Continuing Pastor Sproul’s message, he declares that “sanctification can certainly increase in our lives and must increase as we continue our pilgrimage in faith. But, we receive the grace of justification, the grace of God’s forbearance, the grace of sanctification, and a host of other such treatments which we receive. All of which we are unmerited on our part.
Now notice what links what Peter links the multiplication of grace and peace to, is part of that which is the central thesis of the entire Epistle and has to do with the knowledge The knowledge of God. Against the heretical view of knowledge by the Gnostics, the Apostle Peter talks about true knowledge; that knowledge that comes from God, which is one of the more important (if not the most important) grace that God disposes upon His people. That God gives us knowledge that comes to us from Himself.
Romans 1:18-20 ”For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
A famous atheist stated that if He were to die and find Himself face-to-face with God, he would ask the Creator of the Cosmos: “Why didn’t you make Yourself more clearly known to us?” The first chapter of the book of Romans makes it clear that the one excuse that will never stand before the bar of God’s judgement, is the excuse that we have not been given enough clear knowledge of God If fact, it is such a tragic thing that we find multiple people with advanced degrees, educated beyond their intelligence, and though they have been exposed to so many wonderful dimensions of human education, then they live as if they were ignorant of the things of God. The fact that God has not kept us in the dark. The fact that God has been pleased to manifest Himself through the things that He made, that even His eternal power and deity are known unmistakably, leaving us without excuse. That is grace.
God didn’t owe His self-revelation to His creatures. He could have made us and walked away, remaining in the shadow, obscurity and darkness leaving us with no knowledge of Himself. Not only does God give us this manifest knowledge of Himself in Creation (that we call “General Revelation), but He give us His very Word. Our God is not silent. Our God is not mute. Though we may not see Him, we hear from Him in His Word. This is the thing that has always amazed me is, why it seems so few professing Christians have a passion to know Him in His Word? If God sent you a personal letter in the mail from Heaven, would you read it? Who wouldn’t read it? Who would read it, then throw it away? Who would read it, then put it on a shelf to collect dust? If you received a letter personally sent to you from God, you would read it over and over again until you paid attention to every tiny word, every subtle nuance in the text because you were being informed by a knowledge that comes from God Himself. And that is what we have here in sacred Scripture. And that is why we never graduate from the School of Christ. As we are learning ever more deeply, careful and more accurately the things that are contained in His Word, we find the fulfilling meaning for life that is more precious than gold..
Pastor Sproul explains, We remember that Jesus said in His High Priestly Prayer, when He prayed for the sanctification of His disciples a d of all who would believe through their testimony (which includes you), our Lord prayed: “Father, sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth”. And that is what the Apostle Peter is telling us in the beginning of this Epistle, 2 Peter 1:2 “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ, Brian
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