A New Life of Holiness

So I think we're going to start today by going back to verse 3, and I'm going to read all the way down through verse 16, which is our talk today entitled, A New Life of Holiness. All right, I'm New King James, so I apologize, but that's my favorite version. And I will be sharing New American Standard at times today when I teach the lesson here.

First Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I'm going to play Jim here a second. It's a living hope we're going to return to. So note that because that'll be coming up later today.

Verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, and though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ, who is in them, was indicating when he had testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. So here are the verses for today. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy.

Alright, so I thought we're going to refer back to the early part of the text because Peter does as we open up the lesson for today. Okay let me figure out what glasses I need under what circumstances here. Okay I'm going to probably be looking mostly at the screen today. Let's see, which, I think I'm good there. All right, let's review first.

The prophets without deep, I'm summarizing what Andrew taught last week. So the title was The Witness of Our Salvation. So the prophets without deep or specific understanding were taught by the Spirit of Christ about the sufferings of Christ and the age of grace and glories that were to come. Okay, the age was to come, so it's correct grammatically. To the prophets all of this was in part revealed but to us the gospel preached by the Holy Spirit has validated these prophecies which have been and continues to be pleasing to the angels and we had a lot of discussion last week about angels.

And I don't want to get down that trough today. But I think, you know, the interesting thing about scripture, to me personally and should be to all of us, is that prophecies have come true, at least those that were prophesied ultimately to the Savior, His crucifixion and resurrection. And we have only to believe those prophecies that have yet to become true, in terms of the hope. The hope we have now is that hope that extends and continues into the things that have not been made clear at this point in time. You know, Peter really is very concise here in saying, look, the prophecies were valuable. And he, more than all the most any other person who wrote the epistles, really refers to the prophets in great detail. Okay, verse 13. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, what's it there for? Well, what's it there for? What's it there for? Well, he's telling you what's going to happen now, now that all of these other things that he's already talked about have Okay, specifically in what I just read, what's it there for?

It's there for verses 3 through 12, exactly what preceded. So that's a blessing to be the father of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Everything that Peter said up until now is what it's there for. It's really a conclusive argument of what's been present now where we're going to go forward.

Next, gird up the loins of your mind. And by the way, those are Christ's own words of Luke. Or better yet, I think here's the new American standard is better, or prepare your minds to be active or for activity. So gird up your loins. What do you think that means? Well, Wiest has something to say about that. Wiest says, Peter has used an oriental expression referring to the act of gathering up around the waist, the long, loose, eastern robes, which would impede one's progress in running or in exertion. So the girding up your lungs is kind of making them capable of being ambulatory more effectively. moving forward without tripping over their gowns, so girding up the loins, kind of pulling this long skirt, if you would, up so that they could become more physically capable.

Other thoughts about girding up your loins is, I think, in the New American Standard translated, get your mind engaged, get active mentally in preparation. They're ready to move. Yep. Okay. Thanks, Carolyn. All right. All right. Did you have the handout in front of you? I'm not sure what that means. You shall not bear false witness, right? Oh, that's Old Testament. Okay. All right. Yes.

What are the loins of our mind? Well, I don't know that we need to translate that. I mean, I think, gird up your loins, I think, is kind of just getting the whole body, where you tend to think of loins as more the central part of the body, but I think it's just getting ready. The loins of the mind, I think, is a metaphor for getting your whole self ready to get moving, like I just said there.

Get ready to move. Be active. Be responsive. Okay? What does thoughts of your mind? Yeah, I think so. Your motivation. Spirit led, I presume. Attitude. Yeah, thanks Mike. That's all good. Does be sober mean what we think it does here? What do you think? Well, don't all answer once now. I mean, it could mean, but it just, you know, pay attention. Yeah, I think it means just get your mind ready to be in gear and focus.

Well, you know, we're going to go to the Greek at some points here in today's lesson, but perhaps it can also be translated, be calm, be collected in spirit, be temperate, be circumspect. So being sober is kind of getting your mental act focused and together and being, you know, I wouldn't say passive is the right term because we're told to be active, but getting prepared in a calm, and and the polite for way if you would be tempered I like term temperate or circumspect taking into consideration all these things around you now the scripture has a few things to say about being sober so in in first Thessalonians Paul said therefore be not be not asleep as don't be not sleeping as others do but let us watch and be a Sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. So the concept here is, but let us watch and be sober, is basically being awake. That's kind of what that relates to. And let's see, we've got a second verse. No, that was it here.

And then, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Remember, Peter is addressing strangers who are used to being displaced and now are really nested among pagan Gentile nations as pilgrims. Thus, they really have been put into a position where they're undergoing constant trials in their faith. These are people who are saved and probably part of the early church that now have been placed into Gentile arenas. And ultimately, they're being challenged daily by being displaced. So again, that's the audience to whom Peter is really addressing.

All right, so let's describe what resting our hope fully upon grace might mean. And actually, here's again a New American Standard translation that I think is more appropriate. Perhaps fix your hope completely on grace. So which one do you like better? I kind of like resting our hope and fixing our hope, but either way, we have a hope that's clear. and succinct and scripturally described that ultimately now becomes our focus. So that's why I mentioned earlier in the verses in 3 through 12 that this hope will be seen again in what we're going to be covering today. So are we really fixing our minds or ultimately resting in this hope which ultimately God has provided for us? And I think sometimes we lose faith in that hope that's ultimately placed before us. What are your thoughts?

I agree. So the idea here is that this hope is not something that's simply futuristic, but the hope is actually there. It's been guaranteed. And we sometimes lose track of the fact that hope is used in a colloquial sense, that we're hoping something will be true. But God has guaranteed it. So we have a certainty of this hope that is not present when we have a hope in the flesh of something to occur, often for our own self-serving and to follow. So anyone who's a believer, that hope is already before us.

And what is that hope? be simplistic. Yeah, I think very simplistically. I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved, right? In hopes to be in the presence of the Lord. And everything is tied into that. The details of that are somewhat vague to us right now, but nevertheless, that's the hope we all have. And that's just coming, right?

I mean the rapture or after absent from the body present with the Lord. So that hope is secure. None of us here have any doubt where we're going when we die based on scripture. So that hope is now but extends to things we haven't seen or experienced yet. The hope we have in the flesh about something occurring later today is relatively minimal compared to the hope that we have in terms of scriptural basis for that hope. All right. All right. What is this specific grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ? Well, we just kind of touched on that, didn't we? Well, per usual, I've got a couple of verses to share with you.

Titus 2, 11 through 13, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, He's brought it to all men, all men haven't received it, but he's brought it to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews, there's another verse to support this, therefore, Do not cast away your confidence which has a great reward. And that's not simply the rewards we may get as believers. We shouldn't be working up for those. Those are God-given, but it's ultimately the reward of his presence eternally when we leave these earthly bodies. All right.

All right, to go on to the second verse, verse 14, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, okay? As obedient children. Or I think many people, the commentators say, and if you go to the original Greek, it says, as children of obedience. Why might that be a better interpretation? as children of obedience versus obedient children. It's because, as you say, obedient to what? Well, I think, where does it put the emphasis if we say children of obedience rather than obedient children? I think it puts the emphasis on obedience. If we read it as children of obedience, which is the best translation from the Greek, it really is focused on obedience, whereas obedient children looks like it's focused on the children.

So what's the obedience to? The faith. Right. The obedience is to the faith. The obedience isn't to a set of rules. And we're always called to obedience. Whenever you see that in scripture, in the New Testament in particular, you're thinking, well, where's the list? What am I supposed to be obedient to?

I mean, the only commandment Christ really gave the church is love your neighbors yourself. And well, first of all, you know, God love their heart and soul is always Old Testament. But when Christ tells us that, he tells us, love them as I have loved you. And remember, we've talked about that here before. How do you do in loving everyone?

We've got an issue in the family right now that's making us not want to love very much, but my love for them is unconditional in Christ. I mean, it's a love that doesn't occur in the flesh. That fleshly love is only superficial. It can only go circumstantially sometimes because of what other people do or what we don't do that disappoints them. But the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is the obedience, and the obedience of the faith is that love generated to others.

Oh, no. I think that's excellent. All right, let's continue. Not conforming yourselves to former loves. Conforming. is probably best translated, fashioning yourself. Now I've got a question for you. Is that outward only? If you think about fashioning yourself, Margaret always looks very nice. She's fashioning herself for everybody around. She likes looking nice. She likes nice to me.

But is this outward now? Only this fashioning yourself? That tends to look on the outward appearance, doesn't it? Fashioning ourselves. not conforming or fashioning ourselves to the former lust. Well, no, I don't think so. I think it really relates to the lust. It's not simply external, but in fact, it's entirely related to all lusts. And I think Paul calls this in Romans 12 to a verse we all know a fair amount about, but we may not be living it out.

We do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That takes lust out of the picture. being not conformed to this world, because this world is full of lust. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, the pride of life, as John lists, are the three big sins. And if you think of what John said, those three biggies, you can wrap everything up into those three. I mean, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, you tend to think of maybe more sexually related lust, but it goes far beyond that. That's minimal compared to all the other lusts we can have. And how about the pride of life?

Oh, boy, that's an ugly one. So keep that in mind as we're thinking about this fashioning yourselves. This is just not outward. This begins inside. These things don't change because it's the old nature. Yeah, you know, one of the things, and I'll opine here, that's so great about this body here is two things that I think are so much needing to continually be reinforced.

One is our position of truth. We're seen as righteous. He's made us all righteous. We can't believe that, but we have to, because he said it. So that's a truth of this body, what we believe in, that's so incredibly true. He made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for Mike and for Patty and for everybody else that we all might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So position of truth, we're looked at as righteous by Him.

The cross is not going to happen again. So anything that we see that we fall short, that's taken care of. So it's just fellowship we break when we fall into sin. So, number one, positional truth. And the second thing is just what you said, Mike, I'll rephrase it. But the sin nature never changes. Still there.

So I think that's important to understand because I think many people are misled by they're getting better as they pray more. So what do they think happens to their sin nature? Really? Well, they're thinking it's just old habits, right? That go away or something. It's whitewashed. But it don't work like that. No, it doesn't. That's why Romans 6 is so vitally important.

Buried with him, baptism unto death, risen with him, and news of life. We have new lives. We're new creations of Christ Jesus. That's so critically important. So I think, you know, Paul challenges us here in Proverbs 2 to be not conformed to the world. the ways of the world, but be transformed according to the renewing of our mind. And that's kind of, if you will, this conforming to or fashioning ourselves after the world system. Now, we all live in the world system.

I went to a baseball game last night. That's pretty neutral. Is that conforming to the law? No, I like sports. I went to a baseball game. I mean, don't get overly legal about this kind of thing. I mean, you can be a Christian at a baseball game as much as you can sit in your living room eating popcorn and watching the game on TV. I mean, the point is... Only if Tim Tebow was part of that. And the Rockies won, by the way. That's unusual. What's so awesome about Tim Tebow? About what? What's so awesome about Tim Tebow? He's got a heart for God.

Yeah. For one thing. Well, he's in the world, but we know he's of us, too, right? So anyway, we're not here to judge one another. All right. OK. Former lust. This is empathy. OK, I think I got that right. Whatever comes to mind here, I think it reflects the past lust of the past. Why do you think Peter's talking about the lust of the past? Because of the consequences possibly. What my consequences? Because of the consequences possibly. But I'm going to say, but the past only? How about the present, right? I mean, because they still exist. But I think he may be reflecting, and I'm kind of reading between the lines here.

If he understands the crucifixion as you just described in Romans 6, then the lusts of the past have been crucified, right? I mean, I think we're going to end the end of these verses saying, this is identification, isn't it? But we're not there yet. But just think about that in terms of thinking about the lusts of the past have been crucified.

And even though we still have them, God looks at us as righteous. The only thing about these lusts now is it removes that constant fellowship we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. And John gives us that freedom to confess that, Lord, that's not who I am, and we're right back in fellowship. That doesn't mean that we should continue sin, that grace may abound. No, God forbid we shouldn't continue in sin, but we do at times continue, right?

But the more you appreciate that relationship, the more that frees you from that old nature. It's called growth. Yeah. That's growth, growth and grace. I find this kind of interesting, is that lust is used 38 times in the New Testament. And Ephesians 1, 1 and 2, and he made you alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. I mean that really summarizes where we came from. Lusts of the past which again are still here but they've been crucified. They're dead before God and I think Peter's calling us leave those behind because they were taken care of at the cross.

What's the ignorance related to here in context? Well, I think ignorance here describes the lack of knowledge of the true God. Let's go back to the verse itself again. As obedient children, or children of obedience, not conforming yourselves to the formula as in your ignorance.

Well, the idea here is they really don't know enough about their faith. And I would claim that's true of all of us at times. We still don't know enough about our faith. but particularly who are living in covenant theology where the Old Testament continues to need to apply to their life here in Christ. So I think learning the Word of God and how ultimately God has taken care of things and continues to work by this principle of grace and growing us in that truth is really important. Question, do you think that this ignorance was the same for the Jew in the Old Testament as it is for Gentile believers? What do you think?

Yes. Absolutely. I think maybe it was the same but different. I think in some ways it was the same but different. How might it be different? Just because the Jews had all this history of a different type of relationship. You know, all the sacrifices and the rules and the Gentiles don't have that. They're kind of new to the game. So they've got kind of a different history. So I would think it would have taken a very faithful Jew to look at these animal sacrifices on an annual basis, etc., putting their faith in what Moses had said in terms of the way the Israeli so-called gatherings would occur and ultimately the atonement for sin, but not the propitiation. I think probably it was somewhat different.

How about for Gentile believers? I think we live in a world of believers who in fact don't have the same kind of knowledge. It's not that we're elite or have some special gift of God here, but I think we're here to rightly divide the word of truth. We don't need to think about comparing these, but it's just kind of interesting to think about that.

And Peter has said something about it here. In 1 Peter 1, 3 said, Blessed be the God and Father of Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten to us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Okay, so he succinctly states this to mostly Jewish people who are reading this letter. So he's trying to bring them along to something that maybe they didn't have a complete understanding on. And that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God. So these are the kinds of things that I think Peter's trying to enlighten his readership on in terms of this new life, the total absence of sin before God that relates to the crucifixion and everything, that believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, we need to get a new body before that can happen. We can hope in it. Well, that's our hope, isn't it? But it takes a new body to produce that. Well, in terms of the hope that we have eternally, yes. I mean, we are new creations, Mike. And he's calling this new creation we are to live, not in the flesh, but in the power of the spirit. So I think that's what scripture is telling us. And that's now. That's not just when we have a new body. As I mentioned earlier, the hope is now, but it extends into the future. But that hope is impacting how we carry ourselves day in and day out.

Verse 13, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. But he who called you holy, this really reflects, you know, and by the way, called here is an active participle. We are called But he called us. I mean, it's kind of interesting. He who called you is the one who's being active here. I mean, it's a participle. But we're the ones that are being called. But he called us. So the active participle is him calling us. So in a sense, we're passively participating. But that's because only it's God who calls. In the absence of him calling, we're not called. And he's doing that through us. that this active thing that we are doing is not only because He called us, but He's doing that through us. And it's kind of interesting if you look at this next question to the class.

Be ye holy as I am holy. Be is aorist, passive, imperative. Why? First of all, aorist tense, done once, and done once and for all, and has an impact either before that or into the future. Passive, we're going to come back to. Imperative means do it. Jim, be holy. How are you doing with that? You know, Margaret, I mean, but why is this a passive imperative? Why is it passive?

I thought we were told to be doing it. Hey, Bob? Yep? Would it be Ares because it's going back to the cross? It was done at the cross? I think that's where I would put it, yes. Made it holy, so it was a point in our past. We were made holy at the cross. Well, that's where we were made holy positionally, but now we're being called Remember who's calling us. It's God or the Lord Jesus Christ calling us to be holy. This is the walk by grace.

Because I think the passive tense implies what? That despite the fact that he is actively calling, ultimately it's passive in that we are being called. And I think it seems like a contradiction. But I can't argue with the Greek tense. I mean, we just need to look at that and try to best interpret it. Your thoughts, Andrew, why is this passive?

Because it goes back to the work of Christ on the cross, I think. And he just got finished telling us that we're to rest in these truths. And so we're resting in all the provisions he gave us. We're fixing our mind on them, right? Ready to be active based on being called.

So the passive experience, I think, just relates to how it applies to us individually. And the Aristoteles could reflect it across and probably likely does. So I don't think we need to perseverate on this indefinitely, but I found this kind of interesting. Oh, Bob? Yes, Jim. It's not our responsibility to be holy. We're just doing what God has done. to us. He's the one that's doing the action. We're just following along. Isn't that true?

Okay, yeah, holy, by the way, what's holy? It's really, you know, very, I think most importantly interpreted as setting apart from the sin, separating sin from God. I mean, we're not to live a life in sin, because that's not holiness. Holiness is God, right? So when we're called to be holy, I think you're right. That's positional truth, is it not? It's not up to us to be holy. But we do have a responsibility to actively live by faith, right?

It takes truth. I think truth, you know, we brought this up Tuesday, Mike, at the study. Truth is to me what sums everything up. I'm looking for truth in the Word of God. So the truth is that we are seen as holy and we're being called to be holy, but that's the condition. We're told to be holy because we're seen as holy. Why don't you act like you are? So I think, I'm paraphrasing this, but I think that that's what God is trying to say. That's where reckoning comes in, counting it true.

Yep, Romans 6.11, right? Now holy is used 231 times in the New Testament. Six times more than lust. And that's in the New Testament, holy. It's used that many times. So ultimately, I think you also be holy in all your conduct. I mean, that's in the verse.

And should this, do you think, alone be sufficient call to obedience? Is this all we need to do to be obedient, to be called to have all our conduct be holy? And if not, what steps are necessary? Well, as usual, we'll try to look at a couple of verses here.

2 Corinthians 7.1. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And then Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, therefore be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

And I think, just to conclude this, it's all an act of obedience to the faith. I think, again, I'm going to reemphasize positional truth. So if we're seen righteous and holy at the right hand of God, he's calling us to a life, he's imperatively calling us to a life that looks like the way he sees us. It's that simple. But we have a responsibility. Jim, I'm not misinterpreting you, but sometimes I think we're just, people think we're just robots. No, we're not robots. We have an active role in living by faith.

Patty, you're shaking your head. Yes. Oh, Roy. Hi, Roy. Yeah, just a thought here that this is in contrast to the preceding verse, isn't it? It begins with a but, and it's in light of our ignorance that we used to have, that we are now being transformed into His holiness as He is, because it's His work, not by our own old ways of doing things on their own. And I think that's what Romans 12 says, Roy. You're right. We're not to be conformed to the world, but be transformed by this action of God, by our faith, working out that salvation in us.

Yes. It's like a summary of that word ignorance, right? Yeah, that could be brought back to our attention as the ignorance for us believers is that sometimes we think we've got something in the flesh to do to prove to God who we are. No, we live by faith in this power of the Spirit energizing the new life we are in Christ Jesus.

Thank you for your comment. Patty, did you want to comment? I was going to say, it's kind of the idea, because he's holy, to let his life And we have to believe it. We have to trust it being true. And by trusting and knowing that it's true because he said it, then it we can accept that as part of our lives.

It seems kind of like an oxymoron. If God says, be holy as I am holy, and it's an imperative, meaning do it, it's like, gee, I need to work harder at this. No, he's calling us to do obedience to the faith as children of obedience, not obedient children. When you think of obedient children, you did wrong. But when we think of children of obedience, we are children who live by faith. And that's what we're being called to, to live by faith in what we've been called to in the way God sees us.

Mike? Oh, I've just got a lot of thoughts about that. I was thinking about how this can pertain to the armor of God. And now the Christian walks today who are soldiers. And sometimes that armor doesn't seem very complete, does it? It's not worn fully or gets broken down and we let the world system or sin nature kind of manifest itself. And even then, that's been taken care of, we just have to confess that. But again, back to Paul, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? No, it should never be. We're called to a life of obedience to the faith. that were the children of obedience. And I think that's maybe a take-home message from today for me, at least this morning, more than it was an hour ago, is that the children of obedience are those who walk by faith, not obedient children, which means, gee, what are the rules? How am I doing? Right? Okay. Bob? Yes, Jim? He tells us to be holy in all our conduct. It's like we have a choice. You know, we can choose to follow sin, or we can choose to be holy. But it's a choice we need to make.

You know, I'm not being argumentative, I just don't like the thing of choice. I mean, choice to me always has this thing about consequences. I think it's a life, Jim. I think you're describing a life. The new life in Christ is a life. And in a sense, you could say that's a choice, It makes me kind of somewhat paralyzed. Gee, do I make a choice here? Do I live in the Spirit? I think the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is manifested by the Holy Spirit in us. And when we're children of obedience, I think that faith is what manifests how we walk.

There's a good translation in the Christian I don't know, SBO, I can't remember. Anyway, but as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be made holy in all of your conduct. It's pretty clear that God has called us to be like Him because He's the one doing it. Yes, you said it perfectly, yes, I can't say anything more, that's true. Okay, we need to kind of finish up here in the next few minutes.

So 1 Peter 1.16, because it's written, be holy for I am holy, seems repetitive, doesn't it?

Because it is written, and here now we are really looking at what Moses did. prescribed on the tablets. It's quoted repeatedly in Leviticus. And by the way, if you look at Be Holy for I am Holy, this is the only place in the New Testament that this is stated. Christ identifies himself with his Heavenly Father multiple times in the Gospel account. We don't doubt that. But this Be Holy for I am Holy is all Old Testament. And it comes from the tables of stone that God gave to Moses. Now, do we live under the...

That's what I mentioned earlier. Was this call to faith different for the Jewish nation than it is for the believer? I think it was somewhat different, as Carolyn has said. It can't be exactly the same. Maybe we're called to a series of laws. We're called to a person. We're called to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's compare how Israel in their day versus the church today might interpret this command.

So Peter and the author of Hebrews quote the Old Testament more than any other New Testament book but one in terms of overall quotations. Why did Peter choose to select this out of Leviticus to present to the Church, the scattered Church, in his first letter of Peter? I have a question for you. Peter and the author of Hebrews, whoever that was, quote the Old Testament more than any other New Testament book but one. What's the other book that quotes it more than these two?

Revelation. Again, you must have the handout. She's two for two today. That's absolutely incredible. Yes, it's a revelation. And revelation of course deals a lot with Daniel and Ezekiel and all of those prophecies. Probably that's why. But Peter quotes the Old Testament a lot. Of course he comes from a frank Jewish background. And of course Hebrews is written probably by a Jewish Christian and we could debate who that is. But anyway, be holy for I am holy.

Ultimately, be is an aorist imperative. Again, the same kind of verb tense that we just discussed before. And all I can do to conclude this whole section of scripture today is this. How's this for identification truth? Be holy as I am holy. So Jim, just back to your thoughts a minute ago, I mean, the Christ life in us is holy. When spirit activated, the positional truth we have is being seen as holy positionally. That life is the new life we have in Christ Jesus.

So I think that's identification. I mean, Peter didn't call it that, but I can't interpret this in any other way. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but not me, but Christ lives in me, right? So that's, I think, something that we could look at very, very carefully here as an interpretation of this section in Peter's first epistle.

So I'm going to close with this kind of thing that I thought was kind of appropriate in terms of reflecting the Old Testament. you know, utilization of the Levitical text in terms of the Hebrew describing what we now have and pure English text. So, be holy for I am holy. David, could you close us in prayer, please? Father, we thank you for the day and for your word and we just ask that we could live to serve you Amen. Thank you.