1 Peter 1 – Look like your Father

1 Peter 1

[Any time you see a "therefore" in Scripture, it's important to ask "what came before", what is the premise that makes the "because" for what is to follow? In 1 Peter we have been studying the "because" the motivation for what is to follow. Because, you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God – verse 2. Because, God has begotten us again (born again) to a living hope – verse 3. Because, we have an incorruptible inheritance – verse 4. Because we are kept by the power of God – verse 5. Because the genuineness of our faith is tested by trials – verses 6 & 7. Because the prophets and angels desired to know the plan, but it was revealed to us, for us – verses 10 – 12.]

   
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Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

[Because of all this, "gird up your loins", that means get ready for action, be ready to run be ready to fight! Prepare your mind, get serious, focus, get your game face on, because it's time to get to work. Next we see "rest your hope". Now that's confusing first he says "gird" for action, now he says "rest". Which is it? Well this isn't the kind of rest where you relax, this is rest in the sense that a building rests on its foundation. So we rest the building of our hope on the foundation of God's grace.

So if the foundation of our hope is the grace of God, then why should our mind need to be ready for battle?

In Roman's 7 Paul tells us the Law cannot save us because of the weakness of the flesh, then he concludes with this:

²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Paul concludes that his spirit will desire to serve God, his body will desire to serve sin, but the mind can be trained, through the word of God, to break the tie and serve God. So Peter and Paul are both preparing us, warning us to be ready for the battle of the mind.]

14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;

[As "born again children of God" we should change our likeness from that of a sinner,

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Ephesians
4:21 if indeed you have heard Him (Jesus) and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.]

15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

[So lust and sin is in the mind of the "old man" of the flesh, but holiness is to be in the new mind of the believer. Be Holy for I am Holy that's in Leviticus 11, 19 and 20. Your Heavenly Father is Holy, so how can we be his obedient children if we continue to walk according to our former lusts?

Romans 12:2 

² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So we must renew our minds daily by the word of God, transforming ourselves in the likeness of Christ, but not by ourselves as the Holy Spirit is always there to help us follow in the way of Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15)]

17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;

[So our foundation is the Grace of God, and our building is to reflect the holiness of God that is in Christ Jesus. We do not lay a foundation of works, but we work knowing that our works will be judged by God.

1 Corinthians 3

¹⁰ According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, ¹³ each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. ¹⁴ If anyone's work which he has built on it
endures, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

It is a fool who lives as if there is no judge and no judgment. The reward or the loss of each person's works is eternal, just as salvation and condemnation are also eternal.]

18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

[Innocent blood is the price of redemption. From the book of Exodus we learned the price was a lamb for a house, this is the Passover lamb. Israel still observes the Passover thousands of years after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Why do they still observe the Passover, if they are no longer slaves? Because each time they forgot the God who delivered them, captivity was just around the corner. Babylon, Media Persia, Syria, God used these enemies of Israel to judge his people whenever they turned away from God. This is our reminder, the redeemed are no longer slaves to sin, so don't live like sin is your master.]

20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you ²¹ who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

[Verse 20 refers back to verses 10-12, "foreordained" comes from the same word as prognosticate, to know what would happen before it did. The suffering of Christ was known to God, he knew it would happen, but still he sent his son. Because, He also knew that He would raise Him from the dead.

Who would willingly send their child to suffer for their enemies? God, It's a one word answer. So who's glory should the lives of the redeemed reflect? It's the same one word answer. We are saved by grace, through faith in Christ. As a new creation in Jesus we have been "prepared" by God for Good works (Ephesians 2:10)]

Ephesians 2:8-22 

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹
not of works, lest anyone should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Brought Near by His Blood

¹¹ Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Christ Our Peace

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Christ Our Cornerstone

¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

 

[So works cannot possibly be the "source" of our salvation, because of the weakness of the flesh. But by preparing our minds with the word of God, we fulfill God's purpose, God's will, for our lives. In this was we reflect God's glory, we begin to look like our Holy Father. God is building an eternal temple of worship and praise out of grace, and faith, and love , and obedience in Jesus, and all those redeemed by him. We are conformed to the image of Christ, building on the foundation of grace (Romans 8:29)

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son..]