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1 Peter 1:17: Our true home

“17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” NIV
 
Here is a further thought on being ‘’strangers here’’. In another ‘coincidence’, I just happened to read this extract from C.S.Lewis’s ‘The problem of pain’ on the same day I arrived at this text. In it, Lewis is writing about the effect crises have on us, and once again it seems so relevant to the present time:
‘My own experience is something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens a serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ.’
However, Lewis goes on to describe the human tendency to ‘backslide’ when everything returns to normal:
‘God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over – I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed.’
That is so insightful.
But I pray that when we return to ‘normal’ – whatever that ‘normal’ may look like – we will not return to being the same, where during this time we have realised we need to be different. God gives all kinds of insights in uncomfortable situations. Let’s hold tightly to these ‘treasures’.
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1 Peter 1:18-20: ‘Rum thing…’

“18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”NIV
 
During the Lent period, I have been reading a book of extracts from the writings of C.S. Lewis. In his autobiography, ‘Surprised by Joy’, Lewis writes engagingly about his conversion, and also about the time leading up to it, when, you might say, his armour was being pierced. This is what I read on the morning of writing today’s thought:
‘’Early in 1926 the hardest boiled of all the atheists I ever knew sat in my room on the other side of the fire and remarked that the evidence for the historicity of the gospels was really surprisingly good. ‘Rum thing,’ he went on. ‘All this stuff of Frazer’s about the Dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it really happened once.’ To understand the shattering impact of it, you would need to know the man (who has certainly never since shown any interest in Christianity). If he, the cynic of cynics, the toughest of toughs, were not – as I would still have put it – ‘safe’, where could I turn? Was there then no escape?’’
Peter, here, affirms that it really did happen once (recently, in fact, when he wrote) although it had been long planned. Jesus died, as the perfect fulfilment of the Old Testament sacrificial system, and in that dying He paid the price to buy people out of an ‘’empty way of life. That is what is so ‘good’ about Good Friday.
We are again reminded that ‘’silver’’ and ‘’gold’’ are ‘’perishable’’ (18). The ‘’precious’’ blood of Jesus, however, is of supreme and abiding value. By His blood we can be ‘’redeemed’’ – that is bought out of the slavery of sin.
Today’s passage is so clearly and helpfully rendered in ‘The Message:
‘’It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you.’’
THOUGHT: ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.
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1 Peter 1: 17: ‘Strangers’

“17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” NIV
Somebody once described the contemporary church as ‘the best disguised set of pilgrims the world has ever seen.’ In the whirl of ordinary life, with its many demands and distractions, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we don’t belong here and we won’t be long here. As the gospel song says, ‘This world is not my home…’
We are living through remarkable days, when much of the world’s machinery has been completely shut down. I think God is wanting – maybe among other things – to get our attention and wake us up to the realisation that life is short and fragile, and we are not in control. He is! How easily we forget that there is an eternal dimension. Life is brief; eternity is long. One day we must give an account to God for what we have done with the lives, resources, opportunities etc He has entrusted to us.
I was thinking, one of the institutions to take a battering in the Coronavirus storm is the entertainment industry. I’m not saying it’s all bad, but so much of what it pumps out has to do with that ‘’empty way of life’’ (v.18) which Jesus came to rescue us from. How often do we go back there for refreshment, only to find what deep inside we always know to be true: the well is empty and it does not satisfy? Our true home is in the ‘Father’s’ company. When we call on Him we are at home.
At the moment, Jilly and I are using ‘A Diary of Private Prayer’ – an updated version of a devotional classic by Scottish theologian John Baillie. When I read this morning’s prayer, I thought it so relevant. Here is an extract from it:
‘Here I stand, weak and mortal amid the immensities of nature…
Let me remember that my mortal body is only the servant of my immortal soul;
Let me remember how uncertain my hold is on my own physical life;
Let me remember that here I have no continuing city, but only a place for a brief stay, and a time for testing and training;
Let me use this world without abusing it;
Let me be in this world but not of it;
Let me be as though I have nothing, and yet possess everything;
Let me understand the vanity of what is time bound and the glory of the eternal;
Let my world be centred not in myself, but in you.’
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1 Peter 1:9b: A work in progress

“9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.      10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 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

Reading through the opening section of 1 Peter (verses 1-12), it becomes obvious, by its repetition, that ‘’salvation’’ is a dominant theme. What also is clear is that ‘’salvation’’ is a process. In today’s verse we read:

‘’…for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.’’ (NB – this is something currently happening, in ‘the now).

A few days ago we read: ‘’…the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’’ (5b). So there is still a future dimension to this process. We await the final stage, the full picture – the last piece of the puzzle to be fitted in.

In verse 10, Peter refers to ‘’this salvation’’, and from what he goes on to write (11) we find that the death and resurrection of Jesus lie at its heart. Jesus died and rose again to save lost, sinful people.

Salvation – God’s work of saving (rescuing) – is a process. A believer can say:

  • ‘I have been saved’ (from the penalty of sin. This happened instantaneously at conversion);
  • ‘I am being saved’ (every moment, from the power of sin);
  • ‘I will be saved’ (one day, from the very presence of sin)

We live ‘between the times’; we are caught in the tension between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’. Each Christian is a work in progress. As someone said, ‘I’m not what I want to be, and I’m not what I’m going to be, but praise God, I’m not what I was!’

A hymn captures this idea in saying, ‘Jesus saves me all the time, Jesus saves me now.’

PRAYER: Lord, it fills me with joy and wonder to remember the time I was saved. What a day that was, when I repented of my sins and put my faith in you. But I confess I need your saving power today, and how grateful I am to have it. There is so much in my that still need to change. I mourn and grieve over my all too many faults. By your power, Lord Jesus, please save me from them all. I look forward to that day when seeing you I shall be like you. What a day that will be!

 

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1 Peter 1:9b: A work in progress

“9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” NIV

Reading through the opening section of 1 Peter (verses 1-12), it becomes obvious, by its repetition, that ‘’salvation’’ is a dominant theme. What also is clear is that ‘’salvation’’ is a process. In today’s verse we read:

‘’…for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.’’ (NB – this is something currently happening, in ‘the now).

A few days ago we read: ‘’…the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’’ (5b). So there is still a future dimension to this process. We await the final stage, the full picture – the last piece of the puzzle to be fitted in.

In verse 10, Peter refers to ‘’this salvation’’, and from what he goes on to write (11) we find that the death and resurrection of Jesus lie at its heart. Jesus died and rose again to save lost, sinful people.

Salvation – God’s work of saving (rescuing) – is a process. A believer can say:

  • ‘I have been saved’ (from the penalty of sin. This happened instantaneously at conversion);
  • ‘I am being saved’ (every moment, from the power of sin);
  • ‘I will be saved’ (one day, from the very presence of sin)

We live ‘between the times’; we are caught in the tension between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’. Each Christian is a work in progress. As someone said, ‘I’m not what I want to be, and I’m not what I’m going to be, but praise God, I’m not what I was!’

A hymn captures this idea in saying, ‘Jesus saves me all the time, Jesus saves me now.’

PRAYER: Lord, it fills me with joy and wonder to remember the time I was saved. What a day that was, when I repented of my sins and put my faith in you. But I confess I need your saving power today, and how grateful I am to have it. There is so much in me that still need to change. I mourn and grieve over my all too many faults. By your power, Lord Jesus, please save me from them all. I look forward to that day when seeing you I shall be like you. What a day that will be!

 

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1 Peter 1:8: I love you Lord.

“8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,” NIV

His name was Peter, and for a time he was the youth leader in a church I attended in my teen years. But prior to that I looked up to him as older member of the youth group, and valued him as a friend. Peter was a rugged, craggy individual. As I recall, prior to his conversion he had drunk deeply from the murky well of sin. He’d had his fill and found it unsatisfactory. But Peter was very much a man’s man. One night, a few of us were out ‘witnessing’ on the streets of Wigan, trying to engage people in conversation about Christ. This was something we often did. On this particular evening, I distinctly remember Peter saying to a group of people we were chatting with, ‘I love Jesus.’ There is something powerful, even now, about the memory of this strong man wearing his his heart so unashamedly on his sleeve.

The Peter who wrote this letter was also very much a ‘heart on the sleeve’ kind of guy. Here he writes about the love a believer has for the invisible Jesus – and the overwhelming joy which accompanies such faith.

I feel very much for those who are having to face the current situation alone. But remember, ‘’The Lord is near’’ (Philippians 4:5b). He loves you, and because He loved you first, you love Him. Today, this is cause for thankfulness, whatever else may appear difficult. You are deeply loved, and you love in return

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that Christianity is not a religion, but a most precious love relationship. I am grateful that, by your grace, I can say, ‘I love you Lord’, and mean it with all my heart. Thank you that I don’t have to see you to know you are real, and that you are with me.Thank you indeed that I do ‘see’ you by faith. You have made me certain of you. Thank you again.

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1 Peter 1:2: ‘The Christian’s bar of soap.’

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To God’s elect, exiles, scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” NIV

Reading 1 Peter previously, I have often been struck by the order:

‘’…chosen…to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood…’’

 I say this because, in our experience the order is reversed: we come to Jesus for cleansing first. We confess and repent of our sins and ask God’s forgiveness, trusting in what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross and shed His ‘’precious’’ blood (see verses 18-19 “18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” NIV ). This is the doorway into a life of obedience – of pursuing holiness and godliness as a life-long goal. We must not read this verse as saying that if we obey Jesus we will get ‘’sprinkled with his blood’’ as a reward; as some kind of prize. No, we come to Jesus to be washed clean, and then we endeavour to live a life of obedience to Him, in His strength.

That said, although this may be a person’s new aim from the beginning of their Christian life, he/she will regularly fall short of it. So throughout the time of following Christ in this world, we will consistently need a ‘’sprinkling’’ (I’m sure you will appreciate that this is Bible language pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus, and receiving the benefits of it).

1 John 1:7 says:

‘‘ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.’’

 John goes on to say:

‘’If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’’ (9). This verse has been called ‘the Christian’s bar of soap.’ You can probably see why.

Someone put it like this. They said, when you become a Christian you have a bath. That does not need to be repeated. But as you walk through this dirty, dusty world your feet get soiled. You pick up filth and it can cling. So you need to regularly have your feet washed. The good news is that you can.

THOUGHT: A time like this in which normal life is restricted to some extent, and we may spend more hours alone than we care to, can also be one in which we turn to God more in prayer. As we do so, it may well be that we see ourselves – our sins, our idols – all the more clearly. God does not want us to be bent under an excessive weight of guilt. We need to know that full and free cleansing is available. We can have our feet washed

 

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1 Peter 1:1-2: Wanted children!

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To God’s elect, exiles, scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” NIV

There are mysteries to face in Christianity. In fact, there are many of them. Although our minds may find it hard to grasp all that is entailed in being ‘’…God’s elect…chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…’’ our hearts can surely rest in the confidence it brings, and the sense of security it engenders. God has no unwanted children. There are no un-planned ‘births’ into the Kingdom. If someone is born again it is by Divine design.

Similarly, who can ever fully comprehend the doctrine of they Trinity? This is the truth that there is one God who exists eternally in three distinct Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Today, I don’t ask you to understand or explain it (if you could explain God would He be God?); I just encourage you to enjoy it. Delight in the fact that you have been brought into a relationship with each member of the Godhead. Revel in the knowledge. If you do, it will surely bring ‘abundant’ ‘’Grace and peace…’’ into your life.

‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.’ (Westminster Shorter Catechism).

PRAYER: Almighty God, at a time when there is understandable fear in the air, I pray for myself, and for all my brothers and sisters in Christ, that our lives may be full of your grace and peace – that peace which is beyond explaining or understanding. I thank you that you have chosen to bring me into a friendship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a privilege beyond any words.

 

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John 18:33-40: The truth about Jesus.

John 18:33-40: The truth about Jesus.

“33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’34 ‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’35 ‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’36 Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’37 ‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’38 ‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release “the king of the Jews”?’40 They shouted back, ‘No, not him! Give us Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.” NIV

Pilate’s somewhat cynical sounding question (38a) follows an important statement by Jesus: ”Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognises my voice” (37) ‘The Message’. If you are a sincere seeker after truth, read the words of Jesus. Look at the life of Jesus, and then tell me that He doesn’t ‘ring’ true. I read a book by a seasoned missionary/Bible teacher, in which he said that, in his experience, it is rare for an adult to take a serious look at Jesus and not be converted. Here is ultimate reality in human form.

Throughout this chapter we have seen the majesty of Christ. He is the one being hounded, arrested and abused, yet there is no doubt that He is in control and that God’s overall plan is unfolding. Prophecy is being fulfilled. Although He seems to be the one on trial, it is in fact Pilate and His other Jewish accusers who are in the dock. Here is a King of a different kind (36;see 2 Corinthians 10:4) – a King who wasn’t just ”born” but who came ”into the world” (37). He is pre-existent. He has always been, the eternal Son of God. But at a certain point in time He stepped into history. He is a King like no other, and He has left huge ‘footprints’ on the shores of time.

However, we can reject the reign of this King. That is what happened then (39, 40). It is still happening today. Many people now will opt for ”Barabbas” over Jesus. They choose another who, they imagine, will be the easier option; more comfortable to live with. They do this even though it may seem to be an obviously damaging choice. In the rejection of our true King – the One for whose reign we were created – we are self-condemned (John 3:18). Barabbas is also a ‘type’ of the human race. He was guilty. He should have died. But the innocent Jesus died in his place (38-40). This is the heart of the gospel.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord Jesus for dying in the place of this rebel. I look at Barabbas and I see myself.

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