Have you been struggling to be obedient? In many Christian circles today, the focus is on obedience. Many times people say that obedience is important – and I completely agree… the Bible has much to say on the topic of obedience. Where we tend to differ, is the manner of that obedience. And this manner is defined in the covenant that we are under today as believers in Christ. It is important to understand our covenant today in order to truly understand the type and manner of obedience that is required by the covenant.
Most people automatically assume that when they see the word obedience in the Bible that it is always referring to outward obedience via performance and actions. This was certainly true in the Old Covenant of the Law of Moses. However the Bible describes a different type of obedience for believers today who are under the New Covenant of Grace in Christ. This is what we will be studying today, because it is very difficult to be obedient under the terms of our covenant if we do not know what the terms are.
Our scripture text today is going to be 1st Peter 1:2. And as you know I love the details in the Bible. It’s amazing how one single verse of scripture can say so much when we take the time to look at the details! Let’s read it now:
“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, be multiplied.”
First we see that Peter addresses his audience as Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. And without going into too much of a rabbit trail here, some use this verse as a proof text that we have no free will today, which would make our whole study on obedience a moot point! However I want you to take special notice that the word “foreknowledge” here in no way cancels your free will. God is outside of time, we are inside of time. We see time in a linear fashion; God does not. God knows full-well all of the choices that you will ever make. He knows in advance what you are going to choose with your free will. It is still your free will to choose; God just simply knows what your choices will be because He is outside of linear time.
Now if that didn’t explode your brain to think about that, I am going to give you a free Grace gem here… that God, even knowing in advance all of your choices, all of your mistakes, failures and faults, still chose to save you freely by His mercy and Grace from the very beginning of time. When I think about that, it makes my heart overflow, because my limited human capacity to understand love simply pales in comparison to the divine love that God demonstrated for me, and for you.
There are a lot of people today that try to put the focus on themselves and their own love – they make their love for God the center focus – but that was never the focus… the focus has always been God’s love for us. If you examine all of the religions of man, you will find that they all have one thing in common: they are man-centered. It’s all about improving through self-effort; man trying to reach God, reach Heaven or attain a higher state or consciousness. However what sets true Christianity apart is that is Jesus-centered. It is Jesus who came down to our level, did what we could not… it is God reaching for man – purely from His divine love.
That being said, God did not just reach for us with no purpose in mind. He didn’t just save us with no practical benefit. Look at the rest of our verse:
through sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, be multiplied.
Peter says Grace and Peace be multiplied… and I know that some people like to dismiss this as just a common phrase used in Peter’s letters. But again, there are no insignificant details in the Bible. Do you want Grace? Do you want Peace to be multiplied in your life? Look at how it happens:
Through sanctification of the Spirit. The word sanctification means to be made holy, and I know that many times we believe that holiness is something to occurs from our actions. We think going to church makes us holy, or fasting makes us holy, or if we read the Bible so many hours or pray for so many hours that we become more holy… that is us being man-centered again. Let’s put all of our human reasoning aside and look at what the scripture actually says: Real sanctification, real holiness is of the Spirit – that is the Holy Spirit (ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of Holiness). You are made holy and sanctified, not by your performance, not by your actions, but by the fact that you have received the Holy Spirit. Your sanctification is not of yourself, but it is of the Spirit (1st Corinthians 1:30, Hebrews 10:10).
Now, what are we sanctified to? Peter was kind enough to write down the rest of it for us: To the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
This is the main point of our study today. Again, take time to notice the details here in this scripture text. This is the obedience and sprinkling, but not your obedience, not your sprinkling of blood. This is the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, the Spirit sanctifies you, makes you holy, sets you apart, not so that you can live a life of self-effort and striving obedience by your own performance… no, any human religion of the world could do that – and they already do, without any help from the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Holy Spirit sets you apart to a life of Grace, where you are made righteous and judged perfectly obedient, sprinkling the perfect blood of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Again, this is Jesus-centered, not man-centered.
Peter says that it is because of the salvation of God, these truths which we have just read that Grace and Peace is multiplied in our lives. The problem today is that many believers do not actually believe this truth. They don’t truly believe that they are sanctified by the Spirit of God, instead they still believe that they are sanctified by their performance. The result of this is that in their mind they can be holy one moment and unholy the next moment… and that leads to a performance-mentality and a lack of peace.
Many people don’t believe that it is the obedience of Jesus Christ that makes them right with God, they still believe that their own obedience to the Law makes them right. So in their mind, they can be righteous one moment and unrighteous the next moment, all based on their own efforts and law-keeping. Again the result is a performance-mentality and a lack of peace.
However Peter here says that by the sanctification of the Spirit and the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, Grace and Peace is multiplied. It really is that simple!
Our obedience today is a different kind of obedience, not primarily external as it was before in times past, but today our obedience is internal, it is spiritual, it is obedience to the truth of what Jesus Christ has done. Our obedience is to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Recognizing His perfect obedience and receiving it for ourselves – applying it to ourselves, because many believers today actually fail to apply the obedience of Jesus to themselves. They still feel as though they have to accomplish for themselves what Christ has already done. They misrepresent the truth out of sheer ignorance.
However I encourage you today, realize that what Christ has done was for you. His perfect obedience and His divine blood of sprinkling has been set to your account. He didn’t obey for His own record… He was already sinless! He obeyed for your record! It is yours! Therefore, receive it. Obey the truth of Christ, obey by faith. This is your obedience today under the New Covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus. Your obedience is to Jesus’ obedience.
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