Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
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Good morning, Bereans. We are continuing our study of First Peter this morning. Let me briefly remind you of what we have seen so far. After his opening words of this epistle, Peter launched immediately into a discussion of salvation. He starts at the end of verse 1 with, "Who are chosen," and then moves right into the foreknowledge of God, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ which was part of the covenant of salvation. He moves right into a description of the greatness of our salvation that continues on through verse 12.
Beginning in verse 13, he deals with our response to that great salvation. There are indicatives, or statements of fact, in the first twelve verses, but there is a switch to imperatives, or commands, starting with verse 13 in order to convey the requisite response to this great salvation.
In 1 Peter 1:13-16, Peter calls believers to a holy lifestyle in light of the great salvation which God has freely given to us. But holiness is not an easy thing! It doesn't happen automatically. To be a holy person in a corrupt world, we must live carefully.
since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 ESV
In verses 17-21, Peter continues the exposition of the Leviticus command to be holy because Yahweh is holy. Peter's point is that if he and his readers have a special relationship to God by virtue of their calling and their new birth, then it is all the more urgent that they remember who he is in himself and that they display the reverence that God deserves. These verses give them motivations to be holy. These motivations would especially be important in the context of suffering for the faith.
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, 1 Peter 1:17 ESV
Peter is telling the Christians in Asia Minor that they must be holy because God is their father and judge.
"And if you call on him as Father"—"if" here is a first-class conditional sentence which means "since." Do we address God as Father? Sure. Yeshua taught his disciples:
Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matthew 6:9 ESV
In our text "Father" is a present middle indicative, implying that believers will continue to call upon Yahweh in family terms as Yeshua taught them. Paul writes:
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" Romans 8:15 ESV
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 4:5-6 ESV
In both of these texts, Paul connects redemption, adoption, and Abba. "Abba" is an Aramaic word for father. Significantly, the only other place in the Bible, besides Galatians 4 and Romans 8 where "Abba, Father" appears, is in Mark 14. On the eve of His crucifixion, the Lord was deeply troubled in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed:
And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Mark 14:36 ESV
That the Lord addressed His Father as "Abba, Father" in His moment of deep distress, reveals that "Abba, Father" is an expression of the greatest intimacy between father and son. It is an expression of total dependence on the Father.
"Who judges impartially according to each one's deeds"—since we call Him Father, we should reflect the family characteristic. Our Father, the Holy One, is also an impartial judge. He is the Judge of all, and He judges impartially, not on the basis of appearances but on the basis of reality "according to each one's deeds."
This is a "family judgment." In other words, the Father is dealing with His beloved children. When these Christians were tempted to sin or compromise with the world in order to escape persecution, Peter wanted them to know that their Father was always watching and that he was going to judge each man's work impartially.
"Conduct yourselves with fear"— the phrase "conduct yourselves" is the same word translated as "be holy yourselves in all your behavior" in verse 15 and as "way of life" in verse 18. It means lifestyle.
What does it mean to conduct one's self "with fear?" It means to show reverence, awe, respect, and honor. There is an appropriate respect due a holy God. That respect is that His children live godly lives, knowing that they will give an account to God for the gift of life and the gospel. We are all stewards and we reap what we sow.
Paul puts Peter's instructions this way:
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV
Believers, our Father is holy and we are to fear him and live a holy life.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
Since Yeshua died and bought us with this purchase price, we no longer belong to ourselves. We are, therefore, to live to serve Him and not ourselves. This is exactly the point Paul is making here. If we were redeemed by God and are now His children, then we should live our lives as obedient children.
"Throughout the time of your exile"—Peter is reminding them that earth is not their home. They are citizens of another place—heaven. This is also an important concept for us to understand in order to live holy in the midst of persecution. The phrase, "the time of your exile," uses the same word root as the word translated "aliens" in 2:11. It is used in Acts 13:17 to refer to Israel's stay in Egypt. It implies a short stay on this earth in light of eternity.
Let's read the next two verses.
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. 1 Peter 1:18-19 ESV
Let's pause here for a minute and talk about the doctrine of redemption. The Greek word translated here as "ransomed" is lutroo which means "to set free by the payment of a ransom price." It is a word that was used frequently of slaves who were in the slave market. So, this word lutroō was used of the payment of a price in order that a slave might go free. In other words, the idea of redemption is deliverance or release by payment of a ransom. This concept is always in view even when the word redemption is used in passages such as Exodus 6:6; 15:13; Psalm 74:2; and 78:35. In these passages in the Tanakh, it is clear that redemption is based on some great expenditure of God. The price God paid is always in view. The New Testament terms for redemption always have in mind a price paid. In redemption, someone's release or deliverance is accomplished at the cost of a ransom payment. What's the ransom? What's the payment?
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 ESV
The answer is that the life of the Son of Man is the ransom paid in redemption. That's what Paul means when he says, "The redemption which is in Christ Yeshua" (Rom. 3:24). The redemption is in Yeshua because Yeshua is the ransom. He gave his life so that there could be release and deliverance.
Here is the foundation of our justification: Christ gave his life as a ransom for many. He paid the price for our release from sin and guilt and condemnation. This is why God now, as a gift by his grace, justifies the ungodly. Everything is owing to the death of Christ. This is why you cannot pay for it, and you cannot work for it. It is all of Christ. The basis of your justification is not in yourself or anything you do; it is "through the redemption that is in Christ Yeshua."
In Ephesians 1:7, Paul says,
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, Ephesians 1:7 ESV
After the phrase "redemption through his blood," Paul adds, "the forgiveness of our trespasses." This is appositional (an explanatory equivalent) to the term "redemption." It tells us what redemption means in terms of its results for believers. It means their "forgiveness." "Forgiveness" is aphesis, which means "release" as from captivity, or "pardon, cancellation of an obligation, a punishment, guilt."
"Forgiveness of our trespasses"—do you really know what it means to be forgiven and cleansed? Most people do not realize that God forgives sins once for all. All our sins, whether past, present, or future are forever forgiven. The slate is wiped clean. Every sin, no matter how vile or ugly, is forgiven. That's how great our God is. That's how wonderful His salvation is. Indeed, we are people who have much for which to thank our God.
What was a greater work of God—creation or redemption? The Puritan writer Thomas Watson wrote this: "Great was the work of creation but greater the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than to make us. In the one there was but the speaking of the Word, in the other there was the shedding of blood. The creation was but the work of God's fingers, Psalm 8:3. Redemption is the work of His arm, Luke 1:51."
As great a work as creation is and as awesome as it is, redemption is a greater work. Our Lord gave His life a ransom for many.
Now the imagery shadowing redemption in this passage really comes from the Tanakh, from Exodus chapter 12. You remember the historical situation. Israel had been in bondage in Egypt. That was designed by God in the history of salvation to illustrate our bondage to sin. And just as Israel was in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh, so we, before we believe in Yeshua, are in bondage to sin.
The work by which God brought Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness and by which he delivered them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, was a work that illustrated that which Yeshua does when he brings us from the bondage of sin and the bondage of death.
As Israel was just about to leave Egypt, Pharaoh had so provoked the Lord that finally the ordinance of the Passover was instituted when God was to perform his last judgment upon Israel. He told Pharaoh that he was going to slay the firstborn in every home in Egypt if he would not let God's people Israel go.
So, these are the instructions that are given to Moses to give to Israel so that when this great judgment came in the land their firstborn would not be destroyed with the firstborn in the homes of the Egyptians. They were told that they were to put blood in certain places and if they did, they would be delivered. But let's read the account.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Exodus 12:1-2 ESV
Here we see the significance of this Passover feast in that the Lord changes the calendar with its introduction. Right in the middle of the year, God gives them a new beginning. The relevance, of course, has to do with redemption.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, Exodus 12:3-5 ESV
Now notice that this lamb was to be without blemish. This was necessary because it represented and pictured the Lamb of God, the Lord Yeshua. And because he is sinless, we must have a lamb that is without blemish.
and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Exodus 12:6 ESV
In other words, they were to closely observe the lamb to be sure that this was a perfect lamb, just as our Lord was perfect. Men acknowledged that he had done nothing amiss. Others said found no fault in him. The apostles, as they looked back, taught that there was no sin in him. He did no sin. He knew no sin. So, our Lord's ministry confirmed the fact that he was the sinless Son of God. They were to keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then after four days in their home, they were to kill it.
"When the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight"—this is the fulfillment of Calvary, for our Lord Yeshua was crucified on Passover. Then after four days in their home they were to kill it.
"Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. Exodus 12:7 ESV
When the lamb was slain, the blood was taken and it was applied to the houses of the Israelites on the two side posts and then on the upper door post. Now, that was extremely important.
They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover. Exodus 12:8-11 ESV
This is the first Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:12-13 ESV
"And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments"—in recounting the Exodus, Numbers 33 says:
while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had struck down among them. On their gods also the LORD executed judgments. Numbers 33:4 ESV
So here we see it wasn't just against the Egyptians that Yahweh brought judgment; he was also judging their gods.
"And when I see the blood, I will pass over you"—this word "pass over" in verse 13 has often been misunderstood. People see this as meaning that when Yahweh comes to Israel on the night of the Passover and sees a home in which the blood is on the two side posts and on the upper door posts, that he would skip that house, that is he would pass over it. He would not execute judgment upon that house, but he would go to the next house. However, the Hebrew word here is pâsach, which is only uses 7 times in the Tanakh. It does not mean "pass over." Look with me at Isaiah 31.
Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it." Isaiah 31:5 ESV
Here pâsach is translated "hovering." The meaning of the word "pass over" means; "to hover over, flutter over in the sense of protecting." So, in Exodus 12 when he saw the blood, then he would "hover over" that house so that when the destroying angel came and attempted to slay the firstborn in the house, our Lord would be protecting it.
So, it would be impossible for the destroying angel to destroy the firstborn because he would have to contend with Yahweh himself. And this is what Peter means when he says,
who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:5 ESV
So, Moses promises them that if they put the blood on the two side posts and on the upper door post, Yahweh would undertake to protect them from the destroying angel. And to show you that that is what Moses had in mind, look at Exodus 12:23.
For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. Exodus 12:23 ESV
What he is saying is that he would protect and defend them. So that's the meaning of the word pass over.
The lamb's life would be the price to purchase the life of the firstborn. The lamb would take the place of the firstborn. The lamb was a substitute. This is a substitutionary death—a lamb for a child. The lamb would pay the price that God required and thus redeem the firstborn. This is substitutionary atonement.
"This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Exodus 12:14 ESV
This day became a memorial, a symbol of their deliverance by death. This became the symbol of substitutionary redemption. And God then decreed that this Passover experience be memorialized in a special Passover that was held every year to remind Israel of the great deliverance through the blood of the lamb and to point to the true Lamb who was to come.
In Exodus 15, when Moses and the sons of Israel sing their song of praise to Yahweh, in verse 13 they sing,
"You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. Exodus 15:13 ESV
As they look back at Egypt, they see the exodus as based on redemption. They were redeemed. They were purchased and the price was the death of a substitute. In their case, it was a lamb.
But listen, as great as the Exodus redemption was, it was A TYPE that pointed to the ANTITYPE. Typology is a method of biblical interpretation whereby an element found in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures, is seen to prefigure one found in the New Testament. The initial element is called the type, and its fulfillment is designated the antitype.
The Passover was a type or picture of something much greater—it pictured the redemption of God's elect through the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God, the Lord Yeshua.
Seeing God's prophetic type and its fulfillment in Christ (the antitype), let's look at the details in our text in 1 Peter.
knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 1 Peter 1:18 ESV
When Peter says, "knowing that you were not ransomed with perishable things," he means that we were set free, not with money as slaves might be set free, but rather we were set free with the precious blood of Christ, which was the ransom price.
"Knowing that"—knowledge of our having been "ransomed" with "the precious blood of Christ" is the reason or ground for our reverential obedience. The high call for godly living makes sense in light of the price that was paid for our redemption.
"You were ransomed"—lutroō means to set free by the payment of a ransom price. It is a word that was used frequently of slaves who were in the slave market.
To us redemption is a theological term, but for Peter's readers, it was an everyday word loaded with emotional meaning. There were millions of slaves in the Roman empire, and many of them had become Christians.
Any representative first-century church would have three kinds of members: slaves, freemen [those who had never been slaves], and freed men (former slaves). People became slaves in various ways— through war, bankruptcy, sale by themselves, sale by parents, or by birth. By the payment of a price, a person could be set free from his bondage or servitude. Just as the death of the Passover lamb liberated the Israelites from physical bondage in Egypt, so the death of Yeshua frees believers in Him from the spiritual bondage of sin.
"From the futile ways inherited from your forefathers"—Peter's reference to the "futile" way of life inherited from one's forefathers strongly suggests that his audience was primarily Gentile. Gentile Christians have been ransomed from the ignorance (verse 14) of the pagan beliefs their ancestors passed down to them.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 1 Peter 1:14 ESV
"To the passions of your former ignorance"—this sounds like it is addressed to the Gentile members of the congregation who did not live in the past under the laws of righteousness that the Jewish Christians were accustomed to living under. Their ignorance was their former lack of knowledge of God that led them to godless conduct.
"Not with perishable things such as silver or gold"— a slave in Roman times could be redeemed by the payment of a certain amount of silver or gold. The world values these metals above all else. Silver and gold were the most valuable items that existed at that time. They are here pushed aside as being "perishable things."
but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1:19 ESV
Peter describes the effect Christ's death and resurrection has on believers in terms of the first Passover in which an unblemished victim (lamb or goat kid) died in the place of the firstborn sons of Israel.
The Christian's faith journey is like the Exodus Passover experience of Israel. Christians are sojourners in a strange land who have been delivered by the blood of a spotless victim: Yeshua Christ.
"But with the precious blood of Christ"—blood is metonymy in Scripture for his sacrificial death. A "metonymy" is a figure of speech in which something named is used to represent another thing which it is part of or associated with. For example, we use the White house for the President. Scripture uses the blood of Christ to refer to his death. Blood is metonymy in Scripture for his sacrificial death.
For Jews, blood was the symbol of life and the life of a sinner could only be redeemed through blood sacrifice.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Leviticus 17:11 ESV
The Church was purchased says Paul by the blood of God.
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Acts 20:28 ESV
This flock that these elders are to feed is "The Church of God,"—this flock belongs to the Lord God. And then, he says, "Which He purchased with His own blood." The word "purchased" here is not the common word for "to buy" in the sense of buying a slave out of the slave market. This is the Greek word peripoieomaia, which means "to get for one's own." The force of this word is, "I have made these things my own."
This flock was purchased with "the blood of His own One." These sheep were so valuable to God that He purchased them with the precious blood of His own Son.
"Like that of a lamb without blemish or spot"—Peter here spoke in reference to the completely sinless character of Yeshua. This phrase is an allusion to Israel's sacrificial system (cf. Lev. 1-7). John the Baptist called Yeshua "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
What we have been talking about this morning is the biblical doctrine of penal substitution which holds that Yeshua's sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the punishment we ought to suffer for our sins. As a result, God's justice is satisfied, and those who believe in Christ can be forgiven and reconciled to God.
Penal substitution is a biblical doctrine that states that Yeshua's sacrifice on the cross took the place of the punishment humans deserve for their sins. The word "penal" means "related to punishment for offenses," and "substitution" means "the act of a person taking the place of another"
In early March of this year, I received an email from someone telling me that they were a recent convert to Preterism. The person wrote this:
"I will confess, though, that I was somewhat surprised when, at 42:37, you stated 'Christ paid the penalty for our sins on the cross' so that God's holy justice is satisfied.' These are Reformation/Westminster Confession ideas on penal substitution (PS) which is actually an atonement theory based around Isaiah 53 (Masoretic only, not LXX)."
How shocking—a preterist attacking a biblical doctrine. The truth, however, is that these are not "Reformation/Westminster Confession ideas." There is substantial evidence, widely documented, that penal substitution is not only pervasively biblical but was affirmed by the early church fathers.
What is this about? Well, this person clearly denies Penal Substitution but contends that Christ did not die for us, in our place. He holds to an aberrant view of atonement called Christus Victor, Latin for "Christ is the conqueror." This view incorrectly asserts that the work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil. In contrast, the penal substitution model says that Christ was punished for the sake of justice—that God's just punishment of sin was satisfied by Christ so that the punishment would not fall on humanity.
These people wrongly assert that penal substitution is a form of "cosmic child abuse." This conjures up a wretched picture of a vengeful Father taking his wrath out on his Son, who had no choice in the matter. This comes from a lack of understanding of the Triune God of the Bible.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 ESV
This verse is coherent only if Christ himself is God. The cross is not Christ's idea alone, conjured up to satisfy his bad-tempered Father. The Triune God, our Creator and our Judge, could have, in perfect justice, consigned us all to death. Instead, the Father so loved us as to send his Son, himself God, to bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
In speaking of the gospel Paul says:
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, Romans 8:3 ESV
Paul tells us that "Christ died for our sins." Many parallel texts, such as the following, can be cited:
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4:25 ESV
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6 ESV
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, Galatians 1:4 ESV
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 ESV
To be saved from our sins is to be saved not only from their chaining power but from their consequences–and the consequences are profoundly bound up with God's solemn sentence, with God's holy wrath. Once you see this, you cannot fail to see that whatever else the cross does, it must rightly set aside God's sentence, and it must rightly set aside God's wrath. If it does not, it achieves nothing.
J. I. Packer writes that the atonement involves "the innocent taking the place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God's judicial retribution." Likewise, philosopher and apologist William Lane Craig, a staunch defender of penal substitution, has defined it as "the doctrine that God inflicted upon Christ the suffering which we deserved as the punishment for our sins, as a result of which we no longer deserve punishment."
The message of the Gospel is the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Christ on the Cross. By "vicarious" we mean that Yeshua's death on the Cross is our death to sin. When He died there, we died with Him. By "substitutionary" we mean that Yeshua took our place and paid the penalty for our sins. By "atonement" we mean that Yeshua, in paying for our sins, has made us right with God. And if we will believe in Him, what He did on the Cross will become effective for us. His death for our sin cannot be left out of any Gospel message. Because without His death on the Cross, we could not receive forgiveness of sins. That is why Yeshua came.
Before we close this morning, let me ask you this: What biblical type does the Christus Victor doctrine destroy? Passover!
but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1:19 ESV
Christ's blood is like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Is the Passover type an important type? If the Israelites hadn't killed the lamb and put its blood on the door, what would have happened to them? They would have died. The lamb was a substitute for the firstborn. This type is substitutionary atonement. And so is the Antitype—the Lord Yeshua the Christ.
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