2 Peter 1:12
“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth”.
In this series we shall be looking at the admonitions of Apostle Peter in his second letter to the Jewish church scattered abroad. He too was in Babylon as a result of persecution.
His aim was to encourage the Church through sufferings, but most importantly, to set forth the “true grace of God”, which he aptly referred to as the Present Truth.
So what is this concept ‘present truth’?
Peter is quick to confess his struggle with it while acknowledging that Paul had an edge.
The present truth is simply that “Jesus’s suffering has bequeathed salvation to all mankind, and He is patient towards us”.
Peter says in 2 Pet 3:15
“Remember that we are saved because our Lord is patient.
Our dear brother Paul told you that same thing when he wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him”.
He further attests in vs 16, that some of Paul’s epistles are difficult to understand, especially by men who haven’t embraced the present truth by faith.
vs 16
“That’s what he says in all his letters when he writes about these things. There are parts of his letters that are hard to understand, and some people give a wrong meaning to them. These people are ignorant and weak in faith. They also give wrong meanings to the other Scriptures. But they are destroying themselves by doing that”.
And Paul in 1 Tim 1:16;
“Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.”
Paul is here stoutly affirming as he did in many other places ( see 1 Tim 1vs 11-15, Gal 1:13, 1 Cor 15:9), that Christ’s choice of him (Paul) to become the preacher of God’s love and mercy which we know simply as ‘Grace’ in today’s parlance, is a clear depiction of this patience.
God is not quick to judge man, contrary to the image portrayed of Him by the Law of Moses.
Peter learned this the hard way.
Remember, it was Peter who quickly condemned Ananias and Saphira openly, resulting in their instant deaths.
Remember it was Peter who said to Simon the ‘ex-sorcerer’, ‘your money perish with thee..”.
Simon already believed in Christ but ignorantly sought to obtain power of laying hands with money from the Apostles.
But overtime, Peter had observed the dealings of the Lord and seen that indeed, the Lord is plenteous in mercy, and never too quick to judge men. Truly, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
The problem our ‘legalismbrethren’ have is that they’re judgemental.
They’re quick to condemn you for the clothes you put on, or your hairstyle, your choice of beverage, or for your non-tithing etc.
They are the first to tell you about how God will judge America more severely than Sodom and Gomorrha, and how everyone with tattoos on their bodies will burn in hellfire.
This in itself is a product of Law.
The Bible says that by the Law is the knowledge of Sin
(1Cor 15:56).
But this is not the knowledge Peter is describing here. This is not the knowledge of present truth Peter is trying to remind the Church about in 2 Pet 1:10-11.
The knowledge of the present truth leads you into the rest of God.
It’s a knowledge that opens you up to the inheritance which the finished works of Christ has made available to the saints.
To get the full gist, we have to back up to 2 Pet verse 1, and go down verse by verse to verse 10. That’s when you get a full picture.
2 Pet 1:1-6:
vs 1 states how we obtained this precious faith: ‘through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ’.
Whilst hanging on the Cross, Jesus not only bore our sins upon himself, he also gave us His righteousness. It is (present continuous tense) a DIVINE EXCHANGE, whereby Jesus became us, and was condemned in Sin; and we become JESUS, clothed in righteousness and sinlessness. That’s the first nugget of this ‘present truth’.
(Heb 2:9-11).
vs 2 affirms that this Grace of righteousness is multiplied unto us through KNOWLEDGE. The knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.
Any knowledge of God outside of Christ (or without the key element of revelation of Christ) is mere religion, and utterly unhelpful.
Phillip sought this kind of knowledge in John 14:8-9, and received a mild rebuke from the Lord.
Prayer and fasting won’t cut it, neither will Tithing and any form of giving.
The only thing that multiplies righteousness and by extension peace, is the revealed knowledge of God through Christ.
Job 22:21
“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee…”
As far back as the time of Job(before the Book of Genesis was even written), men already knew that peace and good only came via acquaintances with God. This was some kind of superficial knowledge of God. They sustained relationship with God by sacrifices and oblations, but scarcely secured it.
But with us, it’s different. The present truth offers us a more intimate status. “We are sons”.
(John 1:12, 1 John 3:2)
We are not just ‘acquainted with God’, we are one with Christ under the new dispensation.
Hebrews 2:11:
“For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”.
Vs 3 further states that by partaking in this divine nature of God via the sacrifice of Christ, God hath (past tense) given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
It’s not something you put up an act about.
It’s not what you purchase with good works or monetary obeisances.
No.
It’s rather through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
These exceeding great and precious provisions were made for us, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature…..
Apostle Paul put it in the following words:
1 Cor 1:22-24 (MSG)
” While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti -miracle, and the Greeks pass it off as absurd.
But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one.
Human wisdom is so tiny, so impotent to fathom God…
Friends, the Present truth is a ‘not-so-popular’ message.
If it looked absurd in the mouth of Paul, and other
eye-witnesses of the Ressurection like Peter and John, imagine what it is now, in the age of man’s Philosophy and puffed up knowledge,
and in this age where Religion has become so entrenched.
Paul acquired enemies even in the Churches he planted by preaching liberty in Christ, especially saying that a man is utterly saved without circumcision.
It’s like saying to the Old Pentecostal that a man “can-make-heaven” without Tithing. Or worse still, that every believer is in Heaven already.
You will definitely never return to that Church, that is if you are able to make it out safely the first time.
Gal 4:16
“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
Paul’s insistence on the ‘Gospel of grace’ left him wandering why all men easily turned against him.
Why it was so easy for Legalistic teachers to flip his congregation back to circumcision and law keeping, after they had embraced the Gospel.
Gal 3:1-
“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
But trust me, Paul was lucky they were still reading his letters and taking his rebuke.
In today’s Christendom, Paul will not be welcome to most Churches, Orthodox or Pentecostal alike.
That’s how bad it’s gotten.
Yet, God has left himself faithful men who will declare the true undiluted gospel of Christ even at the risk of being un-popular, or snubbed by fellow believers, and even branded rascals.
The question is:
“Is Jesus’s sacrifice enough to save a sinner to the uttermost?”
If the answer is “YES”, (and it surely is Heb 7:25), then every teaching that makes a believer fall short of holiness and righteousness based on their own conduct is “another gospel”, which Apostle John cautioned about:
“If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:”
2 John 1:10
Let him that readeth understand. You’re responsible for any wrong doctrine you submit yourself to.
www.gifma.us/spirit-of-grace-hour
– Nich Mbaezue PhD