THE GRACE OF GOD IN THE ECONOMY OF GOD
Message Four
Grace in Peter's Epistles
Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:2b, 10, 13; 2:19-20; 3:7; 4:10; 5:5, 10, 12; 2 Pet. 1:2; 3:18
I. Grace is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit giving Himself freely to us, being everything to us, and doing everything in us, for us, and through us for our enjoyment—John 1:14, 16-17; 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12; Gal. 2:20; cf. 1 Cor. 15:10.
II. The multiplication of grace is the grace that multiplies in our daily life in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; the grace of God in His economy is rich, multiplying, and abounding—1 Pet. 1:2b; 2 Pet. 1:2; John 1:16; Eph. 1:6-8; 2:7; Rom. 5:17, 21; 1 Tim. 1:14; Rev. 22:21:
A. Grace is multiplied to us through our sufferings, limitations, and weaknesses; grace is Christ as our Burden-bearer; the more burdens we have, the more opportunities we have to experience Christ as grace—2 Cor. 12:7-9; cf. 1:12, 15.
B. The enjoyment of the Lord as grace is with those who love Him—Eph. 6:24; John 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 1:8.
C. The enjoyment of the Lord as grace with His divine nature is by our receiving and abiding in the word of His grace, which includes all His precious and exceedingly great promises—Acts 20:32; 2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 6:17-18.
III. The prophets in the Old Testament prophesied concerning the grace that was to come unto us—1 Pet. 1:10:
A. The Spirit of Christ in the Old Testament prophets made them clear concerning Christ coming as grace to us through His incarnation, His sufferings in His human living and crucifixion, and His glories in His resurrection, ascension, second coming, and reigning for the application of God's full salvation to us—vv. 5, 9-10; cf. Psa. 22; Isa. 53; Dan. 9:26.
B. Although the Spirit of Christ was constituted dispensationally through and with Christ's death and resurrection in the New Testament time (John 7:39; Rom. 8:9-11), the function of the Spirit is eternal, because He is the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14).
C. The Spirit of Christ, in His eternal function, was in the Old Testament prophets, making them clear concerning Christ coming to the New Testament believers to be the all-sufficient and unlimited grace of God's full salvation to them for their entry into the joy of the Lord in the kingdom age, which is the salvation of their souls—John 1:17; Heb. 10:29b; 1 Pet. 1:9; Matt. 25:21, 23.
D. The Spirit of Christ applies God's full salvation as grace to us by two instrumentalities: the prophesying of the Old Testament prophets and the preaching of the New Testament apostles—1 Pet. 1:10-12; cf. Rev. 2:7a.
IV. The grace on which the believers set their hope perfectly will be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ—1 Pet. 1:13:
A. The grace being brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ refers to the salvation of the soul as the consummation of God's full salvation—vv. 5, 9-10:
1. The grace given to us in Christ was bestowed on us before the world began—2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 2:11.
2. God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy—John 1:1, 14, 16-17.
3. The processed Triune God, who has been consummated as the all-inclusive, life-giving, and indwelling Spirit, has become the Spirit of grace with our spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Heb. 10:29b; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23.
B. Day by day we should be open vessels to be continual receivers of grace and set our hope wholly and perfectly on this grace—Rom. 5:17; 1 Pet. 1:13.
V. Grace with God in 1 Peter 2:19-20 refers to the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our living, which becomes in our behavior gracious and acceptable in the eyes of both man and God:
A. Grace as the processed Triune God for our enjoyment becomes our inward motivation and outward expression in our intimate fellowship with God and our consciousness of God; we all have to learn how to have grace, which is to take grace, possess grace, use grace, and apply grace—Heb. 12:28.
B. The processed Triune God as grace received and enjoyed by us becomes visibly expressed for others to see in our holy living and church meetings—Acts 11:23.
C. We have been called to enjoy and express Christ as grace in the midst of sufferings so that we may become a reproduction, a xerox copy, of Christ as our model, according to His God-man living—1 Pet. 2:20-21.
VI. The grace of life is the inheritance of all the believers, whether strong or weak— 3:7:
A. The grace of life is God as life and life supply to us in His Divine Trinity—the Father as the source of life, the Son as the course of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life, who flows within us, with the Son and the Father, as grace to us—1 John 5:11-12; John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:1.
B. We are heirs to inherit the grace of life and vessels to contain the grace of life—1 Pet. 3:7; Eph. 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:7.
VII. The varied grace of God indicates the riches of the grace of God in its varieties ministered by the saints one to another—1 Pet. 4:10:
A. The varied grace of God is the rich supply of life, which is the Triune God ministered into us in many aspects—2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9.
B. We need to be good stewards of the varied grace of God, speaking the words of grace as the oracles of God and ministering out of the strength and power of grace, which God supplies—1 Pet. 4:10-11; Luke 4:22; Eph. 3:2; 4:29.
VIII. God gives grace to the humble, but He resists the proud—1 Pet. 5:5:
A. In the church life all of us need to gird ourselves with humility toward one another so that we may enjoy God as the Grace-giver—cf. John 13:3-5.
B. Humility saves us from all kinds of destruction and invites God's grace, whereas pride makes us a top fool—James 4:6; Psa. 138:6; Prov. 29:23.
C. We must be willing to be made humble, lowly, under the mighty hand of God in His discipline and to throw our life with its care upon God, because He cares for us lovingly and faithfully—1 Pet. 5:5-7; cf. Psa. 55:22.
IX. "The God of all grace"—who has called the believers into His eternal glory—perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds them through their sufferings; this "all grace" is the "true grace of God," into which the believers should enter and in which they stand—1 Pet. 5:10, 12.
X. The true grace of God is the grace in which, together with the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the believers should grow unto His glory both now and unto the day of eternity; this is the concluding word of the apostle Peter's writings, indicating that whatever he has written is of, in, by, and through the grace of God—2 Pet. 3:18.