Encouragement in Difficult Days (Part 2)
By Phil Haines
One of the comforting features of the Scriptures is its realism. The Bible is realistic about life and about our lives as the people of God. The Apostle Peter, in his first epistle, does not shy away from the fact that the folk in the churches to whom he is writing are going to have times of great suffering and even persecution. To be a Christian in the first century was hard, it was costly. So, when Peter wrote to the brothers and sisters in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, he begins by outlining the priceless blessings that have been poured out upon them by God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Peter writes (as I detailed more fully in my previous post here) that the believers are ‘elect’. They have been chosen by the Father from before the foundation of the world to be his children. And this same blessing belongs to us today if we believe. Our names are engraved upon the heart of our Heavenly Father and no power, earthly or spiritual, can change that great truth.
For further encouragement Peter highlights the work of the Holy Spirit and he writes that believers are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the people of God were taken from among the nations and set apart as holy to God. As such, they became a sanctified people. This is the same reality for the post-Pentecost people of God. Peter is reminding the congregations that as believers each one of them has been called out from among the nations to be joined to God’s people, and that work of setting apart (sanctification) has been accomplished in them by none other than God the Holy Spirit.
There is a purpose to this work of sanctification, and it is for obedience to Jesus Christ. One of the major themes in Peter’s letter is the call to the believers that even though they may be suffering, they must live lives of holiness: ‘as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”’ (1 Peter 1:15) And in the letter, he holds out Christ as the example that must be followed:
20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:20-21)
This is not just a call to suffering it is also a call to obedience. It is a call to all Christians in every generation. Thus, Peter exhorts us to walk as Christ walked. And although this may seem daunting, the Apostle has encouraged us by this great statement that the Holy Spirit is at work in us to aid us in living lives of obedience and to live and love the law of God.
This is one of the wonders of the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, he gives us the freedom to obey the law of God. The Spirit drives us to Christ, gives us faith in him, renews our hearts and so enables us to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. Through his work we bear the fruits of faith in our lives and to testify to the glorious truth that we are now in Christ. We have been transformed and we are able to please God in our lives, to know his gracious smile upon us.
While we know the law does not save, it is part of the process of sanctification, bringing us closer to God which is why David delights in the law: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eye…’ (Psalm 19)
Obedience to the law of God, loving what God loves, is what it means to live holy lives. When the Spirit is working in us, we do not see the law as an unbearable burden, rather we have a deep desire within us to keep God’s law which arises out of our love for Him because of everything that He has done for us. In like manner, we seek to love our brothers and sisters in Christ because our Heavenly Father has showered his love upon them and they are part of the same body, brethren by faith, bought with a price, even the precious blood of Christ.
This work of sanctification in the heart of all of us who believe is evidence that we are elect of God. It is evidence of the transformed life. It is evidence that we have been saved. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The Apostle Paul writes about what we all once were before the Holy Spirit worked in our hearts to apply the life-changing benefits of Christ’s glorious redemptive work to us. We were dead, we were far from God, we were incapable of seeking him, loving him or obeying him. We were lost and yet out of his immeasurable love and unfathomable grace and mercy he poured out innumerable blessings on our head in the gift of salvation. On account of the Holy Spirit’s work we are saved, we are alive in Christ, we are blessed and we are even able to do good works and live lives of holiness which are pleasing to our Heavenly Father. We have a great calling to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ as his disciples, and it is wonderful and greatly encouraging to know that we are empowered to fulfil this call by the blessed Holy Spirit.
