I Peter 1:22‑2:3
We live in a world in which we want things to happen instantaneously. We want one minute mangers, seven minute personal devotions, 15‑20 minute sermonettes, microwaved gourmet meals, quick cures for headache, steroids for instant strength. Some of these things are fine in their places. But, all too often they are simply attempts to short cut a necessary process. And all too often the end product is bland and fake.
Some things take time and effort. One of those things according to Peter in the Bible, is a holy life. When we become Christians something is started, but it doesn't take long until we see that there is a lot of work to be done. And we often grow impatient or we give up altogether saying, "I'll never be a Christlike person."
I began this series of messages about being holy several weeks ago when I spoke about "Who on earth wants to be a saint?" I pointed out then that living a holy life is the way to really live, to enjoy life and that the key to that for believer is our minds‑‑both what we put into them and what we desire with them (1:13‑16). Then, I spoke about what motivates holiness in a Christian, i.e., a deep love and gratitude for God because of what He 's done for us through Christ (1:18‑21).
But there is one more thing I must talk with you about and that is this matter that holiness doesn't seem to happen in a moment. So often we grow frustrated at ourselves and ask, "Why is it taking me so long to get better?" And, just as we do in so many other areas of life i our world, we begin looking for some quick instant solution to our problems. Some think it will happen through a revival service, or through a "tongues" experience, a second‑blessing, a change of church. But then we meet people who've had all those experiences and they still struggle too.
Well, today I want you to know that there is an experience that leads to holiness‑‑though it unfortunately doesn't happen instantaneously. And Peter talks about it here at the end of his discussion about holiness. There are two issues about it that I want to talk to you about: 1)the fact of that experience (1:22‑25) and 2) the process of that experience (2:1‑3).
II. The Fact of the Experience (1:22‑25)
1:22‑23. I think one of the major reasons for unsteady commitment to holiness for Christians is what might be called "the spiritual inferiority complex." Deep down we think we will never really see a difference, never see real godliness become a part of our lives. A new Christian looks at a more mature Christian and thinks, "I'll never be able to be like that." Or a long‑time Christian knows how many times before he has rededicated himself to the Lord and then fallen back, how many good intentions there have been on other occasions, only to find the old unholy ways creeping (or rushing) back into his life. "It's hopeless," he thinks. "Things will never be different."
You know what happens. Our minds become absorbed with our own inability and our own weakness and our failure. We feel demoralized, cynical about what's being preached. We lose hope.
Peter's words here are directly addressed to those kinds of thoughts. He lets us know that we must be honest enough to admit that we could never keep it up by ourselves. Almost all people have desires to be better people and then find themselves falling short‑‑unable to control their tempers, falling back into those old thought patterns, going back to deceiving, etc., etc. But, Peter says, the whole point of the good news of our faith is that God knows that‑‑and loves us anyway‑‑and has done something that will begin to make a difference. "You have been born again" he says. Birth is something we have nothing to do with. It's an experience that has been made possible by others. So spiritually, God has given us an experience that makes us different.
This holy life which God calls us to, that we long for, and that God sent his Son with the purpose of causing us to display‑‑is not a life that is self‑manufactured. It is the product of divine regeneration. "You've been born again." This is the basic experience that stands at the heart of this new life. It's what some churches seem to be ashamed to speak about clearly and simply in our day. We must become alive before we can live‑‑it makes sense doesn't it.
"Born again"‑‑that's the biblical term. And notice how: "Through the living and enduring word of God." Now, in that there are two phrases that are used so often that they've virtually lost meaning. One is "born again." Some people have come to hate that expression. But it's a perfectly good one. Jesus uses it as does, and James, and Peter here. The idea is that when you become a Christian a whole new life begins. You are alive to God as you were not before. A new capability begins. You may have wanted to live a holy life before but you were on your own. Now you know God and His life is in you. There is something new about you that wasn't true before. Isn't that true of what happens when you become a Christian.
But then there's that phrase, "through the living and enduring Word of God." We read that and think he must be referring to the Bible. But the point is bigger than that. Do you see?‑‑he quotes from the OT, from the book of Isaiah. V24. Well, what did Isaiah mean when he said that? "The Word of the Lord stands forever." In the OT, the Word of God is the agent of God's power. God created the world through a word. He spoke and it was. In Psalm 107, God sent forth his word to heal. God sending His word meant God taking action‑‑God doing something to help. "My Word shall not return void," God promised. "It will always accomplish what intend through it."
When Peter quotes Isaiah by saying, "All men are like grass‑‑they fade and wither," he's saying that we are limited and what we attempt on our own will not last. We can try and try and try to live a holy life and, in spite of all our good intentions, we can't pull it off. We fall short. But God is different, he says. When God commands something, it's effective. It happens and it lasts. "The Word os the Lord stands forever."
And then (and here is the truly remarkable part), notice the line he puts on after the quote. This is Peter's personal application of Is.40: "And this is the Word that was preached to you."
Are you beginning to see it? This gospel that you believe when you become a Christian is not just a piece of information. This message about Jesus and his forgiveness and new life through him is not just a series of words that lies on a page to be studied and analyzed. No, when the gospel is preached to you and you believe it, it is an agent of God's power. It makes you spiritually alive and sets you on a new path. As Paul puts it in Romans, it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. Through this Word, God begins his work. He begins to do things in you that were not possible before.
Peter is saying that just as at the beginning of time, God spoke his word and light shone out of darkness, so now he speaks again through the gospel and light shines into darkened lives. He who created the world through his word is now recreating holy lives in unholy people.
"You have been born again"‑‑you have begun a whole new life‑‑"though this word of God that has been heard and received by you." That doesn't just mean that studying the Bible makes a difference in your life. It means that when you trust Christ, when you respond to His Word, God through Christ comes into your life and begins a work that will happen, that is eternal, that will not fail. God has done a miracle in your life by forgiving you and continues to do a miracle by transforming from the inside out into holy people.
"You have been born again." And the result is that you and I have something supernatural about us. We are never to forget that. And the consequence of that is that holiness is a possibility.
You know what it's like. It's like before a woman becomes pregnant. Before there is a child, there is no possibility of a new human being learning to talk and walk and grow. But the beginning of life makes all the difference in the world. Then, a whole new range of possibilities set in simply because of that one experience. So before Christ, we may want to be godly, saintly, people but it's simply not possible. But after the new birth, a whole new set of possibilities kicks in‑‑possibilities which because God is at work, will become realities.
We must continue, as I've told you about, to be careful of what we do with our minds and we must allow ourselves to be motivated as I spoke of from I Peter 1:17‑21. But the only way there is any hope of this new life lasting is when this experience has occurred.
Peter is declaring that we don't have to be kept from becoming the kind of people we should be by our moral weakness. We have been frustrated again and again in the past but the future can be different. Those chains that have seemed impossible to break can be unlocked by the one who has the power to break them. Jesus makes it possible for us to share the very life of God. Peter even says in his second letter that we've become partakers of God's nature.
It's not a call to passivism. We must be active in staying away from sin. But God is fighting with and for us. I've always enjoyed that quote from Churchill, "Give us the tools, teach us to use them, and we'll finish the job." Before this experience, we just haven't had the tools to do it. But in Christ God has given us all we need. We have our sins forgiven and we have a new life begun within us. God doesn't just give us rules and laws and precepts to appreciate and study and try to keep. He has empowered us by this message, transforming us into a new creature.
Are you getting this? Is this clear? Now, I think all of us need to admit at this point that this experience of trusting Christ and being born again does not lead to instant and automatic holiness.
II. The Process that Leads to It
2:1‑3 "Therefore," based upon the fact that something has happened inside you though the word of the Gospel..."
Here is the part that has frustrated some. It isn't as instant as instant coffee or potatoes. We like instant ready‑made things in our society. But few things that are excellent are instant or ready‑made. Growth is always a process. When we are born again, a new life begins that starts a lifetime of growth.
We start out as babies. Moreover, spiritual growth means growing to become more and more like Christ so we don't have to reach a point where we've arrived‑‑where we stop growing up and only grow out. But just as babies must start growing physically or something is wrong, so we must grow spiritually or something is wrong. And just as our physical growth can be stunted by a number of things, so our spiritual life can be stunted too. Peter mentions two ways. Make careful note of them.
1. A failure to truly repent of the past. "Rid yourselves..." he demands. The language is so graphic in Greek, It means to take off those old sinful lives just like a person takes off dirty clothes before going to a nice place. Get rid of the grime. Don't go to those places where you get into trouble. Get rid of those books or movies that were a part of the dirt. Take off the old foul language. Look at the specific things he talks to them about in v.1.
He's saying, "Just get rid of those things." No one thinks they're good. You know what's wrecked your lives. So don't deceive yourselves. Just get rid of the dirt.
So what's called for in this new life is a determined act of turning from the old life, from the sinful life. If it's not there, you won't grow.
2. A lack of proper nourishment.. V2. An absolute necessity is what we're engaging in now. We need to be fed on the Word of God, on the Bible. He's almost certainly referring to the teaching of the Bible. It's the main reason why we should go to church. It's why we urge you to read and study the word privately at home. This is a necessary part of growth‑‑we must have spiritual nourishment if we're going to grow, if this new birth is going to flower into holiness of life.
Sometimes the nourishment doesn't reach us. Why? Often it's because of the poor quality of our milkman. Notice that Peter speaks of craving for "pure spiritual milk", literally, unadulterated milk. The point is that some people do adulterate the milk of God's Word: diluting it only so that people will agree, sugaring it so that people will only be entertained, dehydrating it so that it will be more palatable. What happens is that the powerful word is turned either into something that does us no good or into something that is barren and worldly. If you want to be holy, you should come here longing for me to teach you the Bible as it is.
The tendency even among those committed to biblical authority is to quit Bible teaching on Sunday mornings because it takes so long. Instead, many of the most successful pastoral speakers have gone to synthesizing their study into a few statements and then using pulpit time simply to illustrate or apply those statements. People really don't even need to look at their Bibles and pastors are thereby turned into poor sociologists. Peter would say, "Even if that is the wave of the time, don't settle for it. Crave pure spiritual milk."
But, let's not be too hard on the preachers. Sometime we don't get enough nourishment because of the quality of our appetite. We just want baby food or striking stories given in a few moments. Peter puts his finger on it this way‑‑v.2. Good milk may be offered to you but you have no appetite to consume it.
It's natural for a healthy growing child to have a good appetite. It's often a first sign of illness when a baby doesn't want its food. So too for the growing Christian, its natural to want to absorb as much of Christ's word as possible. The growing Christian should come to church longing for God's word to be open in the same way that the growing young person longs for mealtime after a big basketball game.
Maybe I speak of this and you've never felt that sort of hunger for God's Word in a deep way. Well, that hunger only comes about if indeed you've been reborn. V.3. It could be that your religion has always been a superficial one, one of tradition or duty, with little real conviction of sin and little real hunger to grow. You had better make sure that you are spiritually alive at all in that case. One who is alive and growing wants to eat.
Well, we're at the end of this three part series about holiness. At the very conclusion, let me ask you four questions:
1. Do you really want to live in a way that pleases God? If not, then you might as well not even listen to the last three questions. The matter starts in the will‑‑"Do you want to be whole?"
2. What are you doing with your mind? What do you put into it? What are you desiring with it? Your mind will determine in so many ways what you become morally.
3. Are you genuinely grateful for what Christ did by shedding his precious blood on the cross for your sins. Or do you think, "My sins aren't so bad. I don't have to change all that much. God will let me in." It's gratitude that motivates holiness.
4. Have you had this experience? Have you been born again? Have you responded to the word of the Gospel so that you can begin to grow. If you're not alive, your won't grow. And don't stunt that growth by staying in sin or by failing to receive nourishment through the preaching, teaching, and private study of God's word.
May this be said of us: "He/she is a new creature in Christ. It's obvious that old things have passed away and all things are new." That's what holiness is all about.
