Jesus is God
2 Peter 1v1
15th December 2023
2 Peter 1v1
Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received
a faith as precious as ours
Peter probably wrote this letter not long before he was executed for the crime of believing in Our Lord Jesus Christ. As as apostle would in his last days, he says some very important, fundamental things, starting in the first verse.
Letters in New Testament times usually began by stating the identity of the writer, and Peter does exactly that when he declares himself to be "a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ" (the Greek word here is doulos – slave - not diakonos - servant). Jesus is our Lord. All Christians are slaves of Jesus, whether we realise it or not, whether we accept it or not. As 1 Corinthians 6v19-20 says, "You are not your own; you were bought at a price". For understandable reasons, slavery is a very unpopular idea in our generation but Christians, like Peter, can glory in our slavery. We can rejoice in it. I would much rather be a slave of Jesus than a free man. Jesus is the perfect Lord. Slavery to Jesus is perfect freedom. Separation from Jesus is slavery to sin.
The second item in a letter at that time was usually the identity of the people to whom the letter was addressed. Peter describes them - us - as "those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours". Let's take that a piece at a time.
1. Peter says that Jesus Christ is "our God and Saviour Jesus Christ". Right at the start of this letter, Peter wants to state clearly that Jesus is God. If a Muslim, or a Jew, or somebody of no particular faith, or an atheist, tells you that we all worship the same God, he's wrong. We worship Jesus as God. They don't.
From the earliest years of the church age, there have been many heresies in this world. The two most prevalent and dangerous of these heresies are, firstly, this one, that Jesus is not God and, secondly, that Jesus is not a man. Jesus has a fully divine nature and a fully human nature. He's both wholly God and wholly human. This is vitally important because, if Jesus wasn't God His death couldn't make restitution for our sins, and if Jesus wasn't human He couldn't die as our representative. Jesus is, as Peter says, both our God and our Saviour. To deny either His divinity or His humanity is to deny the Gospel and therefore our salvation. Theology matters.
As Peter writes later in this letter:
2 Peter 2v1-2
... there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive
heresies, even denying the Master who bought them - bringing swift destruction on
themselves.
Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
We must be on our guard.
Jesus is not just a great teacher or prophet, He's not just a person sent by God. He's not just the unique Son of God. He's God. If Jesus were not God, then to worship Him would be idolatry. Jesus is from eternity to eternity. He's omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. That is: He can do anything, He knows everything and He is everywhere. He is perfect, just as the Father and the Holy Spirit are perfect.
2. Peter describes Christians as "those who… have received a faith". By this he means saving faith in Jesus. This saving faith is a gift, given by God and received by us. No-one can just choose to have faith. We need God to reveal the truth to us, and to give us the ability to believe it. When you pray for your non-Christian friends and family members, it's no good praying that they buck their ideas up. We need to pray that they receive revelation from God, and are given faith to believe.
Remember that other great apostle, Paul. He was actively persecuting the church when he "came to faith" as we say. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul on the Damascus Road in such a powerful way that he completely changed his life, and served Jesus from then until the day he died. Your conversion may have been less dramatic, but it was still dependant on God revealing the truth about Jesus to you and giving you the gift of faith.
3. Peter says we've received this faith through "the righteousness of… Jesus Christ". God's gift to us of saving faith is only possible because Jesus Christ is absolutely righteous, totally without sin and in perfect relationship with God the Father. Only a perfectly righteous person could make atonement for our sin, and enable us to be united with God by faith. Jesus took our sin so we could take His righteousness. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. God forgives our sin and enters into relationship with us.
4. And Peter describes the faith of the Christians he was writing to as being "as precious as ours". That is, as valuable as the faith of the original apostles. Your faith is the same as their faith, just as important, just as wonderful. God loves you just as much as He loves Peter, Paul and their apostolic colleagues.
Christmas is almost here. We will sing again songs that tell us Jesus is God:
"Hail the incarnate deity"
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
"He came down to earth from Heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all."
Once in Royal David's City
"God of God, Light of Light,
lo, He abhors not the virgin's womb;
very God, begotten not created".
O Come all Ye faithful
Never doubt the divinity of Jesus. Never worship any other God. Never stop giving thanks for His incarnation and the salvation He won for you.