1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 8

1 Peter 1: 22 - 25 -- Lastly as a result of the Gospel and our salvation, we are to serve others. Why? Because if the point of salvation was merely to redeem us, then God would take us home as soon as we are saved. Instead it is our role to share the gospel with others who don’t know Him. How do we get ourselves heard? By serving them. Just as our Lord did. He did miracles and served even those who were outside of His normal community, so that their hearts would be softened to His message of grace. We shouldn’t be serving out of a desire merely to elevate someone’s socioeconomic status. Our goal in service is to preach the good news of new birth. We must tell people that they, like us, are sinners and desperately need the blood of Christ to pay off the debt that we owe to God as a result of that sin. We must tell them that they not only have to intellectually understand this information, but they must repent and believe it so that they can be born again. This is the good news. This is the greatest news ever heard by man. Praise to our Lord for providing this amazing news to us.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 7

1 Peter 1:20 - 21 -- We are believers in Christ because not only did He die for us, but His sacrifice was ruled acceptable to the Father. How do we know it was acceptable? That it was an effective payment for the debt owed? Because Christ was raised from the dead. Death could not hold Him! What amazing wonderful good news. We can inherit that same perpetual life, raised from the dead as it were, ourselves because of the work of Christ. Look at the evidence of the empty tomb. Believe that it’s barren status is the receipt that proves Christ’s redeeming work was and still is effective. And the best part is that we get to give glory to God as a result of His work. We don’t have to have any focus on ourselves, but instead get to spend eternity praising Him and lifting Him up. What a privilege that the creator God of time and space would permit our eternal praise to Him. What great glorious news!!!

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 6

1 Peter 1:17 - 19 -- Remember to fear the Lord God who knows what you have done. It’s not like you can hide your sin from Him. Seek Him and His forgiveness. If you are already saved, don’t forget that your salvation applies to your sins even after your conversion. It’s so common to forget who we are and our new lives and to turn back to our works-righteous ways. Remember that we were redeemed with something so much more precious than mere silver or gold. We were redeemed or bought back to the Lord’s family by the most precious blood of Christ Himself. We are not redeemed by the futile way of works righteousness that our man- made religion has set before us as supposedly effective. Don’t turn back to that old way. Don’t just follow your fathers’ ways blindly. Don’t return to that body of death. Remember it was with
precious blood. From the lamb, unblemished and spotless. The perfect God-Man sacrifice that perfectly represents us and propitiates the Father’s wrath. This blood of the ever living Christ.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 5

1 Peter 1:13-16 -- Holiness is the call for those who have been saved. This is part of our response to the offer of grace. This is the repentance part of ‘repent and believe’ that Christ calls us to in response to His offer of His Lordship and the gospel. We are not to try and be perfect prior to our salvation. Nor are we to work our way into His good graces. Instead, after we are saved we are to be Holy as He is Holy. This is a great test to see if you are saved/born again or not. If you don’t have a desire to be Holy because of the Spirit’s residence in you, then you probably don’t have the Spirit and are not born again. If you’re not born again, then please today seek the Lord and believe in the effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice for your sins, which you have committed in treason against God who rightly judges you guilty of those sins.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 4

1 Peter 1:10 - 12 -- Even the prophets in the Old Testament prophesied of the grace that was to come to us. This grace is unmerited favor, or put another way it’s a free gift. I mean we’re talking about the most precious substance in the universe, the blood of Jesus, poured out for us. Just think the 5 liters of blood in Christ’s human body was sufficient to cover over the sins of all who have been saved before and after His death. What a small volume to cover such a large number of people. This blood that God set out to spend on us for the propitiation of His wrath has to be supremely valuable and powerful to satiate the terrible wrath of the Father that we all have earned. And yet for all its power and value, we get the benefits of it for free!!!

But a free gift doesn’t do anything for the one who would receive it if he never gets it. This is why Peter goes out of his way to mention that his audience heard of the gospel from others. This is our responsibility, if we have already learned the gospel. We must share it with others. Not because we are required to, though we are, but because it should burst out of us because of how good the news is.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 3

1 Peter 1:8 & 9 -- We rejoice with inexpressible joy and are filled with glory for God because of our faith in Christ, this despite never seeing Him with our own eyes. Why do we rejoice? Because we have obtained the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls!! Again this is fantastic, wonderful news that we should share with all. God’s nature requires that He judge sin. That sin is part and parcel of all human beings as a result of the Fall. But merely placing faith in Christ grants us salvation of our very souls. The part of us that will live forever, either in torment or glory. As the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 2: “how can we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?!” So this day, if you’re unsure of whether you will be in Heaven, seek Him and join with the saints in greatly rejoicing!

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment

1 Peter 1:3-5 -- God receives all blessing and honor for causing us to be born again. What does it mean to be born again? It means to be born spiritually, not just physically as we did on our exit from the womb. If we are not born again, then we are not saved. We must be made completely new as a result of Christ’s work. This requires us to repent and believe in His ability to make us new. If we don’t repent and try to somehow take a little Jesus and a little of our own works then we are not saved. If we don’t turn away from our old selves then its proof that we haven’t trusted in a new Lord. It’s not that we have to ‘clean ourselves up’ prior to faith, but that as part of faith we commit to turn away from our old selves.

This passage also points to the hope we have in God to secure our salvation to the end of time and beyond. It is He who protects our salvation and ensures that our salvation is imperishable and will not fade away. This is fantastic news!! Its the greatest news of all that God is ensuring our salvation and not us.

1 Peter 1 Gospel moment

I was looking through 1 Peter 1 for opportunities to preach the gospel and came up with a few. I'll post them once a day for the next few days.

1 Peter 1:1-2 -- Peter points out the Trinitarian function of our salvation. The Father chooses, The Spirit sanctifies, and The Christ spent His blood on our behalf. As a result of this we have grace and peace in the fullest measure. Now who is this grace and peace between? Is it between the believers and the ‘world’? No because Peter is going to refer soon to his readers (and our) impending trials. This grace and peace are between us and God as a result of our salvation through Jesus. This is the good news!! The bad news is that God has a just right to destroy us for our sin, and yet because of His great, unending, amazing mercy, He created a perfect way to both judge our sin on His son and also bring Him the greatest glory imaginable by redeeming His sinful creation. This is the news we should shout from the roof tops and share with everyone we meet. This peace and grace is available, if we but obey Christ and repent and believe that He is capable to save.