Tag: Peter

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Understanding Redemption: The Costly Blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19)

On By Ben JenningsIn DevotionalLeave a comment

(18) Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Explanation

Talk about seeing transformation happen! Jesus prophesied in a sense what he was going to do with Simon Peter in changing his name. In John 1 there is a declaration of Jesus Christ as the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Andrew witnesses this truth to Peter who hears it (Simon) and meets Jesus.

One of the amazing things to study in the New Testament is the life of Peter with Jesus in the Gospels, God using Peter in the book of Acts, and the thoughts of Peter in 1 and 2 Peter. In 1 Peter, he writes to a dispersion of believers in Asia Minor who were their because of persecution that they were facing persecution. They had been and were being transformed as well.

In this text Peter reminds them of what they already knew. They were not redeemed, a word that means bought back, with perishable things. Their sin debt wasn’t paid by things that are subject to decay. It was paid already, but not with gold or silver. It wasn’t paid by the “vain conversation”, the empty lifestyle and pagan religion that they were taught outside of Christ. The religion of their familes didn’t give them forgiveness of their sin.

So, what price was paid for their redemption? The blood of Jesus Christ was the currency of their ransom and redemption. It is called “precious blood”. It is costly, valuable, honored blood. Peter states that this blood is “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”. He’s making the same comparison that Andrew heard, and by which he was likely introduced to Jesus Christ in the first place. Jesus is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. 

[11] For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)

He was like the lambs of the sacrificial system who were required to be without spot or blemish. They had to be perfect. This redemption has already been paid for by Christ. Christ was without sin. His blood was precious because it was the blood of the only begotten Son of God. It was precious because He was without sin. His sacrifice was the sacrifice of a Savior who had merited righteousness.

Application

Simon Peter was transformed by Jesus. He went from an uneducated, salty fisherman, to an imperfect but wise leader who was used among other apostles to help establish the early church and get the Gospel to us. His challenge to those he wrote and to us is to believe in this lamb that was prophesied, who came, and died for our sins. He wants us to live a life that endures persecution, and pursues righteousness in light of the cost of our redemption and salvation- the precious blood of Christ. He encourages us to leave the vain, empty, false beliefs of who we were before we were saved. We live a life that honors Christ because the substitutionary and atoning work has already been done on the cross so that we can live.

Response

  1. Have you heard and believed (Simon)?
  2. Are you being transformed and used by God to reach others (Peter)?

Galatians Day 7- Fear and Hypocrisy

On By Ben JenningsIn Devotional, UncategorizedLeave a comment

FEAR4-640x701Have you ever known (or been) someone who was one way with one crowd and then another way in another crowd? None of us like to see that in other people, and we all tend to have a difficult time seeing that in ourselves.
For those of us who know Christ as Savior this hypocrisy can be more than just a social problem. This can be a spiritual problem as well. How do we deal with it in ourselves and in others when we see it?

11    But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.12    For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

Paul was willing to confront the leader of the church in Jerusalem because of what he was doing. Paul was confronting Peter because of Peter’s fear of man. Peter was acting in a way that was consistent with his theology when no jews were around. He would “eat with the gentiles”, which meant he wouldn’t be worried about the Old Testament dietary laws when no jews were around. But when people who believed that you had to believe in Jesus and keep the law to be saved, the judaizers, came around, Peter feared what they would say and think and withdrew himself from the gentiles with whom he had spent time. Instead of confronting the bad theology of the judaizers he feared them and avoided the gentiles.

13    And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

The problem is that Peter, as a leader, was setting an example. I see two big problems that came from Peter’s behavior.

1. The church’s relationship with the gentiles. Can you imagine how the gentiles felt when they began to be avoided by the church leaders? Do you think that it could have created racial, social, and theological tension in their church? We don’t know how far it had gotten before this time, but if left unchecked it could have made a negative impact on the church.
2. The toleration of harmful theology. The behavior of the leaders of the church meant that they were tolerating a theology that said that Jesus’ death and ressurection is not enough for salvation.

So Paul had to say something…

14    But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

The only answer that Peter could give is, “Because I am more concerned about what these judaizer’s think.” Notice that it took a lack of fear of Peter on Paul’s part to confront Peter’s fear of the judaizers that was affecting the church and the gospel.

Now before we get to hard on Peter and the rest of the leaders there, have you and I ever behaved in a way that hindered the gospel?

  • Have we ever been scared to tell someone about Jesus even when we knew we should?
  • Have we ever failed to put time into our schedule to share the gospel with our church family?
  • Have we ever failed to be open to new people in our church by focusing on the comfortable group of friends that we already know?

Think about this- Every person that comes into our life has steps that they need to take toward Jesus. When God puts them in our path it means that we have a stewardship of that opportunity. Often our response is like Peter’s response- fear. Fear will cause us to deny what we know to be true. When we give into the fear and fail to act we say something about the gospel that is not true. This affects both the saved and the unsaved around us.

Don’t give in to fear today in you or in others!