1 Peter 1:13-16 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy” (NIV).
This is the second time that Peter has said that Jesus Christ is going to be revealed, having said it recently in 1 Peter 1:7. Has not Jesus already been revealed? For starters, many celebrate His birthday every December 24th. He was a baby born in a manger. He was a Jewish carpenter. What is Peter talking about? Peter was thinking of us when he wrote this. Peter was an eyewitness of the glory of Jesus. Being inspired, he realized that his future readers were not eyewitnesses, yet all of us have the full revelation of Jesus to look forward to.
For example, Peter was an eyewitness of the transfiguration. As Jesus had light beaming from his face, Peter saw it. And Peter saw the resurrected Jesus. Peter knew the glory of Jesus. I personally have not seen Jesus in the flesh. I follow someone I have never seen. On the surface, that does not seem to make sense. Yet I follow someone who people like Peter did see. And Peter is encouraging you and me that Jesus Christ is going to be revealed to even a fuller extent than when His glory was shown on the mountainside with Moses and Elijah.
Regarding his warning about conformity, I can reflect personally. Before I was a Christian, I did things that did not seem bad by the community’s standards, but I look back and realize they were wrong, and thus hurtful. I had much anger, and it was hurting me first and foremost. I consider other evils that I have known people to struggle with. Sometimes they learned such behavior from their earthly dad or mom. Followers of Jesus have a Father in heaven who is holy. I assure you, it is a whole different way of life than I knew before I was a Christian even though I considered myself to have good parents, and even though many considered me to be a goody two shoes.
“Be holy, because I am holy.” I love that. Admiring the ministry of John Wesley, I am in disagreement with him that perfection can be reached in this world before the return of Christ. However, perfection in Christ should be the daily desire of any Christian. Of all of the countless times I have gone to church in the last twenty years, I have heard few sermons specifically on holiness. I think that is sad. Peter was telling about salvation, and then he naturally moved into telling of holiness. Justification and sanctification; the latter always follows the former. Every day, the call of God is to be more like Jesus. What do we need to do to be holy? Be obedient to Jesus.
Going back to justification for a moment, Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 that in order to be saved, a person needed to be righteous in a manner that surpassed the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Yet the Pharisees were the “religious guys.” What were they doing wrong? My answer may surprise you, since it is one that is so often missed. The wrong doing of the Pharisees was their acts of creating their own legislation rather than submitting to the Mosaic Law. This is the reason that the woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Jesus. It was a trick situation. The reason is that the Jewish people were no longer adhering to the Mosaic Law, which called for the punishment of death by stoning for a couple caught in adultery. “The law of Moses is explicit in the mention of those crimes to which the punishment of death was to be awarded, but the Rabbinical statutes limited its execution in various ways. In fact, every legal device was employed to avoid this unpleasant necessity…” (1) Note also how the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees only brought the woman, whereas both were supposed to be stoned. If Jesus would have said to stone the woman, there probably would have been a public outcry against such a barbaric act in that culture. Yet Jesus, who fulfilled the Law, and who also furthered the Law, furthered the Law right on the spot at that time, shifting the privilege of judging from people, who had a poor record of properly judging in Israel under the Mosaic Covenant, to God, who is the perfect Judge.
Back to the subject of legislation, Pharisees were playing legislator. They should have been acting in obedience to the Mosaic Law instead. Now the Mosaic Law was only for the people under the Covenant between God and the Israelites, as given by Moses. No one else was under that Law. Yet moving ahead, as I said, Jesus furthered the Mosaic Law, and now all people are under the Law of God, and now all people are eligible to be in a covenant with God, thanks to Jesus, what is referred to as the New Covenant. What is coined the “Sermon on the Mount” contains the Law being furthered by Jesus. First of all, the “Sermon on the Mount” convicts me that I cannot obey the Law without help from Jesus! If a person has not been justified, there is no opportunity for sanctification. Read the “Sermon on the Mount” and then ponder the question of whether you think this teaching by Jesus logically leads to a conviction that a human being has a need for a Savior. Secondly, we can learn that holiness starts in the heart, rather than emanating from good deeds. Thirdly, with enablement from Jesus, I desire my heart to be changed so that I live for being obedient to His commands. And doing so leads to holiness.
Holiness includes living without anger, without lust, without greed, and without fibbing, as Jesus taught. Read Matthew 5:21 through Matthew 5:48, the “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus knew holiness! Jesus knows holiness still. And we can also by learning from Jesus. Holiness is caring about everyone.
When I was a young Christian, one day on a subway coming home from work, I read Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NIV). This verse gained my attention. I thought to myself, “That is impossible.” But then as I looked out the window thinking, I considered the fact, “If it was impossible, why would Jesus command it?” As a baby Christian, I was intrigued. Over time in following Jesus, I learned the only way to begin and continue on in the perfection process is to allow Jesus to change your heart. Jesus is the One who perfects; the One who is Holy. That is the secret of the pursuit of holiness: get help daily from Jesus. It is as straightforward as that. The path to holiness comes by relying on Jesus every single day. Every single day that I have been following Jesus, I have needed His help to be the person He wants me to be. That fact remains.
Writing about holiness is easy. Living it is tough. I have written in my journal many times, “The perfection process is a painful process, yet the perfection process leads to goodness.” Holiness does not come from a “second blessing” of the Holy Spirit. Holiness does not come from doing more a few more good works than anyone in your average helpful non-profit organization. (Not knocking non-profit organizations, considering I have been an employee of several non-profit organizations, including some churches.) Holiness does not come from giving more money away than your neighbor gives to her or his favorite non-profit organization. Holiness does not come from being genuinely emotional for one hour at a church worship service. Holiness comes from having a heart willing to love Jesus, willing to submit to Jesus; to be obedient to the Holy One. The mark of a child of God is someone who is willing to undergo the drastic change of being made holy. For those who have been obedient to Jesus in history, there we have had loving lights in utter darkness. And for those who are doing so now, here we have the true love of Jesus in this very day and age.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Alfred Edersheim, History of The Jewish Nation: After the Destruction of Jerusalem Under Titus (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1954), 373.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
1 Peter 1:10-12
1 Peter 1:10-12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things (NIV).
Yesterday I did something I have not done in quite awhile; I attended a wedding. My friend from Colorado Christian University, Jamie, was married, and the wedding ceremony was beautiful!
I normally do not get nervous about such events, yet yesterday I was a little nervous about the event because I knew how much it all meant to my dear young sister-in-Christ. As I was getting ready, my hair looked good, but I noticed that since my last haircut, some hair had grown over my ear, so I decided to trim the hair so I looked prime. In doing so, I cut my ear. It hurt! Yet it was only a small cut.
All four of the "Gospels" tell of the event of a disciple cutting off the ear of a servant of the High Priest at the time when people had come to arrest Jesus. Only John identifies the disciple who cut off the ear as Peter, the author of the epistle we are examining. In two descriptions it is told that it was the right ear, but in the other two descriptions the specific ear is not specified. The details all make me wonder if the ear was what Peter was aiming for. If he was aiming to kill the servant of the high priest, doing so would have caused an all out brawl. If he was aiming to simply scare the mob by cutting only an ear, he sure had good swordsmanship. I do not know his aim.
Then there is the curious fact that in only in the book of Luke is it told that Jesus healed the ear of the high priest. If such a small cut on my ear yesterday hurt, I imagine how horrible it would be to have my entire ear cut off. And if in the midst of such horror, Jesus of Nazareth placed my ear back on my head and miraculously healed it, I would be ever grateful. I would be telling people about how special Jesus was even though He was considered by my people to be a vagabond.
The irrational intent of the mob to arrest Jesus is affirmed right there during the arrest. Here Jesus performs a healing miracle before the mob, yet they still arrest Him. There was nothing He could do or say to thwart their intent on arresting Him. One thing Jesus did say: "But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" (Matthew 26:54 NIV). So Jesus said Scriptures told of His physical tragedy, and that is what Peter is saying here in this verse! Peter is saying that the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ, informed prophets of the suffering of Jesus years before it happened. But where?
Isaiah 53:5 states: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him..." (NIV). This "servant" was the Messiah.
Whoa Nealy. People in churches are so quick to read this during the time of the Lord's Supper, however I learned in my first year at CCU that many Bible scholars are quick to say that these uneducated or miseducated pastors are taking things out of context, and that the prophets were mainly talking about stuff going on at the present time, and not actually predicting what was to come with the Messiah. (A minority of them might go on to say that God does use it now as a double entendre, which is a dangerous practice since people can start interpreting things to mean whatever they want.) So which is it?
Many Bible scholars say Isaiah is all about the state of Israel at the current time, and the authors (many scholars think three people wrote Isaiah; I disagree) are discussing kings of Israel and Judah solely, and are only talking about the near future rather than the distant future. The reason that a vast majority of Bible scholars think that most of the Old Testament is "forthtelling" rather than "foretelling" is because they are failing to understand the unusual writing style of the Hebrews. It was an incredible light of revelation for me when I figured out in my Interpreting the Bible class that the reason that Hebrew prophets sometimes seem to switch gears so abruptly is because they were following a set pattern common in Hebrew writing.
My textbook for Interpreting the Bible was Michael Gorman's Elements of Biblical Exegesis, a superb book. He explains these Hebrew writing methods, and I recommend reading about this topic.(1) One pattern of structure is called the concentric pattern. It takes a form such as ABCBA. This is often applied to Hebrew poetry, but it was even done in long writing by the prophets. For example, the prophet may start with what I will label "A," talking about the state of Israel and Judah as a whole, then he will move to "B," talking about a specific king of Israel. And then he moves to "C," giving a prophecy of what is going to happen in the distant future involving a Savior, and then he goes back to "B," and then concludes with "A." So what on the surface seems like muddled writing suddenly makes sense if you understand the structure. And rather than the prophet being a bad writer, or having a bad editor, as many Bible scholars think, the prophet is actually inserting hope into the midst of his writing during hopeless situations. Often a prophet is preaching to people, not because everything is peachy keen, but rather because things are a mess. So the author is telling of the problems with Israel, and the author moves to giving specifics going on with kings, and then just when you think those Hebrews are done for, the author, someone who knows of something of the future because God has told him, tells of the blessing of a Messiah that God is going to give in the future. Beautiful.
The Thursday after Ash Wednesday in 2004, I went with a number of people from my church to see the movie, The Passion of the Christ. It was one of the few times I have cried in a movie theater, and I cried much. The movie is so violent, it is a movie I could only see once. In our passage here, Peter speaks of the Spirit of Christ working in prophets. I can tell you that the Spirit of Christ hit me with a wave of conviction when the Scripture verse from Isaiah came up on the screen at the beginning of the movie. I have never felt such power in a movie theater. I think the conviction was even greater since I was a guy who saw a few "R" rated movies before I was a Christian, and even in the immediate wake of my conversion, which had evil violence and lustful stuff.
Now Peter said prophets in the plural, and there are other example of prophets telling of the suffering of the Messiah. Zechariah tells of the one who was "pierced," in Zechariah 12:10, and how the result is mourning. The one that was pierced was Jesus.
Then there is the incredible time specification by Daniel. "After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing" (Daniel 9:26). If you ever want to do further reading on this, I recommend what I think is one of the greatest books in the world, Betrayed, by Stan Telchin.
Now I have been talking about the suffering of Christ that Peter mentioned, but Peter also mentioned the glories that the Christ brought as told by the prophets. Yes, there is a glorious part. For example: "Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David" (Isaiah 55:3 NIV). Out of the suffering, love is available!
And from Zechariah: "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity" (Zechariah 13:1 NIV). Cleansing from sin is available!
In order for salvation to be available to human beings, the Messiah (the Christ) had to suffer! Jesus Christ died on the Cross for the forgiveness of all people. Yet now the glory is that any person has the opportunity to receive what Christ's gift of forgiveness, and by believing, which is receiving, Jesus Christ, the person is saved from eternal spiritual death. May we the saved continue in gratitude to Jesus for the suffering He carried out for us, may we relish the glory of salvation we have in the present, and may we preach the Gospel to folks, in ways that fit our particular gifts, relying on the Holy Spirit, just as disciples of Christ were telling the Gospel in manners that fit their particular gifts back at the time that Peter wrote this letter.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Michael J. Gorman, Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2001), 78-87.
Yesterday I did something I have not done in quite awhile; I attended a wedding. My friend from Colorado Christian University, Jamie, was married, and the wedding ceremony was beautiful!
I normally do not get nervous about such events, yet yesterday I was a little nervous about the event because I knew how much it all meant to my dear young sister-in-Christ. As I was getting ready, my hair looked good, but I noticed that since my last haircut, some hair had grown over my ear, so I decided to trim the hair so I looked prime. In doing so, I cut my ear. It hurt! Yet it was only a small cut.
All four of the "Gospels" tell of the event of a disciple cutting off the ear of a servant of the High Priest at the time when people had come to arrest Jesus. Only John identifies the disciple who cut off the ear as Peter, the author of the epistle we are examining. In two descriptions it is told that it was the right ear, but in the other two descriptions the specific ear is not specified. The details all make me wonder if the ear was what Peter was aiming for. If he was aiming to kill the servant of the high priest, doing so would have caused an all out brawl. If he was aiming to simply scare the mob by cutting only an ear, he sure had good swordsmanship. I do not know his aim.
Then there is the curious fact that in only in the book of Luke is it told that Jesus healed the ear of the high priest. If such a small cut on my ear yesterday hurt, I imagine how horrible it would be to have my entire ear cut off. And if in the midst of such horror, Jesus of Nazareth placed my ear back on my head and miraculously healed it, I would be ever grateful. I would be telling people about how special Jesus was even though He was considered by my people to be a vagabond.
The irrational intent of the mob to arrest Jesus is affirmed right there during the arrest. Here Jesus performs a healing miracle before the mob, yet they still arrest Him. There was nothing He could do or say to thwart their intent on arresting Him. One thing Jesus did say: "But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" (Matthew 26:54 NIV). So Jesus said Scriptures told of His physical tragedy, and that is what Peter is saying here in this verse! Peter is saying that the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ, informed prophets of the suffering of Jesus years before it happened. But where?
Isaiah 53:5 states: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him..." (NIV). This "servant" was the Messiah.
Whoa Nealy. People in churches are so quick to read this during the time of the Lord's Supper, however I learned in my first year at CCU that many Bible scholars are quick to say that these uneducated or miseducated pastors are taking things out of context, and that the prophets were mainly talking about stuff going on at the present time, and not actually predicting what was to come with the Messiah. (A minority of them might go on to say that God does use it now as a double entendre, which is a dangerous practice since people can start interpreting things to mean whatever they want.) So which is it?
Many Bible scholars say Isaiah is all about the state of Israel at the current time, and the authors (many scholars think three people wrote Isaiah; I disagree) are discussing kings of Israel and Judah solely, and are only talking about the near future rather than the distant future. The reason that a vast majority of Bible scholars think that most of the Old Testament is "forthtelling" rather than "foretelling" is because they are failing to understand the unusual writing style of the Hebrews. It was an incredible light of revelation for me when I figured out in my Interpreting the Bible class that the reason that Hebrew prophets sometimes seem to switch gears so abruptly is because they were following a set pattern common in Hebrew writing.
My textbook for Interpreting the Bible was Michael Gorman's Elements of Biblical Exegesis, a superb book. He explains these Hebrew writing methods, and I recommend reading about this topic.(1) One pattern of structure is called the concentric pattern. It takes a form such as ABCBA. This is often applied to Hebrew poetry, but it was even done in long writing by the prophets. For example, the prophet may start with what I will label "A," talking about the state of Israel and Judah as a whole, then he will move to "B," talking about a specific king of Israel. And then he moves to "C," giving a prophecy of what is going to happen in the distant future involving a Savior, and then he goes back to "B," and then concludes with "A." So what on the surface seems like muddled writing suddenly makes sense if you understand the structure. And rather than the prophet being a bad writer, or having a bad editor, as many Bible scholars think, the prophet is actually inserting hope into the midst of his writing during hopeless situations. Often a prophet is preaching to people, not because everything is peachy keen, but rather because things are a mess. So the author is telling of the problems with Israel, and the author moves to giving specifics going on with kings, and then just when you think those Hebrews are done for, the author, someone who knows of something of the future because God has told him, tells of the blessing of a Messiah that God is going to give in the future. Beautiful.
The Thursday after Ash Wednesday in 2004, I went with a number of people from my church to see the movie, The Passion of the Christ. It was one of the few times I have cried in a movie theater, and I cried much. The movie is so violent, it is a movie I could only see once. In our passage here, Peter speaks of the Spirit of Christ working in prophets. I can tell you that the Spirit of Christ hit me with a wave of conviction when the Scripture verse from Isaiah came up on the screen at the beginning of the movie. I have never felt such power in a movie theater. I think the conviction was even greater since I was a guy who saw a few "R" rated movies before I was a Christian, and even in the immediate wake of my conversion, which had evil violence and lustful stuff.
Now Peter said prophets in the plural, and there are other example of prophets telling of the suffering of the Messiah. Zechariah tells of the one who was "pierced," in Zechariah 12:10, and how the result is mourning. The one that was pierced was Jesus.
Then there is the incredible time specification by Daniel. "After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing" (Daniel 9:26). If you ever want to do further reading on this, I recommend what I think is one of the greatest books in the world, Betrayed, by Stan Telchin.
Now I have been talking about the suffering of Christ that Peter mentioned, but Peter also mentioned the glories that the Christ brought as told by the prophets. Yes, there is a glorious part. For example: "Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David" (Isaiah 55:3 NIV). Out of the suffering, love is available!
And from Zechariah: "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity" (Zechariah 13:1 NIV). Cleansing from sin is available!
In order for salvation to be available to human beings, the Messiah (the Christ) had to suffer! Jesus Christ died on the Cross for the forgiveness of all people. Yet now the glory is that any person has the opportunity to receive what Christ's gift of forgiveness, and by believing, which is receiving, Jesus Christ, the person is saved from eternal spiritual death. May we the saved continue in gratitude to Jesus for the suffering He carried out for us, may we relish the glory of salvation we have in the present, and may we preach the Gospel to folks, in ways that fit our particular gifts, relying on the Holy Spirit, just as disciples of Christ were telling the Gospel in manners that fit their particular gifts back at the time that Peter wrote this letter.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Michael J. Gorman, Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2001), 78-87.
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