True Grace

Here at the conclusion of his letter to the Christians in the dispersion, Peter makes his closing remarks. In them we learn that Silvanus, or rather Silas, is the one delivering the Peter’s letter to all the churches. We also learn that Peter is in Rome. The reference “she who is at Babylon” refers to the church in Rome, which is the center of human power just like Babylon was during the time of Daniel. Also, John Mark, the writer of the gospel of Mark and the guy to abandoned Paul on one of his missionary journeys, is with Peter in Rome. Everyone says hi!

But more important than giving us interesting tidbits of information and saying hello, Peter summarizes for us the purpose of his letter: It was Peter’s goal to implore and declare to the Christians the true grace of God in which they are to stand firm.

The obvious final question for us as we conclude our study of 1 Peter is “What is the true grace of God?” Let’s look first at grace.

Grace

A simple yet profound definition of grace is the free and undeserved favor of God toward humanity. It comes in all shapes and sizes, yet these truths always remain the same: Grace is undeserved, and it is a gift.

God’s gift of undeserved favor, or grace, is revealed in so many ways and we don’t need to look far to see it either. Everything good we have is a demonstration of God’s grace and is a gift to us. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” Everything from your favorite pair of nail clippers to the home you live in is a gift from God and a demonstration of his undeserved favor towards you. That puts life into a certain perspective, doesn’t it? Here we are thinking we worked hard to earn money to buy nice things while God is mailing us continuous streams of gift packages that are delivered to our doorstep. It’s a humbling reality because we like to earn things so that we feel accomplished. God denies our pride in that way because what we think we’ve earned is truly an unearned gift from God.

True Grace of God

But in the text, Peter spoke of the true grace of God. He was not referring to God’s general grace that is given to everyone but something much more specific, something Peter talked about time and time again throughout his letter. This true grace of God is the gospel.

The gospel is the good news from God to man that there is salvation from bondage to sin and death through faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus and there is a guaranteed inheritance of eternal life for all those transformed into the image of Jesus.

The book of 1 Peter contains every element of the gospel truth from start to finish. After searching through the whole book for examples of God’s grace, out of 25 examples of grace, 19 were about the gospel: seven were about the gift of salvation, six were about the gift of eternal life, and another six were about the gift of transformation. This demonstrates that without a doubt that in Peter’s mind, the true grace of God is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s take a closer look as the three gifts of the gospel beginning with the gift of salvation.

Gift of salvation

Peter went to great lengths to communicate to us that salvation and forgiveness is something that comes from God; it is not something we do or earn in any way. The natural person is sinful and has turned away from God. In that sin, there is no desire to seek God (Romans 3:9-18). It takes a miraculous work of God through his spirit to ignite within someone’s heart the desire to seek him. The work of salvation then is initiated by God who, out of love, and for reasons we will never know, looked at you even before you were conceived and said, “I am choosing you to experience a grace you can never deserve.”

This truth is stated clearly by Paul in Ephesian 2:8-9: “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But there’s a second gift of salvation and that is eternal life

Gift of eternal life

Eternal life is the glorious hope for the follower of Jesus. In chapter 1 of 1 Peter, Peter said that believers are caused by God to be born again to a living hope (1:3-4), that living hope is guarded by God’s power through faith in Jesus (1:5), and that grace will be brought to believers when Jesus comes again (1:13). There are more statements about eternal life in 1 Peter but these demonstrate well the fact that eternal life is also a gift from God and not something that can be earned by good works.

But it’s not just Peter because Paul said in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life is the second gift of the gospel.

Gift of transformation

A third gift of the gospel and the final one we will look at is the gift of transformation. It’s easy to look at the gospel and be excited that we are saved and guaranteed eternal life, but eternal transformation is also a wonderful aspect of the gospel message.

Peter talked a lot about suffering throughout his first letter, but it was always in the context of being purified and transformed more and more into the image of Jesus. Peter described trials as things that test our faith and make our faith purer. The same thing is said in the book of James: “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:3-4).”

God does not forgive us of our sins just so that we might have eternal life. No, he saves us so that we may also be transformed here and now while still on earth. Our transformation into the image of Jesus brings glory to God as our witness for Jesus becomes ever stronger. The more we are transformed, the more other people will be drawn to Christ.

But spiritual growth and transformation is not just for God’s glory and the salvation of others: it’s also for our own pleasure. The more we become like Jesus, the more we will experience the deep joy and peace and contentment of Jesus. We will have heavenly purpose that motivates us and drives us to do the seemingly impossible and we will have an ever-increasing fellowship with God and satisfies beyond comparison.

The true grace of God is the gospel which is the good news from God to man that there is salvation from bondage to sin and death through faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus and there is a guaranteed inheritance of eternal life for all those transformed into the image of Jesus.

Now that we know what the true grace of God is, we must follow Peter’s final instruction and stand firm in it.

Stand firm

For the follower of Jesus, standing firm in the true grace of God which is the gospel is to choose obedience to the cross of Christ. To stand firm in the gospel is to deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily, and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). Choosing to obey Christ is means we trust him and value his way above all others. Choosing to obey Jesus is not something done without reason but with every reason! Jesus, God in the flesh, humbled himself to the point of death on a cross for the purpose of forgiving our sins, granting us eternal life, and transforming us into new creations. Put another way, Jesus has given us everything. He has proven himself to be worthy of obedience.

But we don’t always choose to obey, do we? No, oftentimes in our stupidity we leave the feast laid out for us and choose to eat the slop of pigs and wallow in the filth of the sin Jesus died to save us from. When we do this, our fellowship with God suffers and we open ourselves up to spiritual attack. Our only course of action at this point is repent and return to God for forgiveness so that we may be restored.

But when we choose to obey and do what is good in the eyes of Christ, our fellowship with God is strengthened. We remain firm in the gospel and God’s power through his Spirit who continues to strengthen and transform us. Considering the true grace of God given to us, salvation, eternal life, and eternal transformation, we should be left with no reasonable justification for sin. The only genuine life and hope available to all people is the gospel.

Conclusion.

I hope and pray that you receive strength from the gospel. I hope and pray that you will choose to stand firm on the true grace of God and trust God who has given you every good thing. I wish that I could put into adequate words the glorious truth of Jesus and the absolute necessity of following him. I find myself frustrated because I can’t show you how much you need Jesus and I can’t make you desire Jesus…only the Spirit of God can do that. The best I can do is to saw exactly what Peter has already said: Stand firm in the true grace of God.

May God reveal to us the his awesome power through the gospel and may we be brought to our knees in worship of him who gave his life for ours.