The Necessary Prerequisite for Killing Sin

Over the next nine weeks, our adult Core Seminar will consider the command for us to kill sin, as stated by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:13:

If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

You are responsible for killing sin. Yes, you must do it by the Spirit – we’ll discuss what that means on Sunday mornings. Yet you personally must decide that sin should be killed.

But many of us do not want to kill sin. Why not?

One important part of the problem: We have an unbiblical view of sin. We will not hate sin unless we hold the biblical view.

Many think of sin simply as the breaking of a rule. Some rules – such as speed limits – are to an extent arbitrary. We may approve of speed limits that prevent other drivers from traveling 120mph on I-85 – but if I’m on a long, straight section of interstate in good weather with no cars behind me or in front of me, I may be able to drive well over the speed limit without negative consequences.

When we think of sin in this way, we easily rationalize our disobedience:

  • “A little violation of this rule doesn’t really matter.”
  • “I can disobey without getting caught”
  • “I can be careful to avoid the potential negative consequences”
  • “There are aspects of my situation that make this rule inapplicable.”
  • Or, “Sure it would be bad if I were to do this long-term. But once? No problem.”

But biblically, sin is not at all like the speed limit.

Consider these two aspects of sin:

First: Sin is personal rebellion, an affront to the glory of God.

God created man in His image, for His glory (Genesis 1:26-27, Isaiah 43:6-7). We thus are obligated to fulfill the purpose of our creation by living in such a way that we show what He is like.

In the Garden, Adam and Eve do not break an arbitrary rule. Rather, by believing the serpent’s lies and disobeying God, they imply that God is not good, that He is not loving, that He is not wise, that He does not have their best interests at heart. God had given them all they could possibly want or need – and they chose to think He was miserly, conniving, constraining them (see D.A. Carson’s insightful summary of what Eve should have said to the serpent). This is rebellion against the One to whom they owe everything, even life itself.

If we are to hate sin, we too must see it as rebellion against the One who has given us everything.

Second: Sin is the destruction of joy, rather than the path to joy.

We see this too in the Genesis account. Adam and Eve think they will profit by eating the forbidden fruit. But instead, they lose everything: Their sweet relationship with God, their open and trusting relationship with each other (and eventually with their children), their fulfilling work, and even their bodily immortality.

King David and our Lord Jesus summarize this point well:

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11, emphasis added).

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44, emphasis added).

We do not become like God by rebelling against God; we do not find joy and fulfill our reason for existence by despising Him and His Word. We find love, joy, and peace in walking with Him – what Adam and Eve had forsook – even when that means turning our backs on the pseudo-pleasures that the world and the devil offer us.

Consider the following passages that drive home the biblical view of sin (ESV, emphasis added). Meditate on them to increase your hatred of sin. Then join us in Core Seminar on Sunday mornings as we consider how we individually and collectively can put sin to death.

Psalm1: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 81:13-16: Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Proverbs 7:7-27: I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey; he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.” With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

Proverbs 8:32-36: [Wisdom is speaking] “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Proverbs 9:13-18: The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Proverbs 15:32: Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.

Isaiah 55:1-3: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

Jeremiah 2:12-13: Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Matthew 6:30-33: [Jesus says] “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” [See 1 Kings 17:1-16 for an example of this truth lived out.]

Romans 6:19-23: I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Galatians 5:22-23: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control [that is, Christlike character, displayed to the glory of God]; against such things there is no law.

Philippians 3:8: I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

Revelation 3:14-22: “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'”

Once you have deepened your hatred for sin, hold on securely to this fundamental Gospel truth:

1 John 2:1-2: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Tell the Next Generation

Every time we share the gospel with a family member at a holiday gathering, with a neighbor while we’re mowing the lawn, with a stranger on our daily commute, or even with our own children at bedtime devotionals, we are heralding to them the deeds of our great God. In this way, we pass the gospel to another generation. In Psalm 44 we see this pattern. Psalm 44 begins this way:

Psalms 44:1—O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:

This is how the gospel has perpetuated throughout the centuries: one generation telling the next. Indeed, the gospel is only ours to pass on to another generation because someone first passed it on to us—and someone passed it to them and so on and so forth. This is our gospel legacy. We have the privilege of passing on to the next generation the story of God’s greatest deed that he performed in the days of old in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we do this, we follow in the pattern that Psalm 44 describes.

 

Psalm 44 in Context

In Psalm 44, the Psalmist isn’t heralding the explicit gospel of Jesus Christ in the historical sense, due to the fact that Jesus had yet to walk the earth when this Psalmist penned these words. However, Psalm 44 does point to, anticipate, and prophetically prefigure the gospel of Jesus Christ. Did you notice the colon at the end of verse 1? That tells us that the Psalmist is about to describe the deeds of God that he is referring to. Consider those deeds.

Psalms 44:2–3 describe God’s deeds in the days of old, when God delivered the promised land to his people, the future kingdom of their nation, by routing all their enemies. God “drove out nations” before his people, and he “planted” his people. God “afflicted the peoples” but he set his people free. The psalmist sums all this up in salvific terms. His people did not “save” themselves, but God did by his own “right hand, [his] arm, and the light of [his] face.” Why? Because he delighted in them.

In light of this past grace of God, the Psalmist then raises up his petition for God to again save his covenant people. Indeed, he frames the entire rest of the Psalm, vv. 4–26, with a plea for God to work his salvation again: “You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob!” (Psalm 44:4) and “Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!”

 

The Gospel in Psalm 44

This salvation that the Psalmist longs for, Christ fulfills. Jesus is the Israel that Israel should have been. Jesus secured for us the eternal kingdom—what the promised land pointed to. And he did it by being “rejected” in his people’s place (Psalm 44:9). He did it by becoming a “sheep for slaughter” (Psalm 44:11), by becoming “the taunt of [his] neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around [him]” (Psalm 44:13), even though he had “not forgotten [God] and [he] was not false to [God’s] covenant” (Psalm 44:17). He became the curse for us (Galatians 3:13). And God did not “abandon [his] soul to Sheol or let [his] holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10; cf. Acts 2:27–31). Therefore, in Christ, God helps us and redeems us because he delights in us as his people united to Christ (Psalm 44:26). This is the gospel, God’s greatest deed of salvation and redemption.

 

Telling God’s Greatest Deed of Old

So we still follow this same pattern of the Psalmist. We now tell of the greatest deed of old that God has done. God sent his Son, God incarnated, wrapped in human flesh, in order to save all who believe in him—to give them eternal life (John 3:16). He accomplished this in his perfect life, death, and resurrection. This is the deed we speak of when we share the gospel. This is what we pass on to the coming generation. And we herald this past deed of grace, the gospel of Jesus, with a view to and in anticipation of God’s future grace.

Because of what Jesus has done, and because of what he is still doing from the throne room in heaven, we endure the trials and reproach that this life throws our way, knowing that we are awaiting the heavenly city, the city that is to come, whose designer and builder is God (Heb 11:10; 13:14). We look to the day when we will see “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”, when we will hear that clarion call: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3). This is what God’s greatest deed in the gospel of Jesus has secured for us.

 

Conclusion

We have the privilege of passing on to the next generation the story of God’s greatest deed that he performed in the days of old in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have heard this great deed from the generation before us, and we aim to pass it on to the next. We have heard, and we will tell. And we do it all with a view to eternity with God.

Cultivating a Thankful Heart

How important is gratitude to God?

The Apostle Paul commands us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Gratitude is thus central to our becoming what God intends us to be. But we easily fall into ingratitude, focusing on what God has not given us as opposed to what He has.

Consider these seven categories of items, from the past and in the present, for which we should express thankfulness to God:

1) Salvation, in all its parts

We were by nature children of wrath, but God being rich in mercy made us alive in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:3-5). That salvation is completely undeserved; it is all a gift, all by His grace (Ephesians 2:6-9). In Christ Jesus we have complete forgiveness through His sacrifice on the cross, and thus have access directly to God the Father. He adopts us into His intimate family and has His Holy Spirit dwell in us. He transforms us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

2) Obvious Other Gifts

God sometimes grants us pleasures, joys that are clearly unexpected gifts from Him. Here’s one from my life:

I was a competitive distance runner for almost 25 years. As a 37-year old In 1993, I ran a small town Thanksgiving Day 5k in Massachusetts that I should have won. But I limped home third, showing no guts and little speed. I was disgusted with myself.

The next day I got up before sunrise to run a five-mile loop. Looking at the thermometer, I almost got back into bed – it was 7 degrees, the coldest morning so far. I forced myself out of the house, just planning to go through the motions.

And then God gave me the gift. After a mile or two, I found myself running with tremendous freedom, with smooth form, with considerable speed, soaking in the beauty of the sunrise over the mountains.

All that I loved about running was encapsulated in that effort.

Then God gave me another gift – I wrote about that run. Unbeknownst to me, eight months later I would suffer a knee injury that would prevent me from ever running like that again. But our Lord prompted me to write in part in order that I would have that reminder for the rest of my life of His gift of running.

I wrote, “I am most thankful not for the years of races, not for the hard training, not for any speed I may have, but for this Thanksgiving Friday run.” (You can read my write-up here.)

What obvious gifts are you thankful for?

3) Clear Answers to Prayer

God involves us in accomplishing His purposes via prayer in part so that we will give thanks to Him when He answers: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:11).

So remember what you pray for – and give thanks when He answers!

4) What We are Tempted to Think We Produced or Obtained Ourselves

Let me just list several examples to prompt your reflection:

  • Spouses
  • Children
  • Jobs
  • Income: “It is [God] who gives you the power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18)
  • Homes
  • Health and Fitness
  • Skills and Abilities
  • Education
  • Christian virtues: faith, obedience, perseverance, even the desire to follow Him (Psalm 119:36)

5) What We are Tempted to Think We Deserve

Again, here are some possible examples:

  • Life – He created us
  • Breath – He sustains us
  • Sleep – “He gives to his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2)
  • Daily provision – food, health care, peace
  • A functioning government – While it is easy to see flaws in our government, very few people in the history of the world have lived under a better government than ours.

We recognize all the items in these first five categories as good. The problem is that we often don’t acknowledge them as from God, and so we fail to give Him thanks.

The last two categories are different:

6) Gifts that We Easily Overlook

We are tempted not to notice these gifts – instead, we often complain when we don’t encounter them. Examples:

  • An efficient customer service agent
  • A courteous driver
  • Electricity when it doesn’t go out
  • Police who do their jobs effectively and professionally
  • The church members who aren’t up front – who prepare the Lord’s Supper, who put up signs, who clean the church, and do so many other tasks

What do you benefit from that you overlook? Thank God – as well as the people involved.

7) Always and for Everything by Faith in God’s Future Grace

The seventh category brings us to Paul’s statement that we should give thanks “in all circumstances,” or, as the Apostle says in Ephesians 5:20, “always and for everything.” That implies that we should thank God for trials and difficulties – even for the results of sin.

So we should rightly thank God for:

  • Tragedies
  • Deaths
  • Disappointments
  • “Negative” answers to prayer – when the sick are not healed, when the door to a job or a ministry or marriage is not opened, when a relationship is not reconciled, when a war is not

How do we give thanks for these?

We do not thank God for the sin, the sorrow, the pain, the suffering. But we do thank Him that He is working out His purposes even through such hardships.

Remember what our Lord says in Luke 11:11-12: “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”

A good father doesn’t refuse to give his child something good, and never gives his child something harmful. But when a good father’s two-year old asks for a cookie he may well give him an orange. We – spiritual two-year olds that we are – often struggle to see how what God gives us serves His purposes. But if we are in Christ, whatever He gives us is for our good and His glory.

Sometimes we get a glimpse of how God is at work, as Paul did 2 Corinthians 1:8-9:

We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Paul discerns one way God worked through that difficult trial – He highlighted Paul’s dependence on Him. God undoubtedly was accomplishing millions of other objectives simultaneously; as the Apostle says elsewhere, “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Romans 11:33). Though Paul doesn’t see those millions of accomplishments, he is able to thank God for this one good result of his trial – for this one way this difficulty was an egg and not a scorpion.

So when in the midst of trials and difficulties, look for ways that God may be at work. Ask Him to show you a glimpse of what he is accomplishing.

However, even when we pray for such glimpses, oftentimes we fail to discern any good that results from the evil we experience. How do we thank God “always and for everything” then?

Thank God that He promises that:

  • He is at work – even when we can’t see how
  • He has not given us a scorpion
  • He is sustaining our faith in the midst of the trial
  • He provides in His Word and in church history accounts of others in similarly terrible circumstances – and those worked for the good of His people and the glory of His Name.

I encourage you to cultivate a thankful heart by considering these seven categories. Identify and thank God for one example from each, whether recent or from your past. Thank Him for:

  • One aspect of salvation
  • One obvious gift
  • One clear answer to prayer
  • One good you are tempted to think you earned or produced
  • One good you are tempted to think you deserve
  • One gift you easily overlook
  • One difficulty that considered by itself is not good

You may want to do the entire exercise in one sitting. Alternately, perhaps it would be more beneficial to pick one category a day over the course of a week. In either case, then share these thanksgivings with someone else. Ask him or her to do the same.

Continue to remind yourself that any good, any pleasure, any delight, all health, all wisdom, all knowledge, any growth, any improvement, any Christlikeness comes from God – and they are ours only because of Jesus.  Apart from Him, either the entire human race is destroyed under God’s wrath, or we live in a Genesis 6:5 world: “Every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (NIV).

So cultivate a thankful heart. Give thanks always and for everything. Express that thanks to God and to one another.

And so fulfill the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

[This devotion is based on part of the March 27 sermon, “Give Thanks in All Circumstances.” You can listen to that sermon via this link.]

Runners, To Your Marks; Get Set; Go!

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13

Think about this verse as a daily exercise: Every day, begin by preparing your minds for action. Then throughout the day, be completely sober-minded. This enables you, thirdly, to set your hope fully on the future grace we will receive when Jesus returns.

Before we elaborate on each step, think over this analogy:

Consider each day of living the Christian life as a 400 meter run. Prior to being called to the start, you need to make sure you’re dressed in running clothes. Your shoes must be tied. Your spikes must be tightened. Then, crouched in the blocks before the race starts, you must prepare your mind for action: You have to get ready to make an extreme effort. You must put aside all other thoughts, all distractions. You must focus on the starter, ready to explode as soon as the gun sounds.

Then, throughout the race, you must be “sober-minded.” That is, you must maintain your focus on running well, even as your body screams out that the sprint is too painful. You must relax your shoulders and your jaw, while maintaining your knee lift and efficient form.

Finally, you set your hope on the coming, certain end. The race will seem interminable. The finish line may appear to recede instead of drawing closer. Your legs may feel like lead. But the end is certain. The race will end, and its end will be glorious.

Prepare Your Mind for Action

The King James Version translates this phrase literally, “Gird up the loins of your minds.” In Peter’s day, men normally wore robes or tunics that draped down to their ankles. Imagine trying to run in such clothing! So any time a man had to move quickly, or to engage in difficult labor, he would tie up the robe around his waist. In this way he prepared himself for action.

Similar ideas occur several times in the Old Testament. For example, God tells the Israelites to eat the Passover “with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Exodus 12:11). They are to be ready to move the minute God gives the command.

How do we fulfill this on a day to day basis? How do we prepare ourselves, so we are ready for whatever action God has in store for us?

  • We must remind ourselves of the truths of the Gospel, of the promises of God, of His character, of the work of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
  • We must reflect on how we failed in the fight of faith yesterday, and determine how to depend on God to fight that fight today.
  • We must pray for ourselves, and pray for others, confident that brothers and sisters are praying for us.
  • We must go to the Word, seeking the Spirit’s insight and encouragement, picking out what we will meditate, learn from, and put into practice this day.

Be Completely Sober-Minded

Having been prepared, we must run today’s race. We must maintain a constant vigilance against the distractions that come our way continually.

Satan sometimes tempts us directly to doubt God’s goodness, to doubt His power, and to doubt our status before Him.  Other times he instead tries to distract us from the task, encouraging us to think of other aspects of life – our jobs, our families, our health, our safety, our entertainment, our education – as more important, more vital, more urgent than Jesus and His Kingdom. One way or another, he tries to envelope us in a fog on unbelief, in which the truths of God seem unreal, immaterial, and unimportant. In that fog, we effectively are drunk, not sober; we’re not thinking clearly about Who God is; we’re not trusting His revelation of the nature of Reality.

So we must maintain our sobriety. We must be completely sober-minded.

Set Your Hope Fully on the Grace That Will Be Brought to You at the Revelation of Jesus Christ

Note that Peter tells us to set our hope on future grace. God has given us great grace already if we are in Christ. We are to reflect on that in preparing our minds for action, and hold on firmly to that truth by being sober-minded. But we are to set our hope fully on the future grace that will be ours when Jesus returns, when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15).

What grace will we receive in that day? Peter has already mentioned some aspects of this grace:

  • 1 Peter 1:4: An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, protected in heaven for us
  • 1 Peter 1:5: The completion of our salvation, which is ready for us, and will be revealed to us in the last time.

From other Scriptures we know: We will know fully, even as we are fully known. We will see Him face to face. He will rejoice over us with loud singing. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. We will receive incorruptible, sinless, eternal bodies. The entire creation will be made new. There will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more pain. God Himself will be our light.

The glory of the finish line helps the 400 meter runner to endure. Just so, the glories of Jesus’ return help us. But Peter hints that we have another reason to hope in the midst of trials.

Literally, Peter says, “Set your hope fully on the grace that is being brought to you.” That is, the participle Peter uses is in the present tense, not the future. What’s the difference, since Jesus’ return is obviously future?

Had the tense been future, Peter’s emphasis would have been solely on the grace that will be ours on that great day. By using the present tense, Peter emphasizes, in addition, that right now all you experience is bringing about the culmination of God’s Plan. All your pain, all your sorrow, all your difficulties and trials work to bring about this coming grace, this return of Jesus – and with Him, your inheritance of all things.

This is our hope. Day by day, throughout every day, remind yourself: Right now, God is working through all that happens to bring about that Final Day, with its great outpouring of grace.

The Foundation for Peter’s Commands

Consider finally some of the exhortations and commands Peter gives in the remainder of this letter. All are grounded in 1 Peter 1:13:

  • Be holy in all your conduct
  • Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which includes putting away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander
  • Long for the spiritual milk of the Word
  • Love one another earnestly, having unity of mind
  • Be subject to authority: everyone to governments, wives to husbands, servants to masters, the younger to elders
  • Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding manner
  • Elders, shepherd the flock eagerly, willingly, setting an example
  • Proclaim the excellencies of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
  • Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you
  • In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy
  • Live for the will of God
  • Show hospitality without grumbling
  • Use your gifts to serve one another to God’s glory
  • Rejoice as you share Christ’s sufferings
  • Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another
  • Cast your anxieties on God
  • Resist the devil

So, my friends, today and every day: Prepare your minds for action! Gird up that long robe! Get ready to run! Listen for His command! Be like the Israelites at Passover, all ready to head out at God’s command.

Keep being sober minded. Prepare your minds so that you can avoid the fog of unbelief and maintain your focus.

Hold to the solid hope that even now God is working all things together to bring about that Final Day, when every tribe and tongue will praise the Name of Jesus, when He will wipe all tears from our eyes, when we will see Him face to face.

So: Runners, to your marks. Get set. Go!