Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Making One’s Calling and Election Sure
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prophecy of Scripture
12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
My Understanding: This is a difficult and controversial passage of scripture, and one that, no doubt, has been the subject of much debate over the years. My intention here is not to present a theological thesis on the passage, but rather my intention is just to hear from God and to gain practical knowledge and understanding in how this teaching of scripture is to be applied to my life. So, with that understanding, I asked the Lord to speak his truths to my heart and to present this passage to me in a way that is new and fresh and alive to me today. I inquired of him concerning the outline he would have me to follow, and I believe he gave me three division titles: 1. Calling, 2. Cultivate, and 3. Captivate. Speak, Lord, your words to me, I pray in Jesus’ precious, awesome and holy name. Amen.
Calling
First of all, we are called by his own glory and goodness. This glory spoken of here is the honor, praise, dignity, majesty, godly character, magnificence, splendor, excellence, and absolute perfection of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Because of who God is, i.e. because his divine character is comprised in all his holiness, righteousness, love, kindness, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, he called us, not because of anything we did or do, but because of who He is. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. So, it is not from our own righteousness that we are called and saved, but because of God’s righteousness and his divine character that he has called a people unto Himself as his very own.
So, what are we called to? We are called to godliness, and his divine power gives us everything we need in order for us to be godly, i.e. we cannot do this in our own power, strength or wills. This is a God-thing! This is God working in us and through us via his divine power to change our hearts and to make us more and more like Jesus every day. To be godly then means to cultivate the divine character of God into our lives, i.e. to incorporate into our lives his goodness, mercy, kindness, love, generosity, faithfulness and obedience (Jesus was obedient to the cross and to the Father), etc., in cooperation with our Lord and master, in allowing him to transform our hearts and to purify us and to make us holy.
Cultivate
We are to develop these divine character traits into our lives, via the power and working of the Holy Spirit within us in making us holy, so that we do not become ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Christ. In other words, we are called to obedience and holiness. We are not called to make some one-time decision to “believe” in Jesus Christ at some altar and then to never have a life transformation that leads to productive, fruit-bearing and effective Christian lives. We are called to live for Jesus in everything we do, are, say, think, etc. He is to be our Lord and master, and we are to be continually being made holy until the day when he takes us home to be with him. We are not perfect yet.
We are not saved just so that we have our ticket into heaven and so we can escape the fires of hell, but rather we are saved to rock this world for Jesus Christ. If nothing ever changes in our hearts, i.e. we never truly ever turned our hearts and lives over to the control of the Holy Spirit within us to make us into someone else, then we are blind and nearsighted, i.e. we have closed our eyes to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are missing the mark. The point of our salvation is not just to save us from the fires of hell and to secure our hope of heaven one day, but the point of our salvation is that we are cleansed of our sins, meaning they are done away with, not just the penalty of them, but we are through with living to please our sinful natures, and instead we are living to please our Lord.
Based in all this knowledge, i.e. because we now have this understanding of what it truly means to believe in Jesus Christ, i.e. consequently this knowledge should prompt us and motivate us to make sure that we have been called, i.e. to make certain that our faith is based upon the truth of scripture concerning what it means to be in Christ Jesus. On the one side of the scale are those who think they can earn their way into heaven via good works. This is faulty thinking and is a false hope, so if you have been relying on following a set of rules, doctrines or religious practices in order to gain favor with God, think again. On the flip side of this scale are the “grace only” folks who water down the gospel message and reduce it to nothing more than an intellectual acknowledgement or an emotional decision to believe in Jesus Christ, but we have to remember what James said here. Even the demons believe, and they shudder. The scriptures also tell us that many will come to him on that day (the Day of Judgment) and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?” but he will answer, “I never knew you.” So, it is possible to think you are saved and not be saved.
Captivate
The Bible, Genesis to Revelation, is the revealed and God-breathed word of God. In other words, even though men physically wrote these books in the Bible, i.e. they were God’s scribes, God himself is the one who wrote the books of the Bible, so when we read scripture, we are reading the very words of God, i.e. they have the life and breath of God still in them today. Now, scripture must be interpreted within context, historical and cultural significance, comparing scripture against scripture, examining God’s divine nature and how he works, and through looking into the perfect law (Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law) that gives freedom. In other words, we must ask and allow the Holy Spirit within us to interpret his words to us so that we understand and apply his truths to our lives in the manner in which God intended when he wrote scripture. We have to guard against intellectual argumentation. Instead, we must determine, with uncluttered minds, to allow ourselves to hear what the Holy Spirit of God wants to teach us through His Word.
So, understanding that when Peter wrote this book he was nothing more that God’s scribe, as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit, we must then accept these words of Peter’s as the very words of God. God is thus saying to us that we will do well to pay attention to what he is saying to us here through these words in 2 Peter 1, and in all of scripture. Peter said that he would always remind the church of these truths, even though they knew them and were firmly established in the truth. He thought it was good to refresh their minds. That is why we read scripture over and over and over again, not that we don’t already know a lot of it, if we have been a student of the word for some time, but because we need to be recharged in our minds with these truths so that we can daily apply them to our lives.
One of the main truths of scripture we must be reminded of is who Jesus Christ is, what he did for us when he died on the cross to take away our sins, and then what is required of us, his believers, in heart response to his grace provided for us freely. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is also God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Scripture bears this out (See John 1; Colossians 1; Philippians 2, among others). 2 Peter 1:17 says, “He received glory and honor from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” The heavens declare the glory, honor and majesty of Jesus Christ! He is our awesome God! He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Hallelujah! Praise God!! Give praise to him. Honor his name. Worship him by giving your lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, not conformed any longer by the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your minds, then you can prove what God’s will is (See Rom. 12:1-2).
Jesus died on the cross, taking upon himself all our sins so that we could go free from the penalty and control of sin over our lives, and he rose again as victor over death, hell, Satan and sin – the penalty of sin and the control of sin. Magnify him! Obey Him! Honor Him as Lord by how you live your lives. Don’t “short circuit” (obstruct) what could be yours in Christ Jesus, because you believed in false gospel messages that give you false hope. Without Jesus Christ in your life forever, you will never know the victory that could be yours over sin, death, Satan and hell via his work of grace and favor through Jesus Christ alone.
His Favor / An Original Work / April 18, 2011
Behold your King.
Worship the Lord. He’s the great I AM; the perfect Lamb.
Jesus, our Redeemer, our Savior, sustainer,
The heavens declare.
The risen One;
He gave His life as a sacrifice. He paid the price.
Our blessed provider, our Lord, magnify Him,
For He’s God’s Son.
Our God is King.
He reigns forever in majesty. He set us free.
Without Him forever, we won’t know his favor
In victory.
Music, Page 1
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Christsfreeservant/HisFavor31.jpg
Music, Page 2
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Christsfreeservant/HisFavor232.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment