2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
The Word of God for the people of God; thanks be to God. Our Father in Heaven, we are reminded as we look to your Word, we are reminded that You are the source of all truth. And that knowledge that You make available to us through Your self-revelation is more precious to us than gold. Lord, help us as we contemplate the things that are set before us in Your Word. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Sproul preached that in the greeting that the Apostle Peter gives, he uses a phrase that is common place in the salutations of the Epistles when addressing those receiving the message, saying “grace and peace be unto you”. The idea of “grace and peace” is an idea that is deeply rooted in Old Testament history. You recalled that in the Hebrew Benediction, both of these are enjoined in which God is asked to grant them to His people as integral to the benediction: “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you and give you peace”. This concept of peace was so important to the Jewish people, that it became the basic way of greeting one another. To this day, the Jew will greet their friend by saying: “שלום” (peace be unto you), to which they reply “לך שלום” (unto you, peace).
The Apostle Peter does something a little bit different here. Instead of saying “peace be unto you”, he says “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”. Here, he speaks of a multiplication of grace and peace. In the Protestant Reformation doctrine of “Justification by faith alone”, since justification is not based upon an infusion or the pouring in of divine grace, but rather an imputation (a transfer) of the righteousness of Christ to your account, which is received by faith, then manifestly there can never be any augmentation (increase) or diminution (decrease) of your justification, because the righteousness of Christ is perfect, and the righteousness of Christ never diminishes. The righteousness of Christ is something we can never add to. In the final analysis, the great debate on grace comes down to two words: infusion and imputation. The biblical doctrine is that we are justified the moment that the righteousness of Christ is transferred to us by faith.
If justification by faith through grace cannot be augmented, then why does the Apostle Peter here speak of a multiplication. Because the grace of justification is not the only grace we receive from God. As the Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans, “we move from grace to grace, faith to faith, life to life. Though our justification can never increase, our faith certainly can. The strength of our faith is a fragile thing. It is something that must be fed daily by what we call “the means of grace” through studying the Word of God, through prayer, through worship, through fellowship ... the means of grace or the methods by which God fortifies and strengthens our faith.
Let's continue Pastor Sproul's message on grace and peace in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment