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Dec 02, 2012

Identity Crisis (Part 5)

Passage: 1 Peter 1:17-21

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Strangers in a Strange Land

Detail:

Last week we learned about focusing on holiness in the Christian life and being prepared through self-controlled lives and sober thinking (1 Peter 1:13-16).  In 1 Peter 1:14, we were reminded that we as Christians must eliminate the things of this world which distract us from the holiness to which God has called us.  Then in Genesis 15-16, we learned that we must engage in the holy habit of imitating God our Father in Heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ because it is only through imitation that we can see the holiness to which God has called us.

In 1 Peter 1:17-21, we come to a point where Peter addresses what I call the danger of having an identity crisis.  In our text, we will see three things or activities for directing our lives of holiness to which God calls us.  He wants us—as obedient children—to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:14-16).  How are we to do that?  Our text will help us understand the ways we can pursue holiness and recognize that we are children of the King.  Let’s read 1 Peter 1:17-21 together:

17 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.  20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Let’s turn to God in prayer.

Father God, we come to You again.  As we open up Your Word, I pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts, empower our abilities to serve You and help us pursue this holiness to which You have called us.  I pray for those who struggle with their identity—those who know they are Christians but recognize their lives, activities and practices may not look as Christian as they should.  We know this pursuit of holiness isn’t simply doing the right things but also living the right way.  It is having the right thoughts, pursuing the right things and saying no to the things to which You have said no.  I pray You would give us the power to do these things.  I pray You would speak through me as well, that I might encourage the hearts of those listening and lead many back to a great and wonderful fellowship with You.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

Like so many teenagers, my teen years were that of an identity crisis.  It started early on as the middle child of a set of parents who had forgotten who I was.  That’s what happens with middle children.  The first child comes along and is very much loved by his parents.  There is all this awe and splendor of the “first child.”  Even though the kid is ugly, the parents love him because he is the only child they have.  Then the cute middle child comes along with a great personality and more, but the parents are so tired of dealing with all the first child’s insecurities, issues and struggles that the middle child—because he is so well put-together and has it all figured out—is left to himself.  Then because the parents see how beautiful and wonderful the second child is, they think they should have another one so the third child comes along.  But you know a copy of an original is never as clear as the original.  Yet the parents call the third child their baby, love on him, care for him and give him better Christmas gifts.  I’m almost done with my therapy from being the middle child.

We have identity crises.  All kidding aside, my life as a middle child wasn’t that bad.  My heart does go out to you middle children and my middle son tells me all the time how rough he has it.  My identity crisis came when I was about 14-years-old.  I had an older brother whom I idolized.  He was popular, good-looking, had a great personality and was well liked by almost everybody.  When my brother died just before the age of 17, it threw me into a massive identity crisis.  I was a small, unpopular little freshman and my brother was the big senior—the big man on campus.  I remember all the attention I got.  I remember people coming to me and saying, “It’s time for you to fill his shoes now.”  I didn’t know what that meant.  The only thing I could think of was that they wanted me to be like my brother—to be Chris. 

For a couple years, I struggled with that.  I wondered, “Who am I?”  It seemed that any time Chris’ name came up, people really wanted to spend time with me.  When it came to Tim, that wasn’t as true.  I began to pursue something that wasn’t me.  I was trying to be funny like Chris was.  I tried to do the things he did.  But God began to teach me—through some wonderful mentors—that I didn’t need to be someone else.  I just needed to be who I was.  God made me for a purpose.  He had a plan for me.  Through that purpose and plan, God had amazing things in store for Tim.  Chris was in Heaven.  God would take care of and love on him, so I needed to focus on myself, not on Chris or Joel.

Likewise in the Christian life, many of us struggle with an identity crisis.  It’s probably not that we’re trying to follow in the footsteps of an older brother, but many of us find ourselves living a double life in many ways.  We want to live for and pursue Christ.  Everything in our hearts says that we desire to live like Him, for Him and have Him live through us.  But then we go out into this world.  The world—in all of its temptations, ways and desires—begins to creep in on us.  Instead of living the life we said we wanted to, we find ourselves living a very different life.  Peter is announcing to the recipients of this letter that we—if we call ourselves Christians—are holy.  We have been made righteous.  But we are also called to go beyond that and live differently from the ways of this world.  We are called to live differently than many of our neighbors and friends.  We’re called to live by a code of conduct that is very different from this world’s code of conduct, what we see on the television or from Hollywood.  God is telling us through His Word, “I want you to be holy not only in your position, but in all that you do” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

We need help with our identity crises.  Many of us need to understand that what we have positionally is what we should have as part of our lives each and every day—that is, a holy pursuit of God and His Kingdom of righteousness.

So what are we to do?  Peter warns us not to live life mindlessly, conforming ourselves to the pattern of this world but to see beyond the temporal to the eternal (Romans 12:2).  In doing that, we can see God’s holiness—not only in His life and Being but also reflected in us.  To live holy lives, there are three things we must do:

1)    Approach God with reverence

2)    Stand in awe of our rescue

3)    Be active in a faithful response

Approach God with Reverence

Throughout the Scriptures, we are given a working paradox which I believe is seen most clearly in 1 Peter 1:17.  Look at what it says, “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.”

Let’s stop there for a moment.  We see a theological paradox in Scripture.  On one side, we have the transcendence of God.  Transcendence has to do with God’s sovereignty.  It’s a theological term meaning God is above everything, He is greater than everything and He is distinct from all He has made.  In essence, He transcends everything.  We see this throughout Scripture. 

  • The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:6 that we have “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” 
  • Psalm 97:9 says, “For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” 
  • Who can forget Isaiah’s words?  He says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 

All these Scriptures remind us that God is great, grand and far above anything that is seen or unseen and is like nothing we could ever fully know or describe.  He is greater and far more awesome than all those things.  That is His transcendence.

We see this transcendence when we see God is our Creator Who created something out of nothing.  No one else can do that.  We can only create something out of something.  God—Who is transcendent—created something out of nothing.  Out of nothing, He created all that is seen, heard and touched in our world and universe.  We also see this transcendence in passages that speak of our God as Judge—as One Who stands and reigns supreme over all His creation.  He looks at His creation and judges them according to His righteousness and goodness.

There’s a second part of this paradox.  On one hand, we have the transcendence of God.  On the other hand, we have the immanence of God which is a theological term reminding us that God is the One Who draws near to us.  He longs for a relationship with us.  The Bible speaks of God as One Who loves His people as a hen loves its chicks (Matthew 23:37), as a husband who loves His bride (Ephesians 5:25) and—in our text —as a Father Who loves His children (1 Peter 1:17).  Within this great paradox of God’s transcendence and immanence, we have God Who is Judge but is also Father.  The God Who is great and far above us is the God Who also comes close and draws near to us.

I don’t believe we see this paradox clearer anywhere in Scripture than we do in 1 Peter 1:17.  Notice there are two thoughts I have for us in regards to this verse:

We can approach God because He invites us.  Peter starts verse 17 with a conditional clause, “And if you call on…”  Let’s stop there for a moment.  That may cause you to ask some questions about the word “if.”  It is a conditional clause in the Greek (ei) and might be better translated “since you call on God your Father” or “in light of you calling Him Father.”  The idea here is one of a child who is continually calling out to his father—not in a nagging or bothersome way, but in a very loving way—longing for his father to engage with him.

Now when I come home each day, I am overjoyed by the response of my four-year-old.  I know these days will end soon because I see it with my two older sons—when I walk in the house, they don’t move.  When I say, “Hey kids, how are you?” they say, “Hey Dad (mumble mumble).”  That’s what I get out of the seven and ten-year-olds.  I love my four-year-old’s response though.  When I come into the house, it doesn’t matter what kind of day I’ve had because Luke comes running and yells at the top of his voice, “Daddy’s home!  Come here, Dad.  I want to tell you about my day.  Hey Dad, do you know what we did?  Do you know what we saw?  Hey Dad, do you know what I got to do at preschool?”  This is the picture Peter is giving us about how we can approach our Dad.  This is how we can approach our Father Who is in Heaven.

This isn’t the first time we see this picture.  Peter hasn’t made a new comparison.  The Bible—especially the New Testament—is filled with references to what Peter is talking about.  We can approach the God of the Universe and call Him Father.  Jesus reminds us of this when He taught His disciples how to pray.  He said we should start our prayer by saying, “Our Father in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9).  Later in Romans 8:15, Paul says—in our crying out and yearning for God to speak to us—we can cry out to Him, “Abba!  Father!” which means, “Daddy!  Daddy!”  We learn in 1 John 3:1 that we have a God and a Father in Heaven Who loves us.  It says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.”  Peter is announcing what he himself has come to know: the God of the Universe is a God Who desires for us to draw near to Him.

Here in 1 Peter, Peter uses the word epikaleō, meaning “to call on.”  In verse 17, Peter describes people—saints—who have a habitual practice of calling upon their Father as one would appeal to an earthly father.  Now I know some of us may have had a terrible upbringing.  When we picture God the Father, we often get a picture of our own earthly father.  If our father was a lousy and sinful man, then we begin to look at God that way.  I have the wonderful blessing of having a great father.  I have a father with whom I love to talk.  Hardly a day goes by that we don’t have discussions about different things.  I love the ability I have to call upon my dad and ask him anything.  I love to hear his encouraging words.  If you didn’t have a dad like that, I want you to know you do now.  His name is God.  He is the Father.  He is the One Who has created you.  He loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  He desires to engage with you on a continual basis.  This God we have is our Father.

Here’s the thing: God calls us His children and longs for us to call upon Him.  Some of you have teenagers—I pray for you often.  One concern for many parents of teenagers is that their kids don’t like talking with them.  They are too cool for that.  They’ll learn.  They’ll find out it’s okay to talk with your parents.  But right now, they don’t want to talk.  I want you to understand that God looks at us that way.  Sometimes I think He sees us as teenagers.  He says, “Why doesn’t Tim want to talk to Me?  I totally know how to fix his problem.  I totally know what he needs in his life.”  But instead, we go on—like teenagers do—dying inside and struggling with all kinds of pain and sorrow.  Instead of coming to our Father Who has the answers and wisdom, we hold back.  God wants a bunch of little Lukes—a bunch of little four-year-olds—whose hearts are filled with warmth and gladness when they get the chance to talk to their God, their Heavenly Father.  What a privilege we have to go to God at any time!

Our God in Heaven is not a dad who sits and watches TV while saying, “Hey, talk to me later.”  He isn’t a dad who finds himself on a computer or cell phone trying to get work done.  God is not the type of dad who gets filled with anger and releases it on you for no apparent reason.  The God we have is there for you.  He loves you and wants to be involved in every fabric of your life.  We have a great God and a great Father.

We are reverent because He is the impartial Judge.  Now you might begin to think, “Wow, I’ve got a great position and opportunity.  If I’ve got this God Who loves me, maybe I can do whatever I want.”  If you think your special relationship with God allows you special treatment, then beware; look out.  Notice the end of verse 17 tells us our Father, “…judges impartially according to each one's deeds…”  Wait a minute!  Now we’re looking at God’s transcendence.  I tell you, the world—and the church—loves the immanence of God and His love.  They love the idea of a loving God Who gives hugs and everything.  But we forget sometimes that God is also Judge.  He is righteous.  He is that disciplinarian Father Who says, “I’ve created rules and order in your life to protect you and show My love and care for you.”  You can’t just “get away” with anything.

I told you about my father who loves and cares for me.  One day when I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was working with him.  We were having a great time.  I was starting to feel like I wasn’t just a little kid but was growing into some level of adulthood because my dad was giving me more responsibility.  On the way home from a catering event, my mouth got a little ahead of me and instead of calling him “Dad,” I said, “Hey, Bubba!”  I thought it would be funny and that he would like it.  He looked at me very sternly—remember, he’s a middle-eastern father—and said, “I’m not your Bubba.  I’m your Dad.  Treat me with some respect.”  When we have a warm and cozy relationship with God, we begin to forget He’s God.  We need to remember He’s not just our “buddy” or “pal.”

In our American society, we often view Jesus as our buddy, but in reality He is the One Who lays down prophets and kings.  He is the One Who is sitting on His throne with the myriad of angels worshipping Him.  We are reminded in this passage that our God and Father in Heaven is a God Who is a Judge.  He is not just any judge; He is an impartial One.  Peter reminds us that God’s transcendence comes into play and He will judge us for what we do.  This impartiality means He will show no favoritism.  Just because we are His children doesn’t mean we are going to get away with things.

Years ago, my mom was the art lady who came and showed art pictures at school.  I thought, “Hey, I can get away with things.  I know the art lady.”  I’ll never forget how quickly the whiplash hit me when I thought I could get away with saying things during her presentation.  She said, “Get out of here.  Go to the principal’s office.”  I said, “Mom!  You can’t do that!”  Some of us think because we’re Christians, we can turn the love relationship we have with God into a license for sin.  God says the following to unbelievers and believers alike, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).  James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud.”  Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  These words are as true for us as they are for unbelievers.  A simple reading of the text shows us God uses this hand of discipline on His children.

So here we see two sides of God’s character.  We need to remember He isn’t 80% love and 20% justice, nor is He 70% justice and 30% love.  He is unified in His attributes.  So as much as He loves is also how much He judges, and as much as He judges is how much He loves.  They are in perfect unity with one another.

The text tells us in verse 17 to “conduct yourselves with fear…”  Now that sounds scary.  How do we balance the ideas of approaching God yet being reverent to Him?  I like what Kenneth Wuest says, “What a blessed thought to give us encouragement in our praying, faith that the answer is sure, and a sweet feeling of nearness to God.  To think that He is our Father and we are His children.  To think that He regards us as His children, and thus the objects of His special care and love.” 

F. B. Meyer says:

The holy soul realizes this; and a great awe falls upon it and overshadows it—an awe not born of the fear which hath torment, but of love.  It passes the time of its sojourning in fear.  Not the fear of evil consequences to itself, but the fear of grieving the Father; of bringing a shadow over his face; of missing any manifestation of his love and nearness to Himself, which may be granted to the obedient child.  Love casts out fear; but it also begets it.  There is nothing craven, or fretful, or depressing; but a tenderness [he’s speaking of us] of conscience which dreads the tiniest cloud on the inner sky, such as might overshadow for a single moment the clear shining of the Father's face.  So the brief days of sojourning pass quickly on, and the vision of the Homeland beckons to us, and bids us mend our pace.

      (Tried By Fire by F.B. Meyer)

We need to walk wholly and truly for God.  This should be our motivation—God is our Father so we shouldn’t want to let Him down.  We don’t want people to look at Him and say, “He must not be that good of a Father; just look at His kids.”  No, we want the crowd to look at us and say, “Wow, they’ve got a great Dad.  Look at how their Dad has taught them.”  We also recognize that we will be judged one day.  We are being judged and disciplined each day so God can make us more like His Son. 

That’s step one in this pursuit of holiness and in our identity as children of God our Father and Judge.

Stand in Awe of Our Rescue

Now that we have clarified our relationship with our Father, we know how to approach Him with reverence and fear but also engage with Him as Father.  Next we must look at the painstaking events that were undertaken for our behalf.  Look at verses 18-20, “Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake.”

Let’s stop there for a moment.  Not only are we to stand in fear and reverence before God, but we should have an utter astonishment of what God has done for us.  The text tells us we “were ransomed.”  The idea here literally means we were rescued, but even “rescued” isn’t strong enough.  Another translation uses the word “redeemed.”  Again, this is a good synonym but it is not a full one.  So let’s stick with the idea of “ransomed.”  The word ransom is from the Greek word lytroō.  It means setting a captive free from his captors but having to do so through a form of payment.  We hear about this many times when a hostage is taken.  There is a ransom set with a message like, “You will have your family back if you give me one million dollars.”  Then the transfer takes place.  The ransom has been done.  It has been given.  There is an exchange from one to another for the freedom of still another.

During Peter’s time, the Roman Empire had an estimated six million slaves.  Buying and selling slaves was a major business for them just as it was a couple hundred years ago here in the United States.  If you were a person with an enslaved loved one or friend, you had the opportunity to set them free.  To do so, you had to go and pay the slave owner a ransom price—or a redemption price—which would allow your loved one or friend to be granted freedom. 

This is what God has done for us in the Person of Jesus Christ.  This is why we can call on God in Heaven as our Father, because He has ransomed us.  We are no longer slaves held hostage to sin.  We are now children of the King and are enjoying all the benefits and blessings of His royalty.  Here’s the question—why did we need to be ransomed in the first place?

Our awe involves our inherited problem with sin.  Verse 18 tells us we had to be “ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.”  The word futile is the Greek word mataios.  It means a life that is vain, empty, devoid of force, lacking in content, non-productive, useless, dead, fruitless, aimless and of no real lasting value.  This adjective describes an ineffectual attempt to do something or an unsuccessful effort to obtain something that one desires.  It is a picture of utter futility.

God’s Word tells us this is how we lived.  We lived with futile thinking.  Mataios emphasizes an aimlessness leading to no object or end and thus is used to describe all false gods and all false ways of living.  It is a picture of choosing to chase after the wind instead of choosing God.  While you may chase after the wind and enjoy all the prestige, power, possessions and pleasure of this world, the Bible says, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).  What does it gain to have 70 years of fun and all kinds of great revelry but then at the end of your days on earth spend eternity in a place called hell?  That is futile living.

This mindset and ignorance has been the hallmark of every man, woman and child since the Fall in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve—our earthly parents—chose selfishness and pride over obeying God.  We do that too.  Think about the first words we often hear from our children’s mouths.  Many times it is, “No!  I don’t want to do it your way, Mom and Dad!”  Even at two-years-old, they are telling us, “I know I’ve never spent a day in school or worked a minute of my life, but I know how to live my life better than you do.”  We sit there, look at our kids and say, “How ignorant can you be that you would argue with your parents?”  Yet that is exactly what we do with our God.  We think we are the ones who should be in charge.  We think we know which ways are right.

Sadly, we see this tendency isn’t learned.  It’s something with which we’re born.  David says in the Psalms that we are conceived in iniquity and sin as early as in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 51:5).  It’s in our mothers’ wombs where we inherit this sin.  It is called the original sin which imprints upon our lives an ignorance and futility in the way we pursue life and in everything we do.

Our awe involves the immense price that was paid.  We need to be ransomed because of our inherited sin, but the ransom comes at a high price.  What would it cost for Christ to ransom people back to Himself?  Let’s see what couldn’t pay the price.  Peter says that perishable things such as silver and gold weren’t enough (verse 18).  They wouldn’t be able to take care of our ransom.  These metals are what make men great in our world economy today but they do nothing in the economy of our salvation.  The word perishable (phthartos) means something that is subject to corruption, rotting, withering, decay or decomposition.  The idea is that silver and gold are short-lived things.  They have a brief life and lack great significance.  While they are things which could free a slave from his temporal bondage, they can never hold the power to release a person from his sin.

So what does it take?  Look at what Peter says in verse 19, “But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”  It is not just the blood of an ordinary lamb, but One without blemish or spot.  You couldn’t find this Lamb at any old Lambs ‘R Us or at Lamb-mart.  You couldn’t find it in any old shepherd’s pen.  This sacrifice could only be paid with the precious, non-blemished, non-defected blood of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.

I want to focus on a key word in verse 19—the word precious.  Peter says it is “the precious blood of Christ.”  That word precious is the Greek word timios.  This word describes something that is of utter value, highly prized, desirable and costly.  It is used to describe things of such infinite worth that they have no earthly value whatsoever.  This is what God says about the blood of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God.  His blood is so precious.  Now, take that idea of being without value and then take it up a notch.  In the Greek language, when you put the adjective before the word it describes, that adjective is made even stronger.  So when you put the word precious before blood, the blood is of even greater worth.  God is saying through Peter that the blood which was shed for us is of immensely great value, such that one commentator puts it this way, “The value of all the precious stones and all the money that is in this world would be but utter rubbish in contrast to our Savior’s one drop of blood that was shed for us.”  This is what God did to pay for our redemption.

Our awe involves the incredible plan for God’s people.  When did this ransom come to pass?  Peter continues and says it was part of an incredible plan for His people.  We were in our sin and God sent His Son Jesus to shed His precious blood and die for us.  He did this as part of a great and grand plan.  Verse 20 says, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake.”  Understand this—our redemption and Jesus’ role in it was planned in the mind of God before the world was ever created.

At some point in eternity past, the Trinity got together—God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—and in Their holy community made a decision as to what would bring Them the greatest glory, honor, praise and renown.  It came to this: in the mind of God, He would create a people who had the ability to rebel against Him. They would rebel—He knew that rebellion was coming—and through it all God would have the plan of how to redeem them after that Fall.  At some point in that discussion, Galatians 4:4-5 came into the picture.  It says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law…”

Wrap your minds around this.  Somewhere in eternity past, Jesus said to the Father, “I will be the One Who goes and enters into humanity.  I will be born of Mary in Bethlehem.  I will endure all the temptation, fatigue and trouble of being a human being.  I will do so with utter perfection, Father, and I will do the will of the Trinity by learning obedience, going to the cross and dying.  I will do so in order that the drops of My blood may be imputed upon the sinners and they will be made righteous.” 

Notice that it wasn’t just, “I’ll go take care of those people—all billion of them or however many of them are in the family of God.”  No.  God says all of this “was made manifest in the last times for your sake.”  Before your parents got together, before your name was even thought of, even before the foundations of the world, God was thinking about you.  He was thinking about me.  God said, “I love Tim.  Tim’s going to blow it.  He’s going to be born in sin and he’s going to sin every day of his life.  Tim’s going to shake his fist at me.” 

In spite of that, before the foundations of the world and before I was even born, God said, “I’m going to put My love on Tim and make him My child.”  If you find yourself living life feeling like nobody loves or cares for you, just look at 1 Peter 1:20 to recognize you were of great value before you were even born.  You are of great value because God put His love upon you.

So God planned that Jesus would endure all these things—the pain, agony and heartache—on the cross for you and me.  He was willing to do all this because we are His children.  If He is faithful to see Jesus through all of that, then remember no matter what trials, tribulations and struggles you go through, God is faithful to see you through those as well.

 Be Active in a Faithful Response

So what do we do with all of this?  It all leads to this final point.  We have been motivated to understand that our identity is found in God our Father.  We have seen that our identity means we must live with fear and reverence because we have a Judge Who is impartial.  Our identity has been established because we have had our sins taken care of by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Therefore here is the question: what must we do?  Our identity must involve an active and faithful response.  We have to be active.  We can’t just read this passage of Scripture and say, “Well that’s great, wonderful and nice but I’m going to go back to living how I was before.”  The whole point of our text is to motivate us to holiness.  We have a God Who loves us as His children and gave up His Son to die for us.  That should produce in us a faithful response. 

But sadly, so many of us are struggling with this identity crisis of who we are.  We hear what God has done but live like orphans.  We go about trying to figure out life on our own—how we’ll take care of ourselves, make ends meet and take care of our own spirituality.  As a result, we find ourselves conforming to the world’s thoughts, pursuits and temptations.  But when we look deeply into the eyes of God and the words of the gospel of Jesus Christ and are able—as Peter says later in this passage—to taste and see that the Lord is good, that will inevitably lead us to holiness.  You should not be able to look at this passage without being cut to the heart and realizing something within us needs to change.

So what needs to change?

This text should change the way we live.  It should change the way we look at our lives.  Peter tells us in verse 17 that Christians ought to conduct themselves with fear.  We learned last week that this word “conduct” is one of Peter’s favorite words.  It is the Greek word anastrephō.  The idea here is that we will live our entire lives—every part of who we are and every detail of our lives—in reverent fear.  Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”  It’s not a fear because He is scary and you’re running away; it is a reverence and awe.

Far too many of us live with the bumper sticker mentality of “NO FEAR.”  We need to recognize that God is our Father and our Judge.  A life of holiness is one that recognizes we will one day give an account for how we lived in the body.  Are you ready for that day?  Are you ready to stand before God and hear Him in His righteousness say, “Tell Me how you lived for Christ.  Tell Me how you showed Me your gratitude for all I did for you.  What did you do with your life?  Did you live for Me?  Did you tell others about Me?  Did you give in a way that would show My priorities were more important than your priorities?”  We must live differently.  Lives of holiness are lives that put themselves under the Lordship of Christ.  Therefore, let us as a people who know we have a God and Father in Heaven live as stewards of God’s goodness.

We are also recipients of God’s utter grace, which is an even better motivation than the things He has given us.  This should make us even more willing to give ourselves over to the work of the Lord, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58.

This text should change the way we love.  This passage broke my heart this week because it shows me how little I love God.  I don’t love God as I should. 

Think about this for a moment.  How much do we love someone who gives us a great Christmas present?  How much do we love the aunt who gives us a big check?  We have a special relationship with her and make sure we call her on her birthday.  She did something good for us.  I show far more love and affection to human beings who do temporal things for me—as great as they are—than I do for my Father Who loved me before the foundations of the world.  He sent His Son Jesus to die in my place and instead of allowing me to stay in my sin, He gave me the right to become His child (John 1:12).  How do I love Him?  I give Him one day a week on Sunday.  Every once in a while I might open the Scriptures.  Every once in a while—because times get tough—I might pray to Him.  Every once in a while—maybe around Thanksgiving—I might say, “Thank You.”  How ungrateful we are when it comes to our God Who has given us all He has!

These words from the hymn “Jesus Messiah” fit so well here:

He became sin, who knew no sin
That we might become His righteousness
He humbled himself and carried the cross

Love so amazing, love so amazing
         (“Jesus Messiah” by Chris Tomlin)

Have you recognized this today?  The love God shows us is an amazing love and an amazing grace.  This love is greater than anything we ever could have had.  We can try to repay Him, but aren’t you glad God says we don’t have to repay?  He says in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  God wants what I want as a father—for my children to obey me.  I want my children to live in fellowship with me.  As your loving Father, God wants you to live for Him and by His strength.  In doing so, we show our love for Him.  That’s all He asks.

This text should change the way we lean.  In other words, it changes what we rely on and where we find hope and faith.  Verse 21 says, “…so that your faith and hope are in God.”  The reason God does all this for us is so that we may put our faith and trust in Him.  At the time he wrote this letter, Peter was dealing with people who were struggling.  They were experiencing persecution, pain, trials and tribulation.  They had all kinds of struggles and strife.  They were strangers in a strange land.  That sounds a little bit like the atmosphere here in America.  The first-century readers found themselves in a world filled with trouble.  God says—then and now—to His dear children, “Lean on Me.  Put your hope in Me, not in the perishable things of this world” (1 Peter 1:17-18).

In closing, let us as a people live in light of these great words from the hymn “My Hope Is Built”:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

                  (“My Hope Is Built” by Edward Mote)

Can you say that today?  Can you say you stand on Christ the solid Rock?  Can you say that all other ground is sinking sand?  God is speaking to us today.  He is saying, “I want to be your Dad.  But I’m also the Judge.  I want you to live lives of holiness because what it took to save you was of infinite cost in Heaven’s bank account.  Because I love you, I want to see you live and lean on Me.”

Let’s pray.

Father God, we come before You and thank You for Your Word.  I pray that Your Spirit would guide us this week even if we were ill prepared for a message of infinite truth today.  Bring back to our memory one or two things from this text.  We’re thankful we can come before You and approach Your throne of grace with confidence.  Thank You that You hear us and give us grace in our time of need.  We need You, every hour we need You, Lord.  I pray that we would continually come to You, knowing that if we come lacking wisdom, You will give it without finding fault (James 1:5).

Lord, I also pray that we would stand in awe of the work of Your Son Jesus Christ.  On this side of Heaven, we will never truly understand how You bankrupted Heaven by giving Your Son that we might become rich.  The Lord Jesus became poor.  Help us to know, understand and experience that in a real way this week.  That kind of sacrifice should lead us to say no to sin, ungodliness and worldly lusts and to follow You.  Thank You Jesus for your love so amazing.  Thank You for the cross and the opportunity to be Your children.  This week we will be in a world that will bring us struggles, pain and great trouble, but we can take heart because our Father and our Savior in Heaven has overcome the world (John 16:33).  We love You, Jesus.  Let us lean on You and live for You in all we do.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.