In these five verses, Peter now called on the
people to live a life of reverence. By the new birth, believers entered into a
relationship with God and should now give Him the due reverence that He
deserves. In these verses we see three reasons why we should live a life of
reverence.
The first reason is found in verse 17. Peter
reckoned that since believers have God as Father, and He is One Who would judge
impartially, believers should therefore conduct their earthly lives in reverential
fear of Him.
In verses 18-19, he gave the second reason, now
that we believers know that the salvation and hope we have obtained was through
the shedding of the precious Blood of Christ, God’s precious Son. We are not redeemed
by perishable things such as gold or silver, for redemption cannot be done with
perishable things that would subject to decay and corruption. God used the
precious blood of Christ, the unblemished spotless Lamb of God, to secure our
redemption from our slavery to sin. This gives us another great reason to live
a life in awe of Him.
Finally verses 20-21 provide the third reason for
us to live in reverent fear of God. Peter tells us here that the work of redemption
by Christ transcends time. God had already chosen Christ for this work before
the creation of time. So when men fell, it did not take God by surprise. He
already knew what He would do. He sent His Son so that fallen men through Him could
become believers of God. All these did not take place as an after-thought of God,
neither did it happen by accident. It was God’s plan made before the foundation
of time. Now, God had also raised Christ from the dead and gave Him glory. And in
this same glorious resurrection, believers found their faith and hope in God.
Therefore, let us live in awe of Him and set our faith and hope in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment