Hope, Holiness, and Fear

Will you please open your Bible and turn with me to 1 Peter? This morning we will be looking at together in a message that I have entitled, “Hope, Holiness, and Fear”. If you don’t have a Bible, the passage is on the screens in front of you and you can follow along there. Please read along with me as I read .

Read . Pray.

We are all born with a common disposition. No matter where we are born or what family we’re born into we all share this common trait: we instinctively believe that we are capable of earning our salvation. As soon as we are aware of things beyond the crib, we begin a life of merit. We have the idea that our good can outweigh our bad and therefore, in the end, whatever god may exist and whatever life beyond the grave looks like, we’ll be OK. Every human being alive that senses their need to be saved is first confronted with the temptation to be saved by their own ability. This is a common trait of us all.

But for those who are born again, who are Christians, also tend to share a common trait. This trait is much different, though. Christians know that they are unable to live up to the measure of God’s standard and know that their good works cannot save them. Christians know that salvation is by grace alone through Jesus Christ. But this isn’t the common trait I’m talking about. Though this is true of all Christians, there is something that many of us share that goes beyond salvation by grace and it’s that we often believe that since we are saved by grace, lives of obedience are inconsequential. That is, we can find ourselves unconvinced that obedience matters at all to God. After all, we’re saved by grace.

These two ideas, however (being saved by our ability or obedience is irrelevant), are absurd. They each miss the mark. reveals to us the errors of both these ideas. On the one had, we are going to see that obedience matters to God. God calls his people to reveal his holy character. His desire for you and I as we live in this world is to be a holy people. And yet, this holiness that we pursue will, in no way, save us. Instead, our pursuit of holiness is grounded in a salvation we have already received.

I imagine that most of us are facing one of these ideas today. Either you are doing your best so that God will save you on the last day or you haven’t thought about holiness in quite sometime. As Christians are pressed to the margins of society, you are being tempted to conform more to the world that surrounds you than the God who has redeemed you. Today, God’s Word is addressing us all and God is telling us through his Word that gospel hope produces holy living.

This message comes to us in this passage through 3 commands. Before we get to those commands, however, we ought to notice something. In verse 13 we see the first of 3 commands in our passage, but more importantly, in verse 13 we meet the very first command of the entire letter of 1 Peter. This is our 5 sermon in our series through 1 Peter and there has not been one single command we have read. We have heard about our Trinitarian salvation, our new birth in Christ, our inheritance as God’s people, and our genuine faith. We have heard about our amazing salvation, one that angels marvel at. But we have not heard ONE command in verses 1-12.

Do you know why? This is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. Commands are not just given by themselves, they are rooted in something. They’re grounded. They have a foundation and a basis. Here we see that foundation: all that God has done through Jesus Christ. What He has done, is doing, and will do. All of the wonderful truths of verses 1-12 lead us to verses 13-21 where Peter then tells us, “Gospel hope produces holy living.”

This is made clear by the very first word of verse 13, “therefore”. This word is a siren to us. It alerts us to the idea that what is about to be said is grounded in what has been said. This is critical. If you miss this, if you invert the order, you fall into the error of every man, believing that your goodness is the foundation or ground of your salvation. BUT, if you skip over the “therefore”, you fall into the error of many who have been born again by believing that obedience is inconsequential. Both are errors. God’s Word tells us, on the other hand, that gospel hope produces holy living. All that God has done for us in verses 1-12 leads us to the commands of verses 13-21.

In these verses we see 3 commands:

Set your hope fully on grace (v.13)

Live a holy life (v.15)

Walk in the fear of the Lord (v.17)

It’s no surprise that these three commands will serve as our outline for this morning. Let’s begin looking at how God has called us to live by looking at verse 13:

Set Your Hope Fully On Grace

The first command that we are met with in 1 Peter is right here in verse 13: set your hope fully on grace. Read verse 13 again:

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Hope is important to Peter and it stands out in this letter. As you might imagine, considering the sufferings that these Christians were going through, offering hope would be high on Peter’s priority list. He has already encouraged us by saying that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now he is commanding us to set our hope fully on grace. In light of all that God has revealed to us in verses 1-12, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

One effect of the gospel in your life should be that you now live with a settled hope in the grace of Jesus Christ. You have hope because your sins have been forgiven and you have hope because you know that you will receive grace on the last day. Can you imagine what the original readers may have been tempted to put their hope in?? Money to buy them out of trouble, status to help them escape persecution, relationships to deliver them from trials. What do you put your hope in? Peter commands us all, set your hope fully on grace!!

And the way that we do that is given to us at the beginning of verse 13: by preparing our minds for action and being sober-minded. “Preparing our minds for action” is literally (as you can probably see from the footnote in your Bible) girding up the loins of your mind. This picture is clear when we think of a person during this time that would take his long garment and tuck it under his belt so that he wouldn’t be hindered in walk or at his work. It’s kind-of like rolling up your sleeves. Get ready to work.

One theologian said this, “Hope will not become a reality without disciplined thinking. Thinking in a new way does not happen automatically; it requires effort, concentration, and intentionality.”

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Secondly, we set our hope fully on grace by being sober-minded. Don’t allow your mind to be drunk with the world. Dull to the reality of God. Instead, drink the satisfying Word of God. Look at the Scriptures and be amazed at all that God has done for you.

Set your hope fully on grace. The second command we see in this passage is found in verses 14-16, which we can summarize this way:

Live A Holy Life

1 Peter 1:14–17 ESV

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 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,

1 Peter 1:14–16 ESV

1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 1. Desire the Beauty of Being like a Holy God (1:13–16)

To be holy ‘as God is holy’ includes a full and pervading holiness that reaches to every aspect of our personalities. It involves not only avoiding outward sin but also maintaining an instinctive delight in God and his holiness as an undercurrent of heart and mind throughout the day.

Be holy. Gospel hope produces holy living. You are commanded today, by God, to be like God and live a holy life. What is the basis of living this way? To begin, we are God’s children. In verse 14 Peter appeals to us that we should live a holy life as obedient children. We have been adopted into a new family. God, the very God of the universe that we sinned against, has made us his very own family, adopted us to be his children. He is not just a master over us, demanding our allegiance, he is our Father, our loving Father.

How did he make us his children? We saw this in verses 3-5 and we see it here again, he called us. It’s can’t be said enough, you are His because of His divine call. He called you through the proclamation of the gospel and now you belong to Him. You are his child. And you are called to be his obedient child. Therefore, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Your former life must be one that you are growing out of, repenting of, and changing from. Do not be like the world, as you once were.

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Instead, Peter says that we should be holy. Why? Because God is holy. We have been transformed, we are being made like him. Therefore, we are to be holy - set apart from the world - because God is holy. This point is reinforced when Peter quotes Leviticus 11:

Leviticus 11:44–45 ESV

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

Leviticus

The pattern for our holiness is God himself, but did you also notice the scope of the holiness God is calling us to?

1 Peter 1:14–16 ESV

Peter says, “as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” Your thoughts are to be holy. Where you set your eyes is to be holy. Parent in a way that is holy. We are to be holy in the way that we care for and love one another. The goals for our lives are to be holy. The way you work is to be holy. There is not one sphere of your life that is exempt from this command. Gospel hope produces holy living.

If we were to compare you aspirations, or maybe the aspirations you have for you children, with non-Christians, would they be set apart? Is your life like the world or set apart from the world? Your Father in heaven is holy, therefore, you too should be holy.

Finally, there is a third command:

Walk In Fear Of The Lord

God calls us to walk in fear of the Lord. Look at verses 17-21:

1 Peter 1:17–21 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. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Yes, the one we call on as father is also described here as one who will judge impartially according to our deeds. Therefore, we should walk in the fear of the Lord as we live as exiles on the earth. God our Father is still our impartial Judge. This judgment for the Christian is not a judgment in regards to our salvation. No, because of Christ’s work on the cross, we have been set free from the wrath and God and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But, as God’s children, we will have our works evaluated on the final day and God will then give great and gracious rewards on the basis of our works before him.

Therefore, we should fear him. Not in a dreadful way, but in a way that is filled with awe and reverence. There is a good and healthy place for fear of God in your life. He is holy. We should be afraid of Him.

John Piper said, “This is one crucial missing note in modern Christianity, and one of the main reasons why the church is such a carbon-copy of the world. We think that grace means there's nothing to fear in our behavior. And so the sanction of judgment has no place in our lives. And is simply blanked out in our superficial adaptation to culture. But God is gracious and calls us back today to fear the behavior that leads to destruction.”

You should fear as a child secure in his love but also in awe of his absolute holiness. This is written so that we will not give way to sin and live like the world. When you are tempted by worldliness aspirations, you must be reminded to walk in fear because your Father will also be your judge. Though your salvation is secure, your works will be judged.

And then Peter shows us the manner that we should walk in fear. Peter says that we should walk in fear, “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.”

Why should you set your hope fully on grace? Why should you live a holy life? Why should you walk in fear of the Lord? Because you have been ransomed, not with silver and god however valuable and precious those may be, they don’t even compare to the value of the precious blood of Christ. Through this sacrifice, you have been saved from your former passions and futile ways. You are God’s child now. Do you not now delight in obeying him?? Doesn’t your soul agonize when it grieves him?

You have become a part of the family of God through the sacrifice of the most costly material: blood. God the Father has sacrificed his own Son to ransom you. This was God’s plan before the foundation of the world. He planned to send his Son to redeem people like you and me from our sins and make us his own. To live according to our former passions, without proper fear of God, when we live in this way we diminish the precious blood of Christ.