Transcript

ANNOUNCER: How would you describe our responsibility relationally toward God and toward our Christian brothers and sisters? Could you list a few things? Well, we’ll do that today here on Grace IN Focus, and we are glad that you are joining us. This is the radio and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us on the web at faithalone.org. We especially want you to get on board, get signed up, get registered, and come to our national annual conference happening next May, not too soon to be planning for that, May 18th through the 21st. Our theme is “Believe in Jesus For Life,” and it’s also about discipleship. All you need to get registered, faithalone.org/events.

Now with today’s discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and David Renfro. 

BOB: All right, David, let’s wrap up verses 13 through 21, and then we’ll begin looking, starting at verse 22 with “the salvation of our psuche” in relation to other believers, but verses 13 through 21 is dealing with the salvation of the psuche, salvation of the soul 1:9, in relation to God, right? And so what is 13 through 16 basically about, 1:13-16? 

DAVID: With our relationship with the Lord, we are to live a life of holiness, and I think these verses concentrate on holy living in front of our Lord. Notice it says, gird up your loins, in other words, prepare to get to work, clear headed, meaning sober, rest your hope fully on the grace that’s brought to you at the revelation. And so once again, he’s dealing with the perspective of these believers that are going through these miserable times, giving them perspective. And the salvation of the psuche, it is no mistake that Peter starts,”How do we work that out?” The salvation of our psuche, he starts out with our relationship to God. It’s what the verses 13 through 21 are all about.

BOB: And he talks about being obedient children, and then he quotes from Leviticus, “Be holy for I am holy.” And by the way, the word holy, what’s the basic meaning of holiness? 

DAVID: It’s the idea of being set aside for a specific purpose. 

BOB: Okay, so we’re set aside, we’re set apart, like Israel was a set-aside nation for a specific purpose, which was to glorify God, right?

DAVID: Well, not only that, but also to be a testimony to the other nations about the Lord and His grace and the offer of salvation. So yeah, the word holy, there is very important. What are we set aside to do? Well, I think what Peter is saying in verse 16, we are set apart to serve Him. 

BOB: So in terms of the salvation of our psuche, first of all, we’re to be obedient children, we’re to be holy children in relation to God. But then in 17 through 21, what’s the emphasis there? 

DAVID: He starts now dealing with godly fear. 

BOB: We should be people who have a godly fear. What the Old Testament would call the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 

DAVID: Right. And fear does not mean I’m scared. 

BOB: No, instead, it means like an awe like in Isaiah 6. “Oh, woe me, I’m a man of unclean lips,” right? I have this sense of awe in the presence of the holy perfect God, the Creator, the One to whom I will give an account one day. 

DAVID: I call it reverential awe. 

BOB: Reverential awe, I like that. And so 17 through 21 is telling us about this and notice how it ends in verse 21. It says “and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.” It’s emphasizing glory at the end of this section because the whole thing about the salvation of your psuche, your soul is that we would win the co-heirship with Christ, to use the terminology of Hebrews, Hebrews 1:9, we would be partners with Christ. Or the language of Jesus in Matthew 16:27, I’m coming in the glory of the Father with His angels and then I’m going to reward each according to his works. And so the idea here is if we retain that Godly fear, it will result in sharing in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

DAVID: Right. And what happened to our Lord, meaning His resurrection, because we are part of that. We’ve been redeemed. We will share the same thing. 

BOB: He has a glorified body. We will have glorified bodies. 

DAVID: And based on verse 21, He raised him from the dead, gave Him glory. Your faith and hope are in God. It’s like take it to the bank. If it happened to the Lord and you belong to Jesus, this will happen to you too. 

BOB: And by the way, David, this is a statement of the deity of Christ, right? Your faith and hope are in God. He’s talking about the the Lord Jesus Christ. 

DAVID: Absolutely. But it’s just interesting how God planned that Christ would provide this redemption before the foundation of the world. I don’t know, if I was going through super hard times like these believers were, that would give me a great sense of comfort, knowing part of this whole plan was put together before the foundation of the world. Therefore, it’s not happening to me by chance. And I can feel comfort in going through these trials because I am with Christ and I have this hope of resurrection. 

BOB: And we today are not immune to suffering for Christ. We experience a lot of it. And so as long as we are suffering in this world we’re in, that’s rewardable. 

DAVID: If we don’t go along with our world, the world’s not going to like us. You hear stories from missionaries and now you’re hearing it in the news that there are Christians being killed a lot in other parts of the world. We’re not going through it here in the United States yet. But the society is becoming more and more anti-Christian. And at some point, we are going to suffer the same thing these believers did. And we need to have the same strength of faith in our God. 

BOB: Amen. 

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BOB: Well, look at verses 22 through 25. Now, this is beginning a new section, right? DAVID: Yeah. Well, he’s starting out now and it’s going to last in verse 22 all the way through chapter two, verse 12. He’s now finished, “How do I work out the salvation of the soul in relation to the Lord?” That’s stopped in verse 21. In verse 22, he’s now saying, okay, “how do I work out the salvation of the soul in relation to my Christian brothers and sisters?” 

BOB: And he starts right out and he says, “Since you have purified your souls,” again, psuche, “in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren,” there it is, what you were talking about, love of the brethren. “Love one another fervently with a pure heart.” And then he talks about the new birth again, “Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible.” And then he mentions it comes “through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” And then there’s this wonderful quote from the Old Testament about the enduring nature of God’s Word. 

DAVID: Right. And once again, that whole idea that these things, they’re going to happen, but they are part of God’s plan. The suffering is temporary, but the joy that comes after that fullness, that salvation of the psuche, last forever. The way we help that is we help our brothers and sisters who are going through that, we comfort them as well. 

BOB: Yeah, we find the same thing in Hebrews 10:23-25, he says, “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves as is the manner of some, but let’s encourage one another and all the more as we see the day approaching,” right? Well, isn’t that more or less what Peter is beginning to talk about here? 

DAVID: Yeah, he’s once again saying that that type of encouragement is going to have everlasting consequences. 

BOB: But in terms of our sharing in the glory of Christ—

DAVID: And the enjoyment of that glory of Christ and the enjoyment of being with our brothers and sisters, stuff in this world is not going to last, you know, and that includes the suffering that you’re going through. I’m not saying it’s not fun and it’s not, you know, you’re going to have some hard times, but it will not last. We need to encourage one another with those kinds of words that the Lord allows us to go through these difficult times, maybe even to the point of physical death, but it is a time where we can serve one another by encouraging one another and concentrating on the Word of God like 1 Peter saying, “This suffering is not going to last.” 

BOB: So why bring up the incorruptible nature of the Word of God that it’s enduring forever? Grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God—why bring this up at this point? 

DAVID: Because the brethren are the ones that are going to be the one suffering in the world. And once again, it needs to be, I think what Peter’s doing here is we need to live our lives with our brethren—I call it here in my notes—a life of love. Here’s the Greek word for that, philadelphia. It’s a friendship love that we have for our brothers. We have that, plus we should have agape love for our brethren and sisters, but here we share in those sufferings. 

BOB: And the Word of God, because it’s incorruptible, because it’s permanent, therefore the promises are permanent. Therefore, we know for sure Jesus is coming. We know we’ll be with Him. And we know if we persevere, then we will obtain this salvation of our psuche. We will obtain this future glory of sharing in His reign and rule and glory. And notice the very last of verse 25: “Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” You mentioned how the word gospel is often misused as, this is always the message of how I’m born again. Well, here isn’t it broader than that? 

DAVID: This has been one of many places I think in the New Testament where the word gospel simply means Bible teaching of various Bible doctrines. I think it’s ironic. Let me point this out. Notice how verse 24, it emphasizes how temporary this physical world is? Right. Look at verse 25. But the Word of the Lord endures forever. 

BOB: So the suffering is temporary, but God’s Word is permanent and the promise is there. 

DAVID: Yeah. And I what I think is interesting too. And Peter did this deliberately. Verse 24 is a quote of Isaiah 40:6-7. And then verse 25 is Isaiah 40:8. So in the same context, he’s showing us that the Lord is revealing His word to Isaiah saying, “What’s going on in this world is not going to last. But you stay faithful to Me because this stuff is not going to, in the world, it’s not going to last forever. But My blessings will last forever.”

BOB: Amen. 

DAVID: And I love that. It is so cool that 1 Peter comforts his readers with these incredible words. 

BOB: All right. Well, we’ll begin the next one with chapter 2 verses 1 and following. I love especially 1 through 3. I have a sermon on 1 Peter 2:1-3 because it’s just the power of God’s Word and how we’re to take it in when we’re in worship together with other believers. But we’ll look at that next time. In the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: Longing for God’s Word. Do you have time for Him? We will see you again next time and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.