2 Peter 1:5-7 is the Bible’s Most Systematic and Detailed Exhortation to Growth in Grace. And it begins its list of eight graces with faith! Why is faith first in the matter of growth in grace? Why must faith be first? The answer is to be found in verses 1-4. There are four reasons contained in verses 1-4 why faith must be first and foundational in the growing in grace.
Before I come to those four things, however, I want you to notice two important things about verses 1-4. First, notice that they focus on a definitive or completed past event. There are three aorist tenses and two perfect tenses that dominate the perspective of these verses. The aorist is the simple past tense. The perfect tense affirms that an event that happened in the past has abiding consequences. Notice them.
- v. 1 “have received,” = Aorist
- v. 3 “has granted” = Perfect Tense
- v. 3 “who called” = Aorist Tense
- v. 4 “He has granted” = Perfect Tense
- v. 4 “having escaped” = Aorist Tense
Second, notice that this completed event has a clear future purpose. The future purpose is “in order that you might become partakers of the divine nature.” This refers to something Peter mentioned in his first letter to these people. 1 Peter 1:15-16 calls the Christian reader to become a partaker of the divine nature means and be holy as God is holy. The future purpose involves, then, the process of growth in grace.
Thus, you have in these verses the two things that come together in verses 5-7. You have the dramatic past event of faith. You have the important ongoing process of growing in grace—becoming holy as God is holy. These verses form the backdrop of verses 5-7 and help explain them. They explain the faith that lays the foundation for growing in grace.
So what are the four reasons why faith is foundational? Well look through your biblical microscope, and let me show you what is in this thing called faith in verse 5.
The first thing we see as we look through our microscopes at faith is the knowledge of Christ!
Faith is foundational because faith receives as truth the knowledge about Jesus Christ given through the Apostles. This is emphasized in all sorts of ways in these verses.
- It is “in” (or by or with) this knowledge that according to v. 2 “grace and peace” will be “multiplied” to these Christians.
- This becomes clear again in v. 3 where we are told that “everything pertaining to life and godliness,” that is to say, everything necessary for growth in grace, has been granted “through the true knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and virtue.” The word used here is not the simple word for knowledge. This is the word for a personal or experiential understanding of something or someone. It is a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with Him rooted in the truth about him, but for all that it is still knowledge. The knowledge of Jesus Christ embraced as truth is vital to faith and, thus, vital to growth in grace.
- On this point consider 2 Peter 3:18. Growing in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is essentially linked to growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot grow in the knowledge of Christ until you once accept the revelation of this knowledge as the truth. You cannot grow in truth, until you have the truth.
The knowledge of Christ is necessary because it shows us our sin, it shows us the way of righteousness, and it shows us the way we can walk in that way. Faith puts us into possession of truth. The whole world walks on in darkness and does not even know at what they stumble. But God has in the faith given us the truth. Those who are in the complete darkness of sin can never progress, but we can. Because in Jesus Christ we have light, knowledge, and truth to show us the direction we should go and the way we should live in this world. Proverbs 4:18 says, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.”
If the knowledge of Christ is vital to growth in grace, then there is nothing more vital than the use of the means of grace which keeps that knowledge fresh in our minds and increases our grasp of that knowledge. This is why you must read your Bibles and pray every day. This is why we must worship with the church when it meets together. These things are not tradition or a nice thing to do. They are the very means of grace!
But look through your microscopes again and notice a second thing there is to a see about faith…
The second thing we see are the promises of God!
Faith is foundational because it takes and trust the promises of God in Christ. The knowledge of Christ, this truth about which we have just been speaking is described as precious and magnificent promises in verse 4. This knowledge of Christ comes to us in the form, not primarily of laws or codes of conduct. Neither does it come, first of all, in the form of doctrines or teachings. Rather this knowledge of Christ comes to us in the form of promises. This knowledge of God in Jesus Christ brings us many and various and encouraging and enlivening promises. It promises forgiveness and the cleansing of guilt to everyone who entrusts themselves to Jesus Christ. It promises the gift of the Spirit and power to kill their sins to everyone who finds life in Christ. It promises that Christ will return to destroy His and their enemies and usher them into a blessed and eternal life in a new heavens and a new earth (3:3, 9, 13). These and many other promises the truth holds out to us to encourage sinners that all is not lost, if they will but lay hold of Christ. They are also given for the encouragement of Christians that mighty as their sins may seem, deep as their depravity may go, yet they must never despair or give up so long as they have such “precious and magnificent promises.”
It is because the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ comes to us in the form of promises that in v. 1 Peter describes this glorious provision for growth in grace as “faith.” I am convinced that faith here refers in part to the things that we believe. It is a synonym for the knowledge and promises of the following verses. Jude 3, a parallel passage, speaks of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The term, faith, clearly designates the doctrines of the faith. But this knowledge is called faith because it is that which is believed. So, though faith here refers to what we believe by implication it also refers to the faith by which we believe it.
This reference to the faith fits right in with the reference to the promises. What do you do with a promise? You believe it. This is no small reason why this knowledge of God in Christ is called the faith. If the knowledge of God came primarily in the form of laws, the main response would have to be obedience. But promises must be believed, if they are to profit us. We must credit them, take them, trust them, and live in the strength of them. Verse 4 tells us that it is not only by taking and trusting these promises that we are saved originally, but that we also grow in grace and become partakers of the divine nature by taking and trusting the promises of God.
Faith takes and trust the promises of God. Salvation and power for living does not come by the works of the law, but by believing the promises of God. There is a place for effort in the Christian life, as we will see, but it is not the first place. We are not saved by faith and sanctified by works. First, we must take and trust the promises of God. We must take and trust the great promise of the cleansing of sin. We must take and trust the great promise of the Spirit of God given to overpower our sins. It is not some great thing too great for our little strength by which God saves us. It is simply believing the promises of God. This is the force of some of Paul’s great calls to grow in grace.
Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Romans 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
But look into those biblical microscopes again and notice a third thing they reveal to us about faith…
The third thing we see is sovereign grace.
Faith is foundational because it is the first evidence of the sovereign grace of God at work in the sinner. Faith seems a small thing. Believing God’s promises seems insignificant. Yet the Bible teaches that nothing less than the power that created the universe is sufficient to make a sinner believe the promises of God. Faith is the first evidence that sovereign, almighty, electing grace has laid hold of the sinner. This divine origin of faith is emphasized in at lest four different ways in verses 1-4. It is one of the great emphases of those verses.
The first way in which this is asserted is in v. 1 in the word translated, “have received, in v. 1. This is a fascinating word. It means to “obtain by lot.” Peter is, then, literally saying that his readers obtained this faith of theirs by lot. The lot was the biblical equivalent of throwing dice. We received our faith, he says, by a throw of the dice! This will sound very strange to us until we understand the significance of the lot in the Bible. The lot when properly used revealed the divine will (Prov. 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord”). Thus, Peter teaches that his readers are to trace their receiving the enormously precious gift of faith to the mysterious and sovereign standard of God’s electing purpose. The lot does not fall on us because we deserve it, but because of God’s decision that it should. Faith is given as a result of God’s sovereign election. If you find in yourself the ability and the disposition to believe the promises of God it is a proof that God has elected you to salvation.
The second way in which God’s activity in conversion is stressed is in the next phrase, “by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ.” You received the faith says Peter by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is not your faithfulness and covenant-keeping that is the cause of God giving you faith. No! Peter affirms that it is the faithfulness, covenant-keeping, and law-keeping of our God and Savior Jesus Christ that explain this wonderful gift of faith.
In vv. 3, 4 Peter emphasizes in a third way the activity of God in conversion by twice saying that the glorious provision of promises and truth of which he is speaking has been given or granted to us. This means to receive “as a gift without payment…undeservedly, without reason.” Peter uses the word giving someone a gift twice: once in verse 3 and once in verse 4. Thus, he stresses that the cause of God’s giving this glorious provision was entirely gracious.
The fourth and last way in which Peter stresses the activity of God in conversion here is in his statement that God “called us by His own glory and excellence.” All Christians are brought to this glorious provision by God’s call. Verse 10 reveals the kind of call with which we are called. Christians are called with that special, effectual call which is the historical outworking of God’s eternal election of them to salvation. This, then, is not a reference to the general call of the gospel in which all that hear the gospel are invited to come to Christ. This is a reference to that special, powerful call which comes only to those whom God has elected to be saved and by which they are actually saved. This glorious provision for growth in grace of which Peter is speaking becomes an individual’s possession when God powerfully and graciously summons him into the possession of it.
Faith evidences the presence of God’s sovereign saving grace. We may obtain great profit and encouragement from the consideration of this reality. Faith may seem a trivial or worthless thing to the world. Even in the Bible faith by itself is not the great thing. But faith believes the promises of God, and faith manifest the presence of the almighty power of God. “And he that began a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) What an encouragement to keep at it when we know that sovereign grace is at work in us!
But there is a fourth and last thing that we see through our exegetical microscopes when we examine faith…
The fourth thing we see is freedom!
Faith is foundational because it causes a radical break from the world in the sinner. It frees him from domination by the corruption that is in the world. In verse 4 the result of being put into possession of the faith by the free gift of God’s sovereign grace is stated. The result is that there is at the outset of the Christian life a radical break from the world. Notice how this is stated in verse 4: “having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust”. Notice that this statement is in the past tense. It is not talking about a future purpose of faith. There is such a future purpose. It is becoming a partaker of the divine nature. But this statement is past tense. It is something that is already true of all believers—all those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours. All of them by that faith have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. There is caused in each one of their hearts a radical break from sin. Genuine faith always causes such a breach with the world. Paul in Galatians 5:24 declares the same thing: “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Faith in Christ always carries with it and causes a radical break from the world. Acts 15:9 says, “and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” God cleanses our hearts by giving us faith. We are no longer held in the prison of the world’s lusts. Faith liberates us from the world and its lusts.
The radical break from the world caused by faith in Christ is revealed gradually but irresistibly. Faith in Christ does not mean that Christians stop sinning all at once. The world may have its tentacles deeply entwined within them and around them! But faith does mean that there is a principle or impulse put within them that gradually and irresistibly loosens the tentacles of the world and sin. The tendency of faith is like that ball you try to hold under the water in the pool. It pushes to rise to the surface. So also faith will rise and one day rise to the surface of God’s perfect righteousness.
The fact that he has faith should encourage the struggling Christian in his battle with sin. There are many times when in our sin and weakness and discouragement, we have very little that we can say for ourselves. We are not able to claim much by way of growth in grace. We may not see in ourselves any moral excellence. We may feel very ignorant. We may grieve over our lack of self-control. We may sense little or no godliness or patience. But there is one thing that you, I think, cannot deny. You do believe the gospel, don’t you? Despite everything, you are utterly convinced that the gospel of Christ is the truth. You would no more disown Christ than you would pluck out your right eye. You cannot say much about yourself, but you must say, and you can say, that you are a believer. But in saying that you have said that you have the light of the world shining in your heart. You have said that you believe those precious promises which by believing cause men to become partakers of the divine nature. You have said that sovereign, electing grace has begun its almighty work in your heart. You have said that you have been liberated from the dominion of the world and its lusts. You have said all this if only you have been constrained to acknowledge that you are a believer. The foundation is laid, and you can build on it!
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.
