1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ;
Do we know who we are? Do we realize what we have come from? Do we understand what being a Christian means? Do we care?
There is a very sad trend emerging in the world today. This trend has shamed the church, shamed the body of Christ, and brought shame to the name of God. It has exposed false faith, it has satisfied many a clergy who accept words rather than deeds, and it has proven Jesus’ words true, that not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.
This trend is making a distinction between Christian living as a separate aspect of life, and accepting that calling ourselves a Christian is more than what we are, it’s a matter of who we are.
“I just can’t get into it.” “I’m a Christian, but I don’t see the need to live it.” These are just two of the statements that many people who know the knowledge of Christianity, but refuse to surrender to it, state. This is a false faith. This is not saving faith. Many people find the Christian life hard at times, but true faith sees a joy and peace that floods our being and enables us to see hope through God in every situation. True faith fills us with a desire for obedience. True faith gives us love for our fellow Christians and gives us a desire to fellowship with them. In other words, true faith changes who we are.
Let’s examine the passage above. In his first epistle, Peter makes no bones about who we are if we profess Christ as Lord. We are a chosen people. We are royalty. We comprise a separate, holy nation. We have been called out of this world, remade into a new person, and transformed into Christians by God’s grace and through His grace, we are renewed by His mercy. We cannot remain the same if we are true Christians. His mercy opens the floodgates of His love, and that love regenerates us into the holy people of His choosing, pulled out of the world to be separate. How can we…why do we want to remain in the sludge of our sin if we proclaim something as glorious as Christ as Lord?
The idea that we can call Jesus Savior but ignore Him as Lord is a very popular falsehood. Jesus is the ultimate Authority figure. In Matthew 28, He made it clear that after His death and resurrection, all authority on earth and in heaven has been given to Him. Too many people ignore the fact that the Savior is also the Judge. Peter, in his epistle, is reminding us that without Christ, we are useless. We must remember that we have been reconciled with God because He sought that reconciliation first. Apart from God’s mercy in Christ crucified, we remain separated from God, sentenced to eternal judgment, and that God looks upon us as enemies. He is King, and He will regard any enemies to His holy kingdom with divine hatred. As His enemies, we are only objects of His wrath, and every day we remain His enemies we store up more wrath against us in that great and terrible Day of Judgment. On that Day, the excuse, “I just couldn’t get into it”, simply will not save anyone. If one professes to be a Christian, it is all or nothing. We are either new people, humbled and awed by Christ’s immense sacrifice, or we are not. If someone who “just can’t get into it” has a hard time understanding and living a holy life, could it be that it’s hard because they are trying to be someone they aren’t? Peter later says that eventually, the true nature will shine through what we do. He puts it very directly, “A dog always returns to its vomit.”
Isn’t that a sobering fact? If we don’t want to give our all to Christ, it might mean that we aren’t saved to begin with! Have we examined ourselves to see if that’s the case? It is a very true fact that even if we believe we’re saved, we may not be. TRUE faith yields fruit. Being a true Christian is far more than abstaining from drunkenness and sinful living. Even the unsaved, for a time, can live what appears to be on the surface a Christian life. Simply obeying does not save us. Obedience means we can read. It doesn’t make us holy. In fact, if we try to rely on obedience to save us, we condemn ourselves farther. Anyone who tries to live by the law on its own only increases their guilt with every transgression of that law. Obedience is worth much as fruit of our salvation. Obedience and desire to follow the moral law is a fruit of salvation, as an act of gratitude. If the fruit of gratitude is not in us, how do we call ourselves separated from the world? Let me reiterate what Peter said…we are a CHOSEN PEOPLE, called out of darkness to be in God’s light. This dying, sinful world is in darkness. We all stood to be destroyed in the final day if not for God’s reconciling us to Himself. We all deserve to be cast into hell this very second, with none to deliver. Our sins are so heinous, so grievous, so utterly an affront to His holiness, there could be none to protest if God defended His holiness by utterly destroying all of us this very second.
The recognition of that horrific nature of our sin is also a sign of the fruit of salvation. If we remain unsaved, our sins don’t bother us. We know nothing of righteousness in an unregenerate state…so we will not be bothered by the sin we naturally have in our natural state. All human beings are born in sin, and all human beings live in darkness unless God resurrects the dead soul from its sinful condition and regenerates us to be His chosen elect. He makes us holy as Christ’s righteousness and perfect obedience is credited to us, so Christ’s perfection makes us perfect in God’s eyes. We may still sin, but true salvation causes us to despise our sin, and grieve over it. True gratitude lives in the Christian’s heart, and that true gratitude leads us away from sin, not towards it. The condition of the heart can be seen by what it gravitates towards. The sinful nature will never truly be dead until we enter glory; but how we react towards that sin that shows who we are. We will always suffer temptation for certain areas of our lives as Christians. In this world, to avoid that aspect is impossible. It’s what we do when temptation comes that sets us apart from the unbelieving world.
God set us apart to show His grace in action, to glorify Him. He called us into life, and for that, our praise must never stop. The Lord is enthroned on the praises of His elect, and as true Christians, we love to sing God’s praises! Praise for Almighty God for His redeeming mercy! Praise for not withholding His only Son but instead giving Him up for the world…praise to the Lord, the Almighty! There is no word, no word at all, that could properly thank Him for the salvation through Christ crucified…yet we must worship, for our new nature is called to such. Christians and worship are twinned together, for being a Christian means our every minute of every day is to be an act of worship.
Do we remember who we were before we proclaimed Christ as Lord? Do we take our faith for granted? Do we have faith at all? Are we mistaking head knowledge for faith? There is no “getting into it” if our faith is saving faith of grace. There is struggle, but always hope, there is persecution but always love, there is temptation but always a means of escape. If we claim to be a Christian but want no part of giving our all to surrender, we are liars. There is a vast difference between struggling with doing what is right, but doing it anyway, and simply not doing it. If we know the good we ought to do, and abstain from doing it, we sin.
Is the desire to live holy lives befitting God’s chosen royal family in your heart? Do you desire to be shining examples of God’s grace to this lost world, or do you not care at all of the example you are setting in the world? Do you not care that your actions bring shame to the name of Jesus, or do you eagerly seek to honor Him and His church in your every day lives? Being God’s elect is not a hobby or sideshow. It’s not separate from our daily living. We, as God’s chosen, as Christians, as followers of Christ and recipients of His grace, are called to give our all to Christ, and recognize that His death and resurrection were for us. We owe God a debt we cannot repay…and yet we dare treat His grace as common? We make excuses for not submitting to His Authority? How do we be so arrogant as to claim His name as a Christian, then act as though His death, His sacrifice, is common? My friends, if you find yourselves claiming to be a Christian yet do not desire to surrender all to Christ, do not desire His House, His people, His presence, and wantonly throw yourselves into sinful companionship and situations without any thought to how people perceive Christ in you…you are treating His grace as common.
We will not escape sin as long as we are on this sinful world. But what are our motivations? Moreso than our actions, our motivations mark the conditions of our faith. God will judge our motivations. For the motivations come from our hearts, and the heart will reflect our faith’s conditions. If we are motivated to follow God with all our being, our faith will show our hearts to be regenerate and transformed. If our motivations are to please ourselves, our hearts are mired in sin. If we desire sin, yet say we love God, we are liars, for no one of God can desire sin and have a strong faith. We cannot love the Holy One of Israel, and desire that which grieves the One we claim to love. Certainly, we will struggle. Certainly, we will be faced with overwhelming temptations, and certainly, we will give in, often more than we like. There is no discounting that the most ardent Christians have weaknesses of the flesh that the evil one knows how to exploit. But we also know that “not getting into it” is no excuse. If we are Christians, if the Holy Spirit lives within us, if we are awed by God’s amazing grace through Christ crucified, we will follow the command given to us by Jesus Himself…to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. There is no room for half-faith, for half-faith is no faith at all.
Guard yourselves! We all have weaknesses. Take heed, lest we fall in our arrogance! Do not compromise! If you know the areas of weakness, avoid them! Surround yourselves with people who encourage Christian living, and do not make unbelievers your closest friends. Do everything to make sure your faith shines in this dark world, and bring the kingdom of God into the occupied territory of the devil! Submit to the authority of Jesus Christ, and submit to His church. Live such different lives before the unbelievers, that you are found to be beyond reproach, and bring glory to God in this hostile world.
Are you forsaking your call to be holy and separate? Be honest with yourselves. Do you glorify Christ through your every day living, by behaving in such a way befitting our status as a royal people? Or do you desire your own way, do you ignore those who use Scripture to show you the error of your ways? Do you blend in with the world that hates the Christ you claim to follow, or do you stand out? Look in the Biblical mirror…and take an honest assessment. True faith loves to submit before God in entirety, even when we can’t do it perfectly.
Do you have true faith? Test it in the backdrop of Scripture. If we hope to be a true believer and keep our sinful nature with no change, if we don’t show any regard to our sin, if we are not in awe of Christ’s awesome sacrifice, it’s time to drop to our knees, ask God’s forgiveness for our arrogance, and recommit our lives to the Lord and Giver of life. If we hope to be a hypocrite, we are hopeless.
Now therefore, let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgement of our sins, praying Him to make us perceive them more and more, and that the same may cause us to have such a dislike of ourselves that we may earnestly and sincerely seek to give ourselves wholly to our Lord Jesus Christ. And since He has called us already to Him by His gospel, let us fashion ourselves accordingly, renouncing all superstitions and assuring ourselves that all that we can ever imagine to bring us to the kingdom of heaven are but deceits of Satan, and that it is enough for us to have Jesus Christ alone to make our recourse to; that just as it was the Father’s will to lift Him on high in order that all men should look to Him, so also we may have our eyes fastened upon Him and apply our whole minds to Him in such a way that we may have no other way or preparation than by Him alone; nor swerve one way or another, but when we are once brought into the right way, keep on continually towards our aim until we are fully come to perfection. That it may please Him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people. Amen.
