1 Peter 2:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

1 Peter 2:7

Comments

Here we are going to see six lessons in the next five verses, on a theme which the apostle Peter is inspired to bring: six benefits bestowed by salvation. The first of these benefits, blessing, treasures, is the preciousness, the honour of Christ, and his great virtue. He is our supreme Lord and guide. He is infallible; he is eternal; he is holy; he is altogether wise, and he is ours. The theme is continued as Peter turns to negative reflections. It also buttresses, supports, and feeds the understanding of Christ as worthy of all honour, because he is the stone mentioned in verse 6, again quoted from the prophet Isaiah. What men think of Christ determines their eternal destiny, and how they view him reveals whether they are in the light or whether they remain in the darkness. All who have been taught by God come to the Lord Jesus Christ for life. To them he is precious, not as the crown jewels are precious – something which they will never own – but as a life-saving inoculation is precious, which they have personally received and from which they have personally benefited. They know he is precious because they have felt his life-giving power in their hearts, enabling them to repent and trust in his atoning death, cleansing them from all their sins, and renewing their minds so that they obey from the heart. Obedience is their natural response to the one they love, for now he has a double right to command them. He is their Creator who made them out of nothing and to whom they owe their existence, and he is their Redeemer who has paid with his blood to buy them back from hell. The chief characteristic of those who do not believe is that they do not obey. For them obedience is impossible, for although they may manage to grudgingly or self-righteously obey in one limited area, this is not what God means by obedience. There is no real obedience unless it comes from within, for only then is it something that is truly ours and not something forced upon us and carried out in hypocrisy. How can it be true obedience when they do one thing according to their external behaviour, while their hearts, which are a much truer indicator of the person, crave after something else? True obedience involves the whole man and the divided man is practicing deceit in some way. These can only be characterised as disobedient, and the most obvious indication of their disobedience is their rejection of him whom God has sent into the world to be the Saviour of the lost.

Application

He cannot be equalled. You cannot find anyone equal Jesus Christ, let alone greater than him. Once you have him, you can never lose him. He is the source of eternal life for you. He is the source of light, will bring the Scriptures to life. He is the source of love and liberty for his people. He is beyond all price, precious and honoured as a sufferer – no sufferer like him, because his suffering brought eternal salvation for all his people. He is the physician who heals the most sin-wracked, wretched person, the person who comes to him, is transformed and blessed by him. He is the perfect leader, the rules he has given to the church, the methods of evangelism, everything he does turns out to be perfect. He is the strengthener when we need him. Call upon his name out of any trouble, any distress. He will strengthen you. He is the comforter in the sorest imaginable distress. He is the perfect and the best listener, who listens to our every cry at any time. He is our guide; he is our friend; he is everything. To us therefore who believe he is precious, priceless, costly, honoured, cleaved to. We should be ready to give up anything and everything for him. Once we have him, he is more precious than anything else we could possibly conceive. Our sure foundation and one day we shall see him and we shall be with him and we shall be made in great measure like him.

If you believe in Christ with all your heart this day, you will not be put to shame. You will find him. You may have a difficult search, if your heart is not really genuine, if you are not really repenting, if you are not really trusting in him, if you still have some idea that there is some good deserving in you? But the moment you believe in him with all your heart, you won’t be confounded or ashamed or let down, because you will know your heart is changed, your nature is changed. Then, when you die in that last day, you will be with Christ and you won’t be let down, you won’t be ashamed.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

1 Peter 2:7 Commentary and Bible Study