Title: BECOME WHAT YOU ARE
Focus: Christians are called to become what they are in Christ Jesus.
Function: To move the people to live with integrity and authenticity as Christians.
Text: I Peter 2:4-12
Confession: Lord’s Day 32
INTRODUCTION
Two years ago my wife and I brought our son, Elliot, to the Buffalo bus station for further service as a U.S. Marine. He had finished boot camp, received some time off, and now it was time to get further training in Camp LeJeune in North Carolina.
Elliot was easily recognizable as a U.S. Marine, given his haircut and the green, camouflaged duffle bags he was carrying. As we entered the bus station, a man in his late 40’s, I suppose, came up to him and asked him where he was going. There was an immediate “connection” between this man and Elliot; they used code language (jargon) only understood by Marines. It turned out that this man had only recently retired after serving for 26 years as a U.S. Marine.
He talked with Elliot as if he had known him for years. He showed Elliot where the bus was located, and just before Elliot boarded on the bus the man said: “Hold on to that M-16. Don’t let go of it. And make me proud. You are a U.S. Marine.” In other words, be and become what you are!
This man’s words to Elliot got me thinking about Peter’s words to the church. Listen: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which 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.” Here we learn that Christians must live with integrity and authenticity. Phoniness and pretense and a careless lifestyle are incompatible with being a Christian. We are called to become what we are in Christ Jesus.
The apostle Peter is writing to Gentile Christians who are being persecuted for their faith. These Gentiles had only recently responded with faith to the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension. They are new-born Christians, young in their faith, severely tested and persecuted by a hostile, Roman government, dispersed over Asia Minor. Yet, determined to be what they are. They are Christians.
As Peter writes to them in this passage, we note that Peter moves from one stage of conversation to another. In verses 4-8 Peter underscores to them what’s happening: “As you come to (Jesus), the living Stone—rejected by men 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.” They are “under construction,” shaped and formed into a temple indwelt by the living God. That’s what’s happening to them—and us today.
After emphasizing the centrality of Jesus in their lives, Peter moves on and tells these Christians in verses 9-10 what they are: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, 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.”
Using Old Testament references to the Jews as the people of God by virtue of their lineage with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and by virtue of God’s covenant with Israel, Peter now tells these Gentile Christians that they are the “new” Israel, that they, too, may see themselves as children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s what Christians are!
And then, Peter moves on and in verses 11 and 12 reminds us of what we are called to: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which 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.” Such, then, is the movement or flow of thought in the passage: we move from “what’s happening now” to “what we are in Christ Jesus” to “what we are called to.”
So, what does this passage teach us today? At least three things:
Or we may understand Peter’s reference to mean that once an unbeliever should come to faith and receive God’s salvation in Christ, that new believer will glorify God on account of our good deeds. Either way, our behavior as Christians matter! That’s why it is so important for us today to be and become what we are!
The
church’s teaching as found in Lord’s Day 32 emphasizes that very point found in
Peter’s letter to the churches in exile. The Catechism sets the stage and asks:
“We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ
and not because we have earned it: (In other words, our salvation is not
something we earn; it’s God’s gift to us) why then must we still do good?”
There are two insights that I wish to bring out to all of us: First of all, we are redeemed. That is, Christians are bought with a price, set free. Thus the Catechism begins answering the question about good works in this way:
“To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by his blood. But….” Here the Catechism drives home that every Christian believer is saved by the blood of Christ. Through Jesus’ work on the cross and in the tomb, we are no longer in a hostile relationship with God. We are reconciled, redeemed, set free from the guilt of sin. That’s our status before God. Why? Because Jesus is our Savior. But!
Now in response to Jesus’ work, we “do good because Christ… is… renewing us to be like himself.” We do good because we are not only redeemed or set free from the guilt of sin, but we are also redeemed from the bondage or power of sin. It is not only our position before God that has changed; it is also our servanthood. We no longer are in the service of sin and the devil, for Christ has redeemed us, and now we are in the service of Christ, the King. Things have radically changed. We are redeemed!
The second insight is that we are under construction. Here the Catechism simply ties in with the Scripture’s teaching as found in Peter’s letter, for example. Listen: “Christ, by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us.”
Driving around this large place called the Twin Cities, I’ve noticed highway construction projects in various places. Right now, the Lord Jesus has a construction project going on as well. You and I are being renewed into the image of Jesus. Sin has ruined the image of God in us. But Jesus Christ is bent on restoring that image within us, so that we become more and more like him. We are under construction
Most of these highway construction projects involve a number of construction workers. When it comes to you and me, however, there is only one Construction Worker changing us from one degree of glory to another—the Holy Spirit. We will not only become perfected people in heaven (at the end of time, when Jesus comes again); no, we also become new people here on earth today. Christ has sent us his Holy Spirit to renew us here on earth; that process of renewal will find its perfection at the end of time. But already today, we are under construction.
This renewing process, which is Christ’s work in us through his Spirit does not happen OUTSIDE of us, but in co-operation with us. Christ works in us with his Spirit; we work out his energizing workings inside of us. That’s why Paul can say to the Philippian church: “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Phil. 2:12,13) Under construction, shaped by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are and become what we are in Christ Jesus. That’s why we live with integrity and authenticity.
“Make us proud,” said the one Marine to the other. “Be and become what you are,” says the Lord our God to us today.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.