive abilities would leave me no nearer heaven than when I started. It cannot produce the slightest change in me, but itself remains subject to change at my slightest whim. It is all God or it is nothing at all.
At the same time, Scripture is very clear on the point that I am indeed to work on this faith. I am called upon to work out my own salvation. It matters not the impossibility of such an undertaking. It matters not because, taking up the effort, I don’t do so alone. This is the way the paradox unravels. I work, but it is God working in me. God works, else there could be no value to the work, yet it is me doing the work. It boils down to the simple point that God has little use for sluggards. If salvation is not of sufficient value to me that I will work for it, why should I expect Him to do so?
Here, also, is that admonition against providing welfare to those who won’t lift a finger. Paul is downright brutal in delivering the assessment. “If anyone will not work, neither let him eat” (2Th 3:10). The message is delivered on the subject of material, physical labor and food. But, mightn’t we say the same on the spiritual level? If you’re all ears and no action, all hat and no cattle, as the saying goes, why should you continue to be fed? If this is no more than a social club, just a way to pass some time Sunday morning, maybe make a few networking connections, can it be that church discipline really ought to include our giving your space to somebody more inclined to the kingdom?
I confess I was not expecting this line of thought today, but here it is. Faith without works is dead. Hearing without acting on what is heard is futile. But, it’s not just a waste of your time. It’s a waste of somebody else’s opportunity to have heard and been moved. An idler in the pew might well result in any number of people unreached. Had you not been warming the seat, had another been there who heard the call of God and responded, how many would that one have proclaimed the Gospel to, and how many would those have reached in turn? What would have been the result if Timothy had not been moved by what he heard from Paul? What, if Iranaeus had never acted upon what John was preaching? Where would we be?
We know where we would be. We can see it all around us. It is there in the statistics of church life. Twenty percent of the church population actually takes up the work of the church. But, we might do well to ask ourselves how this comes to be normal. Is it the fault of the 80% who sit, or is it that we accept this situation and do nothing about it? I’m not sure where the answer lies on this, but that admonition of Paul’s sure hits the target for me. “If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.” Is this not effectively how God dealt with Israel in her periods of apostasy? Is this not the general reaction to the lazy that we find commended to us over and over by God?
Consider the ant, you sluggard, and be wise (Pr 6:6), will you never wake up (Pr 6:9)? The soul of the sluggard craves, but gets nothing (Pr 13:4), where the diligent soul is made fat. That lazybones buries his hand in the dish, but won’t even work so much as to bring the food to his own mouth (Pr 19:24). He can’t be bothered to plow in the fall, so he begs during the harvest and even then comes out with nothing (Pr 20:4). His fields are choked with weeds (Pr 24:30). That last ought to put us in mind of the parable of the sower (Mk 4:3-9). The Word fell on the soil, but the weeds choked it out and there was no yield, no crop. Such is the idler, the sluggard in the pew.
If I can attempt to turn this back towards the paradox of faith, I could say that I quite often, in many ways, feel very much like that sluggard in the pew, even as I find myself nearly overwhelmed by the activities of church life. Elder, teacher, worshiper, parishioner, committee member; oh, yes, very much involved. But, the question arises as to what all this activity is actually producing. What is it producing in me? What is it producing, more importantly, through me? What harvest is God reaping from what I do? Anything?
It is easy to become despondent here, to be moved to give up. And, when we see the various tests by which we might assess our progress, and find that the more we have worked the more we seem to find ourselves coming even shorter of the goal, it only reinforces the sense of futility. And now, we add in the paradoxical nature of faith. Here, I might apply it as follows. This is a test, and I am failing this test. Yet, by God’s grace, though I am failing, or at least feel that I am, yet I am passing. I am passing not because I have done so well, been so persistent, finally made it. I am passing because it is God working in me – only because it is God working in me. Yet, given what I have been thinking this morning, it seems clear to me that God would not be bothered working in me if I were not working as well. If I set no value on His salvation, even after all this time, I have no doubt but that He would not be bothered with it either. Indeed, I should find that, whatever I may think about my status amongst the saved, at the final curtain it would be made clear to me that, “I never knew you” (Mt 7:23).
It’s a test! It’s a test that, should I seek to go it alone, I am guaranteed to fail. It’s a test that, however hard I may try, I am guaranteed to think I have failed. Indeed, in another wrinkle of this paradoxical faith of ours, the likelihood is far greater that if I think I’m passing, I’ve probably long since failed. It is we who are saved who most feel the weight of our sins. It is we who know the certain hope of our future estate who most recognize the disgusting condition of our current estate. We feel like we are forever failing because we are forever failing. But, God is forever working, and in Him, by His grace, by His choice, with us or in spite of us, we are passing. We are growing, even though it so often feels like we are not. We are progressing, even though we are more inclined to see the places where we failed to progress. We are ever more dependent upon God, and ever more determined to do better next time.
So, then, with all this in view, when the next test comes along (as it surely will) what shall be my response? And let me remind myself right here and right now that this test may be no big thing. It is unlikely to come upon me with a big sign saying, “This is a test. This is a spiritual test.” No, it is far more likely to be the mundane frustrations of another day at work. Much though we laugh about it and seek to minimize the issue, it’s likely to be something that comes up as I drive my daughter to work this morning. The test would be no test at all if we knew we were being tested. No, it’s precisely because it has a way of sneaking up on us that it is a testing. How will you react when you’re not being intentionally holy? When there’s no one around to appreciate your piety, how pious will you be? This is a test. And how you respond, how I respond, is the measure.
Shall I grumble at the devil for bringing this to pass? Or, shall I rather thank my God that He sees fit to test me, sees fit to grant that I see my own progress, Lord willing? Shall I rail at the heavens for having punished me so unjustly? As if! Leave justice aside then. Shall I complain to the King that this sure doesn’t look like mercy in my book? Or, shall I look to understand what exactly is being corrected and how? Or, shall I seek to perceive the test at hand and pray for His guidance, His active assistance that I might pass it? After all, He has caused His Holy Spirit to abide in me, to serve as my legal Counsel during this earthly sojourn, to tutor me and remind me of my lessons. Why would I not avail myself of His aid?
I can find but two reasons. The first is forgetfulness, the which ought to be the cause of great shame in me. How can I so easily forget this greatest of Friends, this most faithful of companions? The second is that I don’t want to pass the test, don’t want to change. And that, though I know it to be true in many cases, is the far scarier answer. Were it not for the faithfulness of God, I should just throw in the towel now and enjoy what few days remain before eternal damnation sets in. But, God! But, I have this confidence in me, that He is at work in me, that He is faithful, that He shall complete the work, that He shall stiffen this backbone of mine such that I may join Him in that work.
Finally, under this head of paradoxical faith, I would consider this from the Apostle John. “Everybody who has this hope which is fixed on Christ purifies himself just as Christ is pure” (1Jn 3:3). I still have marks where this supposed apostle of love smacked me about with the tests of this letter! Really, John? If we are not just as pure as Christ we have no hope? And, we have to do this ourselves, in our own power? That’s how it comes across, isn’t it? Everybody purifies himself. But, may I offer a ray of hope in that final clause of his? “Just as Christ is pure.” How is Christ pure? Is He pure in Himself, by His own strength? As to His divinity, surely it is so. As to His divinity, it is His very essence, it is impossible that He should be otherwise. But, as to His humanity? As to His self, emptied of divine prerogatives and trodding upon the dusty soil like the rest of us? I dare say the picture we see painted in the Gospels demonstrates that Jesus the man was wholly, utterly dependent upon His Father in heaven, just as we. His purity, like ours, was maintained not through main strength, but through the power of God.
Go back to verse 5 of this current passage. Your inheritance is protected by the power of God through faith for salvation. Who is doing it? God is doing it. Who called you to this adoption? God called you. Who gave you voice to answer in the affirmative when this offer came? God gave you voice. Who is doing the work? God is doing the work, even as you give it your best effort, even as you forget to give it much of any effort. Your inheritance is salvation, and that salvific inheritance is both promulgated and protected by God Himself. And, as Jesus proclaimed of His own, “nothing can snatch them from My hands because My Father gave them to Me, and on one has the ability to snatch them out of His hands. Indeed, I and the Father are One” (Jn 10:28-30).
It is, perhaps inevitable that I should discover an echo this morning of the back-issue of Table Talk I’ve been reading at night. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is One” (Dt 6:4-5). Him, you shall love with every aspect of your being: Heart, soul, mind and might. And here is Jesus, proclaiming, “I and the Father are One.”
Oh! That I might love Him as He deserves. Oh! That I might honor Him as the Holy Being He Is! Oh! That I might truly make of my life an offering to Him Who alone is worthy. With man, O, Lord, this is impossible. I simply do not have it in me to be as I ought, to love You as I ought, to serve You as I ought. But, with You? Impossible does not apply! You are within me, most wondrous paradox! You, perfect in Your holiness abide within this sin-ridden shell. And, You are sweeping this temple clean, though I see only the cloud of dust that rises from Your brush strokes. Oh, wretched man that I am! God, I cry to You! Change this heart. Change this willful lack of will. Let my reality be Your reality. Let this faith You have set in me be more to me than breath. Let the impetus of Your Word preached move me not just to some momentary emotional satisfaction, but to devoted and concerted action, that Your will may be done in me and through me as it ought to be, now and forevermore. Amen.
The Prayer of Faith (10/15/13)
I am so near the end of my notes, I think I shall simply proceed this morning. This last item really does not directly bear on Peter’s letter. Rather, one of the parallel passages pointed me off to Paul’s greeting to the church in Thessalonica in his second letter extent. I was particularly drawn to the last bit of that greeting, which I shall paraphrase here. “This is the point of our constant prayers for you, that God may count you worthy of your calling, that He would fulfill every desire for goodness, and do the work of faith in power. Thus is the name of our Lord Jesus glorified in you, and you are glorified in Him according to the grace of our God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Th 1:11-12).
Given my current elder duties, this really resonated with me. Part of my charge is to take up the task of praying regularly for certain of our church members. I dare say it is far more than simply praying for them. It must surely entail developing a more than passing connection with them, knowing their situations, sharing their joys and sorrows. But, here is the first floor, the foundation. Pray daily. And, what a beautiful prayer this is that Paul demonstrates. “That God may count you worthy of your calling, fulfilling every desire for goodness, doing the work of faith in power.”
Wow! I would be thrilled to know that prayer spoken on my behalf, to know it was being actively answered by God Who listens and answers His people! Here is cause for assurance! God has heard our prayers and answered. He hears our cry for being as we ought, for seeing the work of faith done in us; that the work of faith may then be done by us, through us. And, hearing, He answers, for if ever there was a prayer according to His name, this must be it.
So, then, Lord, I do call out to You with just such a prayer. Though some of those in my charge are only names to me at present, they are not so to You. You know them. You made them. You called them Your own, and such they are. For You have said it. So, then, Holy God in heaven, would You indeed count them worthy of that calling by which You have called them. Would You fulfill every desire for goodness that is in their hearts. I would add the request that You quell every desire for evil that remains in them. Yes, Lord! Do Thy work of faith in power, in Your power, which is perfect and all-effecting. Oh! Irresistible Grace, have Your way in these. Have Your way in me. Change us, and we shall be changed. Mold us, and we shall be formed. Send us, and we shall go. This is our story. Let it be also our present-day reality. Amen.
