The Home of Righteousness

2 Peter 3:1-18

Key Verse 3:13, 14

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

The previous Sunday we studied about how we should prepare ourselves for the day of Jesus' second coming based on Jesus' words recorded in Matthew 24. Today we will consider the same subject by listening to the Apostle Peter, the pillar of Jesus’ church.  

I. Dear friends, this is my second letter to you (1-9a).

Look at v. 1. “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.” The Apostle Peter was less of a thinker than a doer. But if anyone is in Jesus, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. Since Peter was in Jesus he became a new creation. He became a thinker and then a man of action. In order to participate in God's perfect plan of salvation, both the way of our thinking and the way of our deeds must be correct. But thinking comes first, and then deeds can follow, for the end of deed begins first in thought. When thinking gets flawed deeds will also be flawed. A wrong way of thinking will necessarily lead man to a wrong way of life. For this reason Peter chose to write First and Second Peter, as “reminders to stimulate us to wholesome thinking.” In the past Peter did not think in a wholesome manner. His way of thinking was short-sighted and largely self-centered. By and large he had in his mind the things of men, rather than the things of God. So he became a stumbling block to Jesus. He ended up denying Jesus three times, and thereby fell from a secure position. But Jesus prayed for him. Thanks to Jesus' shepherding, he came to think correctly and behave correctly. As he kept loving Jesus and obeying His command, Jesus filled him with the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. Through the revelations coming from the Spirit of God he came to get a good grip on the parameters of God's salvation plan for all peoples on earth. Now, as a mature servant of God knowing how to think the matters involving salvation correctly and soundly, he writes us so we too would think, see, and live in the way which will surely lead us to salvation safe and sound.  

Look at v. 2. “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.” Peter says here that the revelations that came to him in the Lord are not just some secret, exclusive, insider information revealed only to him, but to many such as the prophets and the apostles of Jesus Christ. The Bible abounds with prophets. For example, Enoch was a prophet. Abraham was a prophet. Moses was a prophet. David was a prophet. And there are many others such as Isaiah or Elijah. In addition to the holy prophets, the Lord God established apostles such as the twelve disciples of Jesus.  

What did the Lord God reveal to his prophets and apostles? The point of revelation is very simple: Jesus Christ (the only way of salvation), particularly his first and second coming. At the same time a number of them also prophesied that in the last days there will arise people who  will deny this truth, particularly the truth about the second coming of Jesus. Look at vs. 3-4. “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’” The Apostle Peter says that the scoffers will scoff at the promise of Jesus’ second coming, not because the promise is untrue but because the promise of Jesus' coming interferes with their desires to follow evil. God created man's mind to be logically inclined. So in order to suit their desire to do what is evil, they needed to invent and go by a theory which looks logical and consistent with what their minds are inclined to do. And the theory is, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

Is their theory free of faults? No. Their theory is greatly flawed. In what respect? Look at v. 5-6. “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.” Here Peter says that their theory is incorrect because they did not take into consideration one historical fact that is Noah’s flood. The story of Noah’s flood is an important part of human history. In fact for a believer each time a rainbow appears in the sky, it comes to him as a reminder of the Lord’s promise that the Lord will not destroy the earth with the same flood as that of Noah. But the scoffers skip over this event. Why? According to Peter, it is because they “deliberately forget” this event. Is it possible that one can “forget” anything if one tried to do it “deliberately”? I think it is. Upon the crumbling down of the World Trade Center, Mr. George Bush said, “We will never forget.” He said this for fear that we might forget, for we Americans are good at forgetting. And unless we make conscious efforts, as time passes, we so easily forget, and we forget everything. Then how much quickly will we forget if we deliberately forget things of the past—the things that took place a long time ago like Noah's flood? The word “deliberately” also has the meaning of “argumentatively,” indicating that some people make arguments against the teachings of the Bible by coming up with such theories as saying, “the Bible is not God’s word. It is man’s word, for it is authored and compiled by men.” But according to Peter, it is another way to “deliberately” forget that God is the God of not only salvation but also of judgment. It is nothing but the way to make their own theories to justify their own wicked, ungodly lifestyles, so that they would not have to repent, and continue on with their own rebellious ways of life, doing whatever they want to do, without being bothered by any hint of guilt. 

 

The Apostle Peter continues to rebuke the scoffers. Look at v. 7. “By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” Peter says this to remind us of the power of God’s word. The expression “by God’s word” or “by the same word” talks about the power of God’s word. As Peter understands, God’s word equates power itself. First of all God created the world with His word. God’s word also has the power to destroy and then to recreate. Genesis 1 tells us that God created the universe and everything in it through his word. Of all the forces the Lord God created with his word, water and fire are by far the greatest. Waters obey God’s word. When God asked waters to go ahead and destroy the living creatures they went ahead and the world was deluged and destroyed. In the same way with fire God can destroy every element, even diamond.

It is interesting to see the Apostle Peter using the word “reserved.” “By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” In order to attend the MSU Conference I made a flight reservation with ATA. I selected the date and hour, the flight number, and I picked a seat. Everything is ready to do. The only thing left to be done is to wait for the departure time to come. I “made” a reservation. I am not sure ATA will honor my “reservation.” I think they will. Otherwise they will be in trouble. Such is the relationship between the Lord God and the present heavens and earth. By the same word of God, the present heavens and earth are “reserved” for fire. In the day of Noah, the world was reserved for destruction by waters. And when Noah completed the project and ensured that all animals got in, waters hit the earth. Likewise the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. The Apostle Peter chose the words like “reserved” or “kept” in order to help us realize the certainty of the judgment to come. To Peter the day of destruction is sure to come. The promise of Jesus' second coming is not a matter of if, but when. 

Concerning the issue of when, we already saw in Matthew's Gospel 24 that no one but the Father knows the date or the hour. However, oftentimes people confuse the promise delayed as the promise forgotten. But Peter knows that God never forgets his promise. But this is not what Peter is saying. To him, it is not an issue. There is no question that God is going to keep his promise. What he is getting at is that God is not slow in keeping his promise. 

Look at vs. 8-9a. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.” Indeed a long time passed since the day of Jesus' first coming, for from the day of Jesus’ first coming, already more than 2000 years passed. Two thousand years is a long time. But it is not so with God. According to the way in which God perceives time, only about two symbolic days passed. So the Lord might take more than two, three, or even five symbolic days, I mean, 2000, 3000, or even 5000 more years until he sends Jesus again. 

II. The Lord is patient with you (9b-14). 

Why then does he take so much time in coming back? Look at v. 9b. “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Here Peter does not say, “He is patient with the scoffers.” Rather he says he is patient with “you.” He then says, “...not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Here “anyone” or “everyone” means “anyone” or “everyone” including you! He is patient with you, because he does not want you to perish, but rather you may come to repentance now.  

This verse is a wake-up call for each of us. Let us be honest with each of us. Suppose Jesus comes right now. “Are you really ready?” When I think about myself, I am only thankful that he is still patient with me. I can see that I am allowed to live in a time called “today” only because God is patient with me, hoping that I would repent of my sins, and have myself ready for the day to come, for as I examine myself objectively even now, I am not really ready for the day of His second coming. There are so many “issues” that need to be addressed. I have been in the Lord for more than 30 years, for I started to study the Bible at the age of 24. Now I am 55. Looking back, I can compare my entire life thus far to a man doing a “spring clean up” of a pond. I maintain a small pond in my backyard. It requires a lot of work and care. One of the great work that needs to be done is the so-called “spring clean up”. During the months of a year, especially the months during the fall and then winter seasons the pond gets a lot of undesirable stuff falling into it. This undesirable stuff then goes to the bottom of it. When these stuffs like dead leaves get deposited there, they sooner or later get decomposed and then turn into a sticky stuff called "muck". It is really stinky. It generates all kinds of problems for a pond. Last winter the muck level grew so thick that it virtually killed all the mosquito fish. It also took a toll on two gold fish out of the twelve. And it is a very painful job to get the muck out of the pond. In order to do so you need to completely siphon out the water. Then you need to rake out the muck shovel by shovel. Then with soapy water, you need to rub the bottom and walls. Only then you can add fresh water, and you need to recondition it with chemicals, so fish can breathe better. This spring clean up made me think that my life thus far has been more or less like a spring clean up: it has been a long process of getting the muck out of me. It has gotten deposited into the pond of my life little by little, gone down way deep to the bottom which is as deep as (if not deeper than) the Pacific Ocean. To give you a better idea, let me do some quick math with the years of my life. For the first 24 years, I did not know the Lord. I was without the Lord. So during this period of time, undesirable stuff (all in the form of data files, picture files, or sound files) got stored up into my inner being. Then I started out studying the Bible at the age of 24. Fifty five minus 24 equals 31. For the last 31 years the Lord helped me to rake the muck out of me. And I tell you now that he is still doing it. Now is my pond really clean? Is it really well conditioned that all kinds of fish can thrive in it fully? Has the condition of my pond reached an ideal level? No way. And I thank God that he is still giving me more time to not only rake it out, but also fully recondition myself in such a way that I would be fully ready for the eternity to come. “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

This statement is quite overwhelming. But here is further challenge. Look at v. 10a. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief." Reading this passage gives rise to a question: Why is it that the Lord designed the time of his second coming this way? Why doesn’t the Lord just announce the day, hour, minute, and second, and forget about it? Why does he want to come like a thief? What is the purpose? We can find an answer to this question from the word "thief." What is thief good at doing? He is good at doing one thing: finding a hole or holes in your security system. When we think about what a thief is good at, we can then understand that the Lord designed the day of his coming in this way not for the sake of him but for the sake of us: that is, because he wants to ensure that we would be fully ready for his coming. 

There is one more challenge for us to consider. Look at vs. 10b-14. "The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” The point of challenge is found in words like “holy,” “godly,” “spotless,” “blameless” or “at peace with him.” While words like “holy,” “godly,” “spotless,” or “blameless” are very challenging, the expression “at peace with him” is even more challenging, because this expression, especially the word “peace” indicates that the Lord God is “at war with” anyone who is not holy, not godly, not spotless, or not blameless. To prove this point, we do not have to mention about how the Lord felt uncomfortable with the people of Noah’s day, or how he had to punish the people living in Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Lot, or how he had to punish the Israelites throughout the history of the chosen people Israel as the Old Testament Scriptures testify. 

When we read this passage we also are overwhelmed by the expression “make every effort.” We were taught that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, even the sins of the past, present, and future. We also read the passage that says, “It is finished.” And tons of pastors, Bible scholars, theologians, preachers, and evangelists serve messages on the so-called “finished” work of Jesus Christ. Why then does Peter say, “Make every effort”? God does everything, we are told. Why should we make any effort to be found spotless and blameless? Didn’t Jesus die to make peace between God and men? What does Peter mean by “make every effort to be at peace with him?” These are all good questions. 

But one thing is very clear. While God does what he can do, we too must make efforts. This is a right way to approach the issue of salvation, for if one is saved, one is saved in the context of one’s relationship with God, and the Lord God chose to put us in the right relationship with him through the finished work of Jesus Christ. The question then is, “How am I doing in my relationship with Jesus Christ?” To have a better understanding of this relationship with Jesus Christ, let us remember that Jesus is called “the bridegroom” and we “the bride.” And the Bible describes the relationship between Jesus Christ and the members of his church as a “marriage” relationship. How am I doing in my marriage relationship with Him? 

As such, every relationship requires efforts from every one involved in the relationship, for relationship goes both ways. It is never a one-way thing. It runs both ways. The purpose of relationship is oneness. It is to form one unity. God desires to be one with us. God’s ultimate purpose for us then is us! His purpose is man. He wants us to get into a relationship with Him in such a way that we would all be one with Him – one in spirit, soul and mind, all in and through Jesus Christ. And God cannot twist our arms to love him back. Yes. He loves us even to the point of sacrificing His one and only Son Jesus Christ. But despite his unfathomably great love for us, if we stop loving him back, he remains helpless. So what does he do? All he does is to be more patient, turn his eyes away from our sins, continue to keep his arms open, still waiting for us to come back to him. And as soon as we repent and turn to Him, he is willing to welcome us and work is us, as much as we let him. 

III. Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord (15-18).

Look at vs. 15-16. “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” The Apostle Paul teaches us a lot of doctrines such as the doctrine of salvation through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9), or the distinction between the righteousness that comes from keeping the law of Moses vs. the righteousness that comes from faith in the Lord Jesus (Romans 3:21-22). Some of his teachings are hard to understand. To make matters worse, some Bible scholars study Paul’s epistles and make more theories out of them. And their theories make already hard teachings harder to understand. But as Peter sees it, people tend to make complex theories mainly because they do not want to repent of their sins. As Peter sees it, they all want to go to heaven with all kinds of sinful practices, habits, and lifestyles, intending that they can enjoy the best of both worlds, the world of Satan and the world of God, all at the same time. But this does not work. 

So Peter defines salvation in a rather negative way by saying in v. 15, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation...” The Apostle Peter says here in effect: “The Lord could have destroyed you right now. But he is patient with you. So please repent and turn to God.”  

  

In view of the Lord's patience what are we to do? Look at vs. 17-18. “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”

Two directions are here: the first is negative, the second is positive. Negatively we must be on our guard that we would not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from our secure position. Once upon a time Peter thought that since he gave up everything and followed Jesus, his position in Jesus was secure. But without himself knowing, he ended up denying Jesus three times. Thus he slipped from a secure position. It took him a long time and a lot of unspoken struggles for him to put himself together and crawl back to a secure position. Likewise, we too must daily humble ourselves, be on our guard, so we would not be carried away by the error of lawless men. 

But this is not enough. There is one thing we need to do positively. That is, to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Grace refers to all the free gifts found in Jesus, the gifts which enable us to overcome our own sin problems, sinful habits, and character flaws. Knowledge refers to the personal experience with the Lord Jesus, particularly his goodness, faithfulness, his love and power, especially the power to transform us into His likeness.

In conclusion, we learn that in view of the Lord's plan to invite us into a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness, we must make every effort to be a man worthy of this hope. We can do this, knowing the Lord’s abilities to make us fully worthy although we have gone totally unworthy.   

One word: the home of righteousness.

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