3. Bound for Glory Land

(How do we as Australian Christians manage living in our current political, social, and cultural climate, and in what we see where things may be trending unless the Lord graciously intervenes?)

The people Peter has sought to encourage here in 1 Peter faced this in their time, and we’ve seen over the last two sermons how the Apostle has pointed them to the need to root themselves in the glorious salvation planned, accomplished and applied by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on their behalf (v 1-9).

He has reminded them that they live in a time of prophetic fulfillment, when they are privileged to experience what the Old Testament prophets looked forward to and indeed what the angels wondered over (v 10-12).

But the question remains: What are they to do? How are they to go about relating to this hostile world? How are they to relate to one another in the midst of such difficult circumstances?

We will look at his answers to these questions today and God willing, next Lord’s Day.

Peter reminds us in this section that

Christians have a glorious destination ahead of them, towards which we are to travel confidently in a way which honours God.

What we will see today in 1 Peter 1:13 - 21,

1) Where they are to set their hope (1:13),

2) How they are to relate to this world (1:14-16),

3) How they are to relate to God (1:17-21)

1) Where they are to set their hope, 1:13

A person’s life revolves around, is governed by, his or her hope

It is only natural that when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, we seek to find that something or that someone who will rescue us. What ever it is in those circumstances that we think will best deliver us to what we want out of that situation, that thing or that person that we think will deliver the goods becomes a god or savior to us; we bow down at their altars willingly, offering whatever sacrifices they may require. All our plans, all our drive and energies, are directed by and toward this outcome. When the people or things we have trusted, have hoped in, don’t come through for us, we are crushed.

We talked about idolatry last week and that anything or anyone other than the true and living God being our saviour, our deliverer, is an idol. And all the idols of this world are doomed to fail. And the risk and temptation of making an idol, of having false, misplaced hope, is never greater than in testing circumstances, and testing circumstances as we have seen already in 1 Peter and in James and elsewhere in Scripture are part of ordinary life for the Christian. So we need help in our thinking. And this is precisely how Peter encourages his readers, helping them think rightly about God and about their circumstances.

We are called to a “certain hope”

Peter has pointed us towards "living hope" (1:3); now, in verse 13, he directs us to set our hope on the certainty of God, his character, and the salvation he has told us about in verses 1-12. This hope is to be fully and finally revealed at the return of Christ.

Peter is calling us as Christians to set our hope on the absolute certainty of God and his promises for us in Christ. And what we hope in determines how we live now (and how we live now demonstrates what we truly hope in).

1 Peter 1:13

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 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.

Peter reminds all Christians that our hope is in a God who has already worked on our behalf to save us through his Son Jesus. It is by His grace that we have hope. Not our striving, not our efforts to earn or merit salvation. And having had this gracious salvation applied to us through the Holy Spirit in the new birth, we now have the same hope of resurrection just as Jesus was raised from the dead.

The finished work of Christ on the Cross, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to the right hand of the Father and ruling and reigning on high, His sending of his Holy Spirit, who is applying all that our Lord Jesus has accomplished for us, and the promise of His coming again for us is not an uncertain thing! So, says Peter, “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Do you have a misplaced hope?

If you forget that a right standing with God is brought about and maintained by God’s grace alone, you will begin to drift in how and where you place your hope for the future. This misplaced hope will ultimately lead to utter despondency at the realization that you will never be good enough. But when our hope is rooted in the great salvation that has been accomplished on our behalf, then that hope will drive our actions-not in order to be accepted by God, for we have already been accepted by God on the basis of the "sprinkling [of Jesus'] blood" (v 2), but in order to glorify and please God now.

How do we avoid a misplaced hope?

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 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.

Peter says that in order to set our hope fully, un-distractedly, on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, we must be preparing our minds for action, and be sober-minded. In other words, Peter instructs them and us to set our hope on the grace that will be ours when Jesus returns by being fully able to think and act on the basis of our true nature in Christ, despite whatever hostility such a lifestyle might provoke from their society. You cannot resolve to make the hard ethical choices God directs us to if they we do not have their minds fixed on the final outcome of that resolve.

Preparing our minds for action

“Gird up the loins of your minds”

The imagery is that of a man wearing a long garment of that time and pulling it up and tucking it in his belt to get it out of the way and to get down to business. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing — getting our mindset prepped and ready to get down to the business of glorifying God in our lives, especially in the face of opposition to the Gospel.

Setting your hope fully on God requires mental preparation and resolve. Setting your hope fully on the grace to come is an act of faith that requires renewed thinking, disciplined thinking. In other words, if we are to set our hope fully on the grace yet to be revealed, we need to prepare ourselves with the proper mindset, with mental resolve.

We are to be sober-minded

We all know the impairment that intoxication can bring. Consider for a moment how drunkenness affects every aspect of the human body. It clouds our judgment; it slows our reflexes; it provokes us to do things we would not normally do. So we have RBTs and rules in aviation of “12 hours from bottle to throttle,” and such.

Now consider the fact that Peter is speaking about "girding up the loins of your minds." Peter speaks of the mind not merely as the source of intellectual activity; for Peter, it is the mind that determines or controls our actions. He is talking about mental preparedness and resolve--disciplined thinking that will control right behavior. In this sense, "self-control" is also a good translation.

Proverbs 4:23

Proverbs 4:23 ESV

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Bottom line: we are to be clear-sighted about Who God is and all He gives. Not to be under the influence of the world, the flesh, or the devil.

2) How they are to relate to this world, 14-16

Peter has told us that we are to live in consistency with this great salvation; to live so as to please this great Savior, to live here in this world in keeping with the wonderful promise of endless joy in the world to come; to demonstrate our gratitude for God’s grace and mercy to us by living our lives as adornments of that mercy and as a witness to God’s goodness and love. People should be able to read back from our living to God’s salvation, from our life to God’s character.

This is all driven by our identity in Christ. We will stand -out because we’ve been called-out as God’s elect exiles.

There should be a consistency, apparent to all, between God’s saving grace and your life. That is the idea. “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”

Are You Different than this World?

Our new birth has changed our identity. "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v 3) is now our Father (v 17), and we are his children. As sons and daughters, then, we are to bear the likeness of our Father. As the saying goes, "Like father, like son." Since God our Father is holy, we are to be holy (v 16).

With this reference to Leviticus (11:44; 19:2; 20:7-8, 26), Peter applies what he has already explained in 1 Peter 1:10-12.

theologically-motivated faithful obedience

One writer (Rayburn) has called this theologically motivated faithful obedience.

Which is a five-dollar phrase that basically says:

Because of Who God is, this is what you are to be like.

As Edmond Clowney (1988: 61) put it, “The imperatives of Christian living always begin with ‘therefore.’ Peter does not begin to exhort Christian pilgrims until he has celebrated the wonders of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ.”

Preface to the Ten Commandments:

Exodus 20:1–2 ESV

1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

So, just as Israel was to be holy because the Lord our God is holy and all that He has done for them, New Testament believers are to be holy as well, for the same reason.

Think with me a bit about the Old Testament era believer: the concept of holiness related to those things which were consecrated or dedicated to God for His service. In this sense, when God declares himself to be holy, He means that He is dedicated to Himself, to His own service; everything He does is for His own name and glory. He alone is uniquely distinct from all else; He alone is an uncreated being; He alone dwells in unapproachable light; therefore, nothing common or unclean can come into His presence. Because of this, only those things or persons which are made clean and consecrated to God for His service-that is, made holy-can approach God's presence.

God chose Israel as his special treasure out of all the peoples of the earth (Exodus 19:5). In other words, God separated them from all the other nations to serve him only. God made a covenant with them and gave them a law that would distinguish them from the surrounding nations and show that they were dedicated to God alone (Exodus 19 - 24). By obeying all of God's law, Israel would be distinct from the surrounding nations, showing that they were solely dedicated to Yahweh in all of life.

This matters because this Old Testament background underlies all of Peter's letter. As the new covenant people of God, who have been set apart by the Holy Spirit for sprinkling with Jesus' blood and for obedience to all his commands (1 Peter 1:2), we have been set apart from this world to serve God only. "As obedient children" then, we are not to be "conformed to the passions of [our] former ignorance" (v 14). Instead, we are to "be holy in all [our] conduct," as he who called us out of this world is holy himself (v 15). How we conduct ourselves in this world reveals to Whom we are dedicated-just as it did for Israel.

Yet, while the Old Testament is still authoritative for us, we are no longer under the old administration of the covenant’s ceremonial or civil laws. Our distinctiveness is not reflected in what we eat or wear; it is not reflected in worship located in a central sanctuary where animal sacrifices occur repeatedly. For us, we are to obey everything Jesus has commanded. That is how we display our identity as children of God, as covenant people.

Who do you serve?

Our conduct in this world will reveal to whom and to whose service we are truly dedicated. I must ask myself, Do I look just like this world, or do I look like my Father in heaven?

Am I becoming more like Him and less like this world, or not? What does my conduct show about my true hope, and what I have made my real god?

And, where our answer may not be the one we would wish it to be, we need to look back to verses 3-5, and ask ourselves, Which other object of my worship gives me an inheritance such as this? In whom else or where else will I place my hope, and who else or what else will I allow to direct my conduct, rather than "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'?

Think of an area of your conduct where you often fail to obey God. Can you discern how your thinking, and your choice of what to hope in, might be amiss, which leads to that disobedience?

How can you think and hope differently, so that your conduct would become more holy?

Overall, what does your conduct suggest about to whom you are truly dedicated? Does this encourage you, or direct you toward repentance?

Come back to this God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who has loved you in Christ from before the foundation of the world, Who has so mightily worked to bring you to reconciliation to Himself by the blood of Jesus, Who has kept, reserved your eternal inheritance and is bringing you to it every step of the way!

3) How they are to relate to God (1:17-21)

1 Peter 1:17 ESV

17 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,

Live out this life you have by God the Father’s grace by living in holy fear of Him

Peter is concerned that we do not have a view of God that sees Him as tame, as manageable, or of all accepting, to not treat Him and His commandments lightly or trivially. He is a saving God because He is a judging God. He can be a saving God because He is the ruling God. We will not enjoy living with the love of God unless we also live with a right fear of God.

The special privilege of calling God “Father” does not excuse us from nevertheless being judged by God, because every person will be judged by God according to the same standard. The pagan life that God abhors will be no less abhorred if it is lived by one who professes to be a Christian. The Christian who has been born again of the Father must live in fact as a child of God.

"If you call on [God] as Father" (v 17), remember that you are to reflect his character. As he is holy, so you are to be holy (v 16). But, says Peter, keep in mind that if you call God Father, he is also the one "who judges impartially according to each one's deeds" (v 17).

In fact, the Bible says that we will give an account for every idle word that comes out of our mouths (Matthew 12:33-37). That means that the coming day we are to set our hope on is not only a day of salvation; it is also a day of judgment. And the evidence that will be brought forth either for or against us on that day is our conduct during our time on this earth.

Therefore, Peter urges those who call themselves children of God to "conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile" (1 Peter 1:17). This fear is a holy awe and reverence for this Father Who has graciously saved us, a reverence and love that loathes to do, think, or say anything displeasing to Him because our hearts are filled with gratitude and love for Him.

The fear of God is a means for our own pursuit of holiness, our sanctification.

When our faith is weak and our hope is fading, we're often tempted to indulge in the passions of our former ignorance (v 14), to imbibe "the futile ways inherited from [our] forefathers".

If you continue conducting yourself according to your former passions, you have no future inheritance:

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 ESV

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV

11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

It is a good thing I don’t play rugby!

If you continue conducting yourself according to your former passions, it suggests that your hope is not really in God. It suggests that your hope is really in something else.

The warning of God's coming day of judgment promotes perseverance whenever we may find it hard to believe God's promises.

Say you're faced with a difficult marriage. Your spouse has turned against you or, perhaps worse, is indifferent toward you. You have sought counseling; you have pleaded with him or her to join you; but now you no longer believe there is any hope for your marriage. The truth is you have stopped caring. As a Christian you know divorce is not God's will. You can just live together as roommates or fantasize about how wonderful it would be to have a better spouse, a better marriage, a better life.

What are you supposed to do? In those dark moments of doubt, remember God's promises. Remember how marriage is supposed to picture God's love for his bride and that you're called to reflect that picture to an unbelieving world.

But remember, too, the discipline of the Lord. Think about all the consequences of your sin-· whether that sin is cutting and running from marriage, or shutting down within your marriage-how it would affect your spouse, your children, your life.

And remember that the one we call our Father is the impartial judge, and he will judge us based upon our conduct on this earth. Remember that you will one day stand before him and have to explain your conduct.

That should move us to fear the Lord and persevere in faithfulness, even (or especially) in the area of life where we find it hardest to obey.

The Motivation of Past Redemption

We are to conduct ourselves with fear-but primarily, we are to conduct ourselves with gratitude. We live not only with God's future judgment in our sights, but also God's past redemption firmly fixed in our view. So, while we are to fear God, we're also to remember that God has already judged our sin in Jesus. Consider the cost of your redemption, and as you meditate on the truth of this gospel, you will be motivated to pursue holiness.

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV

11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

No Divine Afterthought

It may seem odd that Peter chooses to say that Jesus "was foreknown before the foundation of the world" (v 20).

1 Peter 1:20–21 ESV

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 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.

Peter wants us to know that our salvation was not a divine afterthought. It was not God's reaction to a world gone awry. It is all part of His purposeful plan. And knowing this give us comfort and peace, confidence and purpose.

Because God is holy, he will judge sin. We deserve such judgment. But instead of judgment, we receive mercy because God has purchased us with the blood of Jesus. Because we have been delivered from the bondage of our former ways, we are now to display our Father's holiness during our time on the earth. When we meditate on this gospel and continue believing this gospel, we will be warned by God's judgment and motivated by God's grace to walk in holiness-to become more like him as we journey toward the day when we meet him-not only as our King, but as our Father.

1 Peter 1:3-12 "Bound for Glory Land" Works Cited or Consulted

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