Contrary to popular opinion, God does not save people simply to keep them from going to hell. Of course, our compassionate God does desire to keep people from going to hell, but God’s ultimate purpose involves the Christian’s growth in grace. This is because God’s ultimate purpose is to glorify His Son by re-making those whom He saves into the image of His Son. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren (Romans 8:29). This involves growing in grace. The most detailed and systematic statement of growth in grace in the entire Bible is 2 Peter 1:5-7. In this blog post we come to the second grace in Peter’s list and the one that must be supplied into faith. The NASB translates this grace with the words, moral excellence. My goal is to answer two questions about moral excellence. The first is this:
What is moral excellence?
The best way to understand the meaning of a word is not by turning first to the dictionary definitions, but by listening to how it is used in the New Testament. The word translated, moral excellence, is used three other places in the New Testament.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
2 Peter 1:3 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.
Clearly, in the New Testament the word describes something that is excellent, morally virtuous, or praiseworthy. God is excellent, virtuous, and praiseworthy. His people are to so live that they show in their lives the excellent, virtuous, and praiseworthy nature of God. Two parallel texts come to mind.
Isaiah 43:21 “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.” (The LXX translates praise by the Greek word used in our text.)
Matt. 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.”
The moral excellence of which our text is speaking is not the moral excellence of God, but the reflection of His moral excellence in our lives. What we are to add to our faith, then, is moral excellence, praiseworthiness, or virtue.
There is an emphasis in this word that needs illustrating. Suppose I told one of my children that I expected them to get excellent grades in school. Further suppose that they brought home a report full of D’s and C’s with an occasional B-. Do you suppose I would consider such grades excellent and praiseworthy? Of course not! Do you suppose I would be appeased if they objected to my unhappiness by saying, Dad, why are you so upset? I did better than a lot of kids. I did alright. It’s good enough. What’s wrong with my grades? At least I didn’t flunk any classes. Again, the answer is “of course not.” D’s and C’s are simply not excellent grades. Whatever they are, even if they are not as bad they could be, they are not excellent or praiseworthy.
Of course, if a young person is simply not capable of getting A’s, we should be satisfied. But every Christian because of the indwelling Spirit is capable of moral excellence. God calls for nothing less than moral excellence in His sons and daughters. God is not satisfied with conduct that is the moral equivalent of D’s and C’s. God is not satisfied by moral standards just a little bit better than the world’s standards.
We must supply moral excellence in our faith because our faith deserves nothing less. Our faith is what we believe. It is the truth we believe (2 Pet. 1:1). The Christian faith is the greatest truth in the world and deserves to be adorned by the greatest lives in the world. If you are a member of this church, I hope it has a great deal to do with its particular understanding of the Christian faith—its doctrines! What Peter says here about moral excellence is very similar to what Paul says in Titus 2:10. There Paul calls on Christians to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.” Children, do you know what it means to adorn something? You girls know! It means to make something look pretty or attractive! This is what you are to for the doctrine of God’s grace. You are to make it attractive. Because of a recent wedding in our family, I can bear personal witness to the expense, time, and effort which went into making certain ladies look attractive. It is such expense, time, and effort for which Peter calls here in order that the doctrine of God our Savior might look attractive.
Why is moral excellence next?
One of the most obvious features of our text is the specific order in which Peter mentions these graces. How do we explain this order? Why does Peter say that this specific grace must be supplied in that other, specific, previous grace? Why is it moral excellence and not knowledge or self-control that is mentioned next after faith and which must be supplied into it?
There are a number of patently false ideas that must be avoided in answering these questions. We must not conclude that these verses reveal a step-by-step chronological order in time by which we are to grow in grace. We must not be tempted to think that they teach that a man can have faith, but utterly lack the seven qualities mentioned in Peter’s list of graces. We must not think that true faith can be devoid or empty of the seven graces which follow it. Peter is not giving to us a kind of chronological map of growth in grace. He is not advocating a building block view of growth in grace. He is not saying that we are to stack one block of grace on top of the previous. He is not advocating some sort of sanctification-made-easy formula. But, then, what is he doing? I will answer this question by giving you—first—a general explanation for the order as a whole and—second—a specific reason for the order of faith and then moral excellence in particular.
The General Explanation for the Order as a Whole
In a previous post I made the point that there is a logical reason for the order of the graces listed here. I spent a long time showing why faith had to be the first grace in the list. Faith must be first because no grace precedes it in the Christian life.
Now I want to point out that it is no accident that love is the last grace in the list. This is entirely appropriate. Since love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), the greatest of the Christian graces (1 Cor. 13:13), and the fulfillment of the whole law (Rom. 13:8, 10), it is not surprising that love is given the climactic place in Peter’s list.
But there is another reason why love had to be given the climactic place in this list. Love concludes the list because it alone of all the Christian graces does not need to be completed by another grace. All the other graces require something else to be supplied in them. Faith must have supplied in it moral excellence. Moral excellence must be completed with knowledge. Love culminates the list because it alone is (in the words of Col. 3:14) “the perfect bond of unity”. The NIV of Col. 3:14 says, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Literally, the Greek of Col. 3:14 says that love is the bond of completeness. Faith is first because nothing can precede it. Love is last because nothing can complete it. It is necessarily the completing grace, just as faith is necessarily the beginning grace.
Peter’s order has to do with the idea of completing. Faith is first because it completes no other previous grace. Love is last because it needs no completing. The key idea, then, is that each Christian grace by itself is incomplete and defective if to it is not added the grace that completes it. Faith, then, is defective if to it is not added moral excellence!
The Specific Reason for the Order of Faith and Moral Excellence in Particular
Faith must be completed by moral excellence because without it faith is defective and incomplete. That reminds us James 2:14-26. Notice particularly the question of James 2:14: “Can that faith save him?” The implied answer is: Of course not! Notice also verses 17, 22, and 24.
James 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself
James 2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
James 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Faith is first. Faith is crucial. Faith is justifying. But if it is not a faith completed by works, it is nothing. If it is not a faith perfected by moral excellence, it is dead. Such a kind of faith is not saving and is not justifying. It is the wrong kind of faith.
People have thought that Paul and James were on different pages in the matter of justification. They are simply wrong. Remember what Paul said in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” Only the kind of faith that works through love is saving faith. Thus, Peter, James, and Paul all teach that faith must be supplied with good works or completed with love. Faith that is not completed or supplied with moral excellence is not true, saving, or justifying faith. No supposed grace standing by itself, naked and alone, is the genuine article. Only love needs no such completion because it completes all other graces.
It is a wonderful truth of the Word of God that we are justified by faith alone. Ah! But we are not justified or saved by a lonely faith! Our Confession epitomizes this important distinction when it says at 11:2: “Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.”
Here is my concern. There are a lot of people in our day who have sat in church under defective teaching on this subject. They think they have saving faith. But this saving faith has never resulted in moral excellence, has not made them adorn the gospel with good works in their lives. According to the Apostles Peter and Paul, they are deceived and still on their way to hell with their defective faith. I do not want any of you to be among them that deceived multitude who when they come to the day of judgment with their defective faith hear the horrible words, Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness! Cf. Matthew 7:19-23.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
