Only Two Days on My Calendar
Preached by Jason Abbott
October 11, 2015
Martin Luther—the 16th century, German reformer—reportedly would say he only had two days on his calendar: “this day” (meaning today) and “that day” (meaning the day of God’s judgment). Now what did he mean by saying this?Well, I believe he meant that we should all live in the now (in the “this day”) in light of how God will judge our choices in the end (in light of how they’ll seem on “that day”).Think about this with me. Think about how we often live our lives each day. We make choices based on how we’ll be perceived by our peers and our families. We often make choices based on how much time we have before we hope to retire. We make decisions based on how much money we’ll save. We make decisions because we think those choices will make us happier and make life easier.If you’re like me, then you make choices each day for all of these reasons and many, many more. Yet if you’re like me, then you also rarely make decisions, at least primarily, in light of how they’ll be viewed by God in the end.Today we’re looking at a text in which Peter tells us how to choose well. Peter says we should live especially beautiful lives now—noteworthy lives now. As we’ll soon see, most of this passage is about living beautiful lives “this day.” Yet, the motive for such beautiful living is supposed to be, according to Peter, about a billion percent derived from how it will be valued by God on “that day.”So let’s read this passage together then let’s pray (page 1163).
1 Peter 2:1-12
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”8 and,“A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
As we begin to wade through this passage, we’re going to find that God, through Peter, has made a kind of ethical, gospel sandwich for us here. He tells us (1) make godly choices—that’s the 1st slice of bread. Next he says (2) God chose us to make godly choices—there’s the tasty middle part. Finally he says, once again, (3) make godly choices—that’s the 2nd slice of bread.So let’s dig in and taste this.
1. Make godly choices (vv. 1-3).
In the previous chapter, Peter commands believers to love each other (v. 22). In our time, it’s often argued that the substance of love is really a relative matter. We often suppose what it means to love one another simply goes without saying. After all, we know love when we see it…right? No.Notice that God has Peter put some flesh on the bones of this love decree. The “So” or the “Therefore” of today’s passage refers back to Peter’s command and defines love for us. God doesn’t think it goes without saying! So Peter writes for our benefit:
…rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (vv. 1-3).
Maybe you’re like, “Jason, you’re wrong! I do know that malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander don’t love others! I’d have answered that right on the test!” And you may have. But remember, we’re not talking about answers. To steal a line from Allen Iverson: “We talking about practice.”1 We’re talking about love practice—how we live-out love. Do you get malicious, deceitful, hypocritical, envious, and slanderous? Me too!We’ll even do it in the church under the guise of wanting to care for others. How often have we heard malicious gossip disguised as a loving prayer request? “I’m not sure I should share this, but I feel we should pray for the Johnsons because Sally shared with me that their teenage daughter is pregnant.”So how do we remedy this? Well, Peter tells us to mature our love practice by feeding on “pure spiritual milk” (v. 2). Translation: Feed on the word of God. We can mature in our love practice because we have tasted that God is good (v. 3). If we’re Christians, then we’ve tasted God’s love and mercy in Christ’s sacrifice for us. God saved us! God is good! God is love!Peter says, “If you want to learn more about what love is and how to do it, then go to the source of love and get to know him more. Read God’s word!”Peter says, “If you desire to love then make godly choices. Choose to learn to love from the source of love—God.”Let me make a brief point of application. Christians are a people of the book, of the Bible. We can’t know God in a substantive way apart from what’s revealed to us in Scripture. Look, I won’t be a good husband if I don’t listen to my wife. And, if I try to love her without allowing her to express what makes her feel loved then I will rarely if ever make her feel loved. Rather, I will only selfishly love her. I will craft our love in my image. (We’d watch a lot of MIZZOU football!)Friends, to love my wife well, I have to listen to her. And, to love God well, we have to listen to him through a regular study of his love letter to us—the Bible. Learn to love God in this way, and we’ll learn to love others too.This brings us to the next part of our sandwich. Peter tells us:
2. God chose us to make godly choices (vv. 4-10).
God chose us to love well. God elected us for such love. God predestined us for this very love purpose! Now ironically, the doctrine of God’s choice or election or predestination has caused more strife and less love among followers of Jesus than, perhaps, any other doctrine of Scripture.Nevertheless, I’m going to talk about it here because Peter talks about it. Yet, before I do, let me set the stage with an illustration I hope will help us think about such controversial biblical topics humbly and rightly.If you’re like me then sometimes you’ll read something someone has written about Christianity that seems outrageous to you. Something like: “God is love! Jesus is all about love! He would never send people to hell.” And, if you’re like me then you respond like: “Where are you getting your ideas about God and Jesus?! The Bible talks about God’s wrath against sinners. Jesus talks a lot about hell. You’re reading your Bible selectively if at all!” Do you ever do that?Well, I wonder if that’s not a little like how we read the Bible on election. Or maybe that’s like how we read the Bible on human responsibility and choice. We pay attention more to what we’re comfortable with and less to what we’re not. We read our Bibles selectively.Well, let’s not do that here. Let’s read thoroughly. Look at what Peter says:As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:“See, I lay a stone in Zion,a chosen and precious cornerstone,and the one who trusts in himwill never be put to shame.” (Isaiah 28)Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,“The stone the builders rejectedhas become the cornerstone,” (Psalm 118)and,“A stone that causes people to stumbleand a rock that makes them fall.” (Isaiah 8)They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (vv. 4-10).We have a lot of moving parts here—building references and temple images. So, stick with me for a few minutes, and I’ll try to explain what Peter’s getting-at with this Old Testament mixed-metaphor.First of all, the tent-temple and then the stone-temple were both established, in form and practice, as a witness to Israel and the pagan nations about the mission and character of God. They were built to show that God is holy and merciful.This witness, however, was marred over and over again by Israel’s sins. Nevertheless, God’s purposes for temple witness wouldn’t be marred or stopped. Therefore, Peter recognizes here that God would live and would witness among us in a much, more profound way. God himself—in the person of Jesus Christ—would put on flesh and tabernacle or tent-temple or live among us.
So Jesus is described as “a living Stone” (v. 4).
He’s described as a “chosen and precious” “cornerstone” by Isaiah (v. 6).
Peter says Jesus is a “rejected” “stone” who’s become the “cornerstone” in Psalm 118 (v. 7) and “stone of stumbling” in the 2nd Isaiah text (v. 8).
All this adds up to Jesus as the foundational, corner stone of a new temple. And God will use this new temple, founded upon Jesus Christ, in order to witness to the very ends of the earth concerning his perfect holiness and his perfect mercy. This temple will display his character and carryout his mission.If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, Peter tells you that you are that temple. Did you catch that? The church is chosen by God to be his new earthly dwelling. Look at what Peter writes:
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (vv. 4-5).
Look, this should absolutely blow our minds. Believers are the new temple of God. The purpose of the temple, to show God as holy and merciful in this world, is our purpose. The sacrifices that were practiced in the temple to make Israel pure before God are now being carried out in us—through the Spirit’s gospel work in us and through us, as we witness concerning Jesus in an unbelieving world.We were set-apart to make good and godly choices. Some, Peter tells us, “were destined” to “stumble” and “disobey the word” (v. 8). But not believers! Peter says that you are:
…a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (v. 9).
Now, I’ll return to this election / predestination stuff in just a moment, but, for now, let me move to our last point.Since believers were chosen—with Jesus as our cornerstone—to be built-up into the temple of God—to proclaim with word and deed the mission and character of God, then we should:
3. Make godly choices (vv. 11-12).
Look at the last verses with me and, then, we’ll wrap up:
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (vv. 11-12).
Peter says make the choices you were chosen to make. Live such godly lives on this day, among non-believers, that they will glorify God on that final day—“the day he visits us” (v. 12). In short, live the kind of life that transforms lives. Live the kind of life, in what you say and do, that God will be pleased to win some to Christ through your godly choices.
Now we’re back once again to all of this election and predestination stuff. First, let me say, did you notice the structure of Peter’s argument? He urges readers to make good choices. Then he grounds that in God’s sovereign choosing of them. Finally, he comes back and urges his chosen readers to make good choices.What does that teach us? It teaches us that we have real choices to make—that we’re not merely programed robots. It also teaches us that God is completely in control. God is never surprised. God’s will is never spoiled or soiled or stopped. He chooses some for noble purposes and some for ignoble purposes.How those two things can coexist is an absolute mystery to me! Maybe some of you can straighten me out after the service…or, maybe when we begin to relate to an omnipotent, omniscient, infinite God, some of his ways are just above us.Nevertheless, I can tell you that the cross demands just this paradox.Our salvation, at the cross of Jesus, demands both meaningful human choice and an absolutely sovereign, predestining God. For:
If our free choices win the day then God is always walking a step behind and the cross of Christ was simply an accident—God rolling the dice concerning salvation. We have a “hope this works out for the best” God.
If, on the other hand, we are merely God’s robots with no real choices then how could anyone be guilty of anything? None of us had any choice in the matter. And now the cross is merely a divinely planned atrocity. We have a “scary, despotic” God.
But, neither is true concerning what the Bible says of the cross.On that cross, God’s redemptive plans were being perfectly accomplished while human beings were simultaneously making sinful choices to put Jesus there. As Joseph explained to his treacherous and sinful brothers way back in Genesis—what you intended for evil God intended for good, to save many lives (50:20)!Praise God for the mystery of the cross and the paradox of our salvation!
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