The Cost of Redemption

1 Peter 1:17-19

Immanuel – 4/18/21

This is now the seventh week in our series called “Hope in a Hostile World;” where we dive deep into Peter’s first letter to the churches in north-central Turkey. They were churches living in a rapidly changing world and facing local persecutions of all sorts. And in the not too distant future, things were about to get a lot worse.

We also live in a rapidly changing world. And when we consider the horizon, it is hard not to think that things will be getting a lot worse for us who hold to Biblical convictions. We indeed need hope in a hostile world!

And we have it! What a great and living hope God has given to us! These words of Peter rain down glories upon us as we consider all the works of salvation that God has wrought on our behalf: the Father’s plan in eternity past, the Spirit brings to bear in our present moment, which He will complete upon the return of Christ.

What a salvation! This salvation is so great that even the consideration of it transforms us. And as we will see today, one of the ways that it transforms us is by filling us with holy fear.

Purpose

What does it mean to conduct ourselves with fear?

Why should we conduct ourselves with fear?

Read 1 Peter 1:13-19

If you watched the mid-week video, then you probably noticed that I did not read to verse 21. The more I meditated upon verses 20-21, the more I realized that I had to give them their own sermon. There is volcanic power beneath those verses, and I didn’t want to diminish it by trying to squeeze them into today’s sermon.

And if you did the homework that I gave in the mid-week video, don’t worry, your answers will still apply to today’s passage – a passage that has its own volcanic force.

Our Father

Our passage starts with this idea of calling upon God as Father. I want to be clear: in no way is Peter talking about us calling upon God in the first sense. Meaning, we heard the gospel, called upon God for salvation, and then God responded and saved us. We did not – nor could we ever – initiate our salvation.

Consider, once again, who initiates salvation.

[We are] elect exiles according to the foreknowledge of God. (1 Peter 1:1-2)

God caused us to be born again to a living hope. (1 Peter 1:3)

God loved us and elected us in eternity past, and He caused us to be born again into a living hope; which is to say, God caused us to have faith that leads to hope. God is the one who first called, and who initiated – in every way – our salvation.

What Peter means with “If you call on Him as Father,” is that through faith God has become a Father to us. No longer do we look up only to find skies of bronze, and condemnation raining down. We look to the heavens and there find help and comfort and love upon love, grace upon grace. God is our Heavenly Father, and we His children. Therefore, we should joyfully address Him as Father; or shall I say, call on Him as Father.

Our Father Who Judges

But our Father, who art in Heaven, is still the cosmic Judge; and He shows no partiality. God sees all the deeds of men, even those done in secret, even the concealed thoughts in your mind. None of these escape His gaze. And it is by these that God judges.

“I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord.” -Ezekiel 24:14

[God] will render to each one according to his works. -Romans 2:6

People are not judged based on ethnicity, gender, socio-economic positions, fame, wealth, or anything like these; but purely on the basis of deeds. God shows no partiality, like so much of our world does. He judges justly.

It is by works that we are judged, because the works of our hands are the expressions of our heart. A wicked heart governs wicked hands. When Christ separates the sheep from the goats, sending each to heaven or hell, it will be based on our works; which is exactly what Jesus talks about in that parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46).

But certainly Peter is not talking about this kind of judgement, right?

God is a loving and merciful Father towards His elect, just as He is to the elect readers of Peter’s letter. We do not need to fear eternal condemnation. We are clothed in the perfectly righteous deeds of Christ. God has removed our wicked deeds from us as far as the east is from the west. When we stand before the Judge of all the earth, we will stand joyfully in Christ, ready to fully receive the inheritance of sons and daughters!

And yet Peter is talking about a peculiar fear that we are to hold because our Father is the Judge.

Read vs 17

Look back at verse 15 again, Peter wrote that we are to be holy in all [our] conduct. Now, in verse 17, we see that we are to conduct ourselves with fear. The first thing we must do is link these two imperatives. Peter is talking about a fear that is holy – and you cannot be holy without this fear.

So, before we can answer the question, what does it mean to conduct ourselves with fear; we first need to understand why we should conduct ourselves with this fear. We need to understand the why before the how.

Holding, in our minds, that God is both our Father and the impartial Judge, let’s read the next verse.

Read vs 18

Captives

The idea of a ransom is perhaps easiest to understand in terms of a kidnapping. Someone is taken against their will; stolen away from their family. The family is then compelled to pay a staggering sum to rescue their loved one.

But what is the price of a life? Is there any amount that you would not pay to get back your son or daughter? And not just so you can be reunited, but to deliver them from the inevitable horrors they would have known at the hands of their kidnappers.

The circumstances that surround the ransom God has paid are different. Since God knew and loved His elect since before the foundations of the world, as 1 Peter 1:1 indicates, God has always seen us as His sons and daughters. But we were born into bondage, enslaved by the futile ways inherited from [our] forefathers.

Meaning, we were born into a culture that enslaved us, that celebrates sin, that loves godlessness. It doesn’t matter if you were born in 1921 or 2021, you were born into a culture that loves futility, that loves to chase the wind, that refuses to bow before the King.

On top of that, we have Stockholm syndrome, a pathology where we love our abusive captor. We are born into bondage and we loved our bondage. As captives, we are utterly incapable of rescuing ourselves, and why would we even try when – in our corruption – we see our bondage as freedom.

But even if we wanted to rescue ourselves, with what would we pay our own ransom? Silver? Gold?

And what is the price of our lives anyway? God created us to live forever. But in the bondage of sin we are bound to a living death forever. The “futile ways of sin” has an eternal claim on our lives. If there is an eternal claim over us, then only something of infinite worth will be accepted as payment. The price of our lives is without measure.

Our ransom cannot be paid in perishable things like silver and gold. Even if there were planets of solid gold, galaxies of gold, it would not be enough. An eternal debt demands something infinitely valuable.

There is only one possible payment. Only one thing worthy of paying such a staggering ransom.

Read vs 18-19

The Ransom

The Word that is God, living before all beginnings, the beloved Son of the Father, who perfectly exacts the will of His Father, holy as He is holy, in humility clothed Himself in humanity. Jesus of Nazareth, with every limitation and temptation of the flesh, lived without sin; the only human to perfectly obey the Father.

In terms of sin, Jesus was spotless, without blemish. And the Father’s heart burst with joy over His most beloved Son. Jesus is the apple of the Father’s eye. And because God – who is infinitely worthy – has called the Son infinitely worthy, then Jesus’ life is of infinite worth! A universe of gold measures as nothing compared to God the Son!

His life could pay the ransom. And that was the plan, that was always the plan. Jesus said:

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” -Mark 10:45

And the Father led the Son to the cross, where sinners die. There He was treated like filth, like a delusional fool; and humanity spat in His face. Crucified like a pathetic criminal, He died in abject shame.

Jesus’ killers thought His garment was the most valuable thing offered up that day, so they gambled for it. But they did not have eyes to see that something of infinite worth had been spilled, running red down the cross.

Yet even if they had eyes to see it, they could not have collected up some blood in a bowl and sold it for a price. The literal blood had no value. It is the life that the blood symbolizes: the life of God the Son, the crowning treasure of all creation, so deeply beloved by the Father.

Jesus’ perfect life – that great treasure – was offered in place of ours. He took our death so that by faith we could have His righteousness.

For our sake [the Father] made [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:21

Now, simply by believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross as a payment for your sins, His blood is transferred to you; you are washed in it, clothed in holy garments of infinite worth – as it were.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. -Ephesians 1:7

Of course, Christ’s life was not eternally extinguished. His life so valuable that death could not swallow it, but it swallowed death! On the third day the Father raised Jesus from the grave. He lives! And all who are washed in His blood – by faith – will likewise rise from the grave. We shall live! As Christ is, so shall we be!

Does this not lead you to fall on your face in absolute wonder? What was worthy in me that such blood was spilled on my behalf? What was worthy in any of us? The resounding answer returns: nothing! Nothing was found worthy in us!

And this is part of what makes Christ so worthy. He was willing to die to create out of nothing something valuable and precious, to take dirt and give it glory, to take the utterly unlovable and love it with His whole life. He did this not because of us, but because of Him!

Who is this God that spends so extravagantly on a broken and sinful people? The God who is love, who abounds in grace, who overflows spectacular generosity! This is our God! Forever we will worship Him for the price that was paid on our behalf! Forever we will glorify our Redeemer!

And that is the ultimate reason behind the spilling of the blood: that through our redemption we would glorify our Redeemer!

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! -Revelation 5:12

This is the main point of our existence: to be thunderstruck by Jesus’ worth! His blood is more precious than all else. But, this is not the main point of our passage. These glorious truths are being used to support something so completely human. From verse 17, conduct yourselves with fear.

Oh, the Bible so often works like this. Transcendent and glories realities are used to support our earthly lives filled with struggle and sin. The humility of our God knows no bounds!

Holy Fear

But before we think of how we are to live, we need the why. Why should we conduct ourselves with fear? Because of the staggeringly awesome price that was paid for you. Will you now, by continuing to live in sin, treat that blood as cheap? Will you say, “I have been forgiven for all time, so I will continue to live in sin?” The very thought should strike fear into the heart of every one of us.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgement, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. -Hebrews 10:26-27

Shall we have heard the gospel, understood it to be true, and yet go on living in sin, continuing to walk in the futility of our forefathers?

How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. -Hebrews 10:29-31

There is a holy, purifying fear that we all must hold. This is not about the elect fearing they will lose their election. This is about a holy fear that holds the elect firmly in their election.

We value the blood of Christ so highly that we would not dare go on defiantly living in sin. How horrific it would be to treat the blood of Christ as cheap, and trample it underfoot; with an arrogant expectation that God will just go on forgiving and forgiving so I’ll do what I want. That takes for granted God’s forgiveness and it cheapens that which is infinitely valuable. And it is wicked.

To be clear, we are all still sinners, and we will keep on committing sins. Intentional, willful, ongoing sin is danger – is deadly. To go on living in sin does not mean that you will lose your election. It means that you were never elect, and you never knew Jesus.

No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Whoever make a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. -1 John 3:6,8

So, what is this fear that Peter is calling us to in verse 17? It is loving Jesus so much you would never do anything that would cheapen your relationship with Him! Would you ever treat your spouse as a prostitute? Never! And never should we treat Jesus as cheap! The thought should frighten you to the core, and steer you away from such attitudes of the heart and behaviors of the hands.

So conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile.

Perhaps now you can see how this is holy fear, and how you cannot be holy without this fear. Be in awe of God for the awesome price He paid, respecting Him ultimately as the Father who Judges; and fear treating Him like a forgiveness vending machine.

For those who did the homework, that is the main point. Let us not treat the precious blood of Jesus Christ as cheap.

How then shall we live? Do all that you can to rightly esteem the blood spilled on your behalf! Conform your life to that of Christ’s. Or as Jesus said,

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” -John 14:23

“You are my friends if you do what I command you.” -John 15:14

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

-John 15:12

One massive way that we conduct ourselves with fear is by loving one another, which is exactly where Peter will take us in verses 22-25. But that is a sermon for another day.

If you want to love Jesus, and want to keep His word, then you must know His word. Once again, it is only found in this book. Every word here is His word. Live these words, not out of law, but out of love for the one who paid such a price; fearing a heart that would take such unfathomable generosity for granted.

Only let your life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. -Philippians 1:27

Brothers and sisters, let us live our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel. Indeed, our lives will never be worthy of so precious a gift, but we can strive to honor God with our every thought and our every action. As He has forgiven us, we can forgive. As He has loved us, we can love. As He has been generous with us, we can be generous.

All the while, with the deepest gratitude, we will worship the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.