1 Peter 1:18-25, 2:1-2.
Two things come out clearly in this part of our chapter, redemption by blood, and renewal, —being born again by the word of God. You have been redeemed, he says, by this precious blood. How then can you go on in the ways of the old man?
If you have been touched by the wondrous love of God, and have been redeemed completely from under the bondage of Satan, what kind of conversation will yours be now? It was “vain conversation” before, but you are redeemed, not merely purchased.
Redemption and purchase are two very different things. Redemption is the slave being set free from his condition as a slave, and brought into liberty. Mere purchase leaves him a slave. Still, though the master be different, every unconverted soul belongs to the Lord. It is the Lord that bought them. He bought “the field,” that is, the world, and every inhabitant of it belongs to Him, and deny Him though men may, and do, now, the day is fast approaching when they will have to own Him Lord.
You are redeemed, you are set free, to serve Him with purpose of heart. There is not an element of bondage left now for the children of God. He has brought them into a place of perfect liberty, not liberty for the flesh, but for the enjoyment of that into which His grace has brought them.
The apostle, you must remember, is speaking to those who had Jewish thoughts and minds, which makes his language the more forcible. In referring to the blood of the Lamb, what would that say to an Israelite? It would speak to him of that night in Egypt when the blood of the slain Lamb, sprinkled on the door-posts, kept God out, when He passed by in judgment. It would speak to him, too, of how that blood maintained their place before God in the wilderness. When the Spirit of God could say through Balaam, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel,” was there none? Yes, plenty, but He saw none. Is there not iniquity and perverseness too in us? Yes, but God sees none. He sees that blood which has brought you into His own presence in peace and in blessing. You never can get beyond it, even in glory. There the theme of everlasting praise is the Lamb slain.
Note, it is “the precious blood of Christ.” Scripture does not often use adjectives, specially so when speaking of the Lord Himself, but here the Spirit of God does use an adjective, “the precious blood.” That is God’s estimate of it, “precious.” It avails to cleanse from every sin, its efficacy is now fresh before God.
These words “the precious blood of Christ” fell with sweetness on believers’ ears 1800 years ago, when Peter first penned the words, they fall with equal sweetness on believers ears today, because it is this precious blood that gives us a place before God. You may fail, and I may fail, but that precious blood of Christ can never fail.
“Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world.” The introduction of the Lamb of God, was no afterthought with God, it was pre-ordained before the foundation of the world. Why before the foundation of the world? Because the blessing of the people was thought of before the foundation of the world.
If you get an earthly people spoken of, “from the foundation of the world” is the word used; but if it be the present moment of the richest display of the grace of God, and the church comes in, you get “before the foundation of the world.” (Compare Ephesians 1:44According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4); Titus 1:22In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (Titus 1:2); and; Peter 1:20, with Matthew 25:8-348And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. 11Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 13Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 14For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. 17And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 18But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. 19After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. 21His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 22He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. 23His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 24Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: 25And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. 26His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: 27Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 28Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 29For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (Matthew 25:8‑34); Revelation 13:88And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8), and 17:8.)
The moment the world came in God says I am going to have a people in the world, (the Jews) but the church does not belong to the world at all, the church is a heavenly thing and was thought of in eternity.
Verse 21. “Who by him do believe in God.” It is not by creation man knows God. Man seeks to know God by creation, but he does not know Him, nor does he find Him out by His providential dealings up to Moses’ time, nor by His revelations from Sinai, for man could not come near Him, if but a beast touched the mountain it was to be stoned or thrust through. God dwelt in thick darkness, which no one could approach unto. It is neither by creation nor by providence, nor by law that man knows God, but by this One who came down, and walked this earth as a man, and revealed the heart of God towards man, and then who died for man, and who has gone up again to the glory above—the Lamb of God.
Do you believe in God, I ask you, Are you thoroughly at home with God? Are you happy with God? “Christ once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.” It is of the deepest importance to the soul to get hold of this, that the man Christ Jesus was the expression of the heart of God.
Perhaps in your minds you have a little different thought of God, from what the thought of Jesus presents to you.
Tell me, is Jesus, that man of sorrows who walked this earth, that blessed compassionate man, is this One your thought of God? Any thought of God that is not the perfect counterpart of what Jesus was, is an idol; hence, says the Apostle John, “Little children keep yourselves from idols.” So Peter says, you have every reason for the fullest hope, no reason for distrust of God, but on the contrary the most perfect confidence in Him; no diffidence about the future but the most blessed hope that He who has raised up from the dead, the Lord Jesus, will raise you up also in like manner. Nothing but the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus could give the soul this blessed peace and hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed. The Lord give us to know Him better, and delight in Him more as we travel on from day to day.
Verse 22. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit; unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” Your soul has been practically purified from its old thoughts and wishes, and now what comes out instead? “Unfeigned love of the brethren.” You had been wandering through the world restless and unhappy, perhaps, and the grace of God came and worked in your heart, and you woke up to find yourself among your brethren. Now, he says, “See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” It is very easy to love loveable people, nothing is easier, but that is not “love out of a pare heart.” Love out of a pure heart is a love that loves, not because the object is deserving, but when it is the reverse; it is like the love of God, who loved us when there was nothing to love about us.
In Romans 5 the apostle says, “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die.” A righteous man is a hard kind of man, who pays every one and expects everyone to pay him, but does not win much love, and scarcely for such an one will one die. “Yet, peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die,” for a Howard or a Peabody, a philanthropist, one whose life was spent in benefitting others, for such, the apostle says peradventure some would even dare to die.
But when we were destitute of righteousness and stripped of goodness, that was the very Moment when God loved us. That was “love out of a pure heart,” and that is the kind of love the Lord would stir us up to.
It is a very poor thing when people complain of want of love. I believe when we get to this state, that we fail to find people loving us, we may lay it down as an axiom, that we are not loving them.
You may say, “It is impossible to love some.” Peter says otherwise. You ought to love them, he says, because they are redeemed, and you have the power to love them because you are renewed. They are redeemed by the blood of Christ, there is your motive for loving them, and you are born again by the word of God, there is your power.
Verses 24,25. “All flesh is grass.” This is a beautiful quotation from Isaiah 40. Do you think you have a better nature than your neighbor, or your neighbor than you? God says all flesh is grass, and He says this when comforting His people. It is not the way you and I would comfort each other, to tell each other we are utterly worthless. That is the Way God begins to comfort.
Nature is like grass, God says, but His word is abiding and enduring forever, and God has put in your soul a principle of blessing that is immutable, and unchanging and eternal, and from Himself and like Himself. I have told you what you are, God says, now I will tell you what I am.
You are grass, Peter says, and God is everlasting, and His word endures forever, and He has put his word in your heart, and now you have a nature like Himself.
How easy, if I only get this new life fed and nourished, for the child to be like the Father, There is no effort in love, it is like water finding its own level, and if we are in the enjoyment of the love of God, feeling its blessedness to us, it will come out from us to others.
When we were utterly worthless there was something put into us by the love of God, His word living and abiding, that enables the child to be like the Father, and to love out of a pure heart as He loves.
You are redeemed and you are renewed and in the energy of the new life, you desire to follow in the wake of your Father’s action. To please Him is to act like Him, you love the Father and you love the children.
Then having got this new life there are things to be laid aside, Chap 2:1, “Laying aside all malice, and all guile.” Guile is not liking to be read through, having something sinister behind. How beautiful is the Lord’s word about Nathaniel, “Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.” Without guile is transparent, Was the Lord ever double? He was as transparent as the light, for He was “the light.”
“Hypocrisies” too are to be laid aside, i.e., seeming to be what one is not and hiding what one is— “And envies and all evil speakings.” Scripture turns us inside out, and shows us what is in our hearts. There is no other book that reveals God, and no other book that reveals man. If we were but subject to what we have before us in this second chapter, there would not spring up these weeds in the garden of the Lord, which alas so often damage and disfigure it. It is very easy to pick a flaw in other people. Nothing easier. It needs no microscope to see the defects in others, but is that the way to help them?
“As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby up to salvation.” These last three words should be inserted here.
In the first chapter you were born by the word, here it is the food of the new life. The word gave you life, the word sustains and nourishes that life all along the way. You will never be a grown-up person till you reach the Lord in glory, all along the way you are to be in this character of a new born babe.
In proportion as we are feeding upon and delighting in the word of the Lord so our souls grow, and so are the things that are reprehended kept out.
The Lord give us to love His word and delight in it more and more, and walk more in simple obedience to it till we see His face by and bye.
We are too apt to take what others think about the word, that is, to take it adulterated. If we are going to be happy, we must get the word for ourselves. If We give it up we shall certainly lose everything else, If the sap of a tree is gone, so is the health and fruit bearing. The word of God is everything to the soul, Do we then buy up the opportunities that are given us for the study of the word? We may not all be able to give hours to it at one time, but do we use up our minutes?
You never were caught by Satan and tripped-up, you never made a mistake in your history, that it was not the direct result of neglect of the word of God.
The Lord answered and defeated Satan as the result of having lived by the word of God, not because He Himself was God, and when we have been beaten by Satan, it was because we had not the word of the Lord to go by.
I believe there is in the Word, Divine guidance for your soul and mine for every step of our history from first to last. There are principles to be found in it that would guide us if we were subject to it at all times.
I would press upon you, my reader, more careful and prayerful and constant study of the word of the Lord to get to know His mind. Comparatively speaking the Bible is a small book, how is it we know so little about it? I believe because there is a profundity in it, to begin with, that no other book has, and it must be read in dependence on God in order to be understood, and then too Satan does his very best to prevent our storing it up in our hearts, because he knows its value.
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,” the Lord says, “I will manifest myself to him,” i.e., I will pay him a visit, but he that “keeps my word” keeps me,” says Christ, “we will come unto him and make our abode with him.” In proportion as our souls heed the written word we shall find the Spirit of God giving us the enjoyment of Him who is the Living Word.
I do not wonder Peter commends them so earnestly to the word of the Lord because he so often so touchingly alludes to his own denial of Him. Had He remembered the word of the Lord to him he would never have denied him in Pilate’s hall.