Carol Swenson
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Grace: A Many Splendored Thing
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10-11)
Peter coined the term “manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). God’s grace extends to every aspect of our life, our discipleship, and of our salvation. In grace our God called us to His eternal glory by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is God’s grace that sustains us through the trials of life. It is God’s grace that empowers our love, faith, and obedience to God. God’s grace teaches us how to live (Titus 2:11-12). However, according to Peter in this lesson, there is one thing that God’s grace does not do. It does not fully shield us from suffering. At times God’s grace may actually lead us through the path of suffering (2 Corinthians 12:9). The “health and wealth” gospel of our age is not the gospel of New Testament apostles and believers. Those giants in the faith would blush with shame at the prosperity teaching of modern-day teachers of this idea. The Holy Spirit informed Paul that “bonds and afflictions” waited for him in every city (Acts 20:23). Rather than expecting God to make him a tent-making millionaire, Paul learned from the Holy Spirit that he faced intense persecution and pain because of his faith.
At the time of suffering, the clock moves incredibly slowly. Time drags. The agony lingers and lingers. However, when Peter sets our suffering in the faith, and for it, against the backdrop of eternity to which God has called us, it is only a brief time, a “while.” Interestingly the word translated “while” can refer either to duration or to intensity. Suffering that an ordinary person would consider intolerable becomes small to a believer who stands strong in faith. The prolonged agony of persecution or illness seems like eternity itself to a person who tries to face it alone. To the reinforced believer in Christ, it lasts but a small time.
Peter outlines four steps on the continuum of grace and her work in and for us. These steps interconnect and build on each other.
He will “make you perfect.” Strong defines the word translated “perfect” as “1 to render, i.e. to fit, sound, complete. 1a to mend (what has been broken or rent), to repair. 1a1 to complete. 1b to fit out, equip, put in order, arrange, adjust. 1b1 to fit or frame for one’s self, prepare. 1c ethically: to strengthen, perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be.”1 In this life we are constantly striving for this full restoration to everything that we ought to be, but we never arrive. The story is told that once a young man approached Charles Spurgeon with a claim that he hadn’t sinned for three weeks. Without a word Spurgeon got up from his chair, walked around his desk, and slammed his large heavy foot down on the young man’s toes. The young man reacted with anger and harsh words. Spurgeon quietly responded, “Now we’ve taken care of that.” God is transforming us to everything that we ought to be, but the transformation will not be completed in this life. It will only reach its objective in eternity after the resurrection.
God will “stablish” you ; make you stable, firm, and constant. Once again, God’s grace is molding us into this form, but its fullness will not be fully realized in this life.
He will “strengthen” you. The word typically referred to bodily vigor, but New Testament writers use it to refer to vigor of the soul.
Finally, He will “settle” you. He will build you on a solid, firm foundation.
I believe in each of these words we see an ongoing process that God is directing to grow us in His grace, a process that will only see its full reality in eternity. In Matthew 8 we read of Jesus healing many people of physical disease and infirmity, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17). Faith healers frequently refer to this passage as Biblical proof that Jesus died, not only to save us from sin, but also to heal all our diseases. They struggle with the fact that every single one of their leading teachers has eventually become ill and died. Surely if their interpretation of the passage were correct, someone in their numbers would get it right and never become sick or die. Fact, in addition to Scripture, refutes their error. They have the kernel of a truth, but they make a bad application of it. In eternity after the resurrection all the elect, resurrected and glorified in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be wholly immune from disease and mortal illness. Jesus indeed died to procure that eternal good health for His beloved people. We shall not enjoy it all in time, but we shall surely realize it in eternity. That is a small part of what heaven will be. This ongoing process by which God grows us in time and completes the process in eternity when He raises us, conformed to the “image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) is altogether seamless. God’s grace that saved us in time also begins to reshape us in time, increasingly to the moral and spiritual likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. God Who begins the process in time shall complete it perfectly in the resurrection at the end.
“To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” Perhaps in this simple sentence Peter punctuates his letter with the most significant theme of the whole gospel. The ultimate objective of God in creation and in our salvation is to receive deserved glory for His saving grace. Folks who live in confusion regarding their salvation (Is it by grace or is it by works? Paul indicates that it cannot be by a synergistic mix of both in Romans 11:6.) often sing such self-centered songs as “Will there be any stars in my crown?” Is our personal status the Biblical centerpiece of heaven? Of course, the answer is a resounding no. God will have all the glory in heaven, justly so. Then we must conclude with Peter that the ultimate glory for our salvation, as well as for every aspect of good in our whole lives, comes from God and is to glorify Him now and forever. Someone once protested to Martin Luther that man surely must have some part to play in his salvation, to which Luther immediately responded, “Indeed, man does the sinning, and God does the saving.”
Eventually any theological system that emphasizes man’s role in salvation instead of God’s will foster arrogance and pride in man, not glory to God. Paul correctly noted that grace and works do not belong together as partners. One will eliminate the other.
Invariably someone who does not understand the Biblical concept of God’s saving grace will protest that teaching salvation all of God—and none of man—will lead to sloth and sin. Some who have misunderstood this doctrine have indeed given reason for the critics to voice concern. However, any who truly understand the profound reality of what God did in grace to save us will neither relax in sloth or become careless in sin. We cannot forget that Paul affirms that God’s saving grace also teaches us to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts,” not rationalize and justify them (Titus 2:11-12). Gods super abounding and victorious grace gives us courage in the face of formidable foes. It gives us strength that shines in our moments of weakness. It empowers our faith in times of distress. It convicts and refines us in our moments of fierce temptation. Rather than excusing sin, God’s grace, all of His grace, takes us by the hand and leads us through the four steps that Peter outlined in our passage. It will not let us go or permit us to relax in sin for even a brief moment. For a child of God, any time spent in sin is punctuated by anxious conviction and self-condemnation. Inherently we know that God is not pleased with such conduct. Because of God’s abounding grace we have no excuse by which to plead ignorance when we fall into sin. We know by the working of grace within that we are sinning and displeasing God. The same grace that teaches us to live “soberly, righteously, and godly” teaches us to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts.”
http://radnor-library.org/library/holderj/1peter/index.html
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