Our Standing with God (2 Peter 1:1–2)
Where do you stand with God? Before Peter says anything about the last days or the Second Coming, he roots us in that most basic question.
In this opening sermon of the series, we meet the messenger—Simeon Peter, the denier whom Jesus restored to be a servant and apostle—and we hear his message: believers have “obtained a faith of equal standing” by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Our standing with God is not because of what we have done, but because of what God has done. From that standing flows Peter’s prayer that grace and peace would be multiplied to us in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Introduction
Last Sunday, Dax and I heard a message on Genesis 9, the Flood, and the meaning of the rainbow as God’s sign of mercy but also judgment. He will never again judge the earth in a flood, but he will with fire. The minister mentioned that we shouldn’t be surprised by the ungodly use of God’s sign in our world; instead, we know how the story of human history ends so let’s live like that. He then took us to 2 Peter 3.
As I was praying and considering what to preach next, that spoke to me. 2 Peter is a short letter that’s the last we have in Scripture from the apostle. It’s an urgent call to grow in the grace and knowledge of God and his gospel. We are to do this living in the last days, knowing the end of the story on the last day. But before Peter expounds the last day and the last days leading up to it, he first roots us in our standing with God.
It's important to know your standing, isn’t it? When we’re in a relationship, we often ask that question: “Where do we stand?” When we’re dealing with a budget, income and expenses, and the need to purchase something significant, we ask, “Where do we stand?” We often hear in our culture with courts of law, that a case was dismissed because those brining it didn’t have “standing.” The question of “standing” is one of status: who are you, where are you at, and how you’re doing in relationship to someone else.
Theme
So, when I say 2 Peter 1:1–2 is about our standing with God, I’m saying the apostle roots us in who we are in relation to God, where we’re at with him, and how we’re doing in that relationship. I pray today that if you’re a believer and not feeling so secure in your standing or if you’re not a believer yet, that you will know who God is, who you are, and how you stand with him.
The Messenger Makes the Message that Much Sweeter
Our letter begins with what seems like the perfunctory and typical opening of a letter: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ (v. 1). Simeon is the Semitic spelling of Simon, one of Jesus’s most important followers. He’s typically called by the Greek spelling Simon, but here and at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15:14, he’s called Simeon.
He identifies himself as a servant…of Jesus Christ or doulos. This is the word for a slave.
He’s also an apostle of Jesus Christ or a messenger sent on behalf of Jesus. What’s interesting is that Jesus himself is called the apostle par excellence in the New Testament (Heb. 3:1) because he’s sent as a messenger of God to the world. As well, many inn the New Testament are called “apostles,” which we’d classify today as something like missionaries: Barnabus, Silas, Titus, Timothy, Andronicus and even the female Junia (Acts 14:14; 1 Thes. 1:1, 2:6; 2 Cor. 8:23; Rom. 16:7). But when Peter uses it of himself, it’s in that strictest sense of the term for the twelve apostles of Jesus plus Paul.
In his opening proclaiming our standing with God, knowing that Peter is the messenger of this news makes the message that much sweeter. He was called by Jesus. He was part of his inner circle. He was given the name petros because he was a rock in confessing the truth of who Jesus was. He preached. He performed miracles. But he’s also the guy who denied Jesus three times and whom Jesus called Satan!
Then he saw the empty tomb and everything changed. Jesus restored him. He preached on Pentecost and baptized the initial 3,000 members of the church. He preached to the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and the Spirit came to the Gentiles as well. He recounted this at the Jerusalem Council and all gave glory to God!
But again, he fell and needed to be restored. He feared man more than God. When Judaizers came from Jerusalem to Antioch, he left the tables where he ate with Gentiles and only ate with Jews. Paul confronted him, rebuked him, and said this was a denial of the good news of Jesus to all sinners. He was again restored!
Aren’t we typically drawn to stories of people who rise and fall, only to rise again? If you’re watching the Olympics you know how Simone Biles was a gold medalist, then had to quit from competition in 2020 due to mental struggles, only to see her rise again this year! Human beings love the story of rise and fall then rise again because we identify and hope to do the same in our own little ways.
Even more with Peter, he’s an illustration to us that saints are sinners, too. We can identify with Peter so much because we see in him the transforming power of God’s grace. God has saved us, we so often fall, but like Peter, our God loves to restore. Amen? And here he is, at the end of his life, saying the gospel is that Jews and Gentiles are on equal standing before God. The messenger makes the message that much sweeter.
The Message of God’s Amazing Grace
What’s the message? To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ (v. 1). This is a message of God’s amazing grace. Let’s break it down.
The Gift of Faith
First, note he says they obtained, which can also be translated, “received” (CSB; NASB1995; NIV 2011), a faith (v. 1). This verb lanchousin is used in the New Testament for receiving something by lot.
Children, do you know what it means to draw a lot? We use the phrase “draw straws.” Do you know what that is? If we went down to the beach and I picked up some little driftwood sticks and made them all different sizes, then I held them in my hand so that all you could see were the tops, and you picked one, at the end, whoever had the longest one got a brand-new boogie board. Did you do anything to earn the boogie board?
For example, the Roman soldiers at Jesus’ crucifixion drew lots to see who would receive Jesus’s garments (John 19:24 cf. Luke 1:9; Acts 1:17). What did the winner do to earn that prize of free clothes? Nothing!
This verb was also used in ancient Greek literature of government officials who were appointed to their position by lot. Peter says that the people he was writing to as well as he had obtained or “received” a faith of equal standing (v. 1) because like drawing lots, their faith was not something they did but faith was a gift from God. In Ephesians, Paul said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). Faith is a gift of God’s amazing grace.
The Method of Righteousness
How has God granted to us to obtain or receive faith? By (cf. NASB1995) or “through” (CSB; KJV; NIV 2011) the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ (v. 1).
Now, when the Bible talks about “righteousness” and God, it can mean two things:
First, righteousness can mean what God gives to sinners like us who are unrighteous.
Second—and I think this is how it’s being used here—it can mean the righteousness that God is.
He is righteous. As God, he is the standard of all that is right. Thus, in the Old Testament, we read that when God acts to save, he exercises his righteousness. Go search up how often the Lord’s righteousness is paralleled with his salvation (cf. Pss. 22:31, 31:1, 35:24, 28, 40:10; Isa. 42:6, 45:8, 13, 51:5–8; Mic. 6:5, 7:9). Righteousness is God’s intervening to set things right.
This is why we read God acting righteously to save the humble who are oppressed by the proud; the poor who are oppressed by the rich; the weak who are oppressed by the strong. This is why we grieve injustice in our world. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Why? Because deep down inside our conscience, God has stamped a sense of his righteousness. All our societal efforts to make a more just and righteous society are God-given instincts. We don’t necessarily enact the right ways, but our instincts are correct. This is why being is a Christian is the best of both worlds: we attempt to have an upright society now, but ultimately, we know that it’s going to take our righteous God acting to save on that final day to set all things right. Amen?
So, what Peter is saying is that we have obtained or received faith because our God and Savior Jesus Christ has acted graciously and righteously to save us. Peter’s message of amazing grace is that faith is a gift that is rooted in the gracious saving work of Jesus! It’s all of grace!
Notice one last not-so-little thing here: the source of this righteous action to save and give us faith is the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. What do you notice about that phrase? The Greek text says crassly “the God our and Savior.” In Greek grammar, there’s a rule that when two singular nouns (not proper nouns) are linked with “and” but only have one definite article “the,” they’re referring to the same person (cf. 1:11, 2:20, 3:2, 18). What does this mean? Jesus is our God and Savior. Jesus is our God! Jesus is our Savior! In the Old Testament, the Lord alone is God and Savior. As a good Jew, Peter knew his Old Testament. Isaiah 43:10–11: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.”He here says Jesus is that God; Jesus is that Savior! What a message of amazing grace!
The Universality of Recipients
Jesus has gifted us graciously with faith because he has acted righteously to save. To whom did he give this faith? Who has he saved? To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours (v. 1). Those and ours.
Remember, in Acts 10 Peter preached to the Gentile, Roman centurion Cornelius and his household and they were saved. Then in Acts 15 he recounted this just like Paul had spoken. Jews and Gentiles both are saved by the same Jesus, by the same grace, by the same righteous action of God. But then recall Galatians 2 where Peter left Gentile tables because he was afraid of Judaizers who said Gentiles had to become Jewish in order to be saved. Here in his last known letter, Peter says those and ours; we both have a faith of equal standing (v. 1). We learn of the universality of recipients of this amazing grace here.
You see, it doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done or are doing, the gospel is a message to all people commanding you to repent and believe. It’s not about you! It’s about Jesus who saves.
The Message’s Multiplication in Us
Peter then prays that this message of amazing grace would be multiplied or grow in us: may grace and peace be multiplied to you in or “through” (NIV 2011) the knowledge of God and of Jesusour Lord (v. 2). We’re going to come back to this in the last verse of the letter: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity” (3:18).
Let’s grow in the gospel, beloved! Let’s increase in our assurance that Jesus Christ is our Savior! Let’s grow in our desire to live it our before a watching world! Let’s grow in our desire and ability to share it with others!
Conclusion
2 Peter is an urgent call that you and I grow in the grace and knowledge of God and his gospel.
We are to do this living in the last days, knowing the end of the story on the last day.
In order for us to grow, we have to know that we’ve planted and rooted in a right standing with God.
In order for us to live in these crazy last days leading up to the last day, we need to know that Jesus has acted in righteousness and grace to save us. Amen?