1 Peter 1:3–25

It is not as Jehovah for Israel, nor as Almighty God for the fathers. For us Christians God worked more deeply for His glory and for those who believe... But now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ worked in a more triumphant way in Him. As sin-bearer He entered the dark gates of the grave which closed on all others. He glorified God so fully that God had to raise Him from among the dead. So God, as revealed here, begot us again through Christ's resurrection out of the dead. No one could speak of this or know it until that mighty witness of redemption. It was not true, and could not be, until Christ was raised in this way.

Every other spiritual blessing would have been useless if God's mercy did not beget us again. That is what our letter declares. No blessing is more necessary for a sinner who is lost and ruined. His old life is corrupted by inborn evil, habitual self-will, and incurable alienation from God.

Israel had been begotten first as a nation. Now people had been born again. Mercy met them where they were, and there awakened a living hope in their souls, because the Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Should not "begotten again" have shown you that life — new life — was received, not hoped for? So, using this same word, he tells us Christ is a living stone. And we have become living stones built up on that great foundation. That is, the apostle's teaching is the exact opposite of what you make him say. He says they are living stones, as Christ is a living stone; you tell us they only have a hope of life.

They had believed in Jesus as their promised, national Messiah. Their hope was in Him... They hoped He would be King and take the throne of His father David. Then He who was their hope died on the shameful cross, and hope died. But the third day came and Christ rose from among the dead. Hope revived — yes, they were begotten again to a living hope. His resurrection was a begetting again to a living hope, no longer the hope of the earthly kingdom.

His resurrection brings in a whole new hope for the believer. The shadow of death can never fall on it. Risen from the dead, He dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him.

Had His body remained in the tomb, what assurance could we have had that He had redeemed us? More than that, had He been held by death, we would have had no Saviour and no salvation. The resurrection of Christ is, therefore, the foundational truth of the gospel. To take away the truth of the Lord's resurrection is to remove all hope — to leave the soul without hope.

He could hardly have thought that within a few weeks he would be able to say, "you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows!"... One thing, as a result, is certain: his despairing soul was begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This he tells us, and for this he blesses God.

Every Israelite knew what it was to have an inheritance. Nationally, their inheritance was the land of Canaan (Num. 26:53). They received this inheritance (Josh. 11:23). But sadly, it was later corrupted, and became only a shadow of what it was meant to be. It was defiled by idolatry. And it was lost — first at the time of the captivity, and then in AD 70, soon after Peter wrote this letter. Their Christian inheritance is just the opposite: "incorruptible and undefiled and unfading".

The land itself was all that a land should be. Still, it could be corrupted. So those who inherited it soon defiled it, because they were left to their own responsibility. Bit by bit they forfeited it, and it faded away.

Earthly things are corruptible; the heavenly inheritance is incorruptible. Earthly things are defiled. Pollution clings to the finest and the best. The coming inheritance is undefiled. Sin and its curse can never stain it. It is pure forever. Here on earth everything fades. Every beautiful flower has its roots in a grave. All is passing away. But the inheritance we will receive never fades. It is always fresh and beautiful.

Adam was driven out of Eden. Israel was about to be driven out of their inheritance. But the inheritance of the children of God was secure. It was in heaven, not in Eden or in Canaan. Israel had corrupted and defiled their inheritance with their idols. The Christian's portion is in a land Satan cannot enter, as he entered Eden. It is a land where man, left to his own responsibility, cannot fail and defile it.

It is preserved by God… "Reserved… for you who are kept." The inheritance is kept for you in heaven. You are kept on earth waiting for it. He will keep you for the inheritance and the inheritance for you. It is then not a question of my perseverance, but of God's faithfulness.

This treasure is in heaven. I have nothing to fear, it is in perfect safety. But this is what I fear about myself: temptations, all sorts of difficulties, for I am not in heaven. This is true. But our full security is not that we escape trial or temptation. It is that we are kept in the trial here below, just as the inheritance is kept in heaven for us.

The hope of the Jew was earthly and, for the time, was closed by the death of Christ… Every hope of the believer rests upon Christ risen. Our hope is a sure and certain hope because He is risen. It is a living hope because Christ is living. This heavenly inheritance, unlike the earthly one, is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and it is reserved for the believer.

There are two ways of looking at the inheritance. In Peter and Hebrews, I am a man walking in this world in trials and difficulties, looking out for an inheritance reserved in heaven. Then in Ephesians I have entered the inheritance. There I am seen as seated in heavenly places, and as going to inherit all that Christ has.

How blessed it is to consider our security, our eternal security — "kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time!" In the original, "kept" is a very strong word. It clearly shows the church as garrisoned, enclosed, guarded, protected by the power of God against all the powers of darkness.

But they kept proving their own weakness, men's hostility, and Satan's active malice. So difficulties, trials, afflictions and dangers met them all the time. They needed a guard the whole way through. And so they are — garrisoned by God's power. And if God is for us, who can be against us?

The inheritance is reserved for us in heaven, and we are preserved on earth for it by the power of God operating through faith.

Still God has His means; and this the apostle goes on to tell us. It is "through faith." No means for a saint on earth can compare with faith. More than any other means, faith honours God and the word of His grace. It calls for dependence on the good Shepherd by the Holy Spirit. So it is "by God's power," but "through faith." Faith gives God His due place. It keeps us in our place of confidence in Him, according to His word.

God's power keeps us, but it does so by keeping our faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed.

In Peter's letters you can hardly find a verse without a quiet and touching reference to his own path. He had not been kept, because of his own self-confidence; but God will keep you, he says, by His power through faith. I believe that when he wrote that, his heart was turning back. Back to the moment when the Lord told him He had prayed for him, that his faith might not fail. Back to the moment when, full of self-confidence, he had thought he could keep himself.

Here we are taught that salvation is ready to be revealed at this moment, for we are, as John tells us, in "the last times." Note that salvation as used here is not limited to the soul's deliverance from hell and ruin. It refers rather to the deliverance of the believer's body from the power of death and corruption. In short, it covers everything linked in any way with the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We already possess the salvation of our souls, as the passage around our verse tells us.

This word "ready" is important... Christ Himself is glorified. He has conquered all His enemies and accomplished redemption. He waits for one thing only — that God should make His enemies His footstool... Once God has brought in all who are to share it, nothing is left to wait for. That salvation is the glory in which the redeemed will appear.

There is another sense of salvation, and the apostle, as we will soon see, does not ignore it at all; but he qualifies the term. When he refers it to the present, it is the salvation of souls, not of bodies… On the other hand, as here, when salvation is meant plainly and fully, we are pointed forward to the revelation of the last time.

How good to see here that deep sorrow can go together with great joy — a joy that only faith knows, faith in what God has revealed. The sorrow is not made light of, for it is called the grief of many trials of various kinds. But the certainty and blessedness of that salvation, which is near, rises above it.

If you are thinking of the scene where Christ is, where you will be with Him; if your hearts rest on that inheritance which He is keeping for you… you will be rejoicing. What else can you do but rejoice with such a prospect? Then he drops down to earth again in this sixth verse, and says, You may be "put to grief" by various trials. But the "heaviness" here is not what we often call heaviness. That means a soul dull and heavy because it is out of communion with the Lord. Here it is the soul under pressure, with the Lord seeing the need for the many trials.

It is a fact that we shall never be in heaviness through many trials unless there is a need for it. God does not test us on a whim. He does not delight in our testings and our heaviness, or even in chastening or rebuking or scourging. Hebrews 12 assures us of that. So each of us has to say: if God did not see some spiritual need to meet, I would not be facing this trial and its heavy pressure.

Your difficulty is not mine, very likely. You may look at me with an envious eye and say, It is all very well for you. Well, is it? I may have testings you know nothing of. Trials come in many kinds, and we are often weighed down by them. We feel it. The weight of them comes down upon us and we cannot escape the weight, and, let me tell you this, we are not intended to. We are intended to feel these things, so that we are tested by them.

Thank God for those words, "for a season." … In Hebrews 11 we find Moses making his immortal choice. He says: Give me the reproach of Christ, with the glory that follows. Let me not walk in the track of the pleasures of sin — they last only for a season. The pleasures of the world and the trials and afflictions of God's people last only for the same short time — "for a season." The heaviness of many trials is only for a season. When the worldly man's pleasures die out inside him, the heaviness of God's people will end too.

It is a fact that we will never be weighed down by many kinds of trials unless there is a need for it. God does not test us on a whim. He does not enjoy our testings and our sorrow, or even correcting us, rebuking us or disciplining us. Hebrews 12 assures us of that. So each of us has to say, If God did not see some spiritual need to be met, I would not be facing this trial and feeling its heavy pressure.

Gold does not perish easily. No. When they dug up poor old Tutankhamen, they found him surrounded by splendid things. There were objects of papyrus and fine linen from Egypt, brown with age, crumbling at a touch. But there were also objects of gold, and they were barely marked compared with everything else in that famous tomb. Gold lasts a long time, yet it perishes. The clear implication is that faith does not. Faith is much more precious than gold that perishes. God treasures your faith, and "precious" is the word He uses for it. In God's sight, faith is something of very, very great price.

Faith's place is on earth, and God tests it. He never gives faith without testing it. That testing produces fruit, and the fruit will be seen later, when everything is brought to light at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Why does the goldsmith take such trouble and spend so long over the pot where he refines his gold? Because the gold is so valuable. He wants to remove the impurities and leave it at its finest. God allows His people to go into that pot, and He tests them, even by fire. He does it because in His view faith is worth so much... The truth is this: if we Christians suffer no testing, we will never be more than weaklings in spiritual terms. The testing itself is what makes us strong.

We tend to think that a time of deep trial is all wasted time, because it may keep us out of active service for the Lord. No, says God, it will be "found to praise" at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

It says, it "shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The thing that seemed to be lost is going to be found. What a finding it will be when that hour comes! It will be found to praise and honour and glory. Whose? That of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the hour when He appears in glory, He will have His own glory, the glory of the Father, and the glory of the holy angels. Even so, He will not be too great to wear a little glory brought to Him by these things we thought were lost.

Note again that praise, honour, and glory are connected with Christ's revelation. His coming to receive us and take us to the Father's house is supreme grace. At His revelation He will weigh our faithfulness and reward it. Both will certainly come true, but God's righteous government is quite different from His sovereign grace.

"Though you have not seen him, you love him." It is a strange sound and fact at first, but in the end precious. Who ever loved a person that he never saw? We know that in human relations it is not so. In divine things it is precisely what shows the power and special character of a Christian's faith.

This gives us a true and vivid picture of what Christianity is. It was important for the Jews to weigh, because they always looked for a visible Messiah — the royal Son of David — the object of all reverence, homage, and loyalty for all Israel. But here it is altogether another order of ideas. It is a rejected Messiah who is the proper object of the Christian's love, though he never saw Him. Unseen, He becomes all the more simply and purely the object of his faith, and also the spring of "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

Christ is the object, and the Father's love too. But the Holy Spirit is the power by which I see Christ and realise the Father's love. Since Christ is gone and nothing is visible, my affections are more drawn out and exercised. This is blessed. He does not say, Blessed are those who have seen and believed, but, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Divine affection for Christ is much more drawn out by Christ being absent, and yet we long to see Him.

None has such vantage ground for loving the Lord Jesus as the Christian. He knows His love as no one could before Christ came into the world, and beyond all that people knew during His ministry. He knows it in His humiliation, in His suffering beyond all comparison, in His rejection and cross. Though he never saw Him here, he begins by learning the depths of that love. This is where those who followed Him on earth had their difficulties settled and came into spiritual understanding, when He was raised from among the dead.

"Glorified," or full of glory, is admittedly an unusual word. Yet it seems to fit the apostle's warmth to call this joy full of glory as well as too big for us to put into words at present. Christ on high is its source, and He might readily clothe the Christian's joy with that character of glory before they themselves are there.

It is this which decides and forms the heart, which fixes it and fills it with joy, however it may be with us in this life. To our hearts it is He who fills all the glory. By grace I shall be glorified, I shall have the glory; but I love Jesus, my heart longs for His presence — desires to see Him.

Christ Himself should always be before us while we pass through the sorrows that trial brings... This is indeed wonderful, something beyond the knowledge of the natural man. Though facing the deepest trials on earth, the believer, like his Master, can be enjoying what belongs to heaven. This is the joy the Lord spoke of to His disciples in John 15:11 — His own joy shared with His own.

It is spiritually damaging to tell the Lord in song that we praise Him "in strains of deepest joy," when in fact our joy is very shallow. We have never known what we read of in 1 Peter 1:8. Joy of that depth would reduce us to silence, for it is "unspeakable."

Believing in Him, what have you received? Not salvation in the full sense of Peter's letter, but the salvation of the soul. In verse 5 you are kept "through faith to salvation," something you do not yet have, but will get through faith. In verse 9, salvation is the salvation of our souls, which we have now. You have not seen the Lord yet, but the moment you rest on Him by faith, your soul is saved.

We shall not receive salvation of the body until He comes, the One for whom we wait. But we are not waiting for the salvation of souls. The gospel announces this plainly and with certainty. Christ has done such a work for it that no addition could make it more complete. Nothing could make it more effective for the one who believes. He is not like the earthly priest, standing to repeat what could never be finished. When He had offered one sacrifice for sins, He sat down for ever at the right hand of God.

Take the salvation given to Israel at the Red Sea... That was a salvation the whole earth heard about... it was a salvation men could take account of; they could see it with their eyes, and it was a temporal salvation. But here is a salvation Peter calls "the salvation of the soul." That is not temporal at all, but spiritual. A man might be in the worst circumstances imaginable. But the word of God reaches him. The gospel comes to him, he believes it, and by it he is saved... There is no outward evidence that God has stepped in at all. His circumstances are just as wretched as before. But the man is different. His soul is set free.

If you think only of getting to heaven — of being delivered from judgment — then all the Old Testament saints were. But that is not what Peter calls the salvation of the soul... It means the soul comes, here and now, to know that everything is clear between God and itself. The soul knows that sins are gone and righteousness has come. Was that the case in Old Testament times? Certainly not. All you could say of an Old Testament soul was that he was hoping for righteousness; he was waiting for this salvation.

Soul-salvation in these Scriptures must include the judicial salvation which is ours when we believe. That is when God forgives our sins and justifies us on the principle of faith. But on its positive side it also takes in the soul's present enjoyment of that salvation. In its fullness, that salvation is ready to be revealed. It is ours in this world now, because it is "in Christ."

It is "unspeakable" because it is Himself, and "full of glory" because He is in the glory. The fire that tests must not cast the slightest cloud over the hope and the joy. So Peter says, "receiving the end of your faith." I have received the salvation of my soul. That is the end of my faith, though I may have to go through trial to burn away the dross.

It is a question whether salvation in this verse is used with a different meaning from the one found in verses 5 and 10. In those there is no doubt: salvation is future... So we must weigh whether "the end of your faith" points to the same time. It is quite true that there is a present assurance of acceptance in Christ which the believer enjoys in the most adverse circumstances — but whether that is the teaching of this Scripture is another thing.

"Salvation" was identified with the coming and work of the Messiah. Believers understood little, if anything, of how it would happen. But they had no doubt about the saving grace that would then be shown. They looked forward to the coming day as the goal of their hopes, when the Messiah would establish salvation fully and for ever. How clearly it is "grace," and not of works that human nature could boast in. Salvation is not a matter of birthright, nor of personal merit, but of grace.

Their prophesying did not remove the need or the value of careful research; it stimulated it. The honour of prophesying did not spare the men who held it. They still had to seek and search earnestly to understand what they were given to predict out of the fullness that is in God... No incidental fact proves more clearly that prophecy was not of man's will, nor a clever human guess, but of God. He spoke or wrote by His servant in the Spirit. The prophet still had to sift it carefully to understand what he had spoken from God. Salvation was a rich blessing from God. It went beyond all they already held in privilege, and it was bound up with the Messiah's day, which God alone let prophets foresee. But they still had to weigh and examine what they prophesied deeply, to make it truly their own.

The prophets sought and searched into these writings — into the very writings, it seems, that they had themselves written under the control of the Spirit of God... They wanted to reconcile the apparently contradictory pictures of a Messiah whose path to the glory ran through suffering... God, in His wisdom, kept the true meaning of these things from them; but in His goodness He told them that they had been privileged to minister to a generation still to come.

As to the salvation of souls, not even the prophets in the Old Testament could say they were saved. By the power of the Spirit of God they wrote in advance about such a salvation. But they enquired and searched hard into the full meaning of their own writings, and into the salvation still to be revealed — the grace that was to come to believers in the present age. They too will be in heaven, by grace through faith and on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ. Yet they did not then know the salvation of their souls, because Christ had not yet died to bring that salvation about. This is a truth that could not have been taught before His death.

Believers today all share this deliverance of the soul. For the prophets of the past age it was still a matter of enquiry. It is called "the grace that should come to you" — that is, it had not come in the previous age... Then predicted by the Spirit; now reported by the Spirit.

How little, it seems, the Old Testament prophets understood their own prophecies! How much we are indebted to the Spirit who now reveals a Christ already come!

The prophets foretold this coming glory in days past. The Holy Spirit preaches it in the present day. It will be fully accomplished in the day of glory yet to come.

A mind was at work far beyond that of prophets, yet at work intimately in them; "the Spirit of Christ." The phrase is even more striking because the Son did not become the Christ until long afterwards. But what He was revealing pointed forward to that wonderful fact, and testified of Him beforehand in that character.

Christ had not yet been revealed in the age gone by. Even so, the Spirit in the prophets, speaking through them, could be called "the Spirit of Christ." So Christ was the Speaker by His Spirit even in Old Testament days.

The prophets served, but the source of their prophecies, spoken or written, was the Spirit. The Spirit in them testified through them. He was so truly the source of their words that they had to search their own sentences with care and ask what they meant. They found that the full meaning was beyond the grasp of the age they lived in.

No prophet knew the full extent or depth of his own inspired messages. This proved that God wrote through them far better than if they had known everything. Jeremiah or Isaiah, Daniel or Habakkuk may not have understood; the Holy Spirit knew it all from the beginning. So what they wrote went far beyond their own understanding, and made plain the mind of the One who used them.

Apart from special revelations, the vision of coming deliverance given to them did not separate the time between the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. Perhaps we may safely say that none of them seems to have known beforehand that a long gap would come between the two events. Yet now that the gap has come, we can bring passages from the prophets to prove it.

Notice that the language used is unusually precise. The sufferings are said to be not merely "of" Christ, but "for" Him. They did not just happen to Him as a fact; they were appointed to Him. Just as the grace was towards you, so the sufferings were towards Christ.

The moral order is completely according to God: first He must suffer. So we read in 1 Peter 1:11 of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. It must be so in a sinful world, for one who seeks not his own glory but God's, and the real and eternal good of man. It would be impossible to take the Kingdom while man is in a state of sin and rebellion.

The saints addressed, like all other Christians, stand between the sufferings that came to Christ and the glories that should follow. If not the whole glory, certainly the greater part of those revealed "glories" is still to come. The magnificent scenes of the last days plainly wait for His coming from the heavens. Then He will take the earth and the whole universe under His direct and visible rule.

There are three steps here. First, the Spirit of Christ in the prophets testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories that should follow. Next, these things are now reported to us by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, that is, after Christ was glorified. Then we are to be ready for action. We are to hope to the end for the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We stand between the sufferings and the glories.

The ancient prophets studied their own prophecies. The Holy Spirit then acted again, to make them understand what those prophecies meant. They then found that it was not for themselves, but for us, that they ministered these things.

They searched out what was in their own writings. What they wrote was not measured by their own understanding. The Spirit of Christ carried them far beyond anything that may have prompted their prophecies. The answer they got to their searching was simply this: they were speaking of things that belonged to others, not to themselves. Daniel is a plain example. What God gave to him was "shut up and sealed until the time of the end."

1 Peter 1:12 is in principle the inspired answer. Christ came and died for us, and then gave the Spirit when He ascended. That was the right time, and the right way, to teach plainly everything the pictures had wrapped up. They were wrapped up, but never uncertain. God declares it after 1500 years, and we can see it was His intention all along. The truth then comes out with all the more force as coming from God.

The apostles and others preached the Gospel to us by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. What they now report to us is what was only prophesied before. Then predicted by the Spirit; now reported by the Spirit. Then the Spirit was in the prophets for the purpose of inspiration, but now the Spirit is sent down from heaven.

The Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven at Pentecost is not giving a prophetic testimony to Jesus as then. Given to the Christian, He is a Spirit of present communion. That was not possible, and could not be, until Christ had come and accomplished redemption.

Their posture reminds us of 1 Peter 1:12: "things into which angels long to look." It is as though they were gazing in wonder and worship at the cover of the ark, the mercy-seat. That cover lay over the tablets of the law, so the cherubim were not gazing at the law... It is the blood on the mercy-seat that fixes the gaze of these ministers of justice and judgment.

Their intelligence is finite. So when God reveals what has been hidden for ages in His mind, it gives them something to think about. They watch His plans unveiled step by step before their eyes... There they learn God's will for them, and the service He wants them to give to the heirs of salvation. They also learn God's mind and purpose about His Son.

We know that they desire to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12)... But this is not given to angels. It is given to men — prodigals brought back to God in righteousness through that sacrifice. They enter into its meaning and have communion with God about it. They can do so because God has given the Holy Spirit to men who believe.

These angels bend down to look into the very things we have been brought into close contact with. How they rebuke us for how little hold those things have on us, even at our best!

The apostle now insists on the effect all this is to have on practical life. The loins of the mind are to be girt up by the truth — the common figure for the activity called for from us, the result of a mind set on things unseen. The result is sobriety about the present. The rosy colour drains from the things around us, as it must when the glory is revealed and enjoyed.

The practical life of the Christian is to be affected by what lies ahead, as also by what he has already been brought into by the present grace of God.

The opening clause clearly points back to their forefathers at the first passover. "Thus shall you eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand." Could any words or actions give a more living picture? Here is a people sheltered from God's judgment, leaving the house of slavery in haste for a land flowing with milk and honey. … When people worked hard, they tucked up their garments instead of letting them hang loose, so the job could be done without anything in the way. So He would now have our hearts engaged, without wandering affections or distraction of mind.

Just as the pilgrim, the runner, has to gird up the loins of his body, so we must gird up the loins of our mind. And I would like to say that the thing for a pilgrim to be clear about is not first of all his walk, but his heart. It is the pilgrim heart that makes the pilgrim walk. If my heart and mind are girded up, then my feet will be in the right path, no question.

"Being sober" is our continuous duty. The picture, as everyone admits, comes from keeping clear of all drunkenness. For the Christian that means avoiding everything likely to excite the flesh or the spirit… The call in verse 13 rests on redemption we know as our own portion. We travel through a wilderness world, and our expectation should match what God has already given us in Christ.

The Christian is also to be sober in his judgment about all that is going on in this world, not taken in by people's efforts to bring in a millennium without Christ.

"To the end," as older translations put it and as many still take it, falls short of what the adverb means… Translators probably shrank from linking perfection with a hope that so often wavers, and may also be vague and weak.

Notice that the New Testament sense of hope is never uncertainty. It is certainty that is unripe or delayed. So confidence marks it as much as expectation… The world has its hopes, but they are so soaked in uncertainty that the word hope now means almost the same as doubt.

The grace to come is so blessed in itself, and so good even now for the soul, that he tells the saints to "hope perfectly"… The Spirit's aim seems to be to show that grace in its power, grandeur and blessedness. Then we see the coming glory as part of the grace we have known in Christ's death and resurrection for our souls, with the rest we await for our bodies… Perhaps none of Peter's readers hoped as surely for the grace still to come as for the grace already shown. But this scripture invites that hope, and urges it. Let us treat every shortfall in hope as a wrong done to His grace and truth.

Peter is not speaking here of Christ's coming for His saints. He means His later revelation in glory, when His grace will shine out marvellously in His own.

The Christian is marked out as a child of obedience. That is far stronger than the "obedient children" of the Authorized Version. That same version rightly calls people in their unchanged state the children — or rather sons — of disobedience (Eph. 2:2; Col. 3:6). Fallen nature has a settled bent to disobey God. But now the opposite is true: when the Spirit sanctifies us, He sanctifies us for obedience — childlike obedience, seen in its perfection in our Lord Jesus.

We are called to obedience. It may be a hard lesson to learn, but we are "children of obedience," and so we are called to walk that way always. No one could call Israel obedient, yet the apostle describes the believer as one of the "children of obedience." The law had no power to create this character. Yet to obey is the chief duty of a Christian — the very heart of Christianity.

Legal obedience is one thing. The obedience that grace commands and produces is quite another. The first means carrying out a required duty, so as to live and stay in God's favour. The second rests on what God has done: He has worked a deliverance, set up a new relationship, produced a new nature — and obedience is the happy fruit of it. That obedience is not merely a servant's toward a master. It is a son's toward a father, taking its character from the obedience of Christ.

They might have slipped into the false idea that all direction was gone because the law was gone... But Christ set them free from law only to lead them into a steady obedience that goes far deeper and reaches much further... The Christian denies his Master and his own standing if he claims to be independent of His authority and His word. The more he knows his privileges, the greater his duty to obey.

If someone doubts his relationship to God, or if other people doubt him, the Spirit uses obedience as the first great test. Does that soul have the spirit of obedience as his own?... When the turning point of conversion to God comes, we become "children of obedience." From the very first this is the true expression of a heart purified by faith. From then on the settled, inward desire is to obey God — perhaps long before solid peace comes.

It is important also to watch out for old habits. When the Christian relationship is new, a person may not weigh them seriously enough. Habits tend to press their evil influence again once truth loses that fresh power over the soul which the ungrieved Spirit keeps up. So Peter adds here, "do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance."... They had all the more reason to guard against taking the shape of what dishonoured Christ, since the God and Father of Christ had given them new birth into a living hope.

"As children of obedience" — those who by new birth have gained that precious character — let them live in keeping with it, with an obedience of willing, devoted affection. That means refusing to be shaped by their former desires, which came out of ignorance. And ignorance here is not merely a misunderstanding. It is ignoring what can be known. The child of God knows there is no happiness in those desires, and he himself has something that infinitely surpasses them.

The heart, unsatisfied with God, went out after what only produced more craving and never satisfied.

"But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" — in every kind of walk. When people go away on holiday, they sometimes think, "At home I would go to the meeting as usual, but nobody knows me here." That's the world. It is not a matter of putting on a formal collar on Sunday and taking it off every other day. The Lord would have Himself always before us, so that we should be consistent every day and be holy. Does God lower His holiness? He cannot give a standard less than Himself.

Scripture speaks of holiness, like sanctification, in two ways: (1) as a position, which is absolute, and (2) as a practice, which grows… In the first letter of Peter we find just the same thing. He says, "Be holy" (1 Peter 1:15) to the very people to whom he says, "You are… a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9).

God is dealing with us on the ground of grace, and also of holiness. For us, holiness is as much a part of grace as any other blessing. "Be holy; for I am holy" is the expression of intimacy, and does not come merely as a command. Grace must make us holy, "partakers of His holiness"… It is not God requiring man's holiness, but making us partakers of His. What more could we wish? Love does it. He makes us partakers of the very thing that separates God from all that does not match Himself — holiness, not mere innocence. Innocence is the ignorance of good and evil: you would not say that God was innocent, but holy.

And because the Father who has called us is holy, all His children should show that same character in every part of life. Even the Old Testament (Lev. 11:44) had said, "Be holy, for I am holy;" not "because the law requires it." If it was true then, how much more so for those who know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is loving conformity to a Person, not demanded conformity to a law. It involves loving what is good and hating evil.

Now, as children, we are told to be holy, that is, separate from evil. The Apostle quotes the law to insist on holiness (Leviticus 11:44). However much the character of the age may change, the nature of God cannot change. It was true under law, and it is still true under grace, that God is absolute in holiness. So everyone in relationship with God must be holy, whether under law or grace.

It is now the children, not of the fathers, but of God the Father, whose standing is not in flesh, but in Christ. The holiness rises according to the place and relationship.

I have spoken only of the negative side — separation from evil; there is also the positive — holiness to the Lord. We are called from the one to the other. But as to practical holiness, the second is impossible without the first — separation from evil… "As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct." If I am true to Him, I am leaving the one (evil) and reaching after the other.

So we read, "As He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct (literally, your manner of life)" (1 Peter 1:15). The next verse goes on to say, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." The quotation is from Leviticus 11:44, "For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy."

Was this an unheard of requirement on God's part? Far from it. When He ruled as the LORD over a people who were His by natural birth, it could be no other way: "You shall be holy, for I am holy." The apostle cites Leviticus 11:44… Now it is the children of God the Father, not the children of the fathers. Their standing is not in natural descent, but in Christ. The holiness rises according to the place and relationship.

Used of God, the word speaks of Him as holy. He knows good and evil perfectly, and wills good and no evil. Used of people, it marks them out as separated — set apart to God, away from evil and from common use.

God is dealing with us on the ground of grace, and of holiness too. For us, holiness is as much a part of grace as any other blessing. "Be holy, for I am holy" is the expression of intimacy, and comes not merely in the way of command. Grace must make us holy, "partakers of His holiness"… God is not demanding a holiness of man's own. He is making us share in His. What more could we wish? Love does it. He gives us a share in the very thing that separates God from everything unlike Himself — holiness, not mere innocence. Innocence is not knowing good and evil. You would not call God innocent; you would call Him holy… It is "His holiness" — knowing evil as He knows it, and being able to rise above it.

The Father who has called us is holy. So the same character should show in all His children, in every part of life. Even the Old Testament (Lev. 11:44) had said, "Be holy, for I am holy" — not "because the law demands it." If that was true then, how much more for those who know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! This is loving likeness to a Person, not forced likeness to a law. It means loving what is good and hating evil.

It is good to see where the personal holiness of God's people comes from. Their complete separation from every kind of uncleanness flows out of their relationship to Him. It does not work on the principle of "stand back, I am holier than you." It is simply this: "God is holy." So everyone He brings into association with Himself must be holy too… Someone may ask a Christian why he stays away from the ten thousand things the men of this world join in. His answer is simply to be, "My Father is holy." This is the true foundation of personal holiness.

All believers stand in the same condition of holiness, or sanctification. But how far that shows in practice may vary to any degree. The condition comes from our being brought near to God by the blood of the cross. How far it shows will depend on our keeping near, by the power of the Spirit.

Jehovah was God's name for Israel; Father is His name for the Christian. This is not fatherhood in the ordinary sense, where every person comes from His breath, as with Adam and the whole race. It is the special and spiritual nearness into which the risen Christ brought the believer. "Go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." Redemption was now accomplished and accepted as the new standing fact. His resurrection had purged sins and given life in abundance. So He could announce that His brothers enter the same relationships He Himself had as risen from the dead.

People often misunderstand this verse. Some have taken it to mean the future judgment — our appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. But that is impossible. The Lord Himself tells us plainly that "the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." … The judgment Peter means is the one the Father carries on every day inside His family. It is present, not future.

The Father keeps His eye on each child every day, watching what we do; and as we sow, so we reap. The obedient child says: I would like that there might be nothing in my path, day by day, that my Father would not be pleased to see. He is looking on, and He comes in too with restraining grace, and often with chastening. This is how the Father judges, and that judgment is good and wholesome for our souls.

He weighs actions with perfect accuracy. He does not see as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Only this way can we discover the true character of our works. On the outside they may often look good and beautiful. But if the motive behind them came to light, our view might change completely. The Father's eye rests on the inmost springs of our conduct, and so He is never deceived.

Because God has shown such grace, does this mean that He relaxes His government? Many have assumed that this must be the case, but it is not so. The Father still judges impartially according to every man's work. Grace has saved us for eternity, yet Scripture still tells us what our works should look like. If they do not match our relationship to Him as His children, the Father will deal with us now, in serious discipline.

For a child of God there can be no penalty in the true sense. Chastening is his for that very reason.

If this is so, then "conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." That means a gracious fear of grieving the Father's heart. It springs from a sense of the holiness of His character. … It is good for our hearts to remember this. God has brought us into the most tender and intimate relationship with Him as our Father. Yet He is always the Holy One, and His government of His family is holy too. Confidence in His grace and love, and full liberty in His presence, should never keep us from the deepest reverence. It should lead us into it.

It is touching to consider the implications of these two expressions: one reminds us that, as Christians, we are only here for a short time (why do we often act as if earth were to be our home for many centuries to come?). The other tells us that the world we are in is not our real home. We have duties here, and responsibilities, but it is not where we belong.

The fear that the saints were urged to live in during their stay here is as far as possible from doubt about their souls and distrust of God's grace. Those two go together. They may even be two sides of the same unbelief — the unbelief that leaves Christ out as the gospel reveals Him. The words that follow shut such dread out completely. They rest the fear Peter teaches on a comforting and settled fact: they have been redeemed. And they were redeemed by what is most precious to God of all things, and most effective for sinners.

They knew, and so do we, that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold — a redemption in picture form, carried out under Jewish law. Sometimes they gave actual money, as in Exodus 30:11-16 and Numbers 3:44-51. Sometimes redemption came by sacrifice, as in Exodus 13:13-15. Even then silver and gold played a part, since they were needed to buy the animal for the sacrifice. Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.

Notice this. Redemption has many wonderful results, and one named here is that the saints were redeemed from their empty course, or way of life, handed down from their fathers. It is hard to imagine words that fit more exactly. They do not describe Gentile idol worshippers. They describe the Jews since the Maccabees (Jewish leaders from the centuries before Christ), holding tight to tradition passed from father to son.

The Jewish way of life had sunk into a matter of mere tradition received from their fathers. This was obvious in Isaiah's day (Isaiah 29:13), and the Lord Jesus pressed the charge home on them, quoting Isaiah's words, in Mark 7:6-13. Even the right things they did, they did not because God had commanded them, but because tradition ordered them. So their way of life had become corrupt and deeply offensive to God. Our Gentile way of life was pure darkness and lawlessness, and equally corrupt.

There is a contrast here. On one side is the Father these converted Jews called on. On the other is the whole empty round of traditional ways passed down by their fathers. We are redeemed from religion that makes a fine outward show, as well as from what is immoral and corrupt… They were now calling on a Father who shows no favouritism. So their way of life, while they walk through this world as strangers, should be marked by fear. Not because they did not know their redemption, but because they did.

There you have vain conversation, which is connected with fleshly religion. We must not take it as merely the talk of the lips. I think Peter uses it in a much wider way than that. What is the first thing he says? You have been brought right out of that system of religion which suits man as he naturally is. You have been redeemed to God with the precious blood of Christ. So the first thing the soul grasps here is this: you are out of the old state. You are delivered from that vain conversation… What we have to do is shake ourselves clear of everything religious that does not suit God.

That which gave them peace would destroy every old association. They had learned how precious the blood is by finding forgiveness of sins through it. Now they had to learn that it is just as precious because by it they were redeemed from the futile ways inherited from their fathers. They would have access as worshippers to heaven itself — and as a holy priesthood too, there to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

There were two symbols of redemption in the Old Testament. At every census of Israel, God required each man to give a ransom for his soul. This ransom money was a half silver shekel, and it was "to make atonement for their souls" (Ex. 30:11-16)... Silver and gold, the two most precious metals, both stood as a figure of redemption. Peter alludes to this... He contrasts the blood of Christ with silver and gold. In God's eyes that blood has infinite value, because it comes from the whole truth of the person of Christ. And the point he wants us to notice is this: God's claims on His children match the preciousness of the blood that redeemed them.

The precious blood of Christ is the foundation of redemption, and the means of it too. Only one thing measures its value: the infinite worth of His Person, as God perfectly judges it.

That precious blood is the price of our redemption. Silver and gold decay and change in value; this blood does not. It stays in all its own preciousness. So the redemption it secures is eternal, and our relationship with the blessed God is sure for ever. But at what a cost! ... He laid down that precious, spotless life in death.

The reference is plain in the words "like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." It may well point to the Passover lamb we have spoken of. They also had the morning burnt offering. And perhaps above all, there was the evening lamb, offered between the evenings, day after day.

Look at the Old Testament pictures Peter clearly has in mind. The first time "without blemish" comes up with a sacrifice is in Exodus 12. It involves that our Lord was perfect in sinless, subject, obedient Manhood... It is not until we reach Numbers 19 that we find the second word Peter uses here, "without spot"... We looked these words up some time ago. Without blemish means without a defect: nothing is missing. Without spot seems to have more to do with what is external, like a splash of paint on someone.

1 Peter 1:19 speaks more in the sense of redemption — of a ransom that takes us out of the hands of the enemy. Christ's obedience during His life worked toward the perfection of the sacrifice. That obedience did not pay for sin, but it was fully acceptable to God. What mattered was the acceptability of His Person, which His work required. But that obedience did not pay for sin.

We are redeemed from religion that is only a good outward show, as well as from what is immoral and depraved... They were now calling on a Father who judges each one without partiality. So their conduct should be marked by fear while they walk through this world as strangers. Not because they did not know their redemption, but because they did — and that redemption did not come by perishable things like silver and gold, which suited their old walk. That old walk was empty in other ways, and emptiest of all in its traditional religion. From all of it they knew themselves redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

The apostle now takes up a comforting truth that steadies the believer. The gospel may have been new to them. But it was all settled in God's mind and counsel before man fell — yes, before creation. Redemption was no afterthought to repair the damage. Of course the Lord God implied it in the sentence He passed on the serpent in paradise, and every sacrifice afterwards pictured it.

If the "Lamb without blemish and without spot" was "foreordained before the foundation of the world," then redemption must certainly have been in God's mind that far back. The Blessed One did not have to pause and invent a plan to repair the terrible evil the enemy had brought into His fair creation. No, He had only to bring out the truth about the spotless Lamb from the unexplored treasury of His precious counsels.

It was no new thought. Though only newly brought out, it was in fact the oldest of all purposes. Did they boast about their law? The apostle can answer that Christianity was in God's mind before the foundation of the world. It is the present blessed revelation of grace in Christ. Therefore there could be no comparison on that score, not even for a Jew.

"From" the world's founding does not carry the same meaning as "before" it. Let us respect and learn from the very words of God… A Christian finds it easy to understand that Christ was foreknown before time began. But how wonderful the grace that God chose us for such an association, and for such a purpose! He was known before creation, since He had a glory of His own above it. We by grace are the objects of God's counsel, and His work matched it. So we may enjoy everything where He is, and with Him.

The introduction of the Lamb of God was no afterthought with God. He was pre-ordained before the foundation of the world. Why before the foundation of the world? Because the blessing of the heavenly saints — the church — was thought of before the foundation of the world.

"Foreknown" could not be enough. Christ was "manifested" in due time, and the due time was "at the close of the times." God's patience had been long. He dealt with man in many ways, governing him, to see if in some way there might be fruit from man that He could accept. The fall happened in one man, but it belonged to the whole race. And the sample of that race under God's special care proved the tree worthless.

The Lamb of God was ordained in eternity, but manifested in time… and that not only as the Redeemer but as the Revealer. God was perfectly revealed in Him, so that it is by Him that we believe in God. We do not come to believe in God through the wonders of creation, or through the law given by Moses, or through visions of angels. We believe through Christ — once dead, now risen and in glory.

This Lamb — the Lamb of God — has been entirely of God's providing. He was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you. God had thought of His people from all eternity, and had told out all His heart for them in the gift of His beloved Son.

God had appointed the Lamb in His own purpose before the world was made. But He was revealed in the last days for believers. And here believers are presented as they truly are: they believe in God through Jesus — through this Lamb. They do not believe because of creation. Creation does testify to His glory, but it gives the conscience no rest, and it says nothing of a place in heaven. They do not believe because of providence. Providence directs all things, yet it still leaves God's government in deep darkness. Nor do they believe because of the way God revealed Himself on Mount Sinai, under the name Jehovah, with the terror that goes with a broken law. We believe through Jesus, the Lamb of God. And notice: it does not say we believe in Him, but "through Him" in God.

Faith does not rest on my being risen. It rests on Christ having been raised. That difference matters a great deal. Many a sincere soul keeps turning inward, trying to find out whether it is risen. But that is not the faith that God Himself works. … My confidence is this: God raised Christ from the dead, when Christ was there for me.

Through Him, through Christ the lamb, they now believed in God. And that is the point made here: what God did they believe in? How did they know that they could trust Him, especially in their difficult situation? The answer lies in the verse quoted above: They believed in a God who raised Christ from the dead and gave Him glory. He had not left Christ in the grave. By raising Him from the dead, He had put on record that Christ had all His good pleasure. On top of that, He rewarded Him richly and "gave him glory".

The resurrection of Christ from among the dead, and the glory given to Him on high, are God's mighty and clear evidence. They prove that He is for the believer completely and for ever. If anything could have made this doubtful, it was our sins. But they were laid on another — yes, God laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree. Where are they now? After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Not one sin did God leave on the believer; not one did Christ carry into heaven.

For He shows us the very heart of God, and through Him faith and hope in God become fully real. Faith is present confidence of heart in His faithfulness. Hope is the precious expectation of future glory in His presence.

What a blessed rest in Himself has God presented for our faith and hope! And surely nothing less than having them in God Himself will do. Everything outside of God changes and is uncertain. But He does not change. Faith and hope that rest in Him cannot fail or come to an end. I do think, in our own day, there is very little of faith and hope in God.

This is not a wish or a prayer that they might be purified. It is taken as a settled fact, as surely as they were faithful. Peter is not being casual here, and he is not allowing the least licence. The one thing to add is that they were still passing through a desert world, exposed to an enemy who never sleeps. So they depended on their unseen God and Father, and He never fails such people. But the call to love one another plainly rests on the assurance that they had already purified their souls. That brings a responsibility: to keep living in line with this state of purity, and to judge themselves when they fail.

In Acts 15:8-9 faith is named as the means at work within them. Our verse says even more: it was by the Jews' "obeying the truth" that was set before them from outside. "Obedience to the truth" is only another and fuller way of saying their faith. To have a solid and divine character, there must be submission to the truth.

The truth of the Gospel had brought their souls into submission and obedience by the power of the Spirit. This had done a mighty work of purification. The purifications of the law were "various washings" of water (Heb. 9:10), and they were only outward. This was a purification of the soul, a moral renewal with love as its outcome. Love belongs to the new nature just as hatred belongs to the old.

It is wonderful how the purifying of the soul and love go together. We may take hold of truth, but in man's hands it is always held imperfectly and badly put together. "Obeying the truth through the Spirit" is quite another thing. Selfishness lies at the bottom of sin. The opposite of selfishness is love, and divine love purifies us from the selfishness of sin.

Scripture makes a difference between "love" and "brotherly love." The original uses two distinct words for them. Love is "agape," and brotherly love is one word, "philadelphia." "Philadelphia" is more like friendly love… It includes kindness, but it is love — love in the form it takes among brothers and sisters. Perhaps the best rendering is Kelly's: "brotherly affection."

So the Spirit guards against empty forms or words. He calls the brotherly affection their souls were purified for "unfeigned." Pretending to a good you do not really feel is hateful to God, and unworthy of His child. So it is worth treasuring the sense of His presence, which keeps us from hypocrisy here as everywhere else.

A pure heart involves motives that are genuine and without mixture; but "fervently" is added, implying a positive warmth and sincerity that leaves nothing to be merely taken for granted.

It is really the bringing into existence of a new being. When you were born into this world, a being was born into it that had not existed before. If you are born again, you are born a second time; born of God, you are a child of God now, which you were not before.

Some describe the new birth as a change worked in a man by the Spirit through the word of God on his faculties, so that they no longer serve self and Satan but serve Him. But that describes the effect rather than the cause. Scripture is abundant and clear that God gives a life to the believer. Christ is this life, as the old life is from Adam fallen. That life acts through our faculties on objects revealed by God, objects far beyond those of natural life.

Israel boasted in their natural family line, but this was corruptible seed. New birth is of incorruptible seed, the word of God — a seed filled with life, pure, vital, and eternal, abiding forever. Of course God is the source of it, yet the believer obeys it in the very fact of being born again by it: he is a child of obedience.

The believer is not born of the flesh to enjoy temporary rights and blessings, as a Jew was. He is born of an incorruptible seed, a principle of life as unchangeable as the word of God Himself.

Here the New Birth is like a seed falling into the ground. The seed has life in it. The power of life in the seed lays hold in the soil. The soil does not lay hold on the seed. The word of God in the power of the Spirit lays hold of the man.

The word is the revelation of what is in God, in His nature and character, His love, His ways, in short all that He communicates. And this is what God uses to quicken.

That which is born partakes of the nature and character of that which gives its birth. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It is equally true that what is born of incorruptible seed is incorruptible. And what is born by the living and abiding Word of God is living and abiding. That enduring Word of the Lord has reached us in the gospel message we have believed.

The Jew was grass, the Gentile was grass — all flesh was grass. And "the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." Nothing on earth abides but the word of God. It is living and abiding... What comfort, to know we are the children of what is living, incorruptible, and abiding!

They are our brothers. So let us love one another earnestly from a pure heart. But this rests on another principle, vital at its core. It is a new nature that acts in this love.

The grass grows up in the morning and flourishes; in the evening it is cut down and withers. The flower attracts the eye. It charms us for a moment, then fades away forever. That is what man is — all men, without exception; for "all flesh is like grass." Man is not only sinful, unclean, and corrupt; he is also weak and does not last, for he passes away. Rich or poor, high or low, in this there is no difference... Many will freely admit that they are sinners, and still try to hide from themselves how frail they are by nature, and how weak they are toward the things of God.

Yes, "all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as a flower of grass." There is a difference. Some people are much finer than others: refined, tender, generous, brave, affectionate, and religious in a natural way. There is not only the grass in general, but also its flower. And people are quick to admire, and even adore, what is so pleasant to their eyes, their imagination, and their feelings. But nothing is truly right where God does not have His rights.

If the precious blood of the spotless Lamb has redeemed us, then we are born of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. That word lives and abides forever. For the flesh is only grass, the glory of man like the flower of grass... The believer is not born in a natural way, to enjoy temporary rights and blessings, as a Jew was. He is born of incorruptible seed — a principle of life as unchangeable as the word of God Himself. The prophet had told them so when he comforted the people of God. All flesh — the nation itself — was only withered grass.

The question between God and every soul is this: is man as bad as God's testimony says he is? Gospel preaching starts from God's own declaration: "All flesh is grass." Take man at every level of moral and intellectual improvement, and he is still grass.

By God's own account, Job was a man of remarkable integrity and uprightness... But when he comes to stand before God, he says, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Here Job learned that as flesh he was grass.

The passage here is from Isaiah 40, and everything there is grass... Israel grass, the Gentiles grass, all of us grass; all perishable, none abiding at all. Is there anything on earth that will last? Yes, the Word of God will last; it will stand. If you are born of that, you will abide forever; if not, you will perish away from the presence of God altogether.

If all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass, then what are the arguments of unbelievers worth? They are as worthless as withered grass or a faded flower. The men who put them forward, and those who are swayed by them, will find that out sooner or later.

The passage here is from the fortieth of Isaiah, and everything there is grass. Israel grass, the Gentiles grass, all of us grass; all perishable, none abiding at all. Is there anything on the earth that will abide? Yes, the Word of God will abide; that will stand. If you are born of that, you will abide for ever. If not, you will perish away from the presence of God altogether.

Some people are much finer than others: refined, tender, generous, brave, affectionate, and religious in a merely human way. There is not only the grass in general, but its flower. And people tend to admire, and even adore, what is so pleasant to their eyes, their imagination, and their feelings.

Do you think you have a better nature than your neighbour, or your neighbour than you? God says all flesh is grass, and He says this when comforting His people. It is not the way you and I would comfort each other, to tell each other that we are utterly worthless. That is the way, however, that God takes to comfort a repentant people. It is an immense comfort to discover that God knows I am worthless, and that He expects no good out of me.

The words concerning the grass and the flower of the grass are a quotation from Isaiah. But the quotation is changed a little. In Isaiah we read: "The grass withers, the flower fades." Here it is, "The grass has withered and the flower fallen." That is how faith must look at the world and all its glory: withered and fallen, with no attraction left for the heart that knows God. But those who are born again are joined to what abides for ever — the Word of the Lord, preached in that ever blessed Gospel.

Consider God's special care to preserve His truth; whatever is lost, God looks to His truth. Kingdoms have been overturned, and churches too. Through all these great revolutions and changes, God has still preserved His truth. Think of that great and dreadful burning of heaven and earth. The elements will melt with heat and the world will come to its fatal end. Even then truth will not suffer the least loss.

That which is born partakes of the nature and character of that which gives its birth. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In the same way, what is born of incorruptible seed is incorruptible. What is born by the living and abiding Word of God is living and abiding. And that enduring Word of the Lord has reached us in the gospel message that we have believed.

This is the very word that was preached to them with all its glad news, that they might know that they had through it received a new nature as incorruptible and everlasting as His word Who communicated both. He would have his brethren know it theirs now without a shade of uncertainty.

Gospel preachers, we have our work to do, and let us not shirk it. We must cry out, even when the message is unwelcome. All flesh is as the grass, passing and withering. All the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The best is no better than the worst, for at the great test of the cross we plainly see that there is no difference: the rulers of this world crucified the Lord of glory. We must proclaim this. But our work and words would be hopeless if they ended there. Thank God, we have something else to tell. The word of God lives, it throbs with life, and abides for ever, it is imperishable. And that word is about Christ.