Your Hope Fully on the Grace

[Christsfreeservant]

As Obedient Children
1 Peter 1:13-16 ESV

“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. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”​

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be serious-minded people. It doesn’t mean we can’t ever laugh or smile, but that we must take God and his word seriously and to heart, and we must therefore apply the word to our lives, i.e., those truths which apply to our lives as followers of Jesus.

When we take God and his word seriously, and we apply all his/its relevant truths to our hearts and lives, this will also involve preparing our minds for action, and that action is whatever God requires of us as his followers to do, to think, and to speak. Obedience to our Lord must be our mindset.

And as obedient children we are not to be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. In other words, we aren’t supposed to live like we lived before we believed in Jesus. We aren’t supposed to live in self-indulgence, in immorality, lying, cheating, stealing, and gossiping and the like.

But we are supposed to live holy lives, pleasing to our Lord, being separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made into the likeness of our Lord Jesus. We are to live moral and upright lives, being trustworthy and honest in all our dealings, and we are to live godly lives, and self-controlled lives which are not out of control.

And in all of this we are to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. For, we are saved (past), we are being saved (present), and we will be saved (future) when Christ returns for us, his bride, and our salvation is complete.

Conduct Yourselves with Fear
1 Peter 1:17-19 ESV

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”​

We are not to fear other humans or our circumstances, but we are to walk in the fear of God, i.e., in respect, honor, obedience, and submission to him as Lord of our lives. We are to honor and worship him, and we worship him by giving our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him.

For, Jesus delivered us out of our bondage (slavery, addiction) to sin via his death and resurrection. His blood shed for us on that cross bought us back for God so that we might now honor God with our bodies, and so we would no longer use our bodies as instruments to fulfill the lusts of our flesh.

For, if we are walking in the fear of the Lord, we will take God’s word to heart, and we will heed his warnings, and we will not take his grace for granted thinking that we can continue living in sin and that our sins will still be forgiven, and that heaven will still be our eternal destiny.

For, Jesus didn’t die on that cross just to forgive us our sins and just to give us eternal life with him, but he died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us.

For, when we believe in Jesus Christ we die with Christ to sin and we are resurrected with Christ to walk with him in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Now we must walk (in conduct) no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

And know this, too. If we do not die with Christ to sin and if we do not walk in obedience to his commands, and we do not live for him and for his righteousness, but if we continue living in deliberate sin against God, we will perish in our sins. We will not have eternal life with God.

For, we are all going to be judged by God by our deeds. If we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction (decay, death). But if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life. If we walk according to the flesh, we will die in our sins, but if according to the Spirit, then we have eternal life with God.

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

For Our Sake
1 Peter 1:20-21 ESV

“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”​

Jesus Christ is God. He was with God in the beginning, and all things were made by him that were made, i.e., he is our creator God. He always existed with God for he is God, and he is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It was God’s plan from the beginning that he would send his Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for our sins and to defeat Satan, death, our sin, and hell. And this was for our benefit that we might be delivered out of our slavery to sin so that we can now live victoriously over sin.

We believe in Jesus because Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, and because God the Father drew us to believe in Jesus, i.e., he persuaded us as to our sin and as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our need to be saved from our slavery to sin in order to be slaves of God.

Thus, we can hope and believe in Jesus because of what God did for us and is doing for us, and because of the Holy Spirit living within us teaching us all things, counseling us, encouraging us, and giving us hope. So, all the praise and all the glory go to God and not to ourselves.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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