Living In His Honor: 1 Peter 1:17-21
58,209 Americans died in the Viet Name War. 5 of those men were in my high school class, 7 were in the class the year before mine.
My class was the class of 1967. My friend Dale was in the class of 1966. He was killed in Viet Name in February of 1969. Like Dale, a lot of Americans have died to keep us free.
When someone dies to keep you free it calls for some reverence and some honor directed toward them from you.
Nowhere is this more important than the Lord’s death for us to free us from our sin. The call is to live in reverence and honor toward Him. We’re going to answer the question, “why should I live my life honoring the Lord today?”
First, 1 Peter 1:17, “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” (NIV)
Why should I live my life honoring the Lord today? First, because the Lord judges each man’s work impartially.
Notice we call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially. Verse 17 starts with the word “since.” In Greek it’s the word for “and.” And we call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially.
The “and” takes us back to the previous discussion about salvation. For instance, 1 Peter 1:9, “for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (NIV)
Since God provides salvation through Jesus and His sacrifice for us, we’re called to live life differently. That starts by calling on a father who judges each man’s work impartially. What’s this calling on the father about?
When we call on the father, we’re calling on Him in prayer. It’s hard to overstate the importance of prayer in the life of honoring the Lord. We need to live calling on the Lord. Start and end the day with prayer and integrate prayer into life throughout the day.
God is the judge, and He judges each man’s work impartially. What are we talking about?
Ephesians 2:10 defines the work we do God judges without impartiality, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (NIV)
Notice God creates the Christ-follower to do good works. What He judges is the works He created us to do. It’s not about those works saving us, because they don’t. The work Christ did on the cross saves us, but God re-creates us to do good works for Him.
2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (NIV)
This judgement that’s done without partiality isn’t about whether you’re saved or not, rather it’s about receiving heavenly rewards for what was done while in the body.
Remember Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NIV) If you’re in Christ, meaning saved, there is no judgement of condemnation for you, because Jesus took that judgement for you on the cross and it is paid for.
There’s impartial judgement for all of us based on what we did in this life. It’s like a football team in the locker room after a victory. All the team members are on the winning team and get a win. While the coach might give a game ball to the quarterback who threw 3 touchdown passes and the linebacker who made 5 unassisted tackles.
Everybody won, but some got rewards others didn’t get because of how they played.
Why should I live my life in honor of the Lord today? Because He judges my work impartially and I would prefer the game ball, or at least a fist bump reward from Him.
1 Peter 1:18-19, “(18) For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect.” (NIV)
Second, why should I live my life in honor of the Lord today? Because the Lord redeemed me!
When the Apostle says, “for you know,” he’s referring back grammatically to the phrase in verse 17, “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” His point is we’re called to live our lives differently, in reverent fear, or in honor of the Lord because we were not redeemed with physical stuff like silver or gold.
We live our life differently because we were redeemed by the blood of Christ, who was the lamb of God without spot or blemish.
WE live our lives to honor the Lord because we live in the memory we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.
The idea of being redeemed goes back to the reality in ancient Rome more people were slaves than were free! You could become a slave by one of five different ways in ancient Rome. First, you could be captured and enslaved by way of a war your territory lost.
If you went bankrupt, you could be sold into slavery to pay your debt. Third, some people would sell themselves into slavery to raise needed funds. Sometimes slavery would be for a period of years and would then end.
Your parents could sell you into slavery to pay off a debt or to raise money. Fifth, if your parents were slaves, you could be born into slavery. More people were slaves in ancient Rome than were free.
There were three ways you could gain your freedom. First, you could serve for a period of time in the military or for someone who would pay for your freedom.
Second, you could earn extra money by way of extra work and pay for your own freedom. Third, if someone else paid for your freedom as a gift to you, you had been “redeemed.” They paid your price for freedom as a gift, and you were redeemed.
Jesus, the perfect lamb of God paid your price for sin on the cross and bought you out of slavery to sin and death and set you free, so you’re redeemed!
Why should I live my life honoring the Lord today? Because He redeemed me with the precious blood of Christ! I was lost in slavery to sin and death, and He gifted me out of servitude and set me free and I chose to live the rest of life in reverence and honor to Jesus Christ the Lord!
1 Peter 1:20-21, “(20) He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (21) Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (NIV)
Why should I live my life honoring the Lord today? Because Christ was chosen and revealed for us.
Christ was chosen for His mission to be the Lamb of God to redeem us by His blood before the creation of the world! Before God created the Universe, God knew we would sin, and He would have to send His Son to be the sacrificial lamb to remove our sin and redeem us.
Christ was chosen for that bloody mission, and He appeared in the last times to accomplish it for us!
Notice we believe in God “through” Jesus who died for us! Faith isn’t just our choice; it’s provided for us through Christ! We have faith in God because of Christ and what He paid, and His power and grace provide the capacity to believe!
Notice further, what generates our faith and hope in God is the fact God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him!
God’s eternal plan was always He send Jesus to redeem us from sin and death, raise Him from the dead to empower faith so we could choose it and have hope in God.
Why should I live my life honoring the Lord today? Because the Lord judges me innocent because He sent His son to redeem by His sacrifice on the cross for me.
On December 4, 2006, private Ross Mcginnis saw a grenade come in the hatch of his Humvee in Iraq. He had time to jump clear and save himself. Instead, he covered the grenade and took the explosion himself, saving his four buddies inside the vehicle.
President Bush awarded Private Mcginnis the Medal of Honor back in 2007. He gave his life to save four buddies who would have died inside the Humvee.
We can be sure they live their lives today in reverence and honor of Private Mcginnis who died that they might live.
Mcginnis took the judgement of death for his pals, redeemed them from the death sentence by taking it on himself.
IF you were one of the four troopers in that Humvee, how would you feel about Private Mcginnis? You would revere him and honor him as you live!
Jesus took the sin grenade for you! Because of His sacrifice you’re redeemed and set free, so live the rest of your life in reverence of and honor of Him.