“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
like precious faith with us
Peter loves the word “precious” (1 Peter 2:7).
“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” (1 Peter 1:7).
“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
The phrase “like precious” means equal in value. It comes from two words: equal and honor. What is equal honor faith? Peter said that those he wrote have faith that equals his own. Their faith was equal in significance and value.
The Roman world used “precious” for a person; they gave the privilege of equal citizenship to those native to the country. The faith that God gives us is of equal privilege to that of an apostle. Anyone who expresses faith in Christ holds equal honor before God. All believers have equivalent benefit in their salvation. This honor is because we received imputed righteousness at the point of faith. This righteousness is God’s righteousness that He puts into us when we believe.
PRINCIPLE:
Saving faith is precisely the same for every person.
APPLICATION:
Faith is equally precious in the individual Christian and the apostle. It produces the same effects in one as in the other. Faith unites the weak believer to Christ as truly as it does the strong one. Every believer is, by their faith, justified in the sight of God (Acts 13:39).
We should hold our faith in equal honor with Peter’s faith. Our faith has the same privileges as his. We possess full-fledged membership in the household of faith.
Our faith in Christ puts us in good stead with God. There is nothing as valuable as that. This faith is saving faith. This kind of faith will also stand us in good stead in the hour our baby is dying, for it is not only faith to live by but to die by. Do you pin both your eternal future and contingencies of this life to your faith in Christ? If not, receive Christ as the one who fully suffered for your sins and trust Him for everything that comes into your life.
Every believer at the point of salvation receives divine operating assets. These blessings are what we call positional truth. We possess these spiritual assets the moment we come to Christ. These blessings come only by virtue of knowing Christ; we do not have them because of our spiritual growth.
It is a pity that so few Christians know what they possess before God. They do not realize what they are worth, so they do not enjoy full lives as Christians. Though they know they are Christians, they do not realize how well God saved them. But God put the Bible in our hands and His Spirit in our hearts so that we might learn our position in Christ and live in power and fullness. Many people have come to Christ but do not have an assurance of salvation. The Devil has short-changed them.
All Christians have the same sized Savior (John 1:12,16). We do not receive Christ on the installment plan. We do not receive a little of Him now and a more later. If we received Christ, we received the complete Christ. The issue is not getting more of Christ but allowing Him to get more of us.
There is nothing more valuable to us than our faith. Confidence in our doctor will pale compared to our faith in the Son of God. No doubt, we will realize how valuable our faith is to us when we are dying.
Christ forgives all who come to Him fully. He forgives us totally. There are no degrees of forgiveness. Neither are there degrees of salvation from the penalty of sin. Salvation is complete. We need to do nothing further than what Jesus did for our salvation.
Saving faith is precisely the same for all people. A person’s skin color, culture, or educational background make no difference. The quality of saving faith is the same for everyone who comes to Christ. There are no degrees of saving faith (Titus 1:4; Jude 3). However, there are different grades of developing faith. The building up of each person’s faith is different. The degree to which a person applies principles to experience by faith is how that person’s faith grows. The degree of application of faith differs for each believer.
Little faith in a big Savior will take us to heaven. Great faith in a false Savior will lead us astray. It is not our faith that saves us; it is our Savior, the Object of our faith. Our faith connects us to our Savior. Faith is the coupling that links us to the Lord of Glory. We ride along as the Engineer pulls us to heaven.
