Fearing God While in the World

1 Peter 1:17–19 ESV

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, 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.

Distinctive Commands

Hope in Christ (1:13)

Be holy (1:15)

Fear God (1:17)

Reasons to Fear God

Because our heavenly Father judges everyone by the same standard: according to each one’s deeds (v. 17)

There will not be different rules for different people

And if this is true, the appropriate response is to live in the fear of God.

Here’s the reality: there’s only one thing that saves: faith. And there’s only one standard of judgement: deeds.

Peter has already made clear the basis of our salvation (v. 3)

So he does not mean for us to understand the fact that God’s standard of judgement, namely our deeds, as a motivation for us to strive to behave good enough to merit His salvation. Living this way would bring about a sinful fear. So, why live in the fear of God during our exile… during our time on earth?

I think the answer lies in the connection between the command to hope in God and to live in the fear of God. V. 13 commands us to set our hope fully on the grace of Christ.

The call to Christians is to know that the result of our living as if hope is in anything other than God, we lay ourselves vulnerable to sinful fear. Fearing God, means we will approach our lives and how we live day-to-day with a certain sobriety. We cannot live as if our hope is in this world.

The point here is that our behavior does matter, and that we must recognize that we need the Lord to strengthen us to live faithfully to Him. Our dependence upon God and even our confidence that God will enable us to live for Him is expressed in our fear of Him.

Because we have been ransomed at infinite cost (v. 18-19)

The blood of Jesus Christ rescued us from our old way of life so we should conduct ourselves in the fear of God.

May not appeal to our sense of logic right away, but consider

Psalm 130:4 ESV

But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

The Psalmist recognizes that God forgives, and He forgives His people so that they would fear Him.

Peter’s point is because you’ve been ransomed by the blood of Christ (forgiven of your sins through the blood of Christ), conduct yourselves with the fear of God.

But notice what Peter stresses in verses 18 & 19. He emphasizes the the contrast between what is futile and perishable with what is infinitely valuable: the blood of Christ which secures a permanent ransom.

We might be tempted to think the other way around. Because the ransom paid on our behalf is permanent, we don’t need to fear. And this is right when it comes to sinful fear… enslaving fear. We don’t need to fear man if we have been forgiven of our sins.

But, Peter’s concern here is that we understand the purpose of our redemption. We have been redeemed to rescue us from futile living. That’s what v. 18 is saying, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from you forefathers.

So the emphasis is our transformation…that our every day living would reflect a fear of God, and the key to that is understanding the nature of our redemption: it was secured by the infinitely precious blood of Christ.

Takeaways

The purpose of our redemption is transform our lives to be witnesses to the infinite worth of the blood of Jesus.

We should fear living as if our hope were in anything other than Christ.

We must remember that placing our hope in anything other than God will result in sinful fear.

Our hope is in the grace of God