Rescuing the Righteous

2 Peter 2:7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked

7 καὶ δίκαιον Λὼτ καταπονούμενον ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀθέσμων ἐν ἀσελγείᾳ ἀναστροφῆς ἐρρύσατο·

This is near the end of a passage where Peter talks about the consequences of sin.  He cites the examples of angels who were condemned for their rebellion, the Flood, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The point is to explain how God's justice works.  There were many who were rightly destroyed, but the righteous will be saved.  He gives the example of how Lot was spared the destruction.

Lot is probably not the first example you think of when you consider what a δίκαιον man looks like.  This is a guy who chose to live in Sodom, though verse 8 explains that it pained him.  He was willing to offer his daughters  to the lustful crowd in Sodom.  Later, he had incestuous relations with his daughters on two consecutive nights after drinking too much.  Yet here Peter calls him righteous.

This tells me that God does not necessarily define righteousness the way we do.  We are good at using measuring sticks and deciding who is righteous and who is wicked.  What we forget is that we are all fundamentally wicked.  Yet through the blood of Christ we are declared righteous.  If someone were telling my story someday and they wrote, "and if he rescued righteous Jason," anyone who knew me might wonder at that. They would ask if that was the same Jason who was so prone to laziness and gossip at work?  Is it the same guy who white-knuckles his way through sexual temptation?  Is it the same guy who claims to love the Lord and yet has so little emotional connection with his family?  I could go on and on.  I suspect you could too.

Yet because of the blood of Christ this terrible sinner is declared righteous before the judgment of God.  What a blessed exchange!

By His Wounds

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

24 ὃς τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν αὐτὸς ἀνήνεγκεν ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον, ἵνα ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἀπογενόμενοι τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ ζήσωμεν, οὗ τῷ μώλωπι ἰάθητε.

Sorry for the delay in posting, but it's been a busy week or so.  I couldn't very well post whilst camping, so now that we're back in the groove I hope to be back to regular posting.

This is one of those verses that I love to repeat when I do my weekly review of 1 Peter.  I just can't get enough of this one.  There are a lot of rich verses in this chapter, but this one seems to stand above the rest.  What more is there to say?

There are those who think of the idea of penal substitutionary atonement as barbaric.  They see it as a form of "cosmic child abuse."  But what those folks fail to realize is that God does not grade on a curve.  God is love, but God is also just.  Since He is just there needs to be a payment for the sin in the world.  Jesus was that perfect sacrifice.

Note to whom this is written. The book is written to saints.  Whose sins did Jesus bear on the cross (tree)?  It was τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν.  Not the sins of everyone who has ever lived, but the sins of the saints.  This is yet another argument for the idea of particular redemption.  Why does this matter?  It gets into the nature of God.  Did Jesus die for the sins of every person and then not save all of those people?  That's a pretty impotent view of God if that is true.  I think it is much more biblically (and philosophically) accurate to take a low view of man and a higher view of God.

Either way, I know that οὗ τῷ μώλωπι ἰάθητε.  It is difficult to succinctly unpack this Greek, but basically it is saying what is translated in the ESV.  I certainly enjoy knowing that I was healed, amen?