The Good Life Is Finally Here :: 1 Peter 3:8-15

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Finally! (v. 8) This is our Gospel word of the day from Peter’s epistle.


Finally ... all like-minded, sympathetic, beloved brothers, tenderhearted, humble.

Finally ... blessing and never cursing (v 9). 

Finally ... doing good and no evil. 

Finally ... seeking peace and pursuing it  (v 11). 

Finally ... being zealots of good (v 13). 

Finally ... setting apart Christ in our hearts and being ready to share the hope within us (v 15). 

YES, FINALLY, CHRIST THE LORD IS GIVING YOU THIS GOOD LIFE

This is our theme. 1) The Lord has finally called us to have the good life. 2) And Christ the Lord is finally providing it. Finally!

1.

Who wouldn’t long for these things? To finally have all the promises of God?

Everyone longs for that life. At least most of us say we do. We dream about it. And work hard toward it. But finding it and keeping it has baffled the world all of our lives. Always being like-minded, always being sympathetic, always being beloved brothers, always being tenderhearted, always being humble ... it’s always elusive. It takes some serious work, doesn’t it? How are you doing in that regard? ... Always. 

Most of us try to buy it, to be it, to do it. We read books about it. But everyone who has ever tried has discovered the futility of their plans. We think we know better ways to live, to love. Finality seems so out of reach. 

That’s because outside of the Christian church, where the Gospel is not found, there is no forgiveness, nor can be holiness. All who seek and wish to earn holiness apart from the Gospel and forgiveness of sin ... all who seek it by their works ... they’ve expelled and severed themselves from the good life in the church.

2.

So listen instead to Saint Peter who declares the Gospel to you … finally! Peter’s epistle was written for you so that you will finally see and hear the Gospel, and finally enjoy all the fruit ... the good life ... that comes with it. Today’s reading from chapter three is loaded with thoughts about this good life ... that is, the sanctified life of Christians the world over. The sanctified life is the good life because this is the life being given to you by God. 

Our heavenly Father chose each of you to receive this life (2:9). He chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). He chose you for adoption, to receive an incorrupitble, undefiled, unstained inheritance (1 Pt 1:4). He chose you and poured out his Holy Spirit upon each of you to set you apart for the good life (2:9). He has made each of you sojourners and pilgrims in this world one of his very own ... holy and precious (2:9). He has given each of you a new birth from above (1:3), a birth that made us holy just like he is holy (1:16). 

And now ... finally ... the Lord is calling us to enjoy this good life, the sanctified life in the Divine service, his service to you. This life is for servants, and husbands, and wives ... all of us (2:18; 3:1, 7). Now on account of what God has done for you, Peter writes ... Finally, all of you [are and will be] like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly in your love, tender-hearted, and humble, not giving back evil for evil or insult for insult. On the contrary, bless because you were called into this in order that you may inherit a blessing (vv 8-9).

3.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has called us to have the good life, which also means he has called us to turn away from a morally deficient life. To turn away from self righteousness. To turn away from our reliance on ourselves to make ourselves holy. To turn away from the tit for tat philosophies that rule our world and ruin many relationships (v 9). He has called us to repent and to turn away from our sin. 

Left to our own works, we won’t produce the wonderful fruits of the good life listed in Peter’s epistle. In fact ... Peter knows as well as Paul that we can’t be holy on our own. That’s why God is calling. All [of us] have turned aside; together [we’ve] become worthless. No one does good; no, not one. [Our] throat is an open grave; [we] use their tongues to deceive. The venom of vipers is under [our] lips. [Our] mouths are full of curses (Rom 3:10-14a). 

But you ... the baptized children of God ... you don’t have to live this way. Repent!

He has finally had compassion on us. He has searched for the lost, and found you, and brought you here to the joy of heaven. 

Here, we can live in harmony with our fellowman, being like-minded in all doctrine, not just some of it ... being sympathetic to each other’s needs by sharing the means of grace, loving each other as brothers, praying for each other, helping each other receive forgiveness ... and God’s peace. Here he is enabling our tender-hearts to shine forth and to humbly depend on God for everything. Because of Christ you can finally start doing that.

4.

Christ finally secured this good life for you by living the good life himself. In a single-minded mission, the Holy One of Israel came to us to exchange his good life for ours. He saw our plight, our struggle to keep the law, and took pity on us. That is sympathy. He kept the law behind each of the virtues listed here. That is brotherly love. More than that, with a tenderheart, he who knew no sin became sin for you to pay for our impiety. That is humility. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t deserve death. Instead, he received the final punishment for you ... death by crucifixion ... for you. God poured out his wrath for your sin upon Jesus to cancel the debt of your sin. When others spoke evil of him, he didn’t speak evil in return. When others insulted him, he stayed silent. He blessed you. And now on account of faith in this truth, Christ’s righteousness is ours. We have eternal forgiveness on account of Jesus. It is finished (Jn 19:30)!

Won’t you finally share that forgiveness with each other now ... proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes? He has prepared you to do this.

5.

You can, through his means of grace ... The means he provides to you to share with each other. As we receive the Lord’s Supper, we confess we are like-minded, sympathetic to each other’s needs, brotherly in love for one another, tender-hearted and humble. We receive God’s forgiveness here and forgive each other. This calling is a most precious treasure. 

Will you continue denying yourselves these gifts of God to you?

We aren’t called to train ourselves to become acceptable to God. We are called to hear how he has accepted us ... how he is the one who eats with sinners. When we couldn’t go to him; instead, he came to us and gave us the faith in Christ. And here ... he nurtures that faith through the living waters of baptism and his body and blood of in Supper. He gives us these means of grace precisely for this reason. And through them, he graciously empowers us to finally believe his holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be longing for this gift of heaven! As it’s written: For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer (v 12). He hears the prayers of you who’ve been cleansed of all guilt and sin. He hears the groans of those who’ve been justified by his faith in Christ without doing the deeds of the Law. He has bound our hearts and minds with his will and made us one with each other ... just as he is one with the Father. Then through that unity, he gives us zeal for doing good, zeal for sharing the forgiveness he gave to us. Finally!

I know this zeal irritates some people. They try to silence the full Gospel. They try to instill fear in us for having Christ as our Lord. And they try to convince us we can receive the forgiveness of sins too often. 

But Christ is the lord of our zeal. And He longs to give us the good life every day ... forever and finally. And you can be sure our highest joys, and best days, are coming ... finally. Everything in the Christian church is ordered toward this goal so that we receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Our peace in Christ then is now absolutely perfect and eternal and it brings us into harmony. He has opened the doors of His presence to us, and we will finally spend eternity in the new heaven and the new earth. 

To our good and his glory ... in Jesus’ name.

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