The Second Letter of Peter

Subtitle: Growing in Godliness- 1

2 Peter 1:1-9.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 12, 2026.

As we begin to look at Peter’s second letter, we should note up front that Peter clearly treats this letter as if it will be his last.  He states that he will shortly put off his body, as the Lord has shown him. 

Let’s look at the letter.

Introduction (v. 1-2)

The letter starts off with a statement of who is writing or sending it.  This is the Apostle Peter.  This is just as he introduced himself in his first letter.  However, Peter adds the name Simon.

In some ways, this is his name, and it is normal for him to use it.  However, in the first letter, he did not do this.  There he introduced himself only as Peter.  It was Jesus who gave him the name Peter.  Thus, Peter emphasizes his new life following Jesus his master.  Yet, Simon would also emphasize that he is that same Simon who has been being transformed by the teaching of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.  God was redeeming Simon through Jesus, making him into the rock that Jesus had called him to be.

Peter also adds that he is a slave of Jesus Christ.  This may seem contradictory in light of the Apostle Paul’s emphasis that the Jews time serving under the law was a slavery.  In Jesus, they are now set free from the law of sin and death.  Yet, Peter is not calling himself a slave because Jesus has made him one.  No, Jesus has set Peter free.  Yet, Peter so loves the Lord Jesus that he considers himself a slave of Christ.  He volunteers to live only for the purposes of Jesus and not his own.

Peter does not address this letter to a specific group.  However, in 2 Peter 3:1, he will mention that this is his second letter.  Thus, it seems reasonable to think that this letter was sent to the same people as the previous letter (central Asia Minor).  Yet, it is possible that it had a wider circulation.  He simply says in verse 1 that he is writing “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.”  He is essentially addressing it to believers.

Faith involves what we do but also is a description of the truth about Jesus that we are called to believe.  We are walking out the faith that others before us have passed down to us, but we are also walking in the faith to which the Holy Spirit has drawn us, even stirred up within us.

This faith has been made possible by “the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”  It is his righteousness that lays the foundation for our faith.

It is important to note that in English this phrase could be read as either calling Jesus God, i.e., he is both God and Savior, or it can be read as speaking of two persons, the Father and Jesus.  The Greek grammar behind this phrase is fairly clear that God and Savior are both describing the same person, Jesus.  This is one of those clear places in Scripture where the divinity of Jesus is explicitly declared.  We see a similar statement in Titus 2:13. You may find some Greek Scholars who dispute this, but it is generally seen to be a conclusive statement of the divinity of Jesus.

Peter ends his introduction with a salutation of “grace and peace be multiplied to you…”  Grace is the good gifts of God in a variety of forms.  Peace is both an external peace (no longer enemies with God) and an internal peace (an assurance of right standing with God resonating in our hearts).  Peter prays for it to be multiplied to them (as it is needed), but particularly in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  The knowledge of God has been given to mankind through Jesus.  When we understand all that Jesus has made available to us, it becomes a source of never-ending grace and peace to the believer.

Peter gives a final exhortation (v. 3-21)

What we have been given (3-4)

Chapter 1 lays out a final exhortation of the Apostle.  He starts out by describing a couple of things that believers in Jesus have been given (or granted).  These have been granted by “his divine power.”   Jesus exercised divine power throughout his ministry, death, and resurrection.  On top of this, his divine power has secured many important blessings for believers.  Peter sums this up by saying that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness.  When you feel like you can’t do what God has given to you to do, remember that Christ has supplied everything you need to live a life that displays the godliness of our lord Jesus.  Yes, our flesh fights us and even wins some battles.  However, in the end, we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.  We must learn to thank God for His supply in every situation.  We must learn to walk in faith knowing that He is going before us to make the way.

We must be clear that it is the purpose of Jesus that we should live a godly life in his name.  Yet, at the same time, it is he who also supplies everything we need to do that.  He has supplied the message of truth, the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit, the family of believers along with many who are spiritually mature and can help us, and finally, he has supplied us with the Scriptures that have been confirmed and proven trustworthy.

The second thing that has been given to us is “his precious and magnificent promise by which we partake of the divine nature.”  This is a mouthful and says a lot.

The promises of Jesus are that he will not abandon nor forsake us in this life.  He will also send the Spirit to aid us.  He will bring us to himself so that where he is we may be there too.  He has secured an inheritance within the kingdom of God for us.  We will be his jewels on the day of his second coming.  These are only some of the great promises of Christ for those who follow him in faith.

What does he mean by “partakers of the divine nature?”  It does not mean that we are becoming gods ourselves.  Rather, God is supplying to us things that are His by nature.  He is eternal by nature, but He has made it possible for us to partake (have a portion) in his eternal life.  We also partake in the eternal fellowship among the Godhead.  This is about a relational bond and life that we can share with God.

The flip side of this partaking is that we are those who “have escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.”  By nature, we are those who are being corrupted by the lusts of the flesh.  By partaking in the divine nature, we are enabled to escape the death that is brought about through the lusts of men.

In your faith, diligently add these things to your life (v. 5-9)

Faith is the foundation of our walk with Christ.  However, we need to add some things to our faith.  In fact, we need to be diligent in this matter.  The following list is similar to Paul’s fruit of the Spirit.  It is clear that they are not intended to be exhaustive.  Rather, Peter is telling us not to settle for faith alone.  We must go on to let the Holy Spirit help us to bear the fruit of His presence.  These character traits are to be in our lives.  They will ensure that we are not stuck doing one thing to the exclusion of all other virtues.

To our faith in Christ, we need to add virtue (moral excellence).  How we live matters.  To our virtue we need to add knowledge.  Peter is not talking about the knowledge of humanity.  We need to add the knowledge of God that has been made available in Jesus.

Let me just insert here that this may sound strange.  How can I supply virtue to myself?  Though Peter does not make this explicit, the previous mention of the fruit of the Spirit is part of the answer.  God is supplying His Spirit in order to transform us into the image of Jesus.  However, this requires me to “supply” the faith and courage to walk these things out.  I must be intentional.  The question is never about God’s supply.  He is faithful.  However, the question is whether I will take up what He is supplying and adding it to my life.

To knowledge, we must add self-control.  Notice that knowledge in and of itself can puff us up with pride.  Thus, all of these virtues working together keep us from falling short of the image of Christ.

To self-control, we are to add perseverance.  Many people can do good things for a short time.  We are called to stick in there and endure to the end.

To perseverance, we are to add godliness.  Sometimes people who have endured many hardships can become arrogant and hard towards others.  We can cease to be like Jesus in our care for the lost.  We need both.

To our godliness, we are to add brotherly love.  This emphasizes the relational love that develops between family and friends as we do life together.

Finally, we are to add love (agape).  This is a love without condition.  It is love for the sake of Christ.  I love you, not because we have done life together and I have a bond with you, but because Christ compels me to do so.  This seems to serve as the capstone of Christ-like character we are to emulate.

Peter then makes a conditional statement.  “If these are yours and are increasing…”  It is up to you to listen to Jesus and to his apostle.  You can add these things because God is faithful to help you, supplying all you need to do it.  Instead of calling for a certain level, Peter emphasizes that they are increasing.  It may be hard to know if you are increasing in love over the short term.  However, over time, we can see how God transforms our life as we trust Him and obey.

If we have these and they are increasing, then we will not be useless and unfruitful.  Without Christ, our lives are essentially that: useless to God and unfruitful for the things that matter.  As God pours into your life, He is also working to make you spiritually fruitful to others in your life.  He will be able to use you to impact people who are spiritually lost, or brothers and sisters who need a helping hand.

Jesus even told his disciples that God will sometimes prune perfectly good things out of our life in order to make us more fruitful.

As we read verse nine, we can see that certain people were kicking against Peter’s command to grow in godliness.  Thus, Peter challenges those who refuse to follow this instruction.  They are blind and short-sighted.  They are blind to all that Jesus is trying to do in their life, and they are short-sighted to the day when they will give an account to the Lord they claim to have trusted.

They have forgotten their purification from former sins.  This is what Jesus is doing.  He has first legally purified us from our sins.  Yet, he then enlists us in a lifelong task of cleaning sin out of our lives.  We are not saved because we do this.  Rather, we do this because he has saved us.

For the life of me, I do not understand how some people have twisted grace into the idea that they don’t want to “work.”  Somehow you are encroaching on their freedom if you challenge their sin.  Jesus did not die to give us freedom to sin as we please.  He died to set us free from sin.  If we are not blind to the deleterious effects of sin in our life, then we will rejoice to have his help in this.

Praise be unto Jesus who delivers us from these bodies of death!

Growing in Godliness audio

The First Letter of Peter- 7

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 4

1 Peter 2:4-8. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 4, 2026.

We continue in this section where Peter admonishes us to be a part of the new spiritual people that Jesus is making.  He has been doing this through a series of imperatives (commands) that have other admonitions attached to them.

As we pick up today’s portion of Scripture, Peter moves into another section that is not couched in the language of command.

Let’s get into our passage.

You are being built into a spiritual house (v. 4-8)

Peter switches from the image of a baby growing up in the family and needing the milk of the word.  This image now is that of a stone building.  We could describe these as an organic image and an inorganic image.  However, notice that the stones in this section are described as living.  This is not just a dead building.  This is a living building made of living stones.  However, I don’t want to get ahead of myself here.

Though there is no explicit command, there is an implicit one.  If this is what God is doing, then we need to cooperate with Him and keep it in mind in all that we do.

One last thing before going into verse 4.  The imagery of a spiritual house is very rich in the Old Testament.  First, a house was a way of referring to a family.  The building itself draws its importance from its aid in the growth of a family.  In Ruth 4:11, Rachel and Leah are described as having built the “house of Israel.”  This is not about a literal house.  They gave birth to the sons of Israel who themselves are the house of Israel. 

In fact, Christians enter into and become a part of the House of Messiah Jesus, the family that he is making.  This is not a family that is birthed in the natural, thus it is called a “spiritual” house.  We are not born into the Family of God by our natural birth but by a spiritual birth when we put our faith in Jesus.  This is a real work of the Holy Spirit.

The second image of a house is by further extension a reference to a dynasty.  The house of David can refer to his family, but it can also refer to the successive generations of kings that descended from him.

Thirdly, the temple in Israel was called a house.  We see an interesting word play on these images in 2 Samuel 7.  There, David wants to build God a temple, a house.  Up until then, the sacrifices happened at the tent structure called the tabernacle.  The presence of God was there above the ark of the covenant.  God questions David.  “Do you want to build me a house?  When did I ask you to do that?”  God then goes on to tell David that He would make David a house (a dynasty) and that one of His sons (Seed) would build Him a house (temple) for His Name.  Furthermore, God would establish the throne of this Son’s house forever.  Clearly, Solomon was not the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Instead, Solomon gives us a glimpse that falls short of one who would come and be the Greater Solomon (or the One Greater than Solomon).

Peter is picking up on this prophecy and its imagery.  Jesus was and is now building a spiritual temple out of God’s spiritual people.  We are individually and corporately a place where His Presence dwells.

Because every house, family, grows through the offspring (the Seed), we can also see the connection to the many prophecies of the Seed of the Woman who would crush the serpent’s head, the Seed of Abraham who would bless the nations, the Seed of David who would build a temple for God and rule forever, etc.

A Jewish person in the first century who heard these things would be troubled.  How could Messiah build a spiritual temple and let the natural temple Jerusalem be destroyed? 

Now, let’s look at our passage.  Peter describes believers as “coming” to Jesus as to a Living Stone.  So, before we even get to the building of this spiritual house, we see that Jesus is a Living Stone.  This is the merging of the two images surrounding a house, that of the Son of the Father and yet a foundational Stone to God’s spiritual temple.  Jesus is a spiritual stone that is not just alive, but full of the Life of God.  God’s source of life is within this Living Stone.

Peter then details that this Living Stone was rejected by men.  Of course, he is thinking of the rulers and elders of Israel as a group (some of them did believe) and also the larger group of society that followed them, though some did believe.  Jesus was essentially rejected by Israel as a nation. 

Peter then reminds them of how God saw that Living Stone.  God does not reject him. Rather, to God this Living Stone (Jesus) is choice and precious in His sight!  The idea that Jesus is choice is the idea of chosen by God.  He is what God has chosen.  The fact that he is precious refers to how much God valued him.  He is highly valued by God.

This is reminiscent of Psalm 2. There we have the rulers and nations of the earth complaining that they will not have God’s Messiah ruling over them.  However, God laughs.  “I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.”  He is not going to change His mind.  He has chosen this One.  This One is highly valued by Him.

So, we are coming to this Chosen, Highly Valued Stone (Messiah), which makes us living stones as well.  Of course, we are not a living stone in the same way that Jesus is.  It is his life flowing into and through us.  It is His Life taking up residence within us.  Like the branches connected to the vine in John 15, we need to be connected to Him in order to live and have life.

Verse 5 then speaks of the fact that we are being built into a spiritual house as living stones who are in connection to The Living Stone.  This “coming to” and “being built up as” is harkening back to when Solomon’s temple was built or when the 2^nd Temple was built.  Stones would be brought to the master builder on the temple mount and placed in the appropriate place.  Of course, Jesus as a Master Builder places us among his family who are both individually and corporately a spiritual temple of God.  This is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 3:16. Don’t you know that you are the temple of God?

So, what is great about the temple?  It is not how great the stones are.  Rather, it is great because this is the place that God has chosen to place His Presence.  The Presence of God is there!  Why is His Presence there?  He is there to shine the light of God to the ends of the earth!

In keeping with us being a spiritual house (temple of God) we are also a holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices to God that are holy and acceptable to Him.  Our sacrifices are no longer sheep and calves, but rather, they are the sacrifice of praise to Jesus.  They are the sacrifice of the desires of our flesh and the pride of life for the sake of God’s purposes.  They are the sacrifice of enduring persecution and mockery for His Name’s sake.  It is ultimately a whole life worship in sacrificing our whole life for the sake of His purpose.

What makes us holy and acceptable to God?  It is clearly not our perfection.  Rather, it is the perfection of Jesus and our faith in him that makes us acceptable.  Our service to the world as priests of God’s Messiah, Jesus, is not always accepted by man, but it is choice and precious in the eyes of God because it is done by faith in His Choice and Precious Living Stone.

In verse 6, Peter turns to make a case from Scripture for this.  He is not just making this up.  It is what the Scriptures foretold.  It was God’s plan all along to make a new spiritual people serving as His spiritual temple on earth out of the Jews and Gentiles becoming one people by faith in the One Living Stone.

He first quotes Isaiah 28:16. In that passage, God is rebuking the leaders of Judah.  Verse 14 says, “Hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem!”  He goes on to declare that He is going to lay down, i.e., establish or set in place, a tested and precious cornerstone in Zion.  Those who believe on this cornerstone will not be put to shame.  I know that the KJV uses the phrase “shall not make haste.”  The idea is that they will not be put to flight (shame) by enemies or by judgment from God.

The leaders were refusing to trust in God’s ways, so He would send a foundation cornerstone.  This sets up a situation in which everyone will need to choose.  Will I believe on this stone or not?  It doesn’t matter what man says or does.  What matters is what God says and does.  He will always have the final word.

Then, in verse 7, Peter stops to comment.  This stone is not just precious to God.  He is precious to us who believe in him.  The Messiah Stone has been given by the Father to His people.  Of course, when you give a precious gift, you hope for the recipients to understand and to treat it with the proper value it deserves.

This would not have been a surprise to any of the Jews.  What was a surprise is that there would be some who do not believe, who do not see it as choice and precious.

In verse 7b, Peter quotes from Psalm 118:22. This prophesied cornerstone shows up again.  We are told there that the builders would reject a stone, but that it would become the Cornerstone.  That is, they would be overruled by the Master Builder Himself, God the Father.  The builders would refuse to set, to install, Him in His proper place, but God would do it.

Peter then quotes from another passage, Isaiah 8:14. It starts by stating that Messiah will become a sanctuary, which is connected to the Temple.  However, to both houses of Israel, he would be a stone of stumbling and a stone of falling away.  Peter stops there, but let me take us further.

“14 Then He shall become a sanctuary; but to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  15 “Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken; they will even be snared and caught.”

This is what Simeon was referencing when he described the baby Jesus in the temple.  “This Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against.” (Luke 2:34).

The warning is given by the prophet Isaiah so that people would believe and be ready.   Simeon and Anna were of those who believed the Word of God and were ready when Messiah appeared.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who do not fall away because of me.”  He spoke this to the disciples of John the Baptist.

This brings us to our last point.

Peter explains in verse 8 that they stumble at Jesus the Messiah Stone because they are disobedient to the Word.  God warned them, told them in advance.  They have no excuse.  We shouldn’t blame God when we fail the tests that He told us we would have.

When it says that they were appointed to this stumbling, we should not read this as if they had no choice.  It is not as if they wanted to serve Messiah, but God wouldn’t let them.  Rather, they are appointed to stumble because they refuse to listen to the teaching of God.  We can choose to reject God’s Word, but we do not get to choose where that takes us.  Of course, one who stumbles can recognize their error and get back on track.  Saul of Tarsus is one such person.  But if we refuse to acknowledge our error, then the Stone of Stumbling becomes a Stone of Falling Away.

Ask yourself this.  Is Jesus no longer a Stone of Stumbling?  As Christians, we can fool ourselves into thinking that this was only for the Jews.  Yet, Hosea 14:9 is still true today.  “The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.  It is not enough to be in the right group, saying the right things, and headed in the right direction.  The Word of the Lord is given as a litmus test.  Do you trust Him, or do you trust yourself more?  The Pharisees would have said that they were embracing God’s Word and doing it.  Yet, those same Scriptures were given to prepare them for Messiah.  We cannot co-opt God’s word for our purposes and think that He will be okay with that.  Our challenge is not to do the same thing as the Pharisees.  Our challenge is to believe the Word of God and respond to the goading of the Holy Spirit with faith.  Otherwise, we will just be another group exalting the traditions of our fathers over the top of God’s Word.

New Spiritual People 4 audio

The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-5, 9-14. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner during our Christmas Service, December 21, 2025.

We are pausing on our study of 1 Peter today in order to focus on the Incarnation of Jesus.  The Messiah would not just come to fix Israel, but he would also come to fix the Creation through a process of re-creation.  Matthew and Luke emphasize the human genealogy of Jesus.  However, John focuses on the fact that Jesus was an incarnation of the eternal Word of God that was revealed in the very first Word, “Let there be Light!”  The Word that brought forth all of creation in accordance with the will of the Father is the same Word that comes into the fallen world in order to bring about a re-creation.

This opening passage of John is intended to point us back to Genesis chapter one, helping us to understand the connection between Jesus and the Word of God.  The original creation is pictured as a world covered with darkness and water, i.e., not a good place for humans to live.  The destructive forces of sin brings us back to this state in a very real way.  We become stuck in darkness and the systems of our own making that are not good for us as humans.  At a particular point in time, however, God the Father sent the One True Light into the world so that we could see, believe, and be re-created.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus was the Word of God at creation (v. 1-5,14)

Jesus is the name that was given to a human who was unlike any other.  In some respects, this name only references the event in which the second person of the Godhead took on the additional nature of a human.  Yet, God had planned for this incarnation from the very beginning.  If Jesus is the Lamb, slain from the foundations of the earth (Revelation 13:8), then he was also incarnated from the foundations of the earth.  What I mean is that the Incarnation was the plan from the beginning.  The Father knew that it would become necessary.

Thus, there is nothing wrong with talking about Jesus being the Word of God back in Genesis one, as long as we don’t think of him as being a human being at that time.  Jesus is not a man who became God.  He is God who has become a unique man.  John is tying this back to the first light that came forth from the Word of God in the beginning.  He is showing us the backstory to the reality of who this Jesus truly was.

We should note the closeness of Jesus, the Word, to God in this section.  John uses four statements to reveal this.

1. The Word existed at the beginning of creation.
2. The Word was with (right up next to) God.  Before we go on, I would note that verse 18 refers to him being “in the bosom of the Father.  This pictures The Word, Jesus, within the embrace of the Father.  It is a picture of intimate relationship.
3. The Word was God.
4. The Word was in the beginning with God.

There is no clearer way to say that the Father and the eternal Son are both distinct and yet, one.  Like words that proceed from the inner part of a man, so the Son proceeds from the Father.

This passage is both mysterious and very clear.  The One True God has existed from before creation as a unity of plurality, a community of loving relationship.  God is not dependent upon creation, but He does desire relationship with it, with us.  He created this universe, and He can uncreate it.  He is the only uncreated thing that exists.

Genesis 1 pictures God creating through a series of commands, “Let there be light,” and so on.  By referring to Jesus as the Word of God, John shows us that there is a distinction of activity with God.  The Father wills and sends, but it is the Word, Jesus, who comes forth to do the will of the Father.  This makes Jesus the active agent of creation.  Verse 3 tells us that all things came into being through him.  To be clearer, apart from Jesus, the Word, “nothing came into being that has come into being.” This shuts down the argument that the Father must have created Jesus, or that a contradiction exists in which it looks like John says that the Word created the Father.  The Father and the Word are not a created being.  Rather, they are an eternal unity that existed before time itself was created.

Imagine a man walking on this earth knowing that everything on it owes its existence to him.  There are many powerful people on this planet who act like everyone owes their existence to them, but this is only true of Jesus.  All of creation owes its existence to Jesus, the Word of God.

We can also see the personhood of The Word in this passage.  John clearly sees the Word not as an impersonal force that comes from the Father, but as a person.  He refers to “the Word” as a means of helping us make the tie to Genesis chapter one.  Notice verse 14 expressly states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Even before this, the passage uses masculine personal pronouns of the Word (“through him,” “by him,” etc.).  This continues in the next verses as well.

He became a man to redeem and recreate humanity (v. 9-13)

The story of creation is not yet complete.  God has purpose and meaning for everything that exists, and humans are at the middle of that purpose.  Genesis chapter three shows how everything went sideways.  Mankind has lost its place and ability to image God the Father.  The Word become flesh, i.e., Jesus, came in order to redeem and re-create humanity.

Jesus pays the price to give us back what has been lost.  This has two stages to it.  Stage one involves us remaining mortal and learning to battle our sin, while growing in the ability to image God the Father within a fallen world.  Stage two comes into play when we inherit a new, immortal body and step into a restored Eden, a new heavens and a new earth.

As the True Light (v. 9), Jesus comes into the world to enlighten us just as we see in Genesis chapter one.  There are many forces from within humanity and from the fallen angels that promise to enlighten humanity.  The enlightenment of the 1600s forward projected the idea that there is no God and that the world around us can be disenchanted from such antiquated notions.  These are false lights that only mislead and bring humanity into greater and greater bondage, into blindness.  Only Jesus can truly enlighten us to our true purpose, which is to image God, and to the means by which all things can be fixed, which is to put your trust in him.  This world pretends like Jesus is a nice story but can’t really affect this world.  Jesus was sent to open our eyes to the reality of the Father’s love for us.

John tells us that the Word that had become flesh was not recognized and received for who he really is.  Verse 5 tells us that the light shined in the darkness but the darkness did not comprehend it.  The word translated “comprehend” also has the connotation of overcoming it.  When a person mentally grasps something, they comprehend it.  However, people often try to take hold of messaging and turn it to their own ends.  This is an overcoming and repackaging of Jesus, which John declares doesn’t work. 

We are all in the dark to the plans and purposes of God the Father without Jesus.  In him, we can step into the light and know the truth.

Verse 10 tells us that the world he made did not know him.  Verse 11 states that those who were his own did not receive him.  This is not just about Israel, although they are the initial example of this.  We become so blinded by the systems of this world that we cannot recognize the one who made us and gave us a purpose, meaning, value.  Thus, Jesus was treated as a common heretic by Jews and as a common rabble rouser by the Romans.  Yet, this was not the truth about who he was.

Verses 12 and 13 lay the path of redemption for humanity as a whole, but also for us as individuals.  We are to receive Jesus as sent by God to us.  We are to believe in His name.  That is, we are to live our life by faith in who He is.  We are not to trust in our genetics, our family wealth, our technology, and our ability to will things into being.  We are to embrace being spiritually reborn by the will of God the Father.

One day we will be also physically reborn by the will of God the Father, and through the Lord Jesus, King Messiah.  Do not lose heart.  Things are not falling apart.  God is simply birthing new children into the world, until the day that He brings this world into judgment.

May God strengthen your faith this year in the One who became human in order to save us from our ruined condition.  The world may not look like it is being redeemed by Jesus, but he is focused on our hearts first.  Fear not!  The day will come when Jesus will take up the thrones of this earth and bring all things into the glorious rule of the One True Light!

Word Became Flesh audio

The First Letter of Peter- 5

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 2

1 Peter 1:18-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 14, 2025.

We are continuing today in a section where Peter is describing what it means to be a part of this new spiritual people belonging to Jesus Christ.  So far, Peter has given them three main instructions.  First, fix your hope completely on the grace to be revealed at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Second, be holy as our Lord is holy.  Third, we are to conduct ourselves in the fear of the Lord while we live as pilgrims in this world.

It is this last command that is still in view in verse 18.  Part of what instructs our conduct in fearing the Lord is knowing just how we were and weren’t redeemed.

Let’s look at our passage.

Conduct yourself in fear during the time of your pilgrimage in this world (v. 18-21)

It is easy to think of how our redemption leads to joy and happiness.  However, Peter wants us to contemplate how it leads to a fear of the Lord.

Let me remind us of what the fear of the Lord means.  Anyone who is an enemy of God should be terrified of Him because He is holy and will not put up with our wickedness.  However, God is also merciful and desires to redeem us out of our wickedness and the consequences it brings to us and the people around us.

For the one who believes God, the fear of the Lord is the desire not to be separated from God anymore.  I fear life without the Greatest Good in the universe being favorable to me.  It also is the fear of rejecting the great love that God has given to us in Jesus.  I don’t want to live life without a love that would lay itself down for me even while I was a sinner.

What does Peter mean by telling us that we were redeemed?

Redemption is the action required in order to restore the things that have been lost for a person.  Sin has cost humanity dearly, and it has dearly cost each of us as individuals.  We lost an earthly paradise.  We lost a perfect union with God.  We lost an earth that was designed to cooperate with humanity. 

Even those who lived a life of faith in God would find themselves stuck in the grave (the holding place for human spirits who had died).  Though some people were clearly worse than others, all people were guilty of sin against God without exception.  In fact, the Bible does not hide the fact that the heroes of the faith were not perfect.

This created an impasse where God wants to save those who have trusted in Him despite their failures, and yet, it would be unjust simply to do so.  It would also be a problem for God’s nature.  He is holy.  How could He dwell eternally with sinful people, no matter how good they looked next to others?  He made us to dwell with Him, but we had lost that ability. 

This is where Peter reminds us that God did not redeem us with silver and gold, as is often the case among humans.  When he redeemed Ruth, Boaz had to cover the price of the land that had been sold (or more properly, leased).  Of course, he also married her in order to “raise up” a son for her dead husband whose line was in danger of being extinguished.

However, no amount of money, silver, or gold can remove our sins from us and the guilt that goes along with them.  In order to regain our lost status as the children of God, our lost relationship with God, and our lost dominion over the earth, we needed God to help us because we were in a position of helplessness.

The world today is full of men and women seeking to take dominion of the earth through their wealth (silver and gold).  On top of this, they seek to set themselves up as the gods of this world.  All of this is done in the face of the One True God.

Peter then mentions that we are being redeemed from the “futile way of life inherited from [our] forefathers.”  Thus, redemption is not just what we are getting back.  It is also about the powerless position that we leave behind us.  This is not just about the ultimate powerless position of being stuck in the grave after death but is also about the way of life that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden, a life of fellowship, provision, perfect-imaging, dominion, and freedom.  Instead of these things, we have degenerated into a way of living that was handed down to us by our forefathers.

How can a person be broken free from the prison of futility that they inherited from their forefathers?  The Gentiles had inherited a religious system of worshipping the fallen Elohim as if they were gods.  This system was full of further ways to sin against the creator through sexual immorality, sacrificing humans (even children), and placing created things above the true Creator.  They had also inherited a political system that looked to special men to save this with the help of those weak, pretender gods.  They also inherited a system of social relationships that was built upon who had power and who didn’t.

Even Israel had taken the Law of God and encased it in a multitude of traditions that trapped them in futility (i.e., ways that are powerless to do anything of value).  Without God, we are trapped in a life of wasting away in a bondage that He didn’t make for us.  In fact, gold and silver (wealth) are often at the root of this bondage.

We are in the same position today without Jesus.  Our republic was built upon the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, but over time, we have created ways of doing economics, politics, business, religion, and relationships, that are not God’s ways.  They are thus futile in the end.  Jesus is redeeming us out of these broken, human-made systems.

How can a person be broken free from their life of futility inherited from their fathers?  They can only do so by the grace of God.

Having spoken about what was not used to redeem us, Peter then points to the reality that God redeemed us with the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious, unblemished, and spotless lamb.

The blood of Jesus is precious because he is the only human who has perfectly imaged the Father and is worthy of receiving all that has been lost by humanity.  It is unblemished because he did not give in to the desires of his flesh, the desires of the world around him, or the temptations of the devil.  Peter is basically letting us know that Jesus is like a perfect, sacrificial lamb, spotless.  His death was a worthy sacrifice that was acceptable to God and made atonement, or a covering, for all our sin.

There is no other person who has ever lived who fits the above description.  The fact that Jesus, who is the perfect, worthy one, who is favored of God, used his life to be a sacrifice instead of conquering and taking over the earth is completely contrary to how most humans think.

This is what John the Baptizer was referencing in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  This is what Isaiah meant in Isaiah 53:7, right after he said that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…”  Jesus was the one who “like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”  Even further back, it is what Abraham meant in Genesis 22:8 when he answered Isaac’s question about where the lamb was for the burnt offering.  “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

This miracle child was to be placed on the altar and sacrificed to God.  How could God ask such a thing?  It is clear in the story that God was not going to let Abraham go through it.  Yet, notice Abraham’s answer to his son.  Is Abraham lying to his son?  I don’t think so.  He had a relationship with the God of heaven, and he spoke by faith.  He didn’t know how God was going to do it, but God would keep His word to Abraham through Isaac, even though Isaac may be put to death.  The writer of the Hebrews says that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead if He had to do so in order to keep His promise to Abraham.

What Abraham did that day was to be willing to act out something that God the Father was going to do in the future.  It became a template that would help us understand what God was doing later.  Jesus was the Lamb of God that was sacrificed on our behalf in order to cover our sins.

Peter then states that this perfect Lamb of God, Jesus, was foreknown by God before the foundations of the earth were laid.  God knew that there would be a rebellion if he made sentient beings who had free will.  Before He created humans, He already knew that the Eternal Son would have to take on human flesh and do for us what we could not do for ourselves, redeem humanity from its fall into corruption and out of close relationship with the Father.

Why did God wait 1,000s of years before He sent Jesus, as Peter says, “in these last times”?  There is wisdom in God first giving us a choice.  Will you trust Me or do you want to experience the knowledge of what is good and what is evil?  Of course, our choice was that we wanted to know.  The word for knowledge here is not about head knowledge.  It is about the knowledge that comes from experience.  By the time Jesus came, humans had experienced the depths of the folly of that choice.  We would be more open to God’s solution to our problem at that point than if He had sent Jesus down right away.

Over time, if we are listening, we come to see that evil is not just something that is in that person over there, but it is also in me.  It is not something that I can cover by simply being “better” than another person.  In fact, if Jesus had been revealed at the very beginning, then our following sin would have been ever worse.  God’s delay was actually a grace that helped us to understand the necessity of Jesus.

In the face of 1,000s of years of rebellion, God was faithful to give us grace in the man Jesus.  Why does He wait 1,000s of years after the sending of Jesus to bring sin on this planet to an end, fixing all things?  It is the redemptive grace of God.  He is not willing that anyone should perish.  So, He delays the day of judgment.  In the face of all the evil that humans do to us and all the wickedness that fallen angels and demons may produce, we are shown that God can be trusted to overturn it.

Peter ends with the reminder that putting our faith in Jesus is putting our faith in God the Father.  In Jesus, we who were not believers in God, i.e., were not living according to His ways, have become believers in Him.  To embrace Jesus in faith is to believe God the Father.  However, to reject Jesus in unbelief is to reject the Father.

Peter describes God the Father as the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead.  This is not a contradiction to the statement of Jesus that he had power to take up his own life after death.  If you pay attention to the words of Jesus in John 10:18, you will notice that he says, “I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I have received from My Father.”  Jesus is authorized to take up his life again, i.e., he has been authorized by the Father.  Thus, both are true.  Jesus takes up his own life, but he does so as the perfectly obedient Son.

The plan and operation of the Father has always been through Jesus as the source of life.  This is part of the glory that Peter says the Father gave to Christ.  He was given the glory of being the first to raise from the dead (firstborn from the dead).  He was also given the glory of the only one to sit at the right hand of the Father.  He is also given the glory of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  He also has the glory of the one who has brought many children of God into glory with him.

Peter then states that our faith and hope are in God the Father completely when we embrace the Son of His love.  It is He that will send the Lord Jesus to take up the kingdoms of the world.  It is also He that will give us the right to be perfected in order to stand at the side of Jesus Christ in His presence.

Knowing all that God has done in order to save us ought to put a reverent fear within our hearts.  How can I rebel against such love?  How can I do anything but bow the knee in awe, asking of the Lord Jesus, “Save me, please!”

Spiritual People 2 audio