2 Peter & Jude | |
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Peter's strong declaration of the identity of Jesus as God sets the stage for his condemnation of the heresy of those who "deny the sovereign Lord" (2:1), for the authority of his message and that of the other apostles as in accord with God's former revelations (1:16–21), and for the preciousness of the faith he urges his readers to advance in (1:3–11). The Christian readers of Peter's letter are saved and nurtured by power no less than that of God himself; the false teachers who have come among them are in the perilous position of fighting against no less an adversary than God himself; and the glory of the former and the doom of the latter are determined by the same Savior God introduced in the letter's salutation and extolled in its conclusion (3:18) as God and Lord to whom "be glory both now and forever."
The false teachers apparently were accusing the apostles of being heavy handed with pretended authority as well as using deceit ("cleverly invented stories" [1:16]) in their teaching. Peter will defend the apostles and ground their authority in God's commands (1:16–21; 3:1–2), but here he wants to establish their attitude as being one of humble servanthood.
So the apostle continues to affirm his solidarity with his readers by stressing that they enjoy equal standing with the apostles in the faith they share because of God's justice in giving all believers the capacity to trust Christ as Savior. The righteousness of … God here refers to the impartiality of God flowing from his uprightness of character; it is at this point God's own moral attribute rather than his gift of righteous standing to those justified by faith as it appears in Paul's use of the word (for example, Rom 3:21–22). Gottlob Schrenk refers to righteousness in this verse as "the just rule of God in the guidance of the community" and points to a similar meaning in Hebrews 11:33, where the heroes of faith are said to have "administered justice" (1964). Of course in one sense we may not separate the two meanings too far. It is those declared righteous who are set free from the condemnation of sin and its power over them (Rom 6:1–7) and who received righteousness imparted in the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, that is the character of Christ through a nature being sanctified. They then, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, are able to act righteously (justly, impartially) after the example of their Lord (Rom 6:11–14).
Gottlob Schrenk observes that in Paul righteousness
can denote both the righteousness which acquits and the living power which breaks the bondage of sin. The thought of righteousness of life cannot be separated from it. Righteousness is never equated merely with what is found at the beginning of the Christian life … [but also] denotes right conduct, yet not in terms of a self-reliant moralism, but in subordination to the divine gifts as fruit (cf. Phil. 1:11). (1964:209–10)
In commenting on Peter's use of Psalm 34:15 (1 Pet 3:12), I. Howard Marshall says, "The righteous in the language of the Psalms are those who stand in a right covenant relationship to God and trust him. Such a relationship is expressed in appropriate behavior" (1991:110).
So later in Peter's second letter (2:21) the false teachers are indicted because they "turn their backs on the sacred command" that tells them "the way of righteousness," the behavior appropriate to God's redeemed people. In the process of salvation of a people saved "by grace … through faith and created in Christ Jesus to do good works" (Eph 2:8–10), righteous as a moral attribute of God is not forgotten, for in fulfilling all righteousness in Christ by judging sin at the cross, he displayed his justice (Rom 3:25–26). And it is that same justice displayed in his even-handed gift of faith to apostles and ordinary Christians alike as Peter observes in 1:1.
In his fairness God brings all his children into the same rich inheritance, called here a faith as precious as ours. Peter is thinking of faith in the subjective sense, the personal experience of trusting God, and declaring that this experience surpasses all the more superficial differences between Christians. The great price paid by God to secure our salvation and the rich dimensions it brings to life are a favorite theme for Peter, who had written of "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you and of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire" (1 Pet 1:4–5, 7). It was of the immeasurable value of their "faith and hope … in God" that Peter was thinking when he reminded the readers of his first letter of the origin of that worth: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed … but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet 1:21, 18–19).
In addition to "the precious blood," Peter points to our riches in "the precious cornerstone" (1 Pet 2:4, 6–7) and "the precious promises" (2 Pet 1:4), sharing this theme with Paul (for example, Rom 11:33; Eph 1:7; 2:7; 3:16; Col 1:27)
Here in his salutation this gift of inestimable value is possessed in equal standing by apostle and nonapostle, by Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian, by those who had been privileged to know Jesus in the flesh and by those of us who centuries later know him by faith. We too are blessed (Jn 20:29) and we too belong to the fellowship of the apostles (1 Jn 1:1–4).
With a form of greeting familiar also to Paul's readers (for example, Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:3), Peter prays for the blessings of God's grace and peace in their lives, and setting a theme for his whole letter, he indicates that those gifts come through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Peter's emphasis in this letter will be this knowledge of Christ and how it stabilizes us in our faith. This is the fundamental knowledge gained in conversion and it includes strong practical and ethical implications. There may also be in this form of the word knowledge (epignōsis in contrast to gnōsis) an emphasis on a "larger and more thorough knowledge." Green quotes J. B. Lightfoot to this effect and adds, "deeper knowledge of the Person of Jesus is the surest safeguard against false doctrine" (1987:70).
Life-Changing Knowledge of Jesus (1:3–21)
In a cautious, skeptical age, leery of excessive commercial promises, we may by habit hear Peter's first enthusiastic claim a little tentatively. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness may seem too good to be true to Christians often discouraged by spiritual failures in self and others. Is this the known-to-be-impulsive Peter again, as recorded in the Gospels, making claims that reality will not substantiate? To the contrary, this writer is not a proud, impulsive Peter, but a Peter seasoned in humility by years of discerning the providence of God. Peter's present boldness is the Holy Spirit inspiring him to strike a clear note as the theme of his letter: the Christian's ability by grace to discern between truth and falsehood, to endure hostility and persecution, and to live with hope and holiness while waiting for the "new heaven and new earth," all indeed realistic expectations because Christ has given everything we need to make these experiences happen.
Living a Miraculous Life (1:3–9) At the heart of Peter's argument for this exuberant expectation is the character of the life of Jesus, his own glory and goodness. His life, with its excellencies of character, is the source of our life and godliness (v. 3) and of his very great and precious promises (v. 4), which in turn enable us to participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world (v. 4). The qualities which we are commanded to add to our faith (vv. 5–7) are practical expressions of his character, and the effective and productive life is one which adds these qualities in increasing measure (vv. 8–9). Thus the possibility of being more and more like Christ is the source of Peter's daring propositions, the secret of his remarkable confidence and the strength of his determined desire for his readers.
Peter's foundational proposition (vv. 3–4) precedes a call for response in the lives of his readers (vv. 5–7) and a challenging assurance of benefits they will experience (vv. 8–9).
Peter's Confident Proposition: We Have Miraculous Resources for Godly Living (1:3–4)* Peter begins by speaking on behalf of two groups of benefactors of everything we need for life and godliness. First, he is thinking of the leaders of the young church, the apostles, and is preparing to declare the comprehensive nature of the revelation given to them (1:16–21; 3:1–2).
Neither the false teachers then troubling the churches nor the cults of our day have anything that can replace or even supplement the gospel delivered to us through the lives and inspired writing of the apostles. Peter is also especially speaking of the adequacy of the grace of Christ for every believer, all those who have "received a faith as precious" (1:1) as that of the apostles.
Our readiness for the demands of living in a corrupt world (v. 4) is guaranteed by the fact that Christ's provisions come to us from his divine power. This is the same power that Paul calls "the power of his resurrection" (Phil 3:10), which is always supplied by sufficient grace and "made perfect in weakness," and for the sake of which Paul welcomed physical disability "so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Cor 12:9). This is the power Jesus brings to his church, so that Paul could speak of it when the congregation would be "assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, … and the power of our Lord Jesus is present" (1 Cor 5:4). Peter saw this power in Jesus at the Transfiguration and expected to see it at the second coming of the Lord (1:16; 3:10). But here it is important to clearly note that he sees Jesus' power as a gift that has already been given. We do not have to wait for some future action by our Lord.
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