The cross and holy living - 1 Peter 1.18-19 expounded

Every true believer understands that the cross is at the heart of the gospel, and the only means of salvation. But how many of us really understand that it is also intended to be the supreme pattern for all our daily lives?

As evangelicals we are adamant that the cross must remain central to everything. We recognise its primary place in the plan of God, and wholeheartedly accept it as the sole grounds for our salvation. It is a constant source of joy to us, and gives wonderful substance to all our praise.

And yet it is still possible, even with all this, to have a view of the cross that is seriously deficient. In particular, it is possible to fail to see the cross as the great model for Christian living. We can look back to the cross and rejoice in the new life into which it has brought us, but fail to see that it also is the primary pattern by which that new life is to be lived.

It was Jesus himself, of course, who made this most clear. When describing what it meant to be his follower, he did so in terms of the cross. The true disciple is one who, like him, walks the way of suffering, self sacrifice and death. But the apostle Peter also presses this home, and here in his first letter this is a theme to which he constantly returns.

Back to the cross

In 1 Peter he is writing to scattered Christians (1.1), all of whom were facing the challenge of living for Christ in a world that was anything but Christian (4.3-4). He writes in order to instruct them in this, and he does so with great clarity and immense practical wisdom. In it he covers such diverse subjects as suffering, moral purity, living with godless structures, living with godless partners, and even (hardest of all!) living with other Christians. But the most notable feature is his constant reference back to the cross.

There are three such references that are particularly outstanding. They are among the best known and best loved anywhere in the New Testament. They are 1.18-19, 2.24 and 3.18. But what is important to see is that each of them is not there merely to teach about salvation, but about how the saved person should therefore live.

Holiness

In the first of these three articles we will consider the first of these references - 1.18-19 - where Peter reminds us that the cross is to be the great incentive to holy living.

In 1.14 Peter speaks of the great struggle that these Christians were facing. They have already become 'obedient children', but living under Christ's lordship is no simple matter. There are old ways of thinking that were forever trying to reassert themselves. But Peter insists that that 'backward drag' must be resisted, and he gives a number of reasons why that is so. There is the blessing waiting for them when Christ returns (1.13). There is the holy character of the God they now worship (1.15-16). And particularly there is the fearful prospect of the judgement they must all face (1.17). But the motivation that Peter particularly focuses on, and expands in some detail, is the cross.

What was achieved?

In verses 18-19 Peter speaks first of all of the greatness of what the cross has achieved. He reminds the readers of how awful their situation once was. The life they once lived, he says, was 'empty'. That does not, perhaps, strike us as a particularly dreadful description on first reading, but we need to understand what it actually means. It indicates a life without any meaning and without any hope. It speaks of a life that even in this world makes no sense but, even more, in the sight of God, amounts to absolutely nothing. And even worse than that, it refers to a way a life that they were totally bound up in. He describes it as a way of life that had been 'handed down from (their) forefathers', indicating that these worthless ways of thinking and living had captured all the preceding generations. It reminds one of the situation of some primitive peoples newly encountered by missionaries. There are practices and customs doing them extreme damage in mind and body, but they have stretched back to time immemorial. This is the kind of history which Peter reminds these believers that they once shared.

But the cross had swept it all away! What nothing else had ever been able to do, the death of Jesus did. Now their lives are full of joy and meaning and eternal hope (1.3-4). This was the greatness of the rescue that the cross had achieved on their behalf.

What cost?

But Peter then also speaks immediately of the costliness of that rescue. 'It was not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ...' In referring to 'silver and gold', Peter speaks of those things that could normally be relied on to 'redeem' anyone from anything. Whether it was slaves, or prisoners, or captives in war - silver and gold could open any doors. But here was something beyond their power. Here was a captivity that needed a payment far greater than these could ever afford. Indeed, 'silver and gold' were themselves part of that old, empty world. They were 'perishable', and could not possibly be of any use in effecting a spiritual release. In the end only something of eternal worth and value could ever do it, and that was the death of Jesus himself.

Now, Peter does not go into detail about exactly how the death of Jesus effected this release. But his description of Christ as 'a lamb without blemish or defect' makes clear where our thoughts are to be directed. The redemption was brought about through sacrifice. The 'emptiness' of that old way of life was the result of sin (see Romans 1.21 where Paul uses the same word for 'emptiness'). It was in Christ's sacrificial death that the price of that sin was paid, its power broken and the captives freed.

No turning back

So here Peter expresses both the greatness of the rescue of the cross, and the costliness of it. The implications for these believers are plain. If this was how great a thing had been done for them, and if this was the price that had to be paid, how could they possibly return to living as they used to? How could they turn back on the new life they had been given and behave as though no transformation had ever taken place? How could they live as unholy people when the price for making them holy had been so high?

Such a thing would be appalling in the extreme. It would be a disgrace of the first magnitude. Ultimately it would be treachery against the Lord himself, and would align these believers with those like the condemned heretics of 2 Peter 2.1 who 'deny the sovereign Lord who bought them'. In the end, only a life of whole-hearted commitment to Christ could ever be an adequate response to such a salvation.

Walk worthy

And here is where the challenge of the cross is to remain for us. The world of Peter's original audience is our world, and the pressures and temptations are just the same. We read a description like that in 3.3-4 and we see our own environment. We feel the downward pull of it every moment of every day. What is going to keep us from falling? Surely among everything else it is an understanding of the cross and the price paid to make us what we are today.

There is a most moving moment at the end of the film 'Saving Private Ryan'. An elderly Ryan is standing at the grave of the man who, back in WW2, had died leading the troop who searched for and rescued him. Ryan's wife takes her place beside him, and he turns to her with tears streaming down his cheeks and pleads 'Tell me I'm a good man.' What we see is a man desperately wanting to know that the life he has lived has somehow been worthy of the price paid for it.

The Christian knows he can never actually be worthy of the cross. He knows he will never be able to look at it with his head held high, congratulating himself on his performance. But he will also share that same passion - to be able to look at the cross and know that by God's grace he has lived a life that, at least in measure, reflects the indescribable price that has been paid for it.

Colin Tamplin is pastor of South Birmingham Evangelical Church (FIEC)