Lasting Living – Part 2

Continuing Pastor Kyle's message on “lasting living”, he points out that the Apostle Peter was using the literary structure of 1 Peter 1:13-25 to remind us that we need to (1) focus on Heaven, (2) live like it, and (3) focus on Heaven. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever” reminds us that our lives are just temporary vessels on the way to an eternal dwelling. Peter was quoting Isaiah 40:6-8, “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” The people illustrated as “the grass” in both passages are us.

People come and then they go, but God, His Word and Heaven are the only permanent reality that exists. Our lives on earth are temporary. We are already living in imperfect , flawed vessels. The hope of this text is that Heaven is our true and permanent home. This Coronavirus is just a painful reminder that, sometimes, life on earth has its bad and troubling times. Heaven is every true Believer’s true hope and true home.

The next insight from this passage is that Believers should decide to let God use the bad and troubling circumstances to set them apart. In this fallen world, we should expect life to sometimes have bad and troubling times on this side of Heaven. But, that mindset, in and of itself, is somewhat negative and fatalist. The Christian life is about overcoming evil with good. The Christian life is about triumphing over whatever negative circumstances are around us. The Christian life is about victorious living. This means that we may have adversity in this life on earth, but we know in the end that God wins, and His people win with Him. Jesus won and continues to win. And because Jesus has already won, we can decide now that we are not going to let the negative things in our lives win today.

Are we going to let God take the bad and troubling things and situations that we are dealing with, and let Him turn them to good? Ask God how He wants to use these bad and troubling situations to set us apart; to refine us and purify us. Verse 15-16 says, “as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Now, what does “holy” mean? To have no sin literally means to be like God and this is absolutely terrifying and impossible in our fallen flesh. We are not holy, we are sinful. The Apostle Peter is pointing out us to the fact that only Jesus lived a sinless and holy life. We are holy and blameless only because Jesus, the Christ, paid for our holiness with His blood shed upon the Cross. And, because of what Jesus Jesus has done for us, all who simply repent and receive Him by faith are imputed His righteousness and holiness.

We will never achieve the holiness of God on our own, no matter how hard we try. It is a free gift to all who call upon Jesus as Savior and Lord. Verses 13-15, “therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,” are dedicated to reminding Believers of our calling to be holy as God is holy. Holy means to be set apart by God, for God’s purposes as He designed and intended. Holy living is lasting living.

Holy living is how we let God take our bad and troubling circumstances of this world in order to set us apart and become more like Jesus. Christians are supposed to be different from secular society. In a world that does not walk with the Lord, we are to walk in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of salvation. In a world that says, “Anything goes”, God says “Whatever I say goes.” 1 Peter deals with the topic of repeated trials, but is saying that trials and hardships are one of the key things that God uses to set Believers apart from the world. We are in the world but not of this world.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16-17, I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Be aware that we can fall back and get stuck in an old groove of the flesh nature. We all have sinful desires, but they should not shape our lives. Our time in exile is our time here on planet Earth, but we are on the road home to glory. Practice holy lasting living. These are not “the good ole days” that we’ll remember and talk about when we get to Heaven. These are days we’ll remember as a past dream that pales in comparison to the joy and hope that we are living when we are truly home with the Lord.  

In Christ, Brian