The objective of this lesson: To increase the Christian's awareness of the privilege God grants us by using us.
To be given the privilege of allowing God to make use of us to achieve His purposes is an enormous privilege. The association of privilege and sacrifice is not foreign to our thought process. In serving the national interest, we often associate privilege and sacrifice. As an example, consider the common attitude when people are called to serve in the military in times of national crisis. Patriotism is expressed in sacrificial service. The values of the life in the nation are worthy of defense. One is honored to sacrifice for the privilege of continuing the existence of the nation.
To begin to grasp God's holiness and His aversion to sin would seem to make it impossible for God to even associate with humanity. To accept God's love for people when humanity is so prone to do evil is beyond incredible. The more people accurately see the holiness of God and the sinfulness of humanity, the more they behold the privilege of God making use of any person. Only when we begin to grasp how offensive our human evil is to the holy God can we begin to see what a privilege it is for God to make use of us.
A possible distinction in this attitude toward the nation and toward God is that the attitude commonly existing toward the nation exists when the nation is in crisis. The attitude toward God never ends because His conflict with Satan will not reach conclusion until Jesus Christ returns.
The conflict is between God and Satan. It will not end until Christ returns. Until Jesus Christ returns, we are the battleground in this conflict.
Peter begins this letter by referring to himself as Simon Peter. Simon was his name prior to his following Jesus. Peter was the name Jesus gave him (see Matthew 16:17-19).
From the beginning, the author does nothing to magnify himself. He is a servant, not a privileged person.
He did not begin his letter as a privileged person with an elite position before and after Jesus' death and resurrection. Rather, he began with an assurance to others who placed their confidence in the resurrected Jesus. Their faith in Jesus was as important and significant as was the faith held by the twelve. The focus should be on God and Jesus, not on a human. God the Father and Jesus Christ the son made it possible for them to live in divine righteousness, not any person, regardless of what his position with Jesus was. He wrote as a bondservant or slave, as an apostle or one commissioned. He was not the Peter who in the past held a lofty view of his confidence, but the Peter who humbly served.
One of the unique characteristic of Christianity is this: no human mediator is needed for a person of faith in Jesus Christ to approach God--not a prophet, a priest, a preacher, an elder, or any other person. The only intercessors we need as Christians are the Spirit and the resurrected Jesus Christ (Romans 8:26, 34). Every Christian should understand that his or her faith in Jesus Christ gives him or her access to God--there are no second class Christians who have limited rights to approach the God of promise!
Some endorse and some reject the following view. In this chapter it seems to me that Peter made a distinction between God the Father and Jesus Christ the son. This distinction is not to be seen in the message we receive--it is the same message consistently delivered. To me, the distinction is in the eternal objective and the road to the eternal objective. The objective is to live with God. The means of coming to God is Jesus, who was crowned by God to be the Christ. I suggest you consider Jesus' statement in John 14:6, Peter's statement in Acts 2:36, and Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. We want to live with God (as we were created to do), and the way providing that access to God is Jesus Christ. We have never seen God and cannot relate to Him in His eternal character. Jesus lived in our world and provides us an example of how a godly, sinless person lives in the physical realm. We can relate to Jesus because he shared our existence.
If you wish to see a practical illustration of the struggle produced for us by our concepts of the relationship between God and Jesus, listen to the weekly prayers offered in communion. Some are offered to Jesus, and some to God. Difficulty with whom to thank for the sacrifice is often evident. The lack of distinction between what God gave and what Jesus gave is often evident.
It is unlikely that struggle will ever end for us on this earth. The relationship between God the Father and His son is not a relation based on sexual characteristics (maleness). They are not sexual beings. God never sexually fathered a son. Jesus did not experience a birth in the spiritual realm. That analogy is likely used to explain the close relationship between God and the pre-physical Jesus because people live in a sexual world. We do not understand a father and son relationship that has nothing to do with sexual characteristics, nothing to do with physical maleness.
What we can and must understand is that they make our righteousness a reality. We understand that reality is not created by us, but by God through Jesus.
Note the focus is not placed on a human leader, but on the incredible provisions Jesus Christ provided believers. There is no inadequacy in the salvation God made possible through Jesus Christ. Believers are provided everything they need to live a godly life resulting in their salvation. The knowledge is the knowledge of their Savior, not the knowledge of an institution. By no means does this statement demean the church. It merely acknowledges salvation is provided by our Savior. Jesus saves. The saved comprise his church. The church is the "called out." Saved people want to be called out of sin to live for God. Jesus' death and resurrection call us out of sin. The church is people who hear and respond to the call.
Each Christian needs to understand that his or her salvation is 100% adequate. No one in Christ is an inferior Christian who has been saved to an inferior relationship with God. Forgiveness of sins is total for each man or woman in Christ by an act of God. Never forget that one of the biggest criticisms of the human Jesus was that he showed concern for the wrong people. He constantly taught that there were no "wrong people." Salvation is based on need, not on social status.
Many problems would be solved in the church if all Christians understood that the knowledge we have as Christians begins with the Christ, not with the rules and requirements of the congregation. If knowledge was based on the values of Jesus and not on the values of the congregation, many "issues" quickly would become "non-issues."
There is an urgent need to stop swapping the church for the Savior. Jesus is the Savior. The church is the saved. We place too much faith in ourselves and not enough in Jesus.
It is Jesus who teaches us how to live for God in this world. This statement reminds us of Paul's words in Philippians 3:8-11. In Paul's words, there is no comparison of the righteousness sought by human deeds through keeping rules and regulations and the righteousness God makes available in Jesus Christ. Please remember that we are not talking about the unquestionable importance of obedience, but the focus of obedience.
It is following Jesus who changes who we are. It is the righteousness made possible by Jesus we should seek above all else.
Access to this life of godliness is provided through divine power, not through human achievement or status. They were accustomed to living in a world where even in spiritual matters "power (status) had its privileges." One has access to the most wonderful opportunity of all opportunities by acts of God, not by human achievements or position. This life that leads to existence with God is as certainly available to the least significant people as it is to the most significant people. Anyone is capable of having confidence in and learning from the values of an example. It is who he is and what he has done, not who we are, that calls us to follow him.
God empowers any person through Christ to be His. There is no "privilege" created by human dynasty in a congregation. The issue is not how many preachers my family has had in past generations, or how many elders have been in the family in past generations, or "how much money or land my family has given the congregation," or how many generations of a family has been in a congregation, but how devoted is that immediate person to following Jesus Christ.
The incredible promises are based on who Jesus is, not on who we are without Jesus. It is his promises, not our worthiness, that allow us to share in the divine nature. Peter's emphasis on sharing in the divine nature reminds us of Paul's usage of the concept of a new life in Ephesians 4:20-24 and Colossians 3:1-11.
In Christianity, the less significance a person places on himself or herself, the more significance he or she places on Jesus Christ. Jesus is the force that defines who and what we are. We do not define ourselves.
Take note of the fact that this new life has a responsibility that those who answer Jesus' call to follow him must accept. It is not optional. We seek to escape the force of decay in this physical world. That which decays life even as we live it is the force that focuses us on physical desires rather than on spiritual existence in Jesus Christ. People who follow Jesus Christ will live differently than people who do not follow Jesus Christ. Their values, their personal actions, their interactions with others, and their priorities are different. Sometimes who they are clashes with who society wants them to be. The differences are not artificial or contrived. The differences arise naturally from who they are. Who they are arises naturally from who Jesus Christ is.
We need to realize that there is a force that seeks to destroy our lives while we live them.
Christians often will not be understood by those who do not know God and Jesus Christ. Such people do not understand Christians because they do not understand the values that shape Christians' lives. Christians do not have to produce pretended, artificial differences to be God's "peculiar" people (KJV of Titus 2:14; meaning--a people who belong only to God). They just have to live by Jesus' values. Also, Christians need to be extremely cautious about producing the concept that being in Christ means physical life always pleases us.
We are so precious to God that He invests His reputation in us! The key to making sacrifices in godly living is the awareness of privilege in being in God's family with Jesus Christ. The sense of privilege makes sacrifice acceptable.
God places enormous value on us! He trusts people's concept of Who He is to the way we focus and live our lives as Christians!
For Thought and Discussion
It is an enormous privilege to let ourselves be used by God for His purposes.
The example should be centered in our concept of a standard war fought between opposing forces.
Peter begins his letter by de-emphasizing his human importance and stressing the importance of every person's faith.
The distinction is not seen in the message. The distinction is in the eternal objective and the road to that objective.
The focus is not placed on a human leader.
The knowledge is focused on Jesus.
Jesus saves. The church is comprised of the saved.
Jesus teaches us how to live for God in this world.
The divine power provides us access to godliness.
It is the responsibility to allow Jesus to be our example of how to live. Who we are arises naturally from who Jesus Christ is.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 8