Christian Identity
“Christian Identity”
2 Peter 2:1-10
*Intro – Some people loathe change. They much prefer routine, habit, tradition comfortability and stability. Others like to change just to break up the monotony. Some change for escape. But whether you generally view change as good or bad, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, it is truly a change you have to appreciate. No longer are you sons or daughters of disobedience, children of wrath, or alienated from God. Our text here says that we are given a new identity. And this identity changes everything! I want to show you that in this case, change is good, it is required, and it is continual.
This morning we want to look at three changes that take place in the life of the believer. We look at our Changed Identity, Changed Behavior, and Changed Purpose.
In our passage this morning, Peter will use several illustrations to communicate who we are as believers in Christ. And what I want you to see through all these images is, first and foremost, that we are part of something big! This is not some meager existence. We are not just isolated individuals struggling to survive in this world. This is not randomness. This is God’s plan for us that originated from before the creation of the world. But at the same time, don’t think too highly of yourself. Realize that your significance comes from Jesus Christ. Treasure your relationship with him as a result.
Turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Peter 2. And we will read the verse 10 verses as we get underway this morning.
The first illustration regarding our identity that Peter uses comes in verse 5. It is that of a building. He speaks of believers as living stones in a spiritual house. And alas we are already familiar with this sort of language. In our study of Ephesians, Paul also used building metaphors to illustrate the body of Christ. In chapter 2, he says that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 3 we are God’s building. And in Hebrews 3.7 we are also God’s house.
Throughout our time on this earth, we are the stones that are joined together with the saints that have preceded us and the ones to follow that comprise this spiritual house. The text tells us that the foundation of this house is Jesus Christ. He is the reason and the cause of the existence of the house. But we will speak more on that later.
Next, Peter refers to the church as a holy priesthood in verse 5 and a royal priesthood in verse 9. This should naturally conjure up imagery from our Old Testament Scriptures. We know from our study of ancient Israel that God determined that they would set apart certain people to offer up sacrifices to God. The same is true here. However, Peter states that we are to offer spiritual sacrifices in place of physical ones. We know that the ultimate sacrifice for sin has already been paid. Hebrews 9.25-26 tells us “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Now what is required of us is the sacrifice of our lives. We have been called from our worship of self and the world to now offer ourselves in sacrifice to our God. Romans 12.1 Paul writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” And then in verse 2, Paul urges us to not be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. In that sense, it further confirms the idea of our holy calling – to be set apart for His work and His glory.
Notice also Peter indicates that we are to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. They are only acceptable through Jesus Christ. If we have not trusted in Him, any other sacrifice we offer is unacceptable. It is not God-glorifying.
I think the adjectives from Paul and Peter are in some sense redundant. The only acceptable sacrifice is both a living and spiritual sacrifice. We become spiritual and living only through Jesus Christ. Do you follow me? Well, we continue to go back to Ephesians 2 because it communicates clearly and succinctly what happens at our conversion. The first 3 verses of chapter 2 indicate our condition before salvation – dead in sin, following the course of the world and Satan, living according to our fleshly nature. But then God did something. HE made us alive with Christ. We have gone from death to life.
But we also become spiritual at conversion. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul rebukes the church because of their continuing sexual immorality. He reminds them that because of their faith in Christ, their bodies have become the temple (or dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit.
And in Romans 8, Paul writes, “9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” So life and the spiritual nature are given through the Spirit of God himself.
Another way that we offer spiritual sacrifice is through our lips – like we have already done this morning. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” As a church, may we never cease to acknowledge HIS name in this place!
We are also considered a royal priesthood. This indicates that all that we offer is in service to the King of Kings. The quote that is in your bulletin sums it up nicely when Jobes writes, “The kingdom of God is composed of believers who must think of themselves as holy with respect to the world, set apart for purity and a purpose demanded by God. This is the priesthood that serves the King of the universe”.
Not only are we a holy priesthood, Peter indicates that we are a holy nation. And I believe he reiterates this by saying that we are also a people for his own possession. Are you beginning to sense a theme to this letter? Right from the outset, Peter addresses his readers as exiles, aliens, sojourners who are to be distinct from this world’s system. In chapter 1 also is a call to holiness – which means to be set apart. We are called to be holy as God is holy. And we know that as we are faithful in this, we look much different than those that do not know Jesus Christ. In fact, the believers that Peter is addressing were being persecuted because of their faith.
In the same way that God called out the nation of Israel to be his chosen people, so has he called out those who are believers in Christ. In Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses records God’s words to Israel: ““For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” God then reminds them that it had nothing to do with their qualities, but by his choice alone. And so does Peter here. We are a chosen nation.
We discussed briefly that, as Christians, we were ransomed, or redeemed, from our past by the blood of Christ. 1 Corinthians 6 says that we are no longer our own. We were bought with a price. Thus we are to glorify God in your body. Colossians 3 says that we have died, our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Jesus repeatedly called us to deny ourselves and live for him. Now we serve a new Master. We are a people for God’s possession and use. We are living stones of a spiritual house, we are a holy and royal priesthood, a chosen race, a holy nation, and a people for God. That’s quite a resume!! We’ve gone from children of wrath and children of disobedience to this!!
Now we need to live like it. There needs to be a Changed Behavior! How can we assume this high calling and continue to follow the course of the world? You see, when we begin to grasp the cost of our salvation and the hope that we now possess. As we are made alive and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, everything changes! Our desires change.
In verse 1, Peter continues instruction to his readers what it means to be holy. Last week, you’ll recall that we indicated that our pursuit of holiness is one in which we put off those things that are displeasing to God. Peter mentioned in 1:14 that they were no longer to be conformed of the passions of former ignorance and that they were ransomed from the previous futile ways in verse 18. Here in chapter 2, verse 1, Peter tells them to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. And not just some of it. He includes the word “all” three times in this verse! These qualities are not to be evident at all in the life of the believer!
To put away malice is pretty easy to get our minds around. A life that has been changed by Jesus will no longer be characterized by a mean-spirited or vicious attitude. Ephesians 4:31-32 says also, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. We put off by putting on. When we focus on being kind, tenderhearted and forgiving, “malice” dissipates. We are to love because of his love for us. No matter what circumstances, we know that we have God Almighty who will execute vengeance on our enemies. So truly, there should be no malice in our lives.
We are told to put away all deceit. Again, the understanding is fairly obvious. We are to be holy as he is holy, and we know that he is truthful and there is no deceit in him, we likewise should be free from deceit. However, I believer this one is a bit trickier to carry out. “Malice” seems more aggressive whereas deceit is more subtle. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 1 that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. He then says in verses 6-7, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 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.” I think that this has direct implications regarding the way we speak and the way we act. As believers, we should be able to trust that what a brother or sister in Christ is telling us is truth and not error.
And I’ve got news for you. There is not one of us who is completely truthful. I know. Shocking, isn’t it? I want to challenge you with something as I was challenged in a class some years ago. We were talking about the way we use our speech. We were told that our pride drives our speech. And we often leverage our speech to make ourselves look good. This coming week, I want you to try this. When in conversation with others in the church or community, see if you don’t embellish some stories to paint yourself in a better light. We can very subtly speak more highly of ourselves than we ought, or belittle someone else to make ourselves look better than they. This isn’t just about fish stories. Aren’t we quick to tell somebody that we helped another change a flat tire, or counseled someone, or even shared the gospel with someone else? Sometimes we even introduce “prayer requests” to carry this out. Let’s be truthful for one another and not deceitful. Let’s put away our pride.
“Hypocrisy”. Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees because of their appearance of godliness. But he indicated that their very souls were corrupt – clean on the outside, filthy on the inside. I often hear people commending others for their “authenticity”. Have you heard that? I think that is commendable only when we are not authentically sinful. Do you know what I mean? We should not portray ourselves as something we are not. That is hypocrisy. But we should still be what we are called to be. Authenticity does not replace holiness. So we should be authentically pursuing holiness with one another. We should be being changed on the inside so that what we are on the outside resembles it. So they best cure for hypocrisy – pursue holiness. And let your changed inside work itself out.
OK. What’s next? Oh good, envy. Now again, this shouldn’t be unfamiliar territory. Envy is synonymous with coveting. When we envy or covet another person, we are really telling God that what He has given you is not enough. Are we willing to verbalize that to him?? Let’s put that one to rest, shall we? God owes us nothing! As God questioned Job, “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?” Everything that we have is a gift from God. The only thing he truly owes us his judgment and death. And yet his grace and mercy has provided eternal life. And beyond that He has promised to meet every one of our needs. We need not buy into the commercialism that implores you to buy every new piece of technology or new luxury car (because the 2006 model is SO outdated). Let’s be content with God’s gracious provision and not be concerned with how God chooses to care for others, or even how unwise others are with their finances.
“Slander” seems to me to be a combination of a few of these. How about malicious deceitfulness? As Christians, we need to be those that build each other up and not tear one another down to feed our pride. Ephesians 4:29 will sum it up for us. Paul writes, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
One commentator notes, "Peter does not tell his readers to fight against these evils but to lay them aside as a garment and to get rid of them. We put off our old nature and cherish our new life in Christ by craving spiritual nourishment and growing in our salvation." With that, we know turn to verse 2. Peter says that Christians should be like newborn infants. They should long for pure spiritual milk. Now, this does not echo the thoughts in the book of Hebrews where the Christians were challenged about spiritual immaturity (feeding on milk and not meat). Here the illustration serves to show what it is the Christians desire, what our sustenance is, our dependence. Bible translations differ a bit on the rendering of this spiritual milk. The word, “spiritual” contains the root for “word” within it. Thus many translations render it the spiritual milk of the word. I think that they are right to do so based on that and the context. Peter has just concluded chapter 1 speaking extensively on the truth of God’s word, the living and abiding Word of God, the Word of God that contains the good news preached to his listeners.
So here Peter asserts that Christians are like newborns who need to thrive, long for, find their sustenance in the truth of God’s Word. Before we believed, Scripture may have been boring or incomprehensible, now it becomes life to the believer. John MacArthur writes, “Spiritual growth is always marked by a craving for and a delight in God’s Word with the intensity with which a baby craves milk.” Have you ever read Psalm 119?? If you have not, sit down and read it. One sitting. The Psalmist uses several different illustrations to show how much he valued the Word of God. He refers to it as testimonies, statutes, commandments, and rules of God. He thrived on them. He longed for them! In verse 20, he writes, “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times”!
Do you crave God’s Word this morning?? Do you long for it? Did you begin your day seeking God through his testimonies? God has revealed himself! He has testified about himself. And these testimonies and revelations have been supernaturally preserved for us to sustain ourselves, to nourish our souls, and to renew our minds. God’s Word convicts and restores. It is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness – so that we are competent and equipped for every good work.
The Word of God is alive and transforming. And by God’s Word we grow up in our salvation. We recall from chapter 1 that it was the good news contained in God’s word that saved them. Here we see that the Word of God helps our maturity in our salvation. We cannot expect to grow in our faith, if we do not invest in the study of God’s Word.
Lastly, we have a Changed Purpose. Before Christ invaded our lives, we were self-serving and self-glorifying. But now, there’s a new plan. Let’s look at verse 9. Peter writes, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” This has become our purpose in life. We recall that Israel was God’s chosen nation. He set them apart as his people. In Isaiah 42:6, the prophet includes their mission given from God, “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations.” And again in chapter 49, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” They were called to a mission and that was to testify to the God that chose them.
Likewise, we as believers are called to proclaim God’s excellencies. And the first is given. We testify to the change that He brought about in our lives. It is truly a work of God. In the previous chapter we recall that it was God who caused us to be born again. It was God in 2 Corinthians 4 who shone the light in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But there are more excellencies. Turn with me to Ephesians 1. Beginning in verse 3, let’s just trace out some of the excellencies. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, chose us before the foundation of the world, predestined for adoption as sons and daughters, redeemed us, forgave us, lavished the riches of his grace on us, made know to us the mystery of his will, gave us an inheritance, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit. THOSE ARE EXCELLENCIES!
But how do we go about telling people about the excellencies of God? How did we acquire those things? Verse 3 tells us. We have tasted that the Lord is good. We have experienced it. Imagine with me that you have a jar of honey. It looks good. You know a little bit about honey. You can research where the honey came from, what kind of bees produced the honey, how it was packaged and delivered to Save-On Foods. But you haven’t experienced it until you’ve tasted it! Some of you here may know a lot about honey… You’ve heard Jesus preached. You know He died on a cross. You know what John 3:16 says. In fact you have 45 Scripture verses memorized from AWANA or Youth Group. You know about heaven. You’re here every week. But you haven’t tasted the honey!!! Because once you’ve tasted the honey, everything changes!! Once you’ve tasted that the Lord is good, you proclaim His excellencies. You proclaim them in your home. You proclaim them in your workplace. You proclaim them in Peru. You proclaim them in Kuwait. You have to proclaim them!!!
Verse 6 says, “For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” From the time of the prophet Isaiah it was foretold that the message is, and will be, offensive. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the spiritual house. He is the very foundation. As we proclaim Christ crucified, he will be salvation for some and a stumbling block for others. There are many out there that will say to you “that’s your truth. I have my truth”. Verse 7 seems to indicate that regardless of what they do with Christ, the fact remains… He is the only foundation. It all comes down to belief or unbelief. There are NOT many paths to heaven. You either believe in Christ and receive the honor and are not shamed, or you will be crushed by the same rock. You will stumble and fall. The message is offensive.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 2:14. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” Jesus Christ is a wedge. We are the messengers, the aroma if you will, of Jesus Christ. The results are that some will be saved and others will perish because of their rejection. And as we proclaim Him, we will alienate friends, family members, and neighbors. Many of you know this firsthand. But for the others, we will establish the closest of relationships that will last for eternity.
If you only know about Jesus Christ today, I would encourage you to embrace Him, taste and see that the Lord is good! Once you know, there’s no turning back. Everything changes – for all eternity. Let’s pray.
Benediction
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.