Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 1:17-21

Christ Before Time

 

If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.[1]

 

Salvation is cloaked in mystery—not mystery such as might be presented in an Agatha Christie novel or in a tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—but mystery in that left to our own imaginations we cannot understand the motive behind salvation.

Statements made in this text leave us astonished, questioning how they could be true.

Yet, because we know that God cannot lie, we receive these statements as truth.

Consider what Peter has written.

Questions are raised that astonish the most astute among us.

How could the blood of Christ the Lord serve to redeem?

How could He have been destined before the foundation of the world to redeem fallen mankind?

How could He have sacrificed Himself for man the rebel?

Does this mean that God created us, knowing that we would rebel and require His death?

Did God bring all things into existence knowing that He would need to sacrifice Himself for His fallen creation?

There are implications and questions beyond discovery that arise from the text.

Except for the revelation of God Himself, we would be left astonished and without answer.

Nevertheless, we are obligated to learn of the plan of God—a plan that was formulated well before the creation of the world.

Join me in study of that plan and in consideration of some of the implications arising from the implementation of that plan.

Peter Asserts that Christ was Pre-existent — God is the Eternal God.

Before ever the world was created, God prepared a plan for the redemption of His fallen creature.

Almost all modern translations speak of our being redeemed in this particular passage.

Indeed, the concept of redemption is a glorious biblical concept that perhaps is inadequately addressed from the pulpit today.

Peter reminds us as Christians that we were redeemed, or as the text of the *English Standard Version* states—ransomed, and the redemption price was provided before the world began.

That business of redemption (ransom) perhaps requires some attention.

Whenever you and I think of redemption, we perhaps think of exchanging a coupon for goods at a store, cashing in a bond or other such thoughts.

However, that does inadequate justice to what Peter is saying.

Likewise, whenever we speak of ransom, we think of perhaps being held captive by a hostile power and being released upon payment of price.

In point of fact, this latter thought comes much closer to the biblical concept being presented than does the word “redeemed.”

Consider that before we were saved, we were in bondage.

The unsaved are in bondage.

I am not gloating, but rather I am speaking as one who once was trapped in that same slavery, though in Christ I have been delivered.

That this is the case is evident from the Word of God.

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind [*Ephesians 2:1-3*].

That old way of life, a form of bondage to our own desires and submission to the pattern of the dying world about us, is described as futile, or empty.

It had no value so far as God was concerned.

Therefore, when we were ransomed we were set free from bondage to the old way of living.

What was that old way of living?

For the most part, we thought that we could do something to make ourselves acceptable to God.

Perhaps we thought that if we lived a “good” life, our “goodness” would outweigh any evil associated with out lives.

We thought that through performance of religious rituals we would make ourselves pleasing to God.

Perhaps we were determined that we would simply ignore God and declare ourselves free.

Regardless of what we may have thought, we were slaves to sin.

Our goodness was insufficient to make us perfect.

Our religious acts could never take away guilt.

Declaring ourselves to be free did not make us free.

We were enslaved and if we were ever to be free, God Himself would of necessity be the One to free us.

Peter reminds us that we were ransomed.

However, his emphasis is not upon the fact that we were ransomed, but rather he focuses on the value of the ransom paid.

The price of our redemption cannot be measured in gold or silver, nor in any other treasure associated with this world.

Rather, the ransom paid was the life of the Son of God.

Moreover, this ransom was prepared before the world ever began.

In speaking of Christ as a lamb without blemish or spot, Peter is reminding readers of the role of Christ both to fulfil the type of the Passover Lamb and to provide for the results sought through the various sacrifices associated with the Jewish worship rituals—the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering.

Unquestionably, the fact that Peter stresses the flawless nature of the lamb points to the Passover.

Permit me remind you of what was accomplished through Passover.

Israel had been in bondage in Egypt when God sent a deliverer—Moses.

Moses instructed the people to prepare for deliverance from slavery.

In order to ensure that they were not judged together with all Egypt, the people were to secure a lamb.

The lamb was to be inspected closely to ensure that it is unblemished.

At twilight on the day of the Passover, the lamb was to be slain.

The blood was to be collected and some of that blood was to be placed on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the house as a sign that the people believed God.

That night, the death angel passed throughout the land of Egypt, killing the firstborn son in each house, except for those houses that had the blood of the Passover lamb smeared on the doorposts and on the lintel.

In similar fashion, the Son of God was presented as our Passover Lamb, to spare us from judgement and death.

This is the reason that John the Baptist cried out when He saw Jesus coming, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world [*John** 1:29b*].

Jesus, the Son of God, had a mission, which was to present Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of mankind, His blood providing a shelter from judgement for all who receive it.

Just as our Saviour has delivered us from bondage, so He is the means by which all sin is forgiven and we are therefore permitted to enter into peace with God.

What a precious comfort are the words that John has written for us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [*1 John 1:9*].

Delivered from all unrighteousness, we have peace with God.

This is the message Paul presents in *Romans 5:1, 2*.

Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Since sin is an offence against the Infinite God, any sin is infinitely offensive.

Therefore, if sin is to be removed, the sacrifice presented must itself be infinite in order to provide atonement for the sin.

If I will be free of condemnation before God, I must be perfect.

However, I was born in sin and I am a sinful man.

Though I try to live a good life, I cannot do so.

Though I try to maintain the rites that I imagine pleasing to God, I cannot do so perfectly.

I cannot simply declare myself free of sin, because death forcefully reminds me that I am a sinner and under sentence of death.

If death reigns over my life in the flesh, how much more am I accounted as dead in my spirit!

I need a sacrifice that is perfect and infinite if I have hope of freedom from guilt.

Before the world began, the Triune God met in glorious conference to provide a means of life for me.

Before ever God created the world, He knew that man the creature would rebel and plunge the universe into ruin and condemnation.

God prepared the world for man, perfectly crafting the earth for man’s presence.

He created a sinless and perfect world for the man and the woman He created, and then He gave them perfect freedom.

The Enemy deceived our first mother and our first father rebelled against the goodness of God, and the entire race was therefore condemned.

Yet, before any of these events transpired, God had prepared a Saviour—Christ the Lord.

Before man was created, and long before man fell, God prepared a Saviour.

In pre-adamic conference, God the Son presented Himself as a sacrifice for sinful man.

Therefore, though knowing that man would rebel and plunge the race into death, God created man and prepared for His redemption.

This message is emphasised with a scarlet stain on every page of the Old Testament until it finds fulfilment in the Person of Christ Jesus our Lord as He presented Himself in the place of sinful man.

When our first parents sinned, the promise of a Redeemer was presented by God [see *Genesis 3:15*].

There would come an offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head.

As Abraham trudged up the mountain with his only son, Isaac, the lad asked, Where is the lamb for a burnt offering [*Genesis 22:7*].

The Patriarch, in faith, replied, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering [*Genesis 22:8*].

Every sacrifice of every bullock, of every lamb, of every dove presented on Jewish altars, pointed forward to the coming sacrifice.

It was not the blood of animals shed that freed worshippers from condemnation, but it was the faith that God would send a perfect sacrifice that secured salvation and brought peace between God and man.

Since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins [*Hebrews 10:1-4*].