1 Peter 1:17-25

Remember the theme of 1 Peter: the salvation of our soul or mind is the revelation or revealing of Jesus in and through us now, not in the future when Christ returns.  1 Peter 1:6-7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it it tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ..."  The various trials or sufferings or being tested by fire is the suffering in the flesh and ceasing from sin (1 Peter 4:1-2, 12-13) so that Christ is revealed in and through us now.  For Jesus to be revealed in and through us, we must grow up spiritually, which involves turning away from sin and evil and walking in holiness and love.  How can those around us see God in us if we are mean or running wild in sin or acting selfishly?  They can't.  So the same grace that tells us that the sins of our entire lifetime are forgiven also teaches us to put off sin and walk in holiness.  It is the same grace.  This is how Jesus Christ is revealed in us.  This is the revelation of Jesus Christ to our generation.

1 Peter 1:17-21  "And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like gold or silver, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

We see the first two members of the Godhead, God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, mentioned in these verses.  Remember that God the Father planned the plan of salvation before the world even existed.  Jesus Christ shed His blood for the redemption of mankind.  The Holy Spirit is the One who leads us into sanctification of our mind and actions through our obedience to His leading.  In verse 17, it says that God the Father without partiality judges according to each man's work.  This is not God judging us so that we might be sent to Hell or not.  Remember, God is a loving Father who planned for our redemption.  We are saved by trusting in His grace that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins through His shed blood.  God as a Father is judging and overseeing our spiritual growth.  He wants us to grow up spiritually into His image, just as any human parent would want to see their children grow up and achieve good things and experience joy and happiness.  Our heavenly Father wants us to grow up also.  So we should conduct ourselves in fear or reverence for our heavenly Father during our time here on the earth.  I want to be just like my Father.  He is holy.  He is love.  I should give Him reverence and walk in holiness and love.  I should emulate my Father.  We are not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ.  He was without spot or blemish.  He did not sin nor did His flesh contain sin.  He is perfect.  God planned before the foundation of the world that His innocent blood would be shed for the sins of all mankind.  This is what our faith rests in.  Our hope for the physical resurrection of our bodies rests also in God.  Ephesians 1:14 says that the Holy Spirit of promise is the guarantee or down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.  Our bodies have been purchased but are not yet redeemed.  God gave us the Holy Spirit as the down payment on our inheritance until the eventual redemption of our bodies.

1 Peter 1:22-25 "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because, 'All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.  The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.'  Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you."

Notice the third member of the Godhead is mentioned in verse 22.  Through the leading of the Spirit, we are to purify our soul or mind and obey the truth of the Word.  We are to learn to walk in love instead of the lusts of our flesh.  Notice also that all three parts of a person are referred to in these verses.  Humans consist of spirit, soul and body.  We are a spirit.  We have a soul or mind.  We live in a body.  Our spirit is the part of us that is born again through the Word of God or the gospel.  Our souls are to be purified or changed so that we learn to walk in love and not the lusts of the flesh.  Why?  Verse 24 says that our flesh is as grass and will wither and fall away.  Our flesh is not yet redeemed, so it still has lusts or desires that are not of God.  That is why 1 Peter 2:11 says that we must abstain from fleshly lusts. 

The same grace of God that sent Jesus to pay the penalty for all of our sins is the same grace of God that leads us into holiness through the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Praise the Lord.  1 Peter 5:12  Peter said this is the TRUE GRACE of God in which we stand.  Apparently there was a false teaching of grace that was circulating then.  It said that our sins are forgiven so we can sin and do anything we want and it doesn't matter.  In Jude verse 4, Jude refers to this type of teaching.  Jude said that ungodly men had crept into the church, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness or an excuse to sin.  Paul was accused of the same thing.  Romans 3:8 "And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come'? -- as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say.  Their condemnation is just."  This is the underlying background of the New Testament epistles.  The church was proclaiming that Jesus had paid the penalty for all sins.  Some immature Christians were using it as an excuse to sin.  Outsiders were saying that Christians were just using grace as a cloak or covering for sin.  1 Peter 2:15-16. 

Keith Oliver