The "Therefores" of Sanctification & Salvation
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The “Therefore’s” of Sanctification & Salvation
The “Therefore’s” of Sanctification & Salvation
It was a Greek mathematician, named Pythagoras (570 - 495 BC) who working with other mathematicians formalized what we now refer to as the Pythagorean Theorem - the square of the hypotenuse of right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. This theorem was not new to Pythagoras. The basic theory had been known by the mathematicians in Egypt, Babylon and India and applied in multiples ways over preceeding centuries. It would seem that Pythagoras and his formalizing of the theorem drove home the application that because it was true in one right- angled triangle, it would also be true in all right angled triangles.
It might be interest to those of you who amass trivia facts that James Garfield, the 20th president of the USA, published another proof of the theorem 5 years before he became president. Garfield’s proof, calculated the area of a trapezoid two different ways.
Because and therefore are pivotol words in the Pythagorean and all theorems.
For Pythagoras and other mathematicians, if certain things are true in one situation, those things can be assumed to be true in all situations. 2 plus 2 will always be four. Another bit of trivia , later, some of us were told that this was somehow integrated into the fact that most of our numerical calculated predicates a base 10 for our numerals.
There is something very assuring and comforting about the Pythagorean Theorem and ALL right-angled triangles. The square of the hypotenuse will ALWAYS be equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
Although mathematicians used the word theory, is really a misnomer. What he discovered what not a theory but a truth, an absolute truth.
Writing to scattered believers who were at times severely persecuted both for their faith and because they did not belong, Peter lovingly but firmly reminded them of two other truths. their salvation and sanctification were both unquestionably true. And because they were true, there was one major “therefore” on which they needed to focus - hope in the return of Christ.
That “therefore” was reinforced or reaffirmed by some things that they knew - there were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ - and steps of obedience that they taken - purified their souls.
THEREFORE, hope in the coming of Jesus Christ - 1 Peter 1:13-17
Having explained and affirmed all that God had provided for them in salvation and sanctification, and having underscored that those provisions were kept in heaven for them were/are imperishable, undefiled and unfading, guarded by God’s power - 1 Peter 1:4 - there was a “therefore”. For Peter and us the bases of this therefore were not a theory or matter of opinion but rock solid non negotiable truths.
Because of these truths, - sanctification & salvation - they were commanded to set their hope on the revelation of/return of Jesus Christ.
Set/fix your hope - aorist active imperative - one time action commanded in the past - military type of action - BETTER hope to the end KJV - set your hope perfectly to the end - act of the will rather than an emotional feeling - commanded to live expectantly anticipating a living hope/inheritance
2 components to obeying this imperative
Preparing your minds for action - gird up - pull together - literally having girded up loins of your mind - gathering up one’s robe for action, tie up the loose ends of one’s thinking - focus on the grace of God. Paul stressed the same need.
Loins - small of back - cc pork tenderloin
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Being sober minded - self-control, clarity of find, moral decisiveness
1 Peter: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Believers Must Respond with Hope
Metaphorically it means not to lose spiritual control by imbibing the world’s sinful system. It connotes the entire realm of spiritual steadfastness or self-control: having clarity of mind and discipline of heart, being in charge of one’s priorities and balancing one’s life so as not to be subject to the controlling and corrupting influence of the flesh’s allurements
In fixing our hope, we need to gather up and control any scattered thoughts and having done that control those thoughts focusing them on the hope of Jesus return.
Hope - a vital spiritual reality/essential - equivalent to faith. It is trusting God. Some commentators suggest that hope is faith in the future and what is to come. But because no part of life is a replay of events, it’s probably best see them more or less as synonymous..
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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.
Hope fully - completely - based on God’s promise & oath - embodied in Jesus who entered the inner place and came out.
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
Grace - all of this is because of God’s grace that provided forgiveness for sins and will bring all of the pieces together when God’s gracious provision of salvation ushered in with the revelation/return/apokalupsei - unveiling of Christ.
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
Believers have an obligation to live looking forward to the soon return of Christ. Peter’s reminder was not to focus on the wonder of the event or the connected rescue and reward, but that which was the bringing of God’s grace to them. Every aspect of salvation is a demonstration of and testimony of God’s grace.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
1 Peter: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Believers Must Respond with Hope
If a Christian finds anything more attractive than fellowship with Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 4:10; James 4:4), if he yearns more to enjoy this world than to receive the joys of heaven, then he does not love His appearing. All believers must instead adopt the perspective of the apostle John: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus’ ” (Rev. 22:20). This kind of hope is the right response for those who have received God’s great gift of salvation.
Live obediently & holy
Believers living focused on the return of Christ will, Peter wrote, would live obedient and holy
As obedient children - obedience characterizes every true child of God. By contrast, disobedience shouts not a child of God. Jesus stressed that.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This is not to say that born again children are perfect. They are not. But they confess their sin and confess it. Believers who do not see in their own lives, might very well not be believers.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Not conformed to former passions - Rom 12:2 - not conformed to the passions of the world
Holy - while there is an aspect to holiness in that there are certain things that we do not do, here we are called to be holy, because He who has called us is holy. Jesus set the same standard. Having this gift in earthen vessels we are fragile and totally dependent on the strength God provides.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Here Jesus quoted Lev 11:44; 19:2; 20:7
Some understandably ask why Moses, Jesus , Paul & Peter ask us to do what we cannot do? SO THAT WE WOULD HAVE AN ONGOING REMINDER THAT WHAT WE CALLED TO DO, WE CANNOT DO IN OURSELVES OR OUR OWN STRENGTH.
Live fearing/respecting/honouring God - v 17
“This is another way of saying, ‘If you are a Christian - the believer who knows God and that He judges the works of all His children fairly, will respect God and his evaluation of his life, and long to honor his heavenly Father” (MacArthur Study Bible)
KNOWING you were ransomed/redeemed - NASB /KJV- with the precious blood of Christ - 1 Peter 1:18-25
Nothing should motivate and focus us more than what God did to redeem us.
1 Peter: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 6: The Wonder of Redemption (1 Peter 1:18–21)
The Puritan Thomas Watson rightly observed that redemption was God’s greatest work: “Great was the work of creation, but greater the work of redemption; it cost more to redeem us than to make us; in the one there was but the speaking of a Word, in the other the shedding of blood. Luke 1:51. The creation was but the work of God’s fingers. Psalm 8:3. Redemption is the work of His arm” (Body of Divinity [reprint; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], 146).
Redeemed - lutrow - key word - purchase release by paying a ransom - In the Greek world it was a technical term for paying money to buy back a prisoner of war.
Rooted in Passover
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
From the futile ways inherited from your fathers
Peter is not blaming our parents, the reason being they too were born with sinful natures - passions of former ignorance - v 14
Born with sinful heart pull. All of us need a new heart - MAN AT ENNERDALE WHO NEEDED A DOUBLE LUNG TRANSPLANT. IN TIME REMOVED FROM LIST BECAUSE THE TRANSPLANT DETERMINED THAT HIS HEART WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE TRANSPLANT.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
All believers were once in bondage to sin
- Blood of Christ:
Like a lamb without blemish and spot
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
Christ:
Foreknown before the foundation of the world
Foreknown - perfect tense - has been known from all eternity - God planned and knew He would send the redeemer before creation and the fall.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
God created knowing that there would be a fall.
Parents giving have a family whom they will love, knowing those children will die. They will be mortal.
Manifest in these last times
Aorist - definite past act - historical event - appeared
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Through Him believers are in God who raised Him from the dead. Jesus had emphasized that.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
SO THAT YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD
Who raised Christ and will raise them
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Hope not in self, works, church, prayers of others ...
Having purified your souls:
Moving on to the last part of 1 Peter 1, we need to review ourselves of Peter’s remiders:
Therefore - because of the truth of salvation
Knowing - ransomed with the precious blood of Jesus . THESE WERE ALL THINGS THAT GOD HAD DONE.
Having purified your souls - something that they had done and were doing.
Peter’s reminder underscored that the souls of those to whom had needed to be purified. The English translations of the one main Greek word, refers to purification in both the ceremonial and moral contexts. In his First Epistle John’s reference to purifying oneself is a close parallel.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
John’s and Peter’s references are it would seem post conversion references to purifying ones soul. They presuppose the cleansing that happens at salvation. Ezekiel looked forward to this Paul looked back at because of God’s cleansing, believers having imputed righteousness.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
By obedience to the truth
Obedience to the truth purifies and keeps on purifying our souls.
Obedience to the word/truth is integral to the truth and fellowship with our Lord and other believers
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
When we are not obedient to the word it impacts our souls. In referring to Lot, Peter wrote that Lot tormented his righteous soul - here and Acts 7:24 where it is translated oppressed. Gives the force of worn down - exhaust through labour or suffered.
(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);
Love one another earnestly - unfeigned love KJV
Earnestly - sincere/unfeigned - anupokriton - unhypocritical - love - philadelphia
Love should be the prevailing standard that assures unity. This attracts unbelievers as well as believers.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
From a pure heart - fervently from the heart NASB
Pure - katharos - guiltless, innocent, void of evil - no ulterior selfish motive
Fervently - used only here - without ceasing
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
Since born again by the living and abiding word of God
The love that believers have each other should consistent with new life in Christ.
Nor just the word but because they professed to born again - perfect indicating past event with continuing results.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
The only thing that remains forever
The word is the good news preached to you.
Salvation and sanctification are not archaic dated/obsolete theological terms of another era that have ceased to have relevance in life, that is new life in Christ lived by faith in Him. The more challenging our situation, the more the need to be reminded to take the long view.
Hoping and focusing on the return of Christ shifts our spiritual focal point from short term/temporal to the eternal.
Peter was very blunt. The lives of those to who he wrote would have a word of God focus when they fixed their hope on the return of Christ. If we are honest with each other that is not always our greatest underlying hope.
When we end a letter not that many of us would echo John’s words
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Perhaps we do not fix our hope on the return of Christ because we have found other escapes and comforts
But fixing our hope on the return of Christ does not always means escape from pain.
If He is our hope there would be an urgency to be ready for His soon return. And we would weigh everyday decisions in terms of His soon return.
2. Sojourners must remember that they are important to God.
When life becomes rough, there is the temptation to think that God does not care for us any longer. But to underscore how important they are to God, Peter explained how much He invested to redeem them.
With government and cultural shifts over the last years, believers who affirm the Scriptures as our only basis for faith and practice will become increasingly scattered, marginalized and probably even persecuted
Life & death, Medically Assisted Death/Suicide, Abortion, Sexuality, Morals, Right & wrong
This is becoming exacerbated as not only most main line churches but also some professed evangelical are now affirming what God’s word says is sin.
In addition to redemption there is all that God did to call and care for them
3. Sojourners must allow the forever word to continue to shape them.
Peter’s aim was not merely knowing the truth and the word but obedience to the word and allowing it to continue to shape their lives.
The word is essential for our salvation and understand our salvation.
When we fully understand what God has done to save us, at every turn we should be looking for others ways of saying thank you.
1 Peter: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 7: Supernatural Love (1 Peter 1:22–25)
An anecdote from the early 1900s beautifully illustrates how Christians ought to be grateful for what Christ has done for them. While on a three-story scaffold at a construction site one day, a building engineer tripped and fell toward the ground in what appeared to be a fatal plummet. Right below the scaffold, a laborer looked up just as the man fell, realized he was standing exactly where the engineer would land, braced himself, and absorbed the full impact of the other man’s fall. The impact slightly injured the engineer but severely hurt the laborer. The brutal collision fractured almost every bone in his body, and after he recovered from those injuries, he was severely disabled.
Years later, a reporter asked the former construction laborer how the engineer had treated him since the accident. The handicapped man told the reporter: “He gave me half of all he owns, including a share of his business. He is constantly concerned about my needs and never lets me want for anything. Almost every day he gives me some token of thanks or remembrance.”