Remember that your Freedom is in Christ at Great Cost

Scene 1/ The Christian life can be a great burden if it is lived out of duty instead of the holiness. 1:13-16

People can get so concerned to “protect” holiness and purity that they develop a whole system of rules to live by.

Until recently many conservative evangelical theological colleges had some really weird rules.

In some cases the men would enter the lecture room first and sit down the front.

The women would enter last and sit at the back.

Then when lectures were over the women would leave first followed by the men.

In other colleges there would be a curtain strung down the middle of the room.

So if you were married you could sleep with your spouse at night but you weren’t allowed to sit with them during the day!

Or there were rules about where underwear could be hung on the clothes line, because the single men might find that difficult to deal with.

There were very strict curfews and no go areas and often a ban on getting engaged or married whilst at college.

People had fallen into the trap of thinking that holiness can be protected by rules.

Which is the mistake that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for.

Thankfully many of these rules simply faded away, others were removed when people rewrote college rules and some were challenged outright.

Like the one that applied when Toni started college that women were not to wear shorts.

Toni had been working as a Nanny, she only had shorts.

So she told the registrar that this is what she would be wearing. He wisely agreed.

Now none of this is to say that there shouldn’t be some rules.

The Bible is very clear about a lot of things to do with personal and corporate behaviour in the church.

There are clear commands about many issues of personal morality and behaviour towards others.

And it is clear that all these requirements are a lived expression of the gospel.

So in these matters there can be no debate.

Unfortunately some people forget this fact; one group decided that because all believers are saints then their friends could do no wrong.

When the pastor pointed out that their theology was wrong and that this group was completely ignoring the clear commands of Scripture they left the church.

Sadly some people have an idealistic expectation that everyone else will follow the rules that living in Christian community will be a complete utopia.

They don’t cope with the fact that some of the biggest ratbags you will ever meet are pastors, the people training in theological college with them.

Or they join a missionary organisation like Operation Mobilization or YWAM where they are required to live in Christian community, sometimes on a ship.

They don’t cope with the sinful reality that sometimes people aren’t as holy as they think they should be.

Those relationships can become strained.

So how do we live holy lives, when we are alone, when we are in Christian community at church or in a ministry setting together, or even in a close community like a mission organisation on a camp or a ship or a short term mission overseas?

Scene 2/ It helps to focus on the fact that our holiness came at a great price; we are equally accountable for living in light of the transformation of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-21

1 Peter 1 verse 18 speaks of this price that was paid for our holiness when it says;

READ 1 Peter 1:18-21

1 Peter 1:18–21 NLT

18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. 21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

Here we see the same theme as verses 1 to 12 which we looked at last week.

It is all about Christ, all about the eternal perspective.

The readers of Peter’s letter knew the life that had been saved from.

They like their father’s before them worshipped in pagan temples.

Giving gifts and offering to dumb idols.

They were enslaved by the culture of their day and the requirements of paying homage to gods of wood and stone.

Peter describes this life as empty.

Just as a life of consumerism today is nothing more than worshipping houses of bricks & mortar, cars of steel and rubber, mobile devices of aluminium, gold and copper.

At the end of the day, they too are empty idols.

All destined to fade away to nothing.

But in Christ we have been set free from these things.

For Christ is the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

He isn’t an idol of wood or stone, gold silver or aluminium.

As verse 19 says, He is the sinless sacrifice that restores our relationship with God.

We are restored because we have been ransomed or redeemed.

You were ransomed or redeemed is a good translation of the Greek verb lutroō. [1]

Which means ‘to purchase someone’s freedom by paying a ransom’, and was used in secular contexts of purchasing freedom for a slave or a hostage held by an enemy.25

In each case it is about taking someone out of a situation.

They were a captive, enslaved by someone or something now they are free and are removed from that situation.

This is why Peter speaks of being ransomed from an empty life into Christ.

We have moved house my friends, from captivity to idols of nothing, from sin and death to a life of worshipping Christ, of holiness and love.

This is why Peter starts verse 13 with “therefore” or “so”.

It is the classical do this because of all the things that I have just spoken about.

Because of Christ, live in freedom from law.

Because of your great salvation have an eternal perspective.

In the case of 1 Peter 1:13 to 16 because of the eternal salvation you have through Christ, live in a way that is Holy.

Prepare for action, just as the people of Peter’s day would tuck their long robes into their belt ready for work so we are to focus our thoughts on Christ and his commands.

Don’t be like a person who is intoxicated, unable to focus on what is right.

Instead have the mental discipline to avoid things which distract, things which lead into sin.

Addictions, lust, envy, idleness.

Instead our focus, our entire vision is the grace of God, that which we experience now and ultimately too the grace that is eternity.

When we do these things the commands of verses 14 to 17 to live in obedience to the call of holiness whilst living as exiles or foreigners in a strange land will be like second nature to us.

This is what it means to fear God, it is not to cringe in the corner as a frightened child; it is to stand in reverent awe before a holy God, desiring with all our being to be who Christ has transformed us to be.

Scene 3/ But it is hard to sincerely love some people, how do you be Holy in the face of stubbornness, stupidity or plain nastiness?

You might be experiencing the proverbial, “I want to hit them round the head with a brick” type of feeling.

Or you might be ready to just scream at them to grow up.

Or ....

Some people are very hard to love.

They may be focused on self and see everyone around them as a means to their own ends.

They may be the one who uses people.

Or they may be the person who is loud and obnoxious, who has no sense of social grace and decorum.

They may be the one who simply dominates every conversation and it is usually about what they have done or want rather than the genuine needs of those around them.

Or they may be the person who attacks and undermines others.

The gossip who gains a sense of power by tearing others down.

Or they may be the person who is mentally ill and disruptive.

Who behaves in strange ways and says outlandish things.

Or they may simply be foolish and never follow instructions or listen to advice and constantly create a mess that others have to clean up.

Violence is never the solution, even though in your frustration and anger you are tempted to resort to it.

There are times when people have to be called to account.

There are times when people have to suffer the consequences of repeated and intentional sin by being removed from fellowship.

It is never a pleasant experience for a pastor and I have had to do that on a couple of occasions.

But dealing with a person who is in the church and being a threat to the church isn’t the issue Peter is addressing in 1 Peter 1:22.

In verse 22 Peter is talking about the love of one Christian for another in the face of difficult times.

Times when you are both aliens in a strange & foreign land.

Times, which in reality, is all the time when a person has committed their life to Christ.

How do we love when we no longer belong to this world?

How do we love when we are citizens of heaven?

Scene 4/ We need to focus on the truth of our own transformation by love so that we can love as we have been loved. 1 Peter 1:22

1 Peter 1:22 says “You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.” (1 Peter 1:22, NLT)

At first glance this verse may be seen as being in the past tense.

Because you have obeyed the truth, that is surrendered your life to Christ’s lordship now you must love each other.

But Peter isn’t speaking this way.

He isn’t talking about the love that is because of salvation.

He is talking about the love that grows in us each and every day that we grow to be more like Christ.

We call this sanctification, the process of being transformed to be more like Christ.

While we are justified, or made right in God’s sight at the point of conversion.

We are sanctified, made more like Christ, as an ongoing process.

Because none of us has arrived yet.

I don’t see any perfect people here today.

Instead we are transformed or sanctified as we obey the commands of Christ.

Not out of simply keeping the rules but out of a growing understanding and experience of Christ in our lives.

This is how a holy life becomes real.

When our focus is on eternity.

Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.

The incredible cost he paid.

The sure and certain hope that we will spend eternity in God’s presence.

The reverent fear of a Holy God whom we simply want to please.

Then we will grow in a sincere love for our brothers and sisters.

Even the annoying ones!

So we love by being transformed as an ongoing process.

READ 1 Peter 1:23-25

1 Peter 1:23–25 NLT

23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. 25 But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Read 1 Peter 1:17

1 Peter 1:17 NLT

17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”

Our transformation is for eternity and eternity has consequences so let’s live in the light of Christ instead of trying to be Holy by dutiful obedience to rules and regulation.

Peter then goes on to use four more concepts to illustrate the new way of life that is built upon the truth of Christ’s sacrifice in 1 Peter 2:1-10.

Some of these are concepts that the Apostle Paul also used.

We see in 1 Peter 2:1-3 the idea of infants and pure milk,

In 1 Peter 2:3-6 the idea of Christ being the corner stone or foundation stone of a spiritual temple of which believers are a part

Then in 1 Peter 2:7-8 the concept of the cornerstone becoming a stumbling block for those who will not believe

And then in 1 Peter 2:9-10, there is the concept of believers becoming royal priests of a Holy God which is first mentioned back in verse 5.

In this flowing series of concepts Peter is using multiple allusions to Old Testament ideas of God’s dwelling with his people to say to his readers.

You are now a part of this incredible picture.

But it is far more than that.

You now are this picture.

All that was true of the temple as God’s dwelling place is now true of you, in fact you superceed the temple.

You no longer have to go to the place God dwells and wait in the outer courtyard reserved for Gentiles, God now dwells within you.

All that was true of the priesthood as intermediaries between God and his people is now superceeded by your personal relationship with God through Christ.

You have direct access.

These incredible truths mean, as verse 10 puts it, that you have an identity.

Before without Christ you were nothing in God’s kingdom.

You were outside of the chosen people, but now , now you belong.

Now you are receipients of God’s mercy.

Your freedom in Christ came at great cost, it has incredible significance.

It is all available to you.

If you will do one thing.

Live as 1 Peter 1:13-16 and 1 Peter 2:1-3 command.

Put away evil living, seek after God with all your heart.

Then your life will shine as an example of Holiness in Difficult Times.

[1] Grudem, W. A. (1988). 1 Peter: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 17, p. 88). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 25 See the thorough discussion of lutroō by Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross(London: Tyndale Press, 31965), pp. 11–27, 39