1 PETER 1: 18 -21 [Renewing Hope Series]
COSTLY REDEMPTION
[Hebrews 10:1-10]
These verses stress the great and costly work of redemption (CIT). Redemption was God's greatest work. As great as all creation is, it cannot compare with the work of redemption. Christ work of redemption was set in motion even before creation was brought into being.
Redemption or buying back speaks of what Christ has done for us. Christ has paid the price to purchase us back out of our slavery to sin, self, and Satan. The price of our redemption communicates to us the colossal value God places on us.
So here we find the reason that we should be holy and honor God the Father. Our redemption is the highest motive for godly living. Peter recalls to his readers minds the astonishing act that purchased their salvation. It is a reminder we regularly need. Remembering what our Lord has done for us and what it cost Him is why the Lord's Table was instituted. Our redemption price was literally beyond the value of anything in all of God's creation. A redemption price so great that only God Himself could pay it. May we never forget.
Peter gave them four reminders: What They Were, What Christ Did, When God Made His Plan & lastly He reminded them Whom to Trust.
I. He reminded them of What They Were, 18.
II. He reminded them of What Christ Did, 19.
III. He reminded them of When God Made His Plan, 20.
IV. He reminded them of Who to Trust, 21.
[17 "And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth;"]
This section contains significant statements about living this life as those who have been redeemed. In verse18, he says that we have not been redeemed by the conduct or tradition received from our fathers. "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,"
Peter first reminded them of what they were. Before their redemption by Christ, they were slaves who needed to be set free. The word redeemed is, to us, a theological term; but it carried a special meaning to the 45 million people in the first-century Roman Empire. There were probably 10 million slaves in the Empire! Many slaves became Christians and fellow-shipped in the local assemblies. A slave could purchase his own freedom, if he could collect sufficient funds; or his master could sell him to someone who would pay the price and set him free. Redemption was a rare and precious thing for a slave.
To redeem [lup¨®¨] means "to set free by paying a ransom price, to release or ransom by payment." We must never forget the slavery of sin (Titus 3:3). Moses urged Israel to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt (Deut. 5: 15; 16: 12; 24: 18, 22). The generation that died in the wilderness forgot the bondage of Egypt and wanted to go back!
Not only did we have a life of slavery, but it was also a life of emptiness. [The word translated as "aimless" is the Greek word m¨¢taios, which means "vain" or "empty."] It is the word which Paul uses to describe the wisdom of this world as opposed to godly wisdom (1 Cor. 3:20). Peter used it in describing the aimless or "the empty way of life handed down to them from their forefathers." [He describes it more specifically in 1 Peter 4: 1-4.] At the time, these people thought their lives were "full" and "happy," when they were really empty and valueless. Unsaved people today are also blindly living on empty substitutes.
One generation can only pass down the temporary things of life from one generation to another. We come into this world with nothing, and we leave this world with nothing. Peter suggests that even gold and silver are ultimately perishable. In the end, these things are ultimately vain. They provide a false sense of security. These things motivated Solomon, one of the richest men who ever lived, to write, "Vanity of vanities... All is vanity" (Eccl. 12:8).
I have conducted funerals for both the rich and the poor, and they are basically the same. Whether a casket is made of wood or gold makes little difference to the one who is dead. All we have gained in life is lost except for the eternal salvation for those who have trusted in the living Christ.
We though have been redeemed from the futile conduct which focuses merely on this life. Whether we knew it or not we traded in a life style that had only empty pleasures and dead end desires to offer us. We were in bondage to our impulses unable to help ourselves. The only way for us to be emancipated was for someone to redeem us out of it. That ransom price was paid by Jesus Christ.
Second, Peter points out that we have not been redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold. Peter uses an example of what is corruptible and what is imperishable, in an exaggerated sense. We think of gold and silver as being examples of the more permanent things of our world. For example, gold and silver coins can be passed down for generations.
In comparison to eternity, Peter states that they are corruptible; they are temporary. Our salvation has not been bought with the corruptible or the temporary which ultimately perishes. Our salvation has been bought with the eternal and with that which is so precious that all of the gold and silver in the world could not purchase it--the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. [Cedar, Paul. The Preacher's Commentary Series, Vol. 34 : James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1984, S. 126.]
II. He reminded them of What Christ Did, 19.
Peter not only reminded them of what they were, but he also reminded them of what Christ did. We have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Verse 19: "but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ."
Jesus shed His precious blood to purchase us out of the slavery of sin and to set us free forever. Innocent blood shed in death refers to atonement. The blood of Christ was violently shed at the cross. The shedding of Christ's blood which resulted in sacrificial death was offered on behalf of sinners in order to pay the price of atonement for sin. His innocent life's blood was poured out in sacrificial death to atone for our sin and for us being sinners.
To redeem means "to set free by paying a price." A slave could be freed with the payment of money, but no amount of money can ever set a lost sinner free. Only the innocent blood from the death of Jesus Christ as our substitute can redeem or purchase us.
The wages of sin is always death. Look carefully at the blood pulsing from the veins of Jesus Christ. See the thorns smashed into His skull. See the nails driven into His hands and feet. Listen to the crowds around Him mocking and cursing Him. Understand that is what sin does. The only way we, our kids, or our friends and neighbors will understand the result of sin is to look at the Cross. [Peter had. He was a witness of Christ's sufferings (1 Peter 5: 1) and mentioned His sacrificial death often in this letter (1 Peter 2: 21ff; 3:18; 4:1, 13;5:1.]
In calling Jesus a "lamb" Peter is reminding his readers of an Old Testament teaching that was important in the early church, and ought to be important to us today. It is the doctrine of substitution: an innocent victim giving his life for the guilty.
The doctrine of sacrifice begins in Genesis 3, when God killed animals that He might clothe Adam and Eve. A substitute ram died for Isaac (Gen. 22: 13) and a substitute Passover lamb was slain for each Jewish household (Ex. 12). Messiah was presented as an innocent Lamb in Isaiah 53. Abraham's son Isaac asked the question, "Where is the lamb?" (Gen. 22:7) and John the Baptist answered it when he pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Shockingly we have been redeemed by the very blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Lord. Therefore in heaven, the redeemed and the angels sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive glory and honor and praise!" (Rev. 5:11-14) [Wiersbe, Warren. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Vol 2. 1989. Victor Books. Wheaton IL. P. 398.]
A little boy and his father were in an upstairs room in London WATCHING A PARADE through the windows. The British soldiers were dressed in brilliant red coats. The little boy exclaimed, "What beautiful white uniforms they have!" The father said, "Son, they are not white; they are red, brilliant red."
"Oh, no," said the little boy, "they are white, just as white as snow."
With surprise the father looked more closely. Around the window was a border of red glass, which he hadn't noticed before. When one looks at something red through a red glass, it cancels out the color and looks perfectly white. So the little boy, looking at the scarlet coats through the red glass saw them as pure white.
When God looks at our forgiven sins through the blood of the Crucified One, we look pure and white. For the precious blood of our redemption was offered by the Lamb of God, who was without blemish and without spot. [He is the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb was sacrificed and its blood was placed over the doorposts so that the Death Angel would Passover all who dwelled within the house (Ex. 12). Only because of the blood sacrifice of Christ will God pass over your sins that demand your payment in death.]
III. He reminded them of When God Made His Plan, v. 20.
Peter in verse 20 states that Jesus was foreordained to be our Redeemer before the foundation of the world. "For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you"
Christ's sacrifice for our sin was not an afterthought. This payment for sin was planned before the Creation of the world. God's plan of salvation was set in motion by the all-knowing eternal God long before the world was created.
While the plan was in the mind of God from eternity pass it was not made know until "the fullness of time came" (Gal. 4:4). The prophets searched for this Redeemer and the remedy to the human condition but God's redemptive plan was revealed for mankind's sake through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Jesus was manifested for us who would believe in God through Him. God came near and made Himself known to us in Christ. That makes salvation personal. The purpose of Christ's coming into the world was to save us individually and eternally.
Peter made it clear that Christ's death was an appointment, not an accident; for it was ordained by God before the foundation of the world (Acts 2:23). From the human perspective, our Lord was cruelly seized and murdered; but from the divine perspective, He laid down His life for sinners (John 10:17-18). Then He was raised from the dead! Now, anyone who trusts Him will be saved for eternity. [The Age in which we live is these last times (v. 20) whereas the coming Age is "the last time" (v. 5).]
IV. He reminded them of Who to Trust, 21.
Verse 21 relays in whom the redeemed are to find their hope and trust. "who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."
Because we have been redeemed by the precious life blood of Jesus Christ, we are to live with our faith and hope in God. Through Jesus we have come to believe in God and have been saved and set free from the penalty of our sin and by the enabling of the Holy Spirit are being released from sins power. One day because of our redemption in Christ we will also be set free from the presence of sin in heaven above.
This faith and hope are ours because our God is the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. [The teaching of the Resurrection of Christ is central in the proclamation of gospel. It was preeminent in Peter's first sermon at Pentecost after being filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:31). It is the focus of all gospel teaching (1 Peter 1:3).]
Peter understood the significance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ [not only in theological concepts but] through his personal experience. He knew the agony, the sorrow, and the disillusionment that he experienced after he had denied his Lord. What darkness and despair!
Peter also knew the joy of the Resurrection. It was he who ran with John to the tomb where Jesus had been laid--it was empty! (John 20). He saw the resurrected Christ and he visited with Him. His broken relationship was healed, and once again he walked with Jesus (John 20--21). The Resurrection of Jesus means that God has shown us that the door of death is torn off at the hinges! [James Massey]
But he knew even more about the Resurrection of Christ than that. The deepest understanding took place on the Day of Pentecost when he was filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus had promised. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ flooded into his life. He was able to minister in the power of the resurrected Christ. Indeed, Jesus Christ had been resurrected in his life, and he was now ministering in Christ's power. [Jesus had told him that this would happen--and now it had (John 14:15--18; 16:5--15).]
The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same God in whom we believe. His power is available to us day by day as we trust in Christ Jesus and as we allow the Holy Spirit to live in us and through us.
In honor of His resurrection from the dead God has given glory to Christ. The word "glory" in the Greek is d¨®xa, which can also be translated as "honor," "praise," or "worship." Frankly, that is how we are to live--to honor, praise, worship, and glorify Christ. Paul stated, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).
Peter uses the word d¨®xa eleven times in this epistle to encourage us to recognize the glory of Christ and to seek to glorify Him in all we do. He presents the same teaching as John who declared, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
With all of this amazing wonderful resurrection power and glory of Christ, we should be those who live with our faith and hope in God. As we know, faith is a very key word in Christian lifestyle. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). "The just shall live by faith" is a command repeated four times in Scripture.
When we come to Christ in faith, we are saved by faith (Eph. 2:8--9), and now we must live by faith. Faith is active obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. But we are not only to live by faith, we are to live the life of hope. Authentic hope came to mankind through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now we can live with hope within a world that is overcome with despair. [Cedar, S. 127.]
A Brazilian Indian tribe was being ravaged by a contagious disease. A missionary arrived and concluded the I tribe's only hope was to cross a nearby river for inoculations at a jungle infirmary there. But the Indians believed the river to be inhabited by evil spirits, and that entering its water meant certain death.
To overcome the tribe's superstition, the missionary explained how he'd crossed the river and arrived unharmed. No luck. He led the people to the bank, walked out into the river, and splashed water on his face. They still hesitated. Finally he dove into the water, swam beneath the surface, and emerged on the other side. The Indians broke into cheers and followed him across.
Jesus explained to his followers that the river of death was nothing to fear. They wouldn't believe him. He touched a boy and called him back to life. He whispered life into a girl's dead body. He let a dead man spend four days in a grave, then called him out. They remained unconvinced. He had to submerge Himself in death before people would believe it had been conquered. But after He came out on the other side, it was time to celebrate! [Lucado, Max. Six Hours One Friday. ]
Since Jesus has conquered death He has removed the reason for fearing it, if we will only follow Him to the other side of life on to the shore of eternity. It is through Christ, whom the Father resurrected (v. 3) and glorified in His Ascension (John 17:5; Heb. 1:3) that people may come to know and trust in God. As a result of God's eternal plan and priceless payment for sin, faith and hope can be placed in Him. [Walvoord, John & Zuck, Roy. The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983, S. 843.]
IN CLOSING,
Before World War II missionaries carried the gospel to Ethiopia's Satan-worshiping Wallamo tribe. The decision of Tigyne, a slave, to follow Jesus displeased his master. He forbid Tigyne to attend Bible studies or worship, and often beat him for his faith. It was a price the young Christian was willing to pay.
But another price he could not afford. The price of his freedom. Just before the missionaries were expelled from Ethiopia, missionary Ray Davis with the help of other missionaries, bought his freedom.
Twenty-four years passed before Davis returned When Tigyne heard his friend was coming, he waited at the mission station for several days. As he saw Davis round the corner in a car driven by a fellow missionary, he ran to its window, The driver slowed, and Tigyne-ran beside the car, took Davis' hand, and kissed it again and again- As' he ran, he yelled to his friends, "Look! Look! The one who redeemed me has returned!" As the car stopped and Davis got out, Tigyne dropped to his knees, put his arms around his friend's legs, and began to kiss his dusty shoes. [Lucado, Max. And the Angels Were Silent.]
A true Christian is a man who never for a moment forgets what God has done for him in Christ. When you and I meditate on the sacrifice of Christ for us, certainly we should want to obey God and live holy lives for His glory. For "in the cross of Christ I see a description of the depth of man's sin, the overwhelming love God, and the only way of salvation." [BILLY GRAHAM] Jesus, thank You for buying my release from the slavery of sin.
When only a young lady, Frances Ridley Havergal saw a picture of the crucified Christ
with this caption under it: "I did this for thee. What hast thou done for Me?" Quickly, she
wrote a poem, but was dissatisfied with it and threw it into the fireplace. The paper came out unharmed! Later, at her father's suggestion she published the poem, and today we sing it.
I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed;
That thou might ransomed be, And quickened from the dead.
I gave, I gave, My life for thee, What hast thou given for Me?
A good question, indeed! I trust we can give a good answer to the Lord.
