17If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; 18knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
We have just read that we are to live changed lives because of the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is holy. Now, we are motivated to live changed lives because of our new relationship with God, who is an impartial judge of our works. We have already been judged to be sinners; subsequently we were judged to be saints, forgiven and redeemed. But God is still the judge, and that overshadows our lives and motivations now, as believers.
While perfect love casts out fear of God’s anger (1 John 4:18), we are to behave in fear and respect of the judgment of God. This is not a fear of loss of salvation or eternal judgment. Nor is it a fright of God. Rather, the fear of the Lord is respect for God’s impartiality; He cannot be swayed by our self-centeredness. We, of course, are completely partial to ourselves. And, yes, there is a sense in which God is partial to us as His children of faith, in comparison to those who refuse to believe. However, He is impartial in the sense that He acts in accordance with His character and His expectations of His children. I cannot presume upon God to treat me any differently than His character and Word require.
Yet, because He is our Father, our fear of Him is tempered by His love, in that when He disciplines us, it is out of love for us. His love is proven by the death of Christ, who took the punishment of God’s anger against us for our sin, so that we would go free from condemnation. The price God paid for our redemption was immense. Peter describes it as greater than any earthly treasure, the blood of a lamb, God’s Lamb. Pulling on OT teaching about the sacrificial system for dealing with sin and our alienation from God, Peter specifically alludes to the Passover lamb. In Christ, we don’t have just a substitute animal but a perfect, spotless “Christ.” Peter pointedly refers to the Lord as “Christ” and not just by His human name, “Jesus.” He was not just a human sacrifice for the rest of humanity, but He was the Messiah, that is, the Christ, the God-man.
God has placed huge value on our redemption, a value such as will never be diminished over time or eternity. Therefore, in consideration of how much stock God places on the cost of saving us, we ought not revert back to our old patterns of life, but live for and model our lives after the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, thank You for the enormous price of my salvation, the blood of Christ!
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