Not all of us can think the exact same way - so I sympathize if I seem to be on a different wave-length. However - please realize that I am trying to speak to ALL wavelengths - an impossible task - but don't GIVE UP! Stay with me - this is important or I wouldn't have spent the past 35 years thinking about this and getting ready to share it with YOU. Give me a chance to share my pilgrimage, PLEASE.
I have heard MANY sermons about "BE PERFECT" - and most of them are not very encouraging. One context helps - even before I realized Jesus is Covenant. Peter wrote that God said, "You WILL BE Holy, because I am Holy" - 1 Peter 1:15-16. The context, however focuses on GOD - His POWER (verse 5) His grace (verse10) - plus everything God did in Christ, especially His resurrection (verse 3) - so the HOLY was a result of what God did in Jesus Christ. So - since the word, HOLY meant set apart for a special purpose - all Peter is doing through the Spirit - is reminding his readers that GOD is in charge of all of this - so receive it and focus on JESUS. That's the background of the concept of Jesus being destined before the foundation of the world to give us REAL HOPE - HOW? (The concept in verse 20 began in verse 3) We are to have hope because God raised Jesus from the dead - Peter calls it "LIVING HOPE" through the resurrection of Jesus. (verse 3) PLEASE - note the focus - what God did in and through Jesus.
If you remember the concept from 1 John 4 about being CONFIDENT on Judgment day - then you know that any confidence is because "as HE is, so are WE in this world". That is a great definition of HOLY - set apart to be like Jesus and be totally dependent on God 24-7. Now I ask you - doesn't that sound more like an invitation to the great adventure with God - than a diatribe of impossible performance to try to "be like Jesus". Guess what? If you don't focus on yourself - and you do BEHOLD JESUS - Paul wrote that by beholding Jesus, you are being continually changed from one degree of glory to another - ever increasing!" 2 Corinthians 3:18. That is for us.
THAT, my Covenant friends is how we are intended to LIVE. (Paul began that theme back in 2 Corinthians 2:14 - stating that we are always being led IN TRIUMPH" - and that is exactly how a Father leads His children - to grow in VICTORY and grace - to grow as CHILDREN OF THE LIVING GOD - as the prophecy predicted in Hosea 1:10; and as it was fulfilled in Romans 9:26 and 1 Peter 2:10. If you remember the Hosea story - Gomer was anything BUT Holy from our usually held definition - but Hosea MADE HER HOLY by buying her off a slave stand and taking her home. He gave her HIS identity and security - she had nothing and actually had no prospects. The context of 1 Peter spells that out as our situation - but God made a LAWFUL PURCHASE OF US - and all we can do is ALLOW IT. Like Abram - we can trust God's Promises - and THAT will be counted to us as righteousness. That, by the way is the definition of obedience - hiding under the promises and power of God in Christ. That is allowing Christ's KEPT Law to cover us - and HIS performance to give us identity and security. I know there is quite a LOT of poetry in many OT books - but read Hosea through about once a week for a year - and you'll see the whole story of God's redeeming us by Himself. Obviously realize, Gomer did go home with Hosea - she COULD have refused or even run off later - but why would she? She had the only one who EVER really loved her - and he had mercy on her when no one else cared for her. I am like that - God has mercy - lovingkindness to me in Christ - and I allow HIS kept law to be my new identity and I allow His spirit to lead me through life. What about LAW? Well - that becomes my structure for a future life - but I try to keep it because that is what CITIZENS and SONS do - they do it Dad's way- the King's way. That's what LAW is for - to serve us as sons of the Living GOD. More to come
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