Encouragement in Difficult Days (Part 4)

Jul 6

Jul 6 Encouragement in Difficult Days (Part 4)

Some time ago, Dr Steven Lawson tweeted something which really resonated with me, “High theology produces high doxology”. This saying is pithy, memorable, and profound. If you want to know something of what this saying means, then look no further than the opening verses of 1 Peter chapter 1. The Apostle opened his Epistle to these “exiles” by reminding them of the wonderful Trinitarian work of salvation of which they had a part, and this high theology leads to high doxology in verses 3 and 4:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – “Blessed be God” is a distinctively Jewish/Christian form of address to God. In fact, “Blessed be You O Lord” were the words of the refrain that closed each of the eighteen blessings that were recited three times a day in the Temple. This form of words was taken over into the Christian liturgical tradition.

The form of the word ‘blessed’ here in the original Greek is noteworthy. The word is only used of God, because it carries the meaning of being inherently worthy of praise. In this passage, the subjects of this doxology are God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This praiseworthiness can only be ascribed to God; the Father is worthy of all praise because of who He is and all that He has done. Our Lord Jesus Christ equally is inherently worthy of all our praise because of who He is and because of all that He has done.

Peter begins this section of the letter with this doxology to God, giving God glory. And the manner of Peter’s praise to God tells us, for what particular aspect of God’s work he is praising Him. In other parts of the Scriptures, God is praised as Creator, Sustainer, Helper, Father of His people and so on. But here Peter’s concern is with God as He has distinctively revealed Himself, as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ stands at the centre of Christian theology, thus the blessing is given to the One who is the Father of Jesus Christ, who sent His only Son to accomplish His great plan of redemption, that He has wrought for His people.

We now come to the reason for this doxology. I think it is significant that Peter does not go straight into the work that God performed for us in Christ, rather he continues to focus our attention upon God, by directing us to the attribute of God that is revealed to us in this great work of salvation, that of his mercy.

Peter does not just say by God’s mercy but by God’s great mercy. God is never miserly with His gifts towards His people; His grace, His love, His mercy are all blessings which are showered upon His people in great abundance. This is a truth that comes over powerfully in the Scriptures (Ephesians 1 and 2).

What does Peter mean when he says God’s great mercy? It is that God has held back from us what we deserve. God has held back from us the punishment that should be ours because of the sins we have committed against him and the offenses that we have caused Him. God’s great mercy is manifested towards those whom He has chosen, for in truth we all deserve to die and not just in this life, but we deserve an eternal, spiritual death. We deserve to be cut off from God, we do not deserve to share in a new life, we deserve to suffer the agonies of hell for the sins that we have committed against God and not one of us can say otherwise.

But God who is rich in mercy, as the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, has held back this just punishment from all those who have been given the gift of faith, and who believe in Jesus Christ. And this is because Jesus Christ has taken those sins upon himself on that cross at Calvary. On Calvary’s tree, our Lord and Saviour took our sins to himself, and before our Heavenly Father He stands and declares that the debt has been paid in full, nothing owed.

This is a glorious insight into God’s great mercy and the Apostle is not finished yet. Peter specifies which act he blesses God for; in what way God’s great mercy has been manifested towards His people: By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The Apostle Peter blesses God because by His great mercy we have been “Born anew to a living hope”. Peter is talking here about the great work of spiritual rebirth. Our Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisee, Nicodemus that unless he was born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Born from above or born anew means that we have been born of the Holy Spirit. Entrance to the kingdom requires a spiritual rebirth, a rebirth which only God can bring about. Without this work, man remains in His sin, he remains far from God, unable to know Him or His salvation. Spiritual rebirth is a gift from God in which God does a work in the sinner, replacing the heart of stone for a heart of flesh, a change wrought by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. We see the great power of the Spirit’s work in the record of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Holy Spirit at work in men and women are cut to the heart by the Gospel, crying out, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Their eyes had been opened by the Spirit and they saw themselves truly in the light of God’s holy law, they saw themselves standing on the precipice of hell, and yet, at the same time, through the preaching of the word those sinners were brought to the cross of Christ, to gaze upon their Saviour, be washed clean of their sin in his precious blood and clothed in his perfect righteousness. This is the work that the Spirit does in all the hearts of those who have been sprinkled in the blood of Christ, this great truth belongs to all of us who believe. John Newton reflects this awesome reality in his famous hymn: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

The Apostle has not finished, there is more to say. Our regeneration has a goal and that goal is described as a living hope. This is the sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns on the clouds of glory and takes his people to himself, to be with him forever in glory. In this we rejoice!

Phil is the Minister of Ely Presbyterian Church (Reformed), in Cardiff

http://www.epcreformed.org