Text: 2 Peter 1:1 – 10

Introduction 

I have found one phenomenon in the Christian life: many Christians experience spiritual lives that are going back and forward, ups and downs. This is considered as something normal. If we live our spiritual lives in a pattern of going back and forward, what happens is that we never move forward, just like people who are dancing.

This kind of life is not the life that God wants. The life that He wants is where we see growth happen, where we see something that changes in our lives. Today God wants us to understand that Grace is a place to grow, not just a place where we feel safe because our sins have been forgiven.

If we do not grow, then over time our spiritual life will experience stagnation. We might still be going to church, but it has become ritual and we have no relationship with the living God (2 Timothy 3:5).

Let’s look at our text above.

Precious Faith

The Apostle Peter begins the passage by reminding us about salvation, that we have been saved not because of our good works, but only by faith in Jesus. In verse 1, Peter said that the recipients of his letter have received a faith as precious as ours. Why is that faith called precious faith? Because that faith is not just an ordinary one. We all live by faith. Have you ever worried when you are sitting in a good chair? Definitely not, because you are confident that the chair can support your weight. If you are not sure, then your sitting position will change, you will not sit in a relaxed position in the chair, you will be half standing or half squatting.

So, we all live by faith. I give you another example, you want to go to another place by plane, you buy a ticket, you have faith in the airline and the pilot who drives the airplane will take you to your destination. If we don’t have faith, we can’t live. However, the faith that Peter is referring to here is a different kind of faith, because this faith does not only make us sit comfortably or bring you to your destination safely, but the faith that brings us into eternal life, which is faith that believes that God’s righteousness had been granted to us in Christ.

Therefore, this faith is a precious faith, the most valuable of all things that you believe in this life. Your faith in Jesus is the faith that leads you to eternal life. Therefore, in verse 2, Peter said, if we have faith like this, we will have 2 things: Grace and Peace. If we have faith, we are in Grace and we have Peace.

Like the example above, when we have faith in a chair, we will be able to sit comfortably on that chair. In our lives as Christians, we have peace when we truly believe in God. The more we believe in God, the greater the peace in our lives.

Peter also explained in verse 2 that our faith in Christ is based on one thing only, namely our knowledge of God. It is from knowing God, faith arises, and peace will abound in our lives, because we know that God loves us very much. Peace is what will give us strength to go through everything in our life.

So, the essence of the first two verses is that we have received salvation, which God bestowed because of our faith in Jesus Christ, and faith in Jesus comes from our knowing Him. But Peter didn’t stop there, because if so, then salvation is nothing more than a ticket. Salvation is not a ticket, but a journey.

Therefore, in verses 3 and 4, Peter gives us an understanding that salvation is more than just about our sins being forgiven and us going to heaven. That is the end result of our salvation, but more than that, we must understand the purpose of our salvation.

Many people fail in their journey of life as Christians, because they understand that salvation is just about forgiveness of sins. Salvation is so much bigger than just having our sins forgiven. When our sins are forgiven, that is the beginning of the great things that God will do in our lives.

We will learn 3 things about our salvation: namely Purpose, Power and Promise of Salvation (Purpose, Power and Promise of Salvation).

Purpose, Power and Promise of Salvation 

In verse 3 it says, “For His divine power has given us all things that are useful for a godly life through our knowledge of Him, who has called us by His glorious and wonderful power.” 

So, brothers and sisters, the purpose of salvation is that we have the life or image of God in our lives. We live to reflect His character, because God’s original plan, God’s eternal plan for man is written in Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” That should be our goal as Christians, as God wants to restore His image in human life which has been damaged by sin, lust, and by the devil.

Therefore, brethren, we must know that getting salvation in Jesus, is not only about having our sins forgiven, but also changing our lives to become like God day by day. There must be two sides to salvation. Often, we only focus on our sins being forgiven, but we don’t want to go through a journey of life where our lives are changed day by day to become like God.

Too many Christians just think of salvation is just like a ticket. The illustration goes like this, if there is a criminal who is being chased by the police, then there is a person who gives him a ticket to take a train out of town, and thinks that as long as he holds the ticket, he will get to his destination even while on the train he committed another crime (pickpocketing people’s wallets, for example). If so, will he be able to get to his destination safely, even if he has a ticket?

I want to give you a good sentence from Max Lucado’s book entitled Just Like Jesus: God accepts us just the way we are, but He never leaves us just the way we are. He wants to change us to be just like Jesus. People who truly receive salvation, believe in Jesus as Lord and savior in their lives, must experience changes in their lives. Can we see the progressive work of the Holy Spirit transforming our characters to be like Jesus each day?

Many Christians treat salvation as insurance. One time I was invited by a friend of mine who wanted to buy a car. He saw an attractive car, and he asked the seller, “How much is it?”. The seller (owner of the car) mentioned a price, and my friend felt it was expensive, and started haggling over the price of the car.

Then the car owner arrogantly said, “I want to sell this car, but I also don’t really need money, so if you want to bid on this car, you’re just wasting your time, and again this car is already insured, so if I’m tired of this car, and no one wants to buy it, I crash this car into a tree, and I can get more money for this car”.

Many Christians are like that, who think that “It’s okay for me to live as I please, after all Jesus died for me”, because they think that salvation is only about the forgiveness of sins. But God is not like that, God has a big plan for our salvation, and to fulfill His plan, He gives Power and Promise.

In verse 3 it says, “Because of His divine power… “. God’s power will work changes in our lives. We are not able to change our lives with our own strength, but God makes us able. That grace not only forgives sins, but also leads us to experience change after change in our lives.

Divine Nature 

In verse 4 the Lord says, “By this way He has bestowed upon us precious and very great promises, that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature and escape the worldly passions that destroy the world.”. Every living thing (creature) has natural characteristics (nature) and can only live within its nature, for example, fish cannot live on land, otherwise dogs cannot live in water. 

Of all the natures that exist, the Word of God says, there is something called divine nature. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 5:17 it is said: ” So whoever is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has passed away, indeed the new has come”. So, if you say, “I am a new creature in Christ,” you must know that you must have the new nature.

How do we know the nature of a living thing? We can’t investigate the nature of fish, we can’t investigate fish DNA, fish cells, we can’t understand that. But ordinary people can understand the nature of fish from the manifestations/indications of that nature. That nature has 3 manifestations.

The first manifestation is Desire/Appetite. Each nature has different preferences. The divine nature has specific preferences. If today you want to know if you are saved, ask yourself this question: Is there a desire for God in me? Is there a desire for spiritual things in me? Do you like reading His Word? Or do you want what is in the world? If that is what we want, then our nature is not divine, but worldly. We may go to church, even serve God, but our nature is still worldly.

Can nature be changed? Yes, but only temporarily. Have you ever seen a circus show? If you see an elephant walking, then a normal elephant will walk on four legs. In circus shows, trained elephants can walk on two legs. After the circus show, the elephants go behind the scenes, how many legs do they walk with? Must be on four legs, right? Because the nature of an elephant is to walk on four legs. Did you know that many Christians play the circus? When he comes to church, he acts like an angel, he looks spiritual, but when he comes home from church, that’s his nature.

The second manifestation is Behavior. The way to walk, the way to talk, the way to face problems, the way to think, the way to make decisions is the natural nature of living things.  When an eagle encounters danger, it flies high, while an ostrich sinks its head into the ground. No wonder so many ostriches die.

The third manifestation is Associations (Association). I’m not going to go into too much detail on this, because it’s obvious. But I want us to really think about it, because in the last part, this is what I will tell you: don’t live on false assumptions. We have the wrong assumption that we are saved because we go to church every week, serve God, give tithes, and so on.

Therefore, the Apostle Peter leads us to seriously reflect on whether the reality of the salvation discussed above has really happened in our lives, so that we have firm confidence in our salvation. God has given us Purpose, Power, and Promise of salvation. Now what should we do?

Moving Forward in God 

What we have to do is in verse 5: ” Precisely for this reason you should earnestly strive to add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge,”. Because God has provided a Purpose, Power, and Promise of salvation, we can start taking steps. If God does not provide all of that, then our efforts are futile. God seems to want to say to us, “If you want to take a step, it will definitely happen in your life, because My Power and My Promises are with you, start trying really hard.”

The New King James Version says give all diligence. The New International Version says make every effort. The Good News Bible says do your best. I’m sure you all understand what this means, and I hope you have done this in other aspects of your life, perhaps in your studies or work.

The question is have we ever applied the things above in our spiritual life? We all understand what it means to study, work, and earn money desperately. Do we know what it means to really build our spiritual life? Often we understand how to work hard for temporary things, but not many of us know how to work hard for things that are eternal.

I want to ask you one more question for you to ponder. If you hear sermons that say something like this: “You have to be more serious, pray more, read God’s word, testify about Jesus and so on.” Do you feel pressured by God’s word like that? Do you accept the word with a happy heart or with a depressed/stressed heart?

Brethren, we should receive all God’s commandments with joy, because God’s commandments always want to show us who we are and how we should be. For example, if an eagle is commanded, “You must be able to fly!”, and if it says (imagine it can think and speak like a human), “Why am I bothering to fly? It’s better if I land.” That is an example of a stupid eagle, because it is by nature to fly, it is different if he is told to dive, he has the right to complain.

The ironic thing is when Christians hear preaching to be more serious with God and they get angry or complain. They are just told to do something that is natural for them to do, but they don’t want to and complain. Why? I do not know. There is only one possibility: they are stupid Christians or they are not Christians even though they claim to be Christians.

Christians should rejoice when they hear the truth of God’s word revealed, because it shows them how they should be. Because of that brother, in 2 Peter 1:5 which we read earlier, it shows a progress in Christian life, namely the character of God which is increasingly evident in our lives. Grace is not only about our sins being forgiven, but more than that, we are transformed to be more like Christ.

In our devotional verse today, we find that we must really try. So, not only God’s part, but us too. Some of you may say, “Isn’t there a Word of God that says, God is the one who gives growth?”. That is true, but we must also remember that there are people who plant and water.

As an illustration, there is a real Christian farmer. During the harvest season, some people ask him, “All your friends are reaping, why don’t you reap?” He replied, “I’m still waiting for God to grow rice in my field?”. The man then asked again, “When did you plant the rice?”, and the farmer replied, “Oh no, if God really wants to grow it, God can grow the rice in my field.”

Maybe when we hear that story, we think that farmers are stupid farmers, but many of us Christians are like that, who think that if God really wants to give growth to his spiritual life, then he will grow by himself. It will never happen.

The Apostle Paul said to the Philippians: “O my beloved brothers, you always obey; therefore, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not only as when I was still present, but even more so now when I am absent, for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13).

When we take a step, we say to God, “Lord, I want to live a holy life, I want to know You, walk in Your calling”, then God’s Power and Promises will happen in our lives. If we never take a step, we will never understand the true meaning of salvation.

I want you to understand this sentence: We do not flow to heaven, because many Christians think that after they accept Jesus as Lord and savior, their lives will just follow the flow that takes them to heaven. Unfortunately, we can’t be like that, because we don’t live in the current that takes us to heaven, but instead the current of this world takes us away from God. Therefore, if we want to live casually as Christians, the current will never take us to heaven. Brethren, don’t ever think that if we stay in one place, we will always be there.

There is a story that tells of two people who took a boat out to sea for an adventure. Halfway out to sea, they got out of their boats and swam after they had dropped anchor and anchor. One of them couldn’t swim, and he was wearing a life jacket. Unaware as they swam, they drifted away from their boat.

Finally, one day, the boat seemed a little far away, and they started to panic. They started making plans for how they could get back to their boat. Their plan is that those who can swim will swim back to the boat, while those wearing life jackets will remain in place waiting to be picked up by their friends. Finally, after more than an hour (because he was going against the current), the man who could swim got to the boat, and when he returned to pick up his friend, his friend was not there. He was getting confused. The next day, his friend was found, which is 20 miles from that place. What happened? His friend was carried away.

Sometimes we as Christians, we just calm down because we think the important thing is we have gone to church every week. I don’t want to make you panic, but there is a false assurance that the devil tries to give us, which ultimately makes us unaware that we are farther away from God.

Therefore, Peter said, we must move forward, because when we do that, then we will see Grace after Grace. Divine characters will begin to appear in our lives, which are not only visible from the inside, but from the outside, meaning that not only do we see our lives change, but other people see us change. In verse 7 he says that when we grow from one divine character to another, that love will be seen in all people. What is built on the inside will show on the outside. God’s character that is in us, which cannot be seen from physical eyes, will be seen from the fruit of our life.

Divine Nature in our life will be seen from our desire, behavior, and associations. Then people can see as the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:16: “In this way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” I have been reading this verse for a long time, and God opened it to me that there is something interesting about this sentence, namely they see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father, this sentence should say people see our good deeds and praise us, but no, people see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven, because the good deeds that are in our lives are none other than the image of God Himself.

A Fruitful Life 

The last part, in verse 8, Peter said if we do this abundantly, it means when we build a spiritual life without being thrifty, for example when we read the Bible without being limited by the time we make ourselves or when we come to church we don’t grumble if the service is finished 10 minutes late, then we will achieve the goal of salvation in verse 8: ” you will be made active.. “, in English it is said to be fruitful (many fruitful). People who bear much fruit are people who are faithful (faithful). It’s a shame that many Christians don’t nurture, but they instead torture their spiritual life.

When we watch useless things, talk about useless things, hear useless things, what we are actually doing is torturing our spiritual life. That is why we never grow spiritually. The second thing in verse 8 says, ” …and success in your knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord “. Success here means effectiveness, means achieving goals.

The illustration goes like this, when you have a headache, you have some paracetamol, and half an hour later your headache is gone, and you say paracetamol is effective for relieving headaches. The question is, are our lives effective? Does our life heading towards God’s goal, which is to become like Jesus? If not, it is because we are not serious enough to maintain our spiritual life.

In verse 9, Peter says there are people who do not do this, and three things are said about them: blind, shortsighted (their eyes cannot see far), and the third: people who waste God’s grace (people who forget that their sins have been forgiven). Such people think that Grace is an opportunity/license for them to sin.

Therefore, as I emphasized earlier, if the definition of salvation for us is only about our sins are forgiven, we will become weak Christians. But today we understand, the purpose of salvation is not only that our sins are forgiven, but that our lives are changed to be like Jesus. Peter said if we work diligently for our salvation, we will not stumble. 

Peter gives us assurance that we will not stumble if we keep advancing in God. This principle is contrary to the world’s principle that the faster we run, the more likely we are to stumble. If we don’t want to stumble, then we just keep quiet. Therefore brethren, our assurance in our salvation must be based on the real fruits of the Spirit in our lives, not our assumptions.

Let’s see what John the Baptist said in Matthew 3. At that time, he was baptizing people in the Jordan River, and on the banks of the river there were many people wearing white clothes, not wanting to be baptized, because they were “holy” people. They are the Pharisees. Then John said to the Pharisees, “You offspring of vipers. Who told you that you could escape the wrath to come? So produce fruit in accordance with repentance. And do not think that you can say in your hearts: Abraham is our father! For I say to you: God can make children for Abraham from these stones! (Matthew 3:7–9). I think John also wants to say to all of us that we shouldn’t think that if we go to church every week, then we will automatically be saved.

I encourage all of us to move forward and keep pressing on in the Lord. Grace is not for us to relax, but for us to achieve more of what God has prepared for us. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am who I am, and the grace that was bestowed upon me was not in vain. On the contrary, I have worked harder than all of them; but not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ”

If you don’t want to waste His Grace, then let’s move forward in God, ask that His Grace and Power create the character of Christ in our lives. As we move forward, God’s Grace will always be with us, just as God’s Grace was with Paul when he worked hard.

Reflection 

• What is our definition of salvation?
• Have we experienced any changes in our lives since we received Jesus in our lives?
• Write down things that keep us from growing in God, and pray to Him for strength to overcome.

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