Call to Commitment

  

Warren Wiersbe, pastor of Moody Church

 Verses 1-11 

A powerful introduction

           1.     Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of                 Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained                      like precious faith with us by the                                   righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus                                                                                                                Christ: 

2.      Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 

There are times, when we have to hold a verse of Scripture under a Spirit-inspired microscope to be able to bring out every small detail of significance. Other times, we do better to see the overall picture that the verse intends to convey. There is a detail, concerning Peter’s presentation in the first verse of each of his two epistles. I am not sure why the apostle uses his original name in his second epistle, while he does not in the first. We do learn one fact, however, concerning this difference, which perhaps is small, but it certainly shows us that, when Jesus gave Peter a second name, which signified a stone, he did not wish to eliminate his given name, Simon. It can be safely said that, as we begin a new Christian life, the Lord has no intention of erasing all natural biography from our past, nor removing our unique personality, which He created from conception.

 Not only does Peter add his given name in his second epistle, but also adds servant to his title of apostle. Translators may have good reason for changing the literal Greek word to servant, which simply and quite definitely means slave. Slave accurately describes our relationship to Christ, Whom we have received as absolute Lord. Paul teaches that “you are not your own… you are bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Co.6:20). It is hard for me to understand that people, who have been bought and are not their own, can be anything, but slaves. The very same word is translated slave in the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 7:22: “Likewise he who is called being free is Christ’s slave.”

 In calling himself a bondservant, the apostle is referring to a situation in the Old Testament in the law of Moses in Exodus 21:2-6 and in the second recitation of the law in Deuteronomy 15:12-18, when a Hebrew, due to duress, sells himself as a slave. He was to serve for six years and then, by law, in the seventh year, he must be released. Not only is he to go free, but his master must liberally grant him sheep, grain and grapes, and other supplies, to help him to get a new start in life. There was a clause in the law, that the slave, because of love for his master, could choose to stay under his mastery. His new position was marked by piercing an ear with an awl, and it meant that he would be a voluntary slave for the duration of his life. It was a wonderful picture of New Testament voluntary surrender to Christ, motivated by love. Not only Peter, but Paul, James and Jude, considered themselves bondslaves. 

Peter shows in chapter 3, verse 1, “this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you,” that he is addressing, basically, the same people, as in the first epistle. To this simple introduction in verse 1, Peter adds that through the righteousness of God, we have obtained faith by which Jesus Christ has become our Savior. In one weighty sentence, Peter launches into his letter and, of course, we will pause to consider the magnitude of it.

 Because of the angels’ personal, heavenly knowledge of the righteousness of God, this one attribute of His divine nature must have provoked deep wonder to them in relation to the gospel. Paul, because of his background in Jewish theology, also pondered seriously the problem of God’s righteousness in the forgiveness of sins. When God in love looked down at His creation, grieved because they were perishing, in finding a remedy, His righteousness had to be taken into account. His love and mercy can only function within the ambiance of His righteousness.

 Paul expounds this classic doctrine in Romans 3:19-26. God’s righteousness is perfect, therefore the religious attempt at keeping the law never satisfies Him, due to human imperfection. The law demands perfect fulfillment and silences every argument, because no human has achieved perfection in his attempt to fulfill it… “No flesh will be justified in His sight.” God satisfied His righteousness “apart from the law,” through faith in the perfect righteousness of His eternal Son. A guilty, sinful world, condemned by the law, that looks to Jesus Christ in faith, is freely justified through Him.

 Romans 3:25 and 26 explain how it was achieved: “Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness… that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” God gave His only begotten Son, Who did what we could not do. He perfectly fulfilled righteousness, thereby God’s death penalty, “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezek.18:20), could not be charged against this Son of Man. Death would be an injustice in His case, but He took our sin upon Himself and went to the cross for it. He actually became sin, so that when the Father looked down upon Him, He saw sin, and poured out the full measure of His wrath upon it, until it was satisfied.

 That is the meaning of propitiation, it is the total appeasement of God’s wrath, so that He awards the believer… the one who puts his entire trust in Christ’s sacrifice… with total and perfect forgiveness. He gave His life, through the shedding of His blood, that the believer “should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn.3:16).  God remains perfectly righteous in justifying the guilty, because Christ has perfectly fulfilled all righteousness for him, the sentence has been served, and now the verdict is amazingly, not guilty!

 God did not compromise His righteousness by the work on the cross; He demonstrated it, as the keeping of the law could not. The cross reached up to the ethereal heights of God’s righteousness and through it, granted a pardon for sin. What is required from the human being, is faith in Him. 

We cannot go on, without an attempt to understand what Peter defines as precious faith. First, it is precious because of what it achieves, that is, a precious salvation. Can anyone contest that priceless should be a synonym here for precious? … precious beyond price! “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (again we look to John 3:16).

 Faith is precious because it trusts the unique God/Man, Who accomplished the infinite work, and was the only One, Who could accomplish it. Man’s sin is infinite against an infinite God. It required an infinite penalty, that could only be remedied by an infinite sacrifice to atone for sin. He is the eternal, infinite Son of God, Who is God, coequal with the Father in essence, in honor, and in glory. It is precious to trust Him.

 Faith is precious in contrast to the inadequacy of human faith. The fountain of saving faith is the Word of God. Faith cannot be attained, it must be given. Standing between the Word of God and faith in the heart of a human being, is a supernatural ability to hear from the heart: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Ro.10:17).  It is not a natural response from listening to a sermon or the reading of the Bible. The Holy Spirit, heaven’s only Teacher, must be involved, causing the hearer to hear the Word from the heart, so that faith can be born deep in the soul of man. “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says” (quoting various passages in Revelation 2 and 3, as well as in Matthew 13).  Through like precious faith, Jesus Christ our Lord, becomes our Savior (1).

 There is nothing natural or earthly about any segment of the Word of God, certainly not its blessings. This Messiah-appointed apostle is not only greeting his readers; he is offering heaven’s grace and peace. Christian grace comes only from the Father, as His free, undeserved gift. Christian peace comes from Christ: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (Jn.14:27). God is a generous God, Who gives abundantly, not using addition, but multiplication. Grace and peace are multiplied upon the reader of this epistle. My brothers and sisters, read it worthily and receive the gifts that God will pour upon you through this epistle.

 Grace and peace will be multiplied in the (personal) knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. I quote from Warren Wiersbe: “The word know or knowledge is used at least thirteen times in this short epistle. The word does not mean a mere intellectual understanding of some truth, though that is included. It means a living participation in the truth in the sense that our Lord used it in John 17:3 -- “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” In our relationship with the Father and the Son, our soul is revitalized by the Holy Spirit, and we become conscious of untold blessings flowing into our lives. I am not attempting to be poetic, I am talking of the experience of every true believer, as he walks in fellowship with God and Jesus our Lord (2).  

 

The virtues of the Christian life

        3.     as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of                       Him who called us by glory and virtue, 

4.      by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

5.      But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 

6.      to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 

7.      to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 

8.   For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

9.      For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 

10.  Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 

11.  for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

 

When Peter refers to divine power in verse 3, he is describing unlimited power. It helps our finite, human thinking to remind ourselves that the Greek word, dunamis, is the source from which we derive dynamite. However, even the highest power that we know on earth, nuclear power, comes far short, if we try to compare it to divine power. We are delving into unimaginable omnipotence and through it, we are guaranteed all things that pertain to life and godliness! God leaves all heaven’s treasures at the Christians’ disposal, including Himself, in the persons of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

He is not offering things that pertain to earthly prosperity, and the preachers who do so, deal in something far cheaper than that, which Peter proposes. Life and godliness are heaven’s delights. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (Jn.10:10). In the next chapter, He illustrated it at the tomb of Lazarus, dead for four days, when He exclaimed, “Lazarus, come forth!” then followed with the command, “Loose him, and let him go.”

 The Jamieson, Faucett, Brown commentary adds: “Spiritual life must exist first, before there can be true godliness. Knowledge of God experimentally is the first step to life (Jn.17:3). The child must have vital breath, first, and then cry to, and walk in the ways of, his father. It is not by godliness that we obtain life, but by life, godliness.” An experimental knowledge of God, full of His own celestial glory and divine virtue, calls us forth to life. To walk in the ways of the Father, then, is Christian godliness. I will add John Wesley’s simple comment: “There is a wonderful cheerfulness in this exordium” (introductory part). A traditional African/American hymn puts the reality to music:

 The windows of heaven are open, the blessings are falling tonight,

There’s joy, joy, joy in my heart, since Jesus made everything right;

I gave Him my old, tattered garments, He gave me a robe of pure white,

I’m feasting on manna from heaven, and that’s why I’m happy tonight. 

Peter, through Holy Spirit inspiration, keeps pouring it on, adding adjective to adjective, with an attempt in human language to describe exceeding great and precious promises. Through prayer and meditation, we must strive to grasp, the thing that Peter lays before us in both epistles… that is, the wonder that is found in the word and the life of the gospel. Promises are the keys to participation in the divine nature. Our son, Mike, continually states in his messages that the Father’s purpose in making us to be like Jesus, “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Ro.8:29), is one and the same with the work of sanctification. Christ, within the natural human being, is a mysterious wonder in this world’s society, that divine nature should inhabit a human body for all to observe. Peter makes it clear, as do all the Scriptures, that there is no participation in the divine nature, without being freed from the lusts of fallen, human nature in a corrupt world (4).

 I will insist, as long as I live, that spiritual virtues are not attainable by human works, but are by God’s grace, and it all begins with the faith of God. Godliness is supernatural and heavenly and Peter shows the process of the divine nature taking control of the human soul. For this reason, it involves full and diligent cooperation with the Lord, as holiness and growth in Christ unfolds. The point in this list is not to seek in order, one attribute after another, but they are rather to be viewed as relating to each other, hand holding hand in chorus. The point is that we are not to settle down at one level of grace, but to progress on to ever higher heights of Christian living. Everything that is alive grows, the entire body growing as one. Precious faith is the groundwork, upon which everything is built. Virtue will stream from faith, as will everything that follows. Virtue describes the excellency of divine nature, doing what divine nature does, operating in full courage and strength. Knowledge here means becoming acquainted with the higher ways of God, as opposed to the earthly ways of men, putting it into practical, daily use (5).  

 Self-control or temperance is the result of the lusts of human nature, mentioned in an earlier paragraph, laid aside and under control. I have always thought that the word self-control is unfortunate, because successful Christian living is being under Christ’s control and not achieved by self-effort. I like to go to Revelation1:9 for a description of patience. “John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” John sees himself involved in three areas, that pertain to Jesus Christ. He is in the tribulation, resulting from Christianity. He is in the Kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ. Patience is divine patience and endurance … the Greek combines the two qualities, found only in Christ. Already we have seen godliness in verse 3 and being partakers in the divine nature in verse 4, which seems to be another way of describing godliness (6).

 Brotherly kindness joins hand-in-hand with the other virtues. The Greek word is philadelphia and indicates the strong bond of Christian relationships. It provides the rich communion that is enjoyed among people of like mind, who have come under the umbrella of one heavenly family and the pleasant influence of the Holy Spirit.  It is only exceeded by the final quality in Peter´s list and God´s people have become familiar with the Greek word agape. It is the only term, which can attempt to portray the eternal, inseparable love owned by the trinity, which has been poured out upon the human race.

 All these virtues are inherent in the new, born-again nature… none are lacking. If they are not observed in the life of a professed believer it is because he has not seen, nor entered, the Kingdom of God and I will use the Hebrew word that Jesus used, and only the Gospel of John records that He declared it twice, to give supreme authority to the statements that follow: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;” he cannot see and he cannot enter: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (Jn.3:3, 5). In the personal knowledge of a relationship with Jesus Christ, he will encounter fruitfulness. He will not be sterile or barren (8).

 Spiritual barrenness occurs in the one, of who Peter now writes. He exhorts concerning short-sightedness, the single instance that the word is found in the New Testament. I am finding it helpful to resort to a few Greek words in this portion and this word is muopazo, and made me think of the eye condition, myopia. Commentators confirmed that this is the term, from which myopia is derived. The apostle attributes spiritual myopia to a person, who can only see things up close or, in his worst state, is blind.

 I will allow John Wesley to further describe him: He is “blind - The eyes of his understanding are again closed. He cannot see God, or his pardoning love. He has lost the evidence of things not seen. Not able to see afar off. He has lost sight of the precious promises: perfect love and heaven are equally out of his sight. Nay, he cannot now see what himself once enjoyed. Having, as it were, forgot the purification from his former sins… Scarce knowing what he himself then felt, when his sins were forgiven.” The Greek term suggest this one’s guilt for his condition, containing the idea of voluntarily closing the eyes, or blinking. He has lost supernatural vision, only aware of the world around him. He is not a novice Christian; he is a backslider (9).

 It seems that Peter is suggesting that there can be a spiritual state somewhere between standing and falling. In verse 9, he speaks of shortsightedness and now of stumbling, or half-falling. These are insecure states and Peter wants to see certainty.  Peter prods the reader to be diligent, concerning his calling from God, seeing himself in the divine predestination to be like Christ. He must know that he did not arrive at Christianity only through personal decision. He must be confident that the Holy Spirit was involved, and the proof is his walk in the virtues just mentioned. As the new nature urges him on to do so, he will not fall into blindness (10).

 God’s normal way of providing entrance into the Lord Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is sure and abundant. There is no shortsightedness or stumbling in it, but a wholehearted surrender to the King. The abundant entrance begins with a dramatic conversion, all reservations swept aside. This person has been convicted of his sinfulness by the Law of God, He has repented and run to the cross, where he sees his Savior hanging (11). This is how John Newton came:

I saw One hanging on a tree,

In agony and blood,

Who fixed His languid eyes on me,

As near His cross I stood.

 

Sure, never to my latest breath,

Can I forget that look;

It seemed to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke.

 

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,

And plunged me in despair,

I saw my sins His blood had spilt,

And helped to nail Him there.

 

A second look He gave, which said,

“I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom paid;

I die that thou mayst live.”

 

O, can it be, upon a tree,

The Savior died for me?

My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled,

To think He died for me!

I saw One hanging on a tree, In agony and blood,

Who fixed His languid eyes on me, As near His cross I stood. 

Sure, never to my latest breath, Can I forget that look;

 It seemed to charge me with His death, Though not a word He spoke.

 

My conscience felt and owned the guilt, And plunged me in despair,

I saw my sins His blood had spilt, And helped to nail Him there. 

A second look He gave, which said, “I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom paid; I die that thou mayst live.”

 

O, can it be, upon a tree, The Savior died for me?

My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled, To think He died for me!