2 Peter 1:1-11
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Intro
Intro
Identity can be a funny thing. A case of mistaken identity, for instance, while embarrassing for the person who makes the mistake, is often funny for those around them. Who among you hasn’t laughed at a friend or family member who inadvertently becomes a car-jacker when they absent mindedly climb into a vehicle that looks just enough like their own. Or that moment you smile and lift your hand to greet an acquaintance only to discover upon closer inspection that this person is in fact, a complete stranger.
One poor lady years ago at an intimate gathering in Washington DC approached a group of politicians, convinced she spotted an old friend. “Peter!” she excitedly exclaimed. The man turned around, smiled and said politely, “Hi, I am George H. W. Bush, president of the United States.” The woman was understandably embarrassed. Some time later, she received an autographed picture in the mail of the President posing with his beloved dog, Ranger. The caption read “I enjoyed meeting you. I’m the one on the left.”
Or take identity theft. Admittedly Identity theft is seldom funny, but there are a few exceptions. A comic I saw years ago that has stuck with me featured a man being hauled away by the police, under the heading “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt is busted for identity theft.” A witness is pictured telling police “I first became suspicious when I realized his name was my name too.”
Identity. We live in a world that is simultaneously obsessed with identity and also absolutely confused on the subject. We have taxpayer identities, abstract identities, and virtual identities. We are warned about identity theft, sold identity protection, marketed to on the basis of our group identities, and confronted everywhere with identity politics. We are told that our identities need to be deconstructed, while at the same time told that we may construct any identity we so choose, including whatever gender identity and sexual identity strikes us at the given moment.
Into this confused miasma the Word of God speaks with resounding clarity to the Christian regarding the transforming power of our new identity in Jesus Christ. An identity that gives us everything we need for life and godliness, even in disordered days like these, and even despite depraved desires like ours. For the Christian, His name is my name too.
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Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Background of 2 Peter
Author
Written by the Apostle Peter
likely written while Peter was a prisoner and shortly before his martyrdom in Rome (Peter makes an allusion to his upcoming death in 1:14 that suggests the imminent nature of his death was apparent to him).
Audience
It is likely the follow-up letter to 1 Peter (3:1 states this is the 2nd letter, and is likely referring to 1st Peter as the previous letter)
1 Peter was written to believers scattered throughout Asia Minor and facing persecution from Roman rule
A prevailing theme in 1 Peter is living righteously while suffering for the reputation of Jesus Christ.
Occasion/Purpose
2 Peter was likely written to this same group of churches who were still undergoing Roman persecution, but a new threat has arisen to confront the church, and informs the two major themes of 2 Peter:
(1) The dominant theme of 2 Peter will be to hold fast to right doctrine and persevere in sincere faith in the face of false teaching.
-1 Peter strengthens believers in the face of the danger without, 2 Peter warns believers of the dangers within
(2) Living in light of Christ’s return
“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” 2 Peter 3:4 forms a purpose statement
Too often our interest in eschatology is predictiveness, when what is prescribed is preparedness. Christ is coming again, and God willing, soon! What is important for us to know is not *when* the precise moment of his coming will be, but rather *how* we ought to be living in light of his coming.
Salutation
How the Apostles open their letters is often significant (example in the opening sentence of the letter to Titus Paul speaks of “God who cannot lie” which is significant in light of the Cretans being “always liars”)
Three significant themes from Peter’s opening salutation:
Apostleship
Servant-hood
Main Idea of the Passage: God has given believers everything they need to live in a manner consistent with His will. Doing so results in the believer’s blessing and the comfort of assurance, failure to do so results in the believer being unfruitful at best, or at worst may mean that a professing Christian is not a believer at all.
The Power of a New Identity
The Result of our New Identity
The Test of our Identity
1. The power of a new identity
1. The power of a new identity
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
-this is perhaps the most densely packed passage on living in the power of godliness in all of Scripture
-which means, in biblical terms, we get to do some “meat eating” this morning...
this is a protein-packed meal
this passage is soul enriching
it is spiritually nourishing
so if we would be mature and maturing followers of Jesus Christ, let’s not check out, let’s dig in to the feast the Apostle Peter has spread before us
-these two verses tells us how our God-given new identity in Christ transforms our ability to live in a godly way
>>>QUESTION: Do you want divine power to help you to defeat sin in your life and live in a more godly way?
---> But this power is not available to everyone! It is only available to those who have a new identity in Christ!!!
>You have two identity options: you are either in Adam, that is in the old man, or you are in Christ, that is you have become the new man.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
The In-Adam “Old Man” Identity
-the old man has many pseudonyms, many false identities and aliases he likes to assume
->Your identity—who it is that you present yourself as and perceive yourself to be— reveals who you are living for!!!
>we fashion our old man identities around the idols of our hearts
take the young person, whose heart, over-fed on pride from her academic achievements constructs her whole identity around her status, her identity as a student
take the young mother living in the fear of man committed to pleasing everyone constructing her identity around being the do-it-all, got-it-all-together, mother-of-the-year mom who never drops the ball.
take the athlete, whose obsession with his body elevates his athletic pursuits to the place of forming his central identity as a person as an athlete or bodybuilder
take the trivia wiz, who has turned the recognition from those around her of her superior intellectual gifts into an, identity of always being the smartest person in the room
or the pastor who delights in what he perceives as his spiritual superiority and crafts his identity around piety, rather than godliness…the list goes on and on
—>Identities are crafted around what we worship, and we craft our “Old Man, In-Adam” identities around the idols or our self-worshipping hearts
>Objection: Isn’t it a good thing to be a student, or a mom, or an athlete, pastor, or a host of others we didn’t get to like business person, doctor, a husband, a judge, a non-profit activist?
> Sure, but anytime something that is properly a role becomes an identity—who it is that you present yourself as and perceive yourself to be as a person—you have an idolatry problem
> What’s the benefit, what do you get from these “Old Man” identities?
-inability to live righteously
-moral decay
-enslavement to depravity
-bondage to desire
-death (1 Cor 15:22)
—>the problem of your old man identity is that you are fundamentally unable to live in a way that is pleasing to God and therefore completely incapable of escaping the corruption that is in the world! You will be flattened, crushed by your own sin.
—> the Old Man is like Ooey Gooey.
-it doesn’t matter that Ooey Gooey was a mighty worm
-it wouldn’t have mattered if in fact Ooey Gooey was the mightiest worm in the glorious history of mighty worms
-a worm vs a freight-train always ends the same way-with the worm flattened and crushed
-it doesn’t matter how strong you think that you are—if your identity is not in Christ, you will be crushed under the weight of your sin
-like the temptress of Proverbs 7… “all who were slain by her were might men.”
our text shows us a better way...
The New Man in Christ:
—>God has given believers everything they need to live in a manner consistent with His will and that results in their deliverance.
>Here are three benefits of our identity in Christ:
(1) God’s divine power provides everything the believer needs for life and godliness. (1:3)
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
The divine power
We must think for a moment of what it means that the power of God is now at work in us!
It is one thing to come up against a temptation, a sin, or a suffering that seems to overwhelm our human frailty
the feeling of inability to overcome the grief of a lost loved one that spirals into depression
the sense of terror evoked by a feared diagnosis that grows into life-dominating worry
the overpowering desire to look upon something we know we should avert our gaze from that leads to bondage to lust
the irrepressible urge to lash out when our anger boils over that becomes an “anger problem”
Convinced of the inevitability of our failure as a result of our weakness we succumb, we cease resisting these dominating patterns of sin until we have beaten our consciences into silence.
But Peter says that believers are not reliant on human strength to live righteously, but instead are provided with divine power!
This power of God
who spoke the cosmos into existence
who sustains the universe by that same word
the God who brought order out of chaos
of whom we worship “I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise, that spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies. I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day; the moon shines full at his command, and all the stars obey.”
This power of God
who defeated the enemies of Israel
the One who speaks to a Legion of demons and commands them to be gone from a man they have held in hellish captivity, and the demons flee at His word
the One who commands sickness to depart, paralysis to cease, blind eyes to see
the One commands the roaring seas “Be still” and they obey
the One who rules the nations
the One who breaks power of cancelled sin, and bids our sorrows cease
the One who the grave could not hold and death could not bind
it is this power of almighty God that now enables us to live, not perfectly yet, but righteously!
“Everything”
and what has God’s divine power provided us? Everything. He has given us everything we need to live in a godly way
He has given us
creation-to reveal his eternal power and Godhead
His word- to communicate his will and his ways
His Son as redeemer
His Spirit as our indwelling helper
all of the benefits of salvation (regeneration, justification, redemption, reconciliation, sanctification, union with Christ, adoption)
the new covenant community of faith-the church (for our mutual encouragement and edification)
all this and more so that we lack nothing we need in order to live in Christ in a godly way
—>But how does one access this divine power?!?
> Analogy: It is like discovering your house is on fire
-good news: you have a fire hydrant directly outside your house. everything you need to put out the fire is in that hydrant
-bad news: you have no clue how to get the water out of the hydrant and into your house
-> Peter gives us the answer:
Means of this divine power: “Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence”
Knowledge—don’t let anyone tell you that knowledge is unimportant
Intellectual
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
“Even if we cannot know God fully, we must strive to know him truly.” -Kevin DeYoung
-Why?! Because right knowledge of God re-orders our thinking about ourselves. When we see God clearly, we see ourselves clearly.
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us!” -A.W. Tozer
-Would you live godly? Then you and I need to think more rightly about God.
-We must stop reserving only our shabbiest, most shallow thoughts for God...We must love God with all of our minds.
-We must seek to pursue the knowledge of God with sanctified minds.
Experiential
-This is the knowledge of God that comes from beholding his marvelous deeds
Ex: Israel in the wilderness—called to have faith because they had knowledge of how God had delivered them from Egypt
So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
-As we live and experience God’s mercy, faithfulness, grace, love, compassion, longsuffering, loving kindness our knowledge of God and our love for him should increase…or else we haven’t been paying attention.
Relational
>This is the intimate knowing that comes through relationship
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
-how does this relational knowing grow?
-through time in the word, in prayer, in meditating on the truths of God in the night watches, in worship, in gathering together as the bride of Christ
-the reason why when I am meeting with someone looking for spiritual counsel, my first requirement of them is that they read their bible and pray regularly, and attend church weekly.
-why? because I know that they need divine power to help combat sin. and that power is available to all believers through knowing God, and knowing him intimately.
-the more we know God, that more we cannot help but be changed.
QUESTION: If you are struggling to gain victory over sin in your life, do you have a vibrant knowledge of God in all of its aspects?
“God cannot give us a happiness and a peace apart from himself, because it is not there, there is no such thing.” C.S. Lewis
-Don’t expect God to help you defeat sin without him
Called to His own Glory and Excellence—what an identity purpose statement!!!
The first benefit of our identity in Christ: God’s power provides everything necessary for life and godliness
(2) We are granted precious and very great promises and a new nature (1:4)
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
Promises
Precious, because they are blood-bought
Very great, because these promises are the result of God’s own glory and excellency—the incomparable Yahweh
Content--The promise of eternal life in the presence of God, of glorified bodies, of sanctified lives, the promise of the coming of Christ to rescue his church and defeat his enemies, (false teachers)
the promise of new heavens and new earth in which righteousness reigns, the promise of wrongs be made right, of the righteous sufferers vindication, the promise of divine justice and holy wrath coming against those who mock God and persecute his saints, the promise of eternal peace and endless praise through endless days—these are the precious and very great promises of God
Partakers of the divine nature
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
(3) Our new identity enables us to escape the corruption that is in the world through sinful desire (v 4b)
Bad News: We live in a corrupt and corrupting world. As a result, the end of this world is fire and destruction.
Worse News: You are part of the problem!
Here is the world’s response to why evil exists in the world: Systems of oppression.
“We believe that man is essentially good; it’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society,
Society is the fault of conditions,
And conditions are the fault of society.”- Steve Turner, a Modern Thinker’s Creed
-Our world would have you think that you are principally a victim of the evil that is in the world, evil that exists because of oppressive social hierarchies and socio political structures. The problem is always the system, never the sinner.
-but this simply isn’t true
-corruption is in the world because of sinful desire! (v. 4)
->Where does this sinful desire come from? It comes from within the evil heart of man!
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
-so it is no use trying to flee from the corruption of the world simply by getting away from the world
So you can run away to a deserted island, and there you can build your ivory tower, and when it is completed you can enter into your tower, lock the door behind you, then climb to the top and from the upper room hurl the key into the frothing ocean below, content that your monastic isolation will never be disturbed.
But know this, already the corruption that is in the world through evil desire has taken up residence in your tower with you as your co-lodger.
->In the early 1900s The Times of London solicited essays from several prominent authors, asking them to respond to the question: “What’s wrong with the world today?” The response of well-known author G.K. Chesterton is worth quoting in full:
“Dear Sir,
I am.
Yours, G.K. Chesterton”
You see, the gospel is not first concerned with enabling you to escape the evil world without, but in transforming the sinful heart within.
Escaping the corruption of the world therefore occurs not in escaping from world, but in living righteously in the world by the divine power of God, in light of his great promises as partakers in his divine nature.
2. The result of our new identity (v 5-7)
2. The result of our new identity (v 5-7)
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
-The result of living out our new identities in Christ—enabled by God’s power and in a new nature—is spiritual fruitfulness
Observe that fruit should supplement faith
These fruits do not produce faith, it is the other way around
Nor do these works replace faith, they flow out of faith
Observe that this spiritual fruit is made possible through God’s power but requires human effort
It is undeniably the power of God, at work through the knowledge of God in our new nature that enables us to live in a godly way
However, the believer is certainly commanded to pursue living righteously, and to make an effort to do so—and make not mistake, it will be an effort
Sanctification: Definitive, Progressive, Perfective—definitive and perfective are God’s work alone, but he allows us to participate in progressive
Keswick Theology (Higher Life Theology) “Let go and let God”
Such a view is unbiblical
Observe that these fruits of faith deal mortal blows to the vestiges of the old man dwelling within us
Consider
How can the man who has put on brotherly affection continue to be the malicious gossip?
How can the woman who has put on godliness continue to put on apparel designed to draw the eye to her body?
How can the couple who has put on love continue to be known as the couple that despises on another?
How can the man who has put on self-control continue to be enslaved to lust?
You cannot—the one must replace the other!
The renewed affections of our new nature drive out the depraved desires of our old identity
This is “the expulsive power of a new affection.” -Thomas Chalmers
As you put on these fruits of faith, these new identity traits, you put off that which characterized your former idolatrous identity
Observe that these fruits conform us more and more into the image of the man from heaven, Jesus Christ
3. The test of our identity (v8-11)
3. The test of our identity (v8-11)
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Two outcomes:
Fruitlessness—the effects
Ineffective, unfruitful “if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful”
Perhaps this doesn’t scare us enough as it should—
but remember:
you were created and redeemed for good works—being ineffective and unfruitful is a perversion of your purpose
you were called to God’s own glory and excellence (v3) —do not presume upon the mercy of God if you have first despised his calling
how Peter identifies himself—a servant. What servant wants to be found idle and unproductive when the master returns?—how much less when the master is the judge of heaven and earth
Blindness, identity amnesia (v9) “for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”
this is, I fear, the state of a heaps and heaps of Christians
having professed faith at some point, and perhaps going through the motions (going to church, attending bible study, etc) have happily returned to their former idolatrous identities
they are like the man from the play Les Miserables in the song about identity aptly entitled “Who am I” where he cannot decide if he is Jean Val Jean or still prisoner 24601
They are like Israel in the wilderness, constantly forgetting, constantly unseeing, constantly adopting the idolatrous identities of the pagan nations about them
Reason to question if you have a new identity in Christ
fruitfulness helps to make your calling and election sure (v10)—it is not because these attributes secure ones calling and election, but instead because they reveal it
if upon examining your life you find everywhere evidence of “in-Adamness” and nothing of “in-Christness” you have reason to question whether you are in Christ at all
the list of fruits Peter provides here is remarkably similar to the test of faith the Apostle John provides in 1 John
Fruitfulness—the effects
Productive, fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus
Kept from falling (preservation)
Assurance of salvation (confirm your calling and election)
when Satan seeks to accuse you and convince you that you belong to him, Christ, through the work of His spirit evidenced in your life reveals to you that He has made you his own
“When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.”
Application:
Many believers live with identity amnesia—may this test stir you up as a reminder of the power of your identity in Christ.
Living like Adam while being in Christ is not an option.
You have been richly provided by God with everything necessary to live as a servant of righteousness rather than as a slave to sin.
“It’s too much” “I couldn’t help myself” “Boys will be boys” “Nobodies perfect” these are not valid excuses to continue living under dominating sin, these are the words of in-Adam identities tapping out under the pull of sinful desire
But in Christ, you have everything you need by his divine power for life, and for godliness.
“One with himself, I cannot die, my soul is purchased by His blood, My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my savior and my God.”
