OUR VALUE IN THE INVALUABLE CHRIST
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 5, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; September 5, 2021 from 1 Peter 1:17-21
Theme: Knowing the high price God paid for us should motivate us to live with reverent devotion.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Click HERE for the audio version of this sermon.
This morning, I ask that you turn with me to words from the Bible that tells us about our immeasurable value in Jesus Christ. Those words are found specifically in 1 Peter 1:17-21. But to experience their full impact, I ask that we begin at the beginning of Peter’s letter.
Peter had been writing to a group of Jewish Christians who had been scattered from their homeland because of persecution. They were suffering under a great trial for their Lord. Peter wanted to offer genuine encouragement to them in the midst of their trial. He wanted to spur them on to faithful devotion to Christ. And so, he wrote;
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:1-12).
As I read those words to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope they impact you with the immeasurable value of our salvation. Peter wanted the hearts of his fellow believers to be gripped by what a precious heavenly treasure it is that they have—even in the midst of difficult earthly circumstances. And he wanted the knowledge of it to transform the way that they lived in the midst of those circumstances. He would want that for us too. He went on to say;
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, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy” (vv. 13-16).
And then comes the words that I want to draw your particular attention to. In verses 17-21, Peter went on to write;
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (vv. 17-21).
The value of something is shown in whatever it is that someone would be willing to pay for it. In this passage, we’re told that Jesus—the sinless Son of God—shed His precious blood on the cross for our redemption. And based on that measure, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that makes us immeasurably valuable indeed!
* * * * * * * * * *
You know; there can be some measure of value in a thing all on its own. There may be sentimental value attached to it. There may be value found in the materials that go into making that item. Or there may even be value in just the idea of searching for a collectible thing, and finding it, and having it in one’s possession. But as any collector of rare items will tell you, the real, objective, measurable dollar value of a collectible item is identified in what someone would be willing to pay to have it.
I learned this principle early in my life through, of all things, comic books.
Back when I was a teenager, it was considered sort of ‘nerdy’ to collect comic books from the 1960s. But that was long before the characters from those comic books became the enormously profitable entertainment franchises that they are today. It has made some of those nerds into multi-millionaires. But not me, I’m afraid. When I was a teenager, I managed to buy the first edition of The Avengers from a used book store. I was very proud of it; and I showed it very carefully—along with my whole growing comic book collection—to my friends. I remember telling one friend how much that one comic book was worth. His response was, “Wow. Must be a good story.” I never would have imagined that, in my adulthood, I would have to sell that book—along with the whole collection—to pay taxes one year.
One of the most noteworthy comic books that I briefly had in my possession was Amazing Fantasy #15. Back in 1974, while I was still in high school, I had bought a copy of this comic for a friend. I paid $55 for it; because it was a collectors item at the time—and my friend was, like me, a budding comic book collector. It was worth a little bit more than the average ‘silver age’ comic magazine, because it featured the first appearance of a character that was just beginning to grow significantly in popularity—Spider-Man. For a number of reasons, though, I had to sell that particular comic book back at a 50% loss. “Oh well,” I thought; “lesson learned.”
Now; do you remember what I said earlier?—that the objective and measurable value of a collectible item is in what someone would be willing to pay to have it? Well; a copy of that very same comic book in roughly that condition—one that I had bought for $55 and sold back for $27.50—is currently listed at somewhere between $25,000 to $45,000. And a little over five years ago, a perfect copy of that very comic magazine was sold in a Dallas convention for $5.7 million.
Now; even though it doesn’t look like much—just a comic book, after all; with relatively crude-looking artwork printed on very cheap newsprint paper and held together by a couple of staples—you would still be rather awestruck if you held a copy of it in your hand. Or more likely, you wouldn’t dare to hold it—just knowing that someone would be willing to pay that much money to have it! And if this is true of a mere comic book—destined to fall apart and go to dust one day—consider what the apostle Peter tells us about those of us who are in Christ by faith. He said that we were not redeemed from out of our sinful and lost condition with corruptible things, like silver or gold, but rather with the precious blood of Christ. Never—in all the history of the universe—has a higher price been paid for something so humble and seemingly unimpressive than has been paid by God for you and me. Hebrews 12:2 encourages us to be
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
What was that “joy” that was set before Him? It was the prospect of you and me—dear brothers and sisters—being redeemed out of our lost condition, washed clean, and brought into His holy presence to have fellowship with Him in His eternal glory. He already possessed that glory in the fullest degree; but what He wanted was to have us with Him in that glory. And that was why He willingly set all that glory aside for a time, came to this earth, and shed His precious blood for us.
And doesn’t the knowledge of that inspire you? Doesn’t understanding what a high price it was that was paid for you make you appreciate the value of your salvation a little more? Doesn’t it make you look at yourself, faults and failings and all, with a sense of reverential awe?—not because of anything inherently valuable about yourself, but because of what Jesus gave up in order to redeem you to Himself? Doesn’t it inspire you to want to give your all to live the Christian life with the kind of seriousness that the Lord Jesus Himself has placed upon it?
This passage, then, sets before us the unspeakably, immeasurably high price that was paid for our redemption. And the great lesson it has to teach us is that knowing the high price God paid for us should motivate us to live our Christian life with reverent devotion.
Just think of what a great value God has placed upon us! Just think of how much Jesus paid to redeem us to Himself forever! And just think of how reverently we should now live because of it!
* * * * * * * * * *
Look at how the apostle Peter unfolds this to us. At the beginning of verse 17, he writes, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work …” And in saying this, He sets before us the current condition that he assumes is true of us as professing believers; that …
1. WE CALL UPON GOD AS OUR FATHER …
Now; do you call God your Father? If you have no relationship with Jesus Christ—if you haven’t placed your faith in His death on the cross for you—then God is not yet your Father. It’s true that you are His creation; but you are not yet His son or daughter; and you don’t yet have the right to address Him as “Father”. You are a creature in a state of separation from your Creator. But if we have placed our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus for us—wherein He was crucified for our sins and raised again for our justification—then we truly are the children of God and He truly is our Father. This was hinted at to us in verse 3; where Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead …” (v. 3). But it’s made even more clear to us in John 1:12-13; where the apostle John wrote this about Jesus;
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).
As soon as we—by prayer—repent of our rebellion against God and place a genuine faith in what Jesus has done for us, we become ‘born again’ in Jesus; and He Himself gives us the right to call His Father our Father. I hope that you have done that. I hope that if you haven’t, you won’t let this day go by before you do.
Peter assumes that his readers have placed their faith in Jesus; and that they now legitimately call God their Father. But do you notice what else he says about the Father in verse 17? He says that He is the one “who without partiality judges according to each one’s work …” The fact that we may now call God our Father through faith in Jesus His Son doesn’t mean that it now no longer matters how we live. We cannot live carelessly and recklessly and sinfully; and just assume that all is well because God is our Father. As Peter said in verses 14-15, we are to live “as obedient children”, not conforming ourselves to the former lusts, as in our ignorance; “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct”. If we claim that God is our Father through faith in Jesus—but continue to live willingly in sin—then we really haven’t come to terms yet with how much our salvation cost our Savior. And our Father won’t let that happen. As Peter went on to say in 1 Peter 4:17;
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God … (1 Peter 4:17).
Our Father is a good Father. He disciplines His children and teaches them to walk in holiness. He makes no exceptions to the rule, and He doesn’t show partiality to any of His kids. We should be very thankful that He loves us that much!
* * * * * * * * * *
So then; that’s the assumption that Peter makes. He assumes that we are God’s children by faith in Jesus. And if that’s true; if we call upon God as our Father …
2. THEN WE SHOULD LIVE BEFORE HIM WITH REVERENT DEVOTION.
Peter goes on to say in verse 17, “conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear …” The “fear” Peter is speaking of is not the fear of punishment, or any other kind of negative phobia. Rather, it’s best to understand this as a sense of reverential awe. We’re not to live carelessly and recklessly—as if it didn’t matter how we lived. Rather we’re to consider the enormously great price that was paid for our redemption; and we’re to look at our salvation with a sense of humble awe and wonder—that God would love us so much, and that His Son Jesus would pay such a great price to have us for Himself; and we’re to now live our Christian lives with a renewed sense of seriousness and devotion and earnestness that would be appropriate to our great value to God.
Many years ago—when I was attending Bible college—one of our professors began a class at the beginning of a semester in a way that I’ll never forget. He was a great teacher; but to tell you the truth, this didn’t seem at first like a very inspiring class. It didn’t seem to capture our passion like so many of his other classes did. He must have sensed our apathy; and so, he began by saying, “Now; before we begin, tell me—this is a five-credit course, isn’t it?” And we sleepily looked up from our desks and halfway nodded that it was. “How much are you paying per credit this semester?” he asked. And someone said the amount.
“Okay then; let’s add this up. That breaks down to … eh … how many weeks are there to this semester? Can someone figure that out?” And someone shouted out the number of weeks. It was fifteen.
The professor went on. “So then; that’s fifteen weeks. Now, with a five-credit class, that’s five hours a week. So; what does that work out to in total hours? Someone get a calendar. Be sure to figure in the mid-term break and holidays.” It worked out to about 55 hours that semester.
Okay then; so that’s 55 times we’ll be together. Now; somebody figure out what your total cost for this class breaks down to in terms of each one of those individual 55 hours that we’re together.” Somebody did—and when they shouted out the figure, we all gasped! We never stopped to consider that each hour’s session that we were about to lazily drift through was going to cost us that much!
And then, this wise instructor said, “Okay class. Shall we begin?” And you’d better believe he had a classroom full of very earnest and alert students from that day forward!
There’s something about knowing how much something costs that inspires you to take it seriously. But in the case of our redemption, it wasn’t we ourselves who paid the price. It was someone else who paid it for us. It’s a faith the genuineness of which—as Peter said—is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire” (v. 7); and that’s because the greatest price that could ever be paid for anything was paid for our salvation. Peter said in verses 9-12 that it’s a salvation that the prophets of old inquired about and tried to understand—a salvation that is so marvelous that the angels themselves long to look into it.
Just think of how seriously, then, we—who are the recipients of it—should give ourselves to it! It would only be a matter of treating it according to its true worth!
* * * * * * * * *
And this comes from ‘knowing’ the truth about it. You’ll find the word “knowing” at the beginning of verse 18. It’s put in what is called ‘the perfect tense’; and it speaks of a kind of knowing that is a matter of settled fact. It’s not a matter of learning and discovering new facts about its worth over time; as if knew installments kept getting made. Rather, it’s a matter of our knowing it completely; because the cost is already declared to us in the price that Jesus paid to redeem us once and for all.
And so; Peter goes on to show us that we should live before God with reverent devotion …
3. KNOWING THE HIGH PRICE THAT WAS PAID FOR OUR REDEMPTION.
Consider this price in terms of its purity. In verses 18-19, Peter says, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers …”
Back before we knew Jesus, we didn’t live by the commandments of God. We sought to operate on traditions or patterns that were handed down to us. Many of them were sinful; and all of them were corrupted by the sin of Adam. And often, they expressed themselves in sinful addictions and habits that we couldn’t break ourselves from. We were held prisoner to our past. We were slaves to our sinful natures inherited from the great pool of fallen humanity from which we came. But now, we have been redeemed from all of that. We’ve been purchased out of our slavery and into liberty in Christ. The price of redemption has been fully paid! Praise God!
And that price was not paid by silver or gold. Those are the most precious commodities we can think of in terms of what this world may have to offer. And even those things are corruptible. Their value varies with the market. And eventually, they will rust and fade away. Instead, our redemption was paid by something that cannot be corrupted and that will never lose its value. Nothing in this world could ever diminish it. No taint of sin could ever touch it. It was paid with the greatest currency in the universe—that is, “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
How great was the purity of this price paid for us? Revelation 1:5-6 tells us. It says;
To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:5-6).
And consider this price in terms of its eternality. This precious price that was paid for our redemption wasn’t some kind of ‘emergency bail-out’. It wasn’t some ‘afterthought’—some kind of ‘Plan-B’ that unexpectedly had to be paid because of our unanticipated fall into sin. It was a price that was settled in the plan of God our Father from eternity past. Peter went on to say in verse 20, “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you …”
The ‘last times’ speaks of the period in the unfolding of God’s eternal plan that began when Jesus was born into this world and that will end when He returns. But that’s not when this price was paid for us. In Revelation 13:8, we’re told something amazing—that Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. Think of that! That means that before this present era—before we ever were—before we ever sinned—even before our first parents fell into sin—the price for our redemption was already settled. It was established in eternity past; and it was only in time that Jesus was born into this world in order to pay the price for us. That means that you and I did nothing to deserve it—and we cannot do anything to make it null and void.
And finally, consider this price in terms of its security. Peter says that this price was paid, “for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” In order to confirm to you and me that the price has fully been paid for our redemption, and that the account is now settled, God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him.
Think of it. If Jesus had not been raised—if He remained in the tomb after He died on the cross—we could never know for sure that the price for our redemption had been fully paid. But as it says in Romans 4:25 that Jesus was
delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification (Romans 4:25).
Our “justification” is the legal declaration from God that we are now 100% in His sight through Jesus. Our redemption is complete. It is fully settled by the price of Jesus’ own precious blood. And now, our faith is not in ourselves or in our own ‘worthiness’ before God. It is all His doing—which means it is absolutely secure.
* * * * * * * * * *
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; unless we grasp the high price that was paid for it, we will never understand the precious value of our salvation—and we will never be motivated to live our Christian life with the sense of passion and devotion and reverent seriousness that it deserves from us.
Has your Christian experience become mundane to you? Have you lost your zeal? Then I recommend that you go back to the basics. Consider again how much was paid for it. The true, objective, measurable value of anything is identified in what someone is willing to pay for it. And God willingly gave His own Son to purchase your salvation. Jesus shed His own precious, sinless blood in order to redeem you to Himself forever.
Knowing the high price God paid for us, dear brothers and sisters, let’s now rise up to live for Jesus with whole-hearted, grateful, reverent devotion. How truly precious we are to Him!
EA
