01 Everything You Need for Life and Godliness (2 Peter 1:1-4)

Krisan Marotta: You're listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast, and I'm Krisan Marotta. Today we're gonna study 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. You'll find links and lecture notes for everything mentioned in our talk on our website. You can click on the link below this podcast or just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash 2, the number 2, Peter, and then the number 1. Thanks so much for downloading the podcast. Today we're starting a brand new series on the book of 2 Peter. I'm really excited about it. This book is primarily about staying true to the gospel in the face of false teaching. And I think that's a challenge facing every believer today because there are so many voices, both from the world and even from within the church, that are teaching a false or a tweaked or a compromised version of the gospel. So how do we learn? How do we recognize false teachers? How do we remain true to the gospel in a corrupt world? Those are the themes of Peter's second letter. Simon Peter is the author, he served as an apostle of Jesus Christ for three or four decades, and as his earthly life and ministry drew to a close, he wrote this letter. He's probably writing to the same set of churches that he addressed in his first letter because in three one he says this is the second letter he's written to them. And his concern was to encourage and admonish these churches in the face of false teachers, and he wanted to get in get that in writing before he died. In chapter one verses twelve through fifteen he gives us this purpose for writing. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me, and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able to recall these things. So I will make every effort after my departure that you may be able to recall these things. Our goal in this series is to understand the truths that Peter thought were so important that he had to make sure he wrote them down before his time on earth was done. What was it that he thought was so important? Before we look at the book itself, I'd like to answer that question in a really general way. This is an overview of what I think 2 Peter is all about, the things he's about to say, and I'm going to put it in my own words and give you the general idea, not going into the details. Then as we go through the book, hopefully you'll it will become clear how I got to those conclusions. So what's the big idea that he wants to get across to them? In short, he's reminding them that God has spoken. God has not left us alone to sort out all the ins and outs of this life. God has given us revelation. In particular, he has told us that he is reaching out to us to solve the biggest problem of humanity. And what is that problem? Sin and death. God has told us how we can be rescued from sin and death. If you're not sure what I mean by that or by sin and death or why that's such a big problem, you might want to listen to my four-part series called What is the Gospel? And I'll put a link to that in the lecture notes below this podcast. First, he spoke through the prophets, and through the prophets, he told the nation of Israel that he was going to send a Messiah who would bring forgiveness and deliverance. And ultimately all of human history will culminate on that one glorious day when the Messiah will return and establish his rule throughout all creation and bring an end to sin and death once and for all. Then God spoke through Jesus, the Messiah, and then Jesus sent the apostles to speak for him. And Peter is one of those apostles. Jesus himself and his apostles proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, predicted by the Old Testament prophets. Jesus taught this set of truths, the gospel. He lived a life blameless and keeping the entire covenant, and then he offered his life as payment for our sins, securing both our place in the kingdom of God and his place in the kingdom of God. And one day he's going to return to fully establish his rule over all creation, that kingdom of God where life and righteousness reigns as God has promised. This is the gospel, the word we have from God. We have the word of the prophets telling us that forgiveness and life is coming and that a Messiah is coming to bring that forgiveness in life. We have the word of Jesus that He is that Messiah and of the apostles that Jesus is the fulfillment of those promises, and one day he will bring them to completion. Now everything hangs on what we do with that word from God. This revelation confronts us with a choice, and it's a two-part choice. First, we have to decide whether or not we believe that's true, or we turn away from it, or reject it outright, or maybe we change it, tweak it, or distort it. So first we have to decide whether or not it's true, and second, we have to decide that we believe it enough to live like it's true, to live it out. What we believe affects and changes how we live, and we must choose to live as if that word is true. Now Peter is writing to churches who are infected by false teachers, and these false teachers have failed both parts of this choice. First, they failed to believe the message of God's prophets and apostles. They're changing it, they're adding to it, they're distorting it, and they've changed it into something more to their liking. And second, the way they live their lives demonstrates that they have rejected the word of the apostles and prophets. They have the wrong hope, they have the wrong values, they are living foolishly, they are seeking things of the world rather than things of God, and they are leading other people astray. And Peter is writing to urge his readers to embrace the message of the apostles and to reject the message of those false teachers. He does not want them to believe what the false teachers believe, nor does he want them to live as they live. And that's basically what Second Peter is about. We're going to start with the first two verses. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Just a bit of background, from the very beginning it has been debated whether or not the Apostle Peter actually wrote this letter. Second Peter is one of a small handful of New Testament letters whose legitimacy was questioned almost from the time they were written. No one really doubted that Paul wrote Romans or Corinthians. Most thought that the Apostle Peter wrote 1 Peter, but many in the early church questioned whether the Apostle Peter wrote this letter, Second Peter. Likewise, many modern scholars reject Peter as the author of this letter, but then it's very fashionable today for modern scholars to reject just about everything. One of the reasons they reject Peter's authorship is the fact that this letter has a lot of vocabulary that is different not only from Peter's first letter, but also from the rest of the New Testament. This letter uses words that are just unusual compared to the other New Testament letters. Also, a second, a big chunk of it is very similar to the book of Jude, which we're going to talk about when we get to chapter two. And many scholars are also skeptical about the book of Jude and whether that should be included in Scripture or not. Second Peter quotes Jude or Jude quotes 2 Peter. We'll talk about that when we get to chapter 2, but both these letters were questioned early on. Now there are lots of sides to that debate, and I'm not going to pursue it. You can find really good detailed discussions of that and just about any commentary. I'll just say that I think this letter deserves its place in the canon. I do believe it was in fact written by Peter. I really only want to comment about one small part of this debate. Some of the people who reject this letter do so on the basis of the content of the letter. Second Peter doesn't talk about justification by faith, but it does talk about how our faith manifests itself in the way we live. And the fact that it doesn't talk about justification by faith leads some to conclude that Peter is preaching a kind of justification by works. It's very similar to the way some people think the book of James teaches a kind of justification by works. James is also one of those books that early scholars were skeptical about. Luther perhaps being the most notable, he called James an epistle of straw. One scholar I read called Second Peter early Catholic, meaning it teaches the kind of legalism that developed in pre-Reformation Catholicism. I don't buy that argument. I don't think Second Peter teaches legalism, and I don't think that the Book of James teaches legalism. I think, in fact, the way Second Peter connects our faith and our lives is exactly in keeping with what Jesus taught, with what Paul taught, with what James and John taught. And I would argue it is a part of a very consistent and coherent theme in the New Testament, and that theme is there is a relationship between believing the gospel and the way we live our lives, such that if my belief has no impact on my life, then my belief itself is in question. So that connection gets made over and over that if I claim to believe the gospel, it will affect and change the way I live my life. And I don't think Peter is saying anything different than the other books on that theme. And I'm going to try to point that out as we go through the letter. So I disagree with the idea that this book is out of step with the rest of the New Testament. I think it is very much in step, and if Peter didn't write it, and I do believe he did, then the person who did write it knew his New Testament theology pretty well. The question of authorship is important because the author of the letter makes a big deal about the fact that he's an apostle. He insists in the letter that he is an eyewitness to the life and the sufferings of Jesus. He claims authority as apostle, and he claims that it's important that he was an eyewitness to the life of Jesus. So if the author is not in fact Peter or one of the other apostles, then a lot of his argument falls apart. So the bottom line is I believe this letter was indeed written by the apostle Peter, just as it claims. He wrote it near the end of his life, which would put it around maybe 65 to 68 AD. He opens the letter with a typical salutation for his time. New Testament letters tend to open with three parts. First, they identify the author of the letter, second, they identify the recipients of the letter, and then third, they follow with a greeting or some kind of blessing, and Peter does that as well. Let's read verse one again. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. So Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Simon is Peter's Hebrew name. Peter is the Greek translation of a nickname that Jesus gave him and he gives us both here. It was fairly common in that day to use both the name you were given in your native language and a Greek version of your name because Greek was the language of the day, and I think that's what's going on here. Simon is his Hebrew name. Peter is a Greek version of the nickname Roch or Cephas that Jesus gave him. He describes himself as a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. That word can be translated servant, bondservant, or slave, so there's some question on just what level of slave he's talking about. How low should you translate it in a sense? Some slaves had the full authority of their master. For instance, the house slave was the most important slave in the house. He had control over all the master's accounts. He could do business in his master's name, he could speak for the master and act on his behalf. He was still a slave, but he had the authority to speak for and act on behalf of his master, and you see this in some of the parables of Jesus. I think Peter is signaling his authority here by combining servant and apostle because he's writing to warn against false teachers. He is not free, he belongs to his master, he must serve his master's interest, but he also has great authority to act on his master's behalf. So I think he's signaling as an apostle, he has the authority to speak for Jesus, but as his slave, he is not free to change the message that Jesus gave him. There are four lists of the twelve apostles in Scripture. You'll find those in Matthew 10, Mark 3, Luke 6, and Acts 1. Peter's name is first on every list. There's no other consistent order beyond placing Peter first, but I think he's always first because he was recognized as the leader of the twelve apostles and one of those closest to Jesus. Now the apostles were a unique group in the authority they had. They were specifically called servants of Christ. They lived and worked with Jesus during his public life and ministry. They heard him teach publicly and privately, they witnessed his miracles, they witnessed his sufferings, and they saw him after his resurrection. Jesus personally called each of them and he sent them into the world to preach the gospel after his death and resurrection. Like the Old Testament prophets who were given a unique authority to speak for God, the apostles were given a unique authority to speak for and about Jesus. It's quite common for the apostles to identify themselves as apostles at the beginning of their letters, but I think in this case it's particularly appropriate that Peter does so because his apostleship is an important theme in the letter. He is speaking to the problem of false teachers, and he's going to argue that unlike these false teachers, he was an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, and he is one of those ambassadors, those apostles that Jesus specifically granted the authority to speak for and about him. Now he describes his readers as those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Note Peter is comparing our faith with the faith of the readers, and we have to ask what does he mean? Who is the R? What comparison is he making? Some of the New Testament authors use the word faith to describe that set of things which I believe to be true, that body of beliefs, that set of truths which I believe to be true. And I think that's what Peter has in mind here because he's going to go on to write against false teachers. He's not saying you have the same trusting, believing heart we do. I think he's saying you believe the same gospel that we believe. You share the same body of beliefs that we share. You have come to believe the same truths about Jesus that we believe. I think the R then refers to the apostles, and essentially he's saying you believe the same gospel that we apostles have taught you and that we believe. So his readers have embraced the same message that Peter proclaims, and their beliefs are equally worthy of his own in that sense. He's not talking about how strongly they believe or how persevering they are or how free from doubt. Rather, because of what he's going to go on to say, I think he's describing the content of their belief. Basically, he's saying you believe the same things that we believe, the same truth. So Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. So the interpretive question here, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, in that phrase, is he talking about two people or one person? Is he referring to our God and also to our Savior Jesus Christ, or is this Jesus Christ who is our God and Savior? Scholars take it both ways. Twice in this letter, Peter uses the phrase our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that's in 111 and 318. And in those verses, it's clear he means one person. So some scholars see this phrase in 1-1 as parallel to those other two phrases and therefore take it to mean only one person. Others see the different word choice as pointing to a difference, and so they take it as two people. Notice in 1-2, the very next verse, we have a clear grammatical distinction in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, referring there to two people. I think the New American Standard translates it to show that it's one person, and the ESV is a little more ambiguous in their translation, but it looks to me like they're leaning toward two people. Personally, I think you can make an argument either way, and theologically, I don't think it matters much. It does make a difference in nuance, but you're going to end up in the same place, which is our faith is tied to the righteousness of our God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. Theologically, it is tied to both of them. We are saved by the grace of God because of the blood of Jesus Christ. We obtained this faith because God in his mercy and grace accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as payment for our sins. I'm not sure it matters much whether you think Peter is highlighting only the role Jesus played in our salvation or whether you think he's focusing on the roles of both the Father and the Son. Either way, I think he's making the point, God in his mercy and grace accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as payment for our sins. So let me give you my paraphrase of this verse. To those to whom it has been granted to believe the same valuable set of truths that we apostles believe and preach, that is, to those who believe the same gospel we believe. It has been granted to us to believe this gospel because of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. I think this greeting is significant because the false teachers are tempting them to abandon the truths that the apostles taught. They are tempting them to turn to some other set of beliefs. And what you believe to be true about the gospel is a life or death matter. Believing the wrong gospel leads to eternal death, and believing the right gospel leads to eternal life. And Peter is very concerned in this letter that they believe the right gospel and not turn from it. There is a set of truths that Jesus taught and that his apostles proclaimed, and it is that set of truths that leads to eternal life. We have learned and embraced this truth by the righteousness of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and that's what he's going to go on to talk about. And then he says, and two, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This greeting is really similar to many of the greetings of New Testament letters, but there's one notable word that appears in this greeting that does not usually appear in the other greetings. And I think it's significant that Peter uses it because of what he goes on to talk about, and that word is knowledge. Quite often we see may grace and peace be multiplied to you, or may grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied to you. But Peter has this phrase in the knowledge of God and our and of Jesus our Lord. How is this blessing of grace and peace multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord? It is by knowing God and knowing Jesus that you obtain this blessing of grace and peace. The idea of being blessed through knowledge is going to be picked up immediately in the next verse, and it's a theme he's going to go on to talk about. This blessing of grace and peace comes by holding fast to the knowledge of God and Jesus that comes through. The teaching of Christ and his apostles, as opposed to the teaching of the false teachers. So I think this greeting is subtly introducing the main theme of the letter. Peter's going to warn them against the false teachers. He's going to urge them to hold tight to the apostolic gospel, and the greeting is preparing them or setting them up for those themes. So this letter is from Peter, an apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. He is one of the select few given the authority to speak for Jesus and about Jesus. And this letter is written to those who believe the same gospel that Jesus taught and his apostles taught. Peter prays that they would be blessed by their knowledge of God and Jesus and that understanding of the gospel and grace given through Jesus and taught by his apostles, and that that gospel would have its intended result of leading them to life. Okay, let's look at three and four. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Let's look at that first phrase. So God's goal for his people is to bring them into life and godliness. That is, he is rescuing us from our two great enemies, death and sin. And apart from the blood of Christ, we are slaves to sin and death, and what we need is to be rescued from that and saved to life and godliness. We need to be rescued from death and our corrupt, sinful hearts and find a way to be reconciled to God. And the message of the gospel is the way we do that. It is the way to life and godliness. The interpretive question is in what sense has God given us everything in pertaining to life and godliness? There are those who believe that God has given us everything in the sense that His work is done. The idea they teach is that after coming to faith, you have everything you're ever going to have. And if you're still struggling with sin, it's because you haven't done something right. You haven't done something enough. You haven't prayed enough, you haven't appropriated the power, you haven't used your spiritual version of the Star Wars force to achieve victory over sin. Whatever's going wrong, and you're still sinning, the problem is you because they claim God has given you everything you need and you're just not appropriating the power properly. I think to understand Peter saying that kind of a gospel is a profound misunderstanding of the text. I don't believe Scripture teaches that view. Rather, I think Scripture teaches repeatedly that God's work is not done yet. He is not finished with us, he has not yet freed us completely from the presence and the power of sin, and that we have a hope in the gospel that that will happen one day. That is an ongoing process, and we are not there yet. Rather, I think by everything here, Peter means the gospel is all you need to obtain life and godliness. Remember, he's contrasting the apostolic gospel with the message of the false teachers. He's going to go on to claim that they have it wrong. And he's starting that argument now, and I think he's claiming the gospel has everything necessary to arrive at life and godliness. You don't need to add to it, you don't need to change it, you don't need to adapt it, you don't need to supplement it, you don't need to tweak it, there's no secret knowledge you have to gain. The apostolic gospel is complete and everything you need to know to obtain life and godliness. The false teachers are teaching something else, and they are leading you astray because everything you need to arrive at life and godliness has already been taught to you in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So everything you need can be found in the knowledge of God contained in the apostolic message, and he's making that connection between knowledge and life explicit. Verse three again, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence. By having this knowledge of God, we have what is required to arrive at life and godliness. And what does he mean by knowledge of God? Well, people take that different ways. Some view it is a kind of mystical knowledge that cannot be described, but you can only feel and experience it. I think in this context of warning against false teachers, I would lean away from that view. Others think it's a personal knowledge similar to the way I would know my best friend, so the kind of knowledge I gain through time and community and long conversations. And again, because we're in this context of warning against false teachers, I don't think that's what he means by knowledge. In this context, I think he's referring to the content of the knowledge. To know God is to know what he has revealed about himself through his prophets, through his Messiah, and through the apostles. It is to understand what he has promised, what he's doing in history, what his plan is, and what life is about. So it's to know and understand the content of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And part of why I think that is because of the next verse. I don't think verse four is a new topic, but is a further explanation of what he just said in three. Let's read that again. By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. So what's the knowledge we need? Those precious and very great promises. So verse four, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. So I would say that verse four is amplifying and explaining the point he makes in verse three. In three, he said, it is the knowledge of God that leads us to having everything pertaining to life and godliness. And it is through the knowledge of God that we have what we need to obtain life. And then in four, it is his precious and magnificent promises that lead us into sharing God's nature and escaping the corruption that it's in the world. I think those are very related parallel ideas. To know God involves knowing his promises, his magnificent promises. To have everything pertaining to life and godliness means you will come to share in his divine nature and escape the corruption of the world. So it's two ways of talking about the same thing. The knowledge of God is the knowledge that comes through the gospel, the knowledge of his purposes, of what he's promised to do, the knowledge of how he intends to solve the problem of our sin and death, and how he intends to bring us into life and godliness. And it is knowing and embracing and believing these promises that gets us to eternal life. It is through it knowing and embracing them that we arrive at life and godliness. He has this phrase, becoming partakers of the divine nature, and at first that sounds kind of mystical and new agey. It's not the kind of language that New Testament authors typically use, and in fact, this is one of those phrases that scholars like to point to to say, Oh, look, Peter didn't write this letter. They say Peter didn't talk like this in his first letter, and other New Testament authors didn't use this phrase, so they doubt Peter's authorship. But it seems to me that the idea of sharing in the divine nature is a biblical concept, even if that particular phrase isn't used. I think this is the same concept that Jesus talks about when he talks about the Spirit of God making us born again, or Paul talks about the sanctification through the Spirit of God at work inside us. In fact, Paul uses the analogy of Moses. After Moses came down the mountain, his face would be glowing from being in the presence of God and speaking with him face to face because the glory of God would be reflected andor kind of rubbed off on him. And in first Corinthians, Paul uses that as an analogy to say it's like we're face to face with God and his glory is rubbing off on us just like it did Moses. Only now we're not talking about a shiny face, we're talking about our character is becoming more like the character of God. We are becoming less sinful creatures and more holy creatures as God works to change us from being selfish to being holy. The idea is that we are being transformed from sinful creatures and being made more like God in the sense that we are sharing in his holy character. We are becoming more creatures who have a character that is holy and good, and that is very much a New Testament concept, and I think that's what Peter's talking about here. Sharing in the divine nature leads to escaping the corruption of this world. He's referring to this moral transformation that is part of our hope as believers, and it's the same hope he talked about in chapter one of his first letter. Our hope that we will be freed from all the power and the presence and the penalty of sin and death, and freed from our selfishness, and one day we will share in the holy character of God. Then he says that corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Your translation may have the word lust here. Let me just comment on that word desire or lust. Usually we think of the English word lust as referring to inappropriate sexual desire, and it can mean that. More often than not, it includes not only sexual desire, but means something broader. One way or another, desire is what leads us into conflict with the will of God. It is our desires for all sorts of things that can lead us to disregard what God has commanded. So a desire for wealth, a desire for fame, a desire for the approval of our friends and family and mankind, it may be a desire for power, for pleasure, including sexual pleasure, a desire for security and well-being and happiness and so forth. Those desires can lead us astray. Now, just to be clear, Christianity does not teach that all desire is bad, like some Eastern religions do. Eastern religions often teach that desire in and of itself is the root of the problem and that you achieve enlightenment by learning to abandon desire itself. That is not a biblical idea. The way to life is not through the elimination of desire. Desires rather are to find their place under the will of God. That is, the way to life is to desire what is truly good, to desire what God wants and values, and let our desires fall into their proper place under His will and His precepts and instruction. The problem is not that we have desires, the problem is that we desire the wrong things, and that leads us to rebel and refuse to submit to God. So the solution is not to eliminate desire, the solution is to grow in the knowledge of God such that we learn to desire what God desires and we find joy and fulfillment in following Him. So we learn to say no to our desires when we find that we want something other than what God wants for us. So we may want things that are right, but they are not yet in their proper context, or we may want things that are selfish or wrong, and we learn to say no and wait and trust God. The difficulty we face is that our desires bring us to a place where we want something and God's will says something else, and we have to choose to follow God and not ourselves. So the corruption that results from desires is the sin that comes from following our own desires when those desires would lead us into rebellion against God and his promises and his will. So it's not the desire itself is wrong, it's setting your desires over and above what God has said is right and true. I want to make one more comment on verses three and four, and you'll have to bear with me because it requires grammar. You know the difference between first person plural we and the second person plural you or y'all. Now I lived in Alabama and I know that in true southern yall is singular, and if you want to say the plural, you say all y'all. But for our purposes, we're just going to say we is first person plural and y'all is the second person plural. Now let me read these verses again and listen to the pronouns. This is three and four. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you all may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Notice the pronoun shift in verse four. He says us, us, us, and then he says you all. Now why is that? Why the pronoun shift? One very plausible option is that the shift is just stylistic and it doesn't mean anything. He could just want to emphasize to his readers that they are included in this idea, and that is entirely possible. But remember in one and two, Peter compared the faith of the apostles with the faith of his readers, and he starts out right in the beginning of these verses making a distinction between us, meaning the apostles, and you all, meaning his readers. And it makes sense to me that he would carry that distinction from one and two into three and four. And that would mean his point is something like this His divine power has granted to us apostles all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us apostles to his own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us apostles his precious and very great promises, so that through them you all may become partakers of the divine nature. If I'm right about that pronoun shift, it means Peter is highlighting it is the content of the gospel as they learned it from the apostles that is the way to life and godliness. That God gave this knowledge of how we find life and godliness to the apostles, not the false teachers, and he gave the apostles this message, a set of promises which point the way to life, and it is by believing this message of the apostles, not the false teachers, that everyone else, you readers, will find life and godliness. So I think he's emphasizing that you readers will find life through the knowledge of God that was imparted to the apostles in contrast to what the false teachers are telling you. Alright, so what can we conclude from these opening verses? First, Peter has a very high view of the gospel that he has been commissioned as an apostle to proclaim. He doesn't use the word gospel, but I think that's what he's talking about in these verses. The message that the apostles have been given by Jesus that they're proclaiming to the world is what we call the gospel, and that gospel contains everything anyone needs to know to arrive at life and godliness. Everything we need to know about how to find salvation is in the apostolic gospel. Knowledge has become somewhat problematic for modern Christians. We like to make this distinction between head knowledge and heart knowledge, with the idea that head knowledge is bad and heart knowledge is good. Then we come to verses like this and we think, well, how could Peter be passing on information that leads to life? Because in our modern understanding, we think that having information is just head knowledge and that's not very significant or useful. So how could knowledge lead to life? The prophets and the apostles tell us that we're sinful, that God is holy. They tell us we are under the wrath of God and we stand condemned because God is good and we are not, and to know that the Bible makes that claim is not really enough. Knowing that that truth is taught in the Bible is not going to save you. Knowing Greek and Hebrew, spending twenty hours a week in Bible study so that you know the exact linguistic nuances of how the Bible teaches and what it says is not enough to save you. Granted, it is not the depth or quality of the information we have or how many facts we know that saves us. I think the kind of knowledge he's talking about, and this will become more clear as we go through the letter, is the knowledge that comes from hearing and accepting it as true, such that I begin to change the way I live because of the knowledge I have. So I hear it, I know it, I embrace it, and I believe it in such a way that what I think about the world changes, what I want from the world changes, what I value changes, what I desire changes, the things that I want begin to change, and more and more I want the things that God wants, and I value the things that God values, and I love the things that God loves, and I turn away from my previous way of living. That is what we typically call heart knowledge. I take to heart that God is good and that I am not, I take to heart the fact that I stand condemned and I have this very real problem with sin. I take to heart that left to myself God owes me nothing, and I can do nothing out of my own resources to solve this problem of sin, and I face into the implication of those truths. That's reality. That's how I think about life. And so I embrace what the gospel says, that Jesus is the only real solution to my problem with sin, and that if I am to be saved and I am to find life and godliness, I will find it through trusting that God will forgive me and save me and grant me life because of the life and death of his son Jesus Christ. I would not make this distinction between head knowledge and heart knowledge as such a hard line. Rather, I think we need both. We need to have heard it and we need to have heeded it. And I think that's what people mean when they use the term heart knowledge. It is the knowledge that changes my heart. It is the knowledge that changes the way I think about the world, but not in an emotional feeling sort of way. It's in the sense of this is now what I believe and I live as if it's true. So, in a sense, I would say you can't have heart knowledge without first having head knowledge. You have to hear it and you have to believe it such that it changes your life. So you need both. We need to embrace with our heart the knowledge that we hear with our heads. You can't embrace it in your heart if you don't have it in your head, and I think it's that whole package that Peter means by knowledge. Okay, finally, second, Peter provides a great confirmation about our problem and our hope. Our problem is that we are sinful and we are under the wrath of God, and we live in a corrupt, fallen world. We stand condemned and left to ourselves with our own resources, there's nothing we can do about it. That is our most important problem and the one that we really need solved. The gospel of Jesus Christ points to the solution. It points the way to obtain life and godliness. That's the solution to the problem we have. What does the gospel point us toward? Life, not death. Yes, living forever, but more than that, living a life that is free from sin and death and will be fully satisfying and fulfilling because God will grant us godliness. We will be refreed once and for all from the power and the presence of sin. It will no longer corrupt our experience, and we will no longer suffer because of it. So we will be made more like God in sharing his holy moral character, and that is what we most need. We need to share in the divine nature, not in the sense that we'll have supernatural powers, but that we will be like him in character, in ethics, in moralities, in desire and in godliness. And I'm never going to understand life if I don't embrace the knowledge that my true problem is sin and death. And it's so easy to lose sight of that fact. We get so caught up in the cares of this world, the circumstances we're in, the trials we face, our daily responsibilities, and the problems of the week that we just lose sight of the fact that history is on a collision course with judgment. Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead, and the world is going to end and a new age will begin, and one day we will all stand before our Creator and we will be judged, and we will be found guilty left to ourselves. We will only be saved if we have put our faith and trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. One day every knee will bow to this truth and every tongue will confess it is true, but not everyone will be saved. You have a choice now whether or not to believe it. The opportunity to make that choice is closing, and one day it will be too late to make that choice. So we have a real problem, sin and death, and we have a real solution, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that solution lies in the knowledge of God as revealed by his prophets and by Jesus and his apostles. The path to life and godliness is through believing the promises of God and the blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening today to Wednesday in the Word. This is the podcast that explains not only what a passage means but also shows you how to figure it out. I hope this podcast has blessed you, and if it has, please share it with someone else you think might benefit from it and leave a positive rating on Apple Podcasts or iTunes. If you leave good ratings, others really do find the podcast more easily. And if you've only been listening to my podcast, let me take a moment to invite you to visit my website, wednesdayintheword.com, where you can find a wealth of Bible study materials. I have articles on how to study the Bible, how to do word studies, plus lots of maps and tables, small group study guides, and all kinds of resources to help you learn to do your own study and improve your study skills. I have no advertising on my site, I don't ask for any financial support. Everything there is free and easy to download, and I invite you to use it. Thank you for joining me today, and I hope to see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.