“Godliness!”

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 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,” (2 Peter 1:2-3 ESV)

Dr. Charles Swindoll outlines Chapter 1 as Peter addressing moral corruption, which he certainly does in verses 1-15. Peter states in verse 12, “Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things…” What Peter “reminds” his readers about is in verses 2 and 3 “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

How often do you need to be reminded of something? If you are like me, I often blame it on getting older, but I think it is just being human. We need reminders of God’s grace, that His grace prepares us for living a godly life, and that the more we know about Him who called us, the better we can bring honor and glory to Him who saved us.

I would contend that the major purpose of God leaving us here on this earth after our salvation was to bring honor and glory to our Savior. We can do that in many ways, one of which is by sharing the gospel with an unbelieving world. Now, most of us think when we hear “sharing the gospel,” the only way we can do that is by being an evangelist, someone who presents the gospel message through formal presentations, or someone who gets into conversations with strangers on the street. Please understand that this unbelieving world needs evangelists, but we are not limited to this one method of glorifying God. I think that Peter is telling us that we can share the gospel with an unbelieving world in more ways than just speaking about Jesus with our words. Peter says God has granted us “everything pertaining to life and godliness,” and I am convinced that our godly living is one of the most powerful evangelist tools available to us. People need to hear the pure gospel of grace and that salvation is a gift of God; it is not something for which you have to work.

I heard a “preacher” on Facebook the other day who said, “For 2,000 years, Jesus has saved people that ‘give up their sins ‘and ask Him to save them.” Well, my friends, that is wrong. How can we, as dead men, ‘give up anything’? The Bible says that we all were dead in our trespasses and sins before we were saved (Eph. 2:5). If we could give up our sins before Jesus saved us, then we would not need the saving power of Him to save us from something, we could stop doing it.

God’s grace came first; it enables us to have the faith to trust Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross as payment for our sins (yes, even our faith is a gift from God). Being able to ‘give up our sins’ comes after salvation, not before. This is exactly what Peter is reminding these believers. Peter states, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,” God, through his magnificent grace, has saved us and empowers us to live a godly life for Him so that others can see how Christ can change a life so that others will want to know why we live as we do.

Peter reminds all who read his words that we should live godly lives and that it is God himself, through His Son, the Lord Jesus, who enables us to do so.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"