|
Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
Grace
& Peace Multiplied?
(1 Peter 1:1-2)
by Karl J. Forehand
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens,
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are
chosen according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey
Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in
fullest measure. (1 Peter 1:1-2)
Peter has been called
the “ignorant fisherman.” He was called
ignorant, along with many of the other disciples, because he came from
outside the traditional schools. You
may remember that Peter was impetuous and eventually denied Christ. He didn’t have any formal training except
– he spent three years in the school of Christ. After being restored by Christ, he delivered one of the most
effective sermons, shortly after Pentecost.
The book of 1st
Peter teaches us about suffering – but suffering with a view toward our
hope. Peter experienced these things
first hand while ministering with Jesus.
He addresses his letter to the diaspora, or those that had been
scattered by persecution.
What is it that we
want to GET from the Christian life?
I believe there are two biggies.
Grace – Grace is
God’s unmerited favor. We all work
hard and try hard, yet we ultimately find that we need God’s help. We need that help that we don’t
deserve. We need grace to get to
heaven and we need it to get through life.
Grace is a gift and it is one that we need in the “fullest measure.”
Peace – Peace is
often confusing to us. We say, “I
want some order to my life – I want some relief – I need some direction – I
want to take this knot out of my stomach.”
But, remember that peace is not the absence of turmoil, it IS the
presence of God in our lives.
What is Peter praying
for these Jewish Christians? He is
saying “I pray that God will show up in your life. I pray that He will show up in two of the major way that He
works.
How
do we get to grace and peace and how can it be multiplied
in our lives?
- Realize we are Pursued
by the Father
The
word foreknowledge in Greek is “prognosis.” It denotes the foreordained relationship of the fellowship of
God with the objects of His saving counsel.”
After I read that, I was still confused. Another definition is “God’s determination to fellowship with
us precedes the realization of such a relationship.” It means that God pursued a relationship
with us before we even knew or cared about a relationship with Him. Some has possibly sought you out at a
party and said something like “I just wanted to meet you – I’ve heard a lot
about you, etc. etc. They desire a
relationship with you before you even know who they are – But it is even more
than that.
God told Jeremiah “Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated
you a prophet to the nation” (Jeremiah 1:5). Foreknowledge is more than a passive foresight – it is a
centering of one’s attention.
Before you cared about
Him, He cared about you. Before you
desired Him, He desired you. Even
though you had nothing to offer, He desired a relationship with you – He
loved you, even though you were unlovable.
That blows me away! The Bible
is a recording of a relationship initiated by God, broken by man and restored
by God. He initiated the relationship
before we were born and has been pursuing it ever since.
If God does not feel that
close, it’s not because He moved away from you – it’s because you moved away
from Him. He consistently,
persistently pursues you.
We are pursued by the Father, but also
- Realize we are purchased by the Son
Sin made us detestable to
God the Father. The reason He pursues
us is because He makes us acceptable by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are “redeemed,” or bought back by the
gift of the Son. Read along in Romans
5:
Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this
grace in which we stand; and 1we
exult in hope of the glory of God.
(Rom 5:1-2)
We have grace and peace because
of the sacrifice Christ
made. In other words God made
arrangements for us. He didn’t just
care about us and pursue us, but He made arrangements to make us acceptable
to Him.
Think about finding a vagrant on
the streets. Picture yourself
observing this person for a while and growing to care about him. Then, you prepare a bath at home to
cleanse him. Observing carefully, you
notice his clothes sizes and shoe sizes and purchase clothes to fit him. You prepare a meal. You bring the local barber over to cut his
hair. You give him shampoo, soap and
deodorant to make him more presentable.
Then you invite him to live with you.
What Jesus did for us is similar – he made us presentable to the
Father. By His death and
resurrection, he made our hearts clean and presented us to the Father. I wasn’t soap, it was his blood that
makes us right.
We are pursued by the Father,
We are
purchased by the Son, and
- Realize we are positioned by the Spriit
Sanctification means
‘separated unto God.” It denotes a
setting apart. How are we set
apart? By the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit does many things in our
walk: He teaches, testifies, guides,
convinces, restrains and intercedes.
This is a short list of some of the ways He improves our walk (helps
set up apart).
One of the major functions of
the Spirit is leading us to the Father.
The Father pursues us – Jesus makes it possible – then the Spirit
guides us to Him. He convinces us of
a need for saving grace and enables us to live a holy life. As the Word says, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6) 1 Thes. 4:7-8 says, “God has not called us for the purpose of
impurity, but in sanctification.
Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who
give His Holy Spirit to you.” Reflect
on that verse when you have a little more time. The Spirit works in our lives to set us apart.
We are pursued by the Father,
We are
purchased by the Son, and
We
are positioned by the Spirit.
Understand that this doesn’t just apply to salvation. It apples to pray. Our prayer is to the Father, made possible
by the Son and by the Spirit. Jesus
told us to pray to the Father “Our Father which art in heaven……” We also know that Jesus sits at the right
hand of the Father and makes intercession for us. Additionally, the Holy Spirit helps us, positions us for
prayer. He does this by His work in
our lives and literally by helping us pray (Rom. 8:28).
Works
also follow this pattern. Our good
works are for the Father, because of the Son and by the Spirit. Everything about the Christian life ought
to be for the Father, because of the Son and by the Spirit.
Where do
we go wrong? Think about it: Most of what we do is for ourselves,
because of our desires and by our own power. Be honest for a minute and realize this is
true. We get it totally backwards,
then we add a prayer to hope God will bless it. It NEVER works.
I have three questions that will help us evaluate
our actions to help grace and peace be multiplied in our lives.
1.
Can I present this action I am about to do to the Lord as an offering?
2.
Would Jesus be satisfied that He died to allow me to do this thing?
3.
Is God’s Spirit guiding me to do this?
I think if you can answer all three of those
questions, you can go ahead and do it – but they sure eliminate a lot of things,
don’t they?
Karl J. Forehand, 2001
|