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; (18) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (20) He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you (21) 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.

Our verses today come from the first letter of Peter, apostle and eyewitness to the risen Lord – they tell us that In faith, in Christ, we have a special relationship to God by virtue of our calling from slaves dead to physical and spiritual life to new birth and life by the grace of God. In ancient times there were slaves, freemen and freed men. There were many reasons for slaves – war, bankruptcy, sale of themselves, by parents or by birth. The ransom price could be provided by someone else. The death of Christ was/is substitutionary and freed us from the spiritual bondage of sin. Peter emphasizes the freedom from previously sinful lifestyles to changed and holy lifestyles.

To live a holy lifestyle isn’t automatic; we are to love/live carefully, focused in purpose, fighting against the pull of the world. We should be holy because God is holy. He will know our lives and judge every motive of our hearts. For those not redeemed by Christ they are still in bondage to sin and death. The imagery goes back to the beginning of people on earth – warned by God if they sinned they would die. This would be physical and spiritual death and alienation from God. God knew from all eternity who was to be Messiah but the particular and personal declaration of Him was reserved until now, at the last times (times of the gospel). In Christ we are no longer alienated from God who judges our stay here on earth – earth is not the home of the faithful.

The Jews derived from the traditions of their elders by which they made the law of God of no effect with a variety of corrupt principles and practices. In like manner Gentiles derived their idolatry from the teaching and examples of their fathers. In sharp contrast, the Messiah was known from the foundation of the world but was manifest only in Christ. Christ Jesus was raised from the dead confirming doctrine, procuring for the faithful the indwelling Spirit and assuring us of our resurrection. Believers are reconciled to God through Christ.

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, (4) to an inheritance incorruptible and undefined and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (5) who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, (7) 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, (8) whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, (9) receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.

The apostle Peter wrote today’s letter – Peter was an eyewitness to the resurrected Christ. His audience was primarily Christian Jews and Peter, a Jewish man, wrote from a Jewish point of view. In faith in Christ, Peter has a new relationship with God – no longer the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our verses today tell his readers that in faith they went from spiritually dead in sin to a state of definite expectation of the blessings before us; the moment of this expectation was the resurrection of Christ Jesus showing He is sufficient in all things salvation. We have no part in this; salvation does not rest on any ability or work of our own but on the abundant mercy of God assured by the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Salvation is the living and certain hope of the Christian. This inheritance in Christ is preserved for the faithful – nothing can come between salvation and the faithful. In this blessed hope we are able to rejoice now, even in trials and present sorrows. Everything has changed in the resurrection; the remedy God provided for sin was accomplished by Christ Jesus on Calvary. Now in Christ we are reborn and the work is done in us by the Word and Spirit of God. This is not at all what the Jews expected – it is not an earthly kingdom but an incorruptible inheritance.

If we are not saved, we are lost – we need an eternal perspective. The mother of my best friend used to say “What does it matter in the light of eternity?” At age 18 we found this amusing but not so much now. There is a great change in the hearts of the faithful – a new life and nature which produces love unselfish and pure. Believing the gospel we become children of God and are responsible to walk in dependence on the Lord. We are to behave as we believe.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

The letter to the Colossians was written by the apostle Paul. The verses we study today sum up the main teaching of this epistle – the close personal relationship of all souls to God in Christ, the mediator between God and man. In His atoning death and resurrection the soul in faith passes into life from spiritual death – a new condition. Paul goes to the next stage of spiritual life, the process of sanctification – seeing all things in relation to God. In faith we are to set our sights on things above and the stress here is on the intentional. Life for the Christian is intended to be very different from that of the unbeliever; different in nature, outlook, interest and aim. Christianity is not living in the shadows of the Old Testament nor is it going through endless ritual and tradition, nor is it bound in conscience by religious legalism – not by keeping man made rules. It is by faith.

Secular life in the material, psychological and philosophical world is now opposed to spiritual life in faith. Christ is sufficient. There is no Jesus AND – no good works, rituals, ceremonies. There is nothing man can do to earn his salvation. It is always and everywhere of the Lord. We are to set our minds and hearts on things above and in true faith and regeneration we cannot do otherwise. The indwelling Spirit provides us grace to seek God as He commands. We have received a new life in Christ and are not on probation. Our real life is in Christ; our truest, best interests are in Him. Our source and sustainer of our lives is in His keeping. We are eternally one with Him and nothing can ever separate the Christian from the risen Christ.

We are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, (6) who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, (7) but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (8) And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (9) Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, (11) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The letter to the Philippians was written by the apostle Paul. Our verses teach the doctrine that Jesus added genuine humanity to His eternal deity. His deity was not diminished or laid aside but rather veiled during His earthly ministry; to save us from our sins. The main idea is always of our Lord Jesus Christ as mediator between man and God. Christ laid aside His outward glory – not His deity – He was God in a human body. Christ Jesus was voluntary in His incarnation. He assumed a sinless but finite humanity, being in the form of a man in the reality of His existence in this world while the true nature of God describes Christ’s essential and eternal nature as God. His voluntary fashion as of the true nature of man was the manifestation of Himself to the world in all the weakness of humanity. Outward fashion was all that men could see. His atoning death was the completion of the obedience of His life on the cross. Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name.

In the name of Him who is at once God and man Paul tells his readers that “every knee is to bow” in direct worship to Him – and here denotes worship to Christ, not through Him. The word Lord here means worship paid is worship done to God. The acknowledgment of the glory of Christ is the acknowledgment of glory of the Father as source of deity manifested perfectly in Him. Proper exaltation was of His human nature though in conjunction with His divine nature. His name which is above every name will be confessed as Lord. The Kingdom of Christ reaches to the heavens and the earth – all creatures in each, angels as well as men, dead as well as living. Whatever honor and respect is paid to Christ resounds to the honor of the Father. In the ultimate reality of Christ’s exaltation and lordship believers bow willingly before Jesus. Unbelievers will bow against their wills but they will bow. Under the earth Satan and the demonic forces WILL bow. To honor Christ is to honor the Father because Jesus is God.

Ultimately we shall see Him as He is and the faithful shall be like Him. Every knee must bow at the name of Jesus – even infernal beings, yet this does not make them saved beings. This passage does not teach that all the lost will be saved.