On this Palm Sunday, we consider the entrusted life of Jesus. Jesus handed over to the Father his physical life and death, and the circumstances and events of his ministry. He submitted his will to the purpose the Father had for him on earth. He...
To be faithful to Christ in private and in public, sojourners must keep watch over their souls and remember they are being watched by others. This passage calls us to abstain from the desires of the sinful nature so we can see God. We are...
This passage contains one of the greatest identity and purpose statements for the church in all the Bible. The church is God’s chosen people, ransomed by Christ to belong to him. The church serves God as priests who offer up the sacrifices of worship, prayer,...
The high calling of the sojourning Christian is to grow up into salvation. The way of spiritual growth is by the word of God. Like babies longing for and drinking milk, so we desire and feed upon God’s word. As we do, we grow up...
The command to love one another is one of the most basic commands in the Bible. But the reason and resources to love are not often understood. We love one another because we have been born again. We love one another from the power of...
It is necessary that we know and remember that we have been ransomed with the blood of Christ. This passage tells us from what, with what, and for what Christ ransomed us. By knowing these things we come to see that Christ’s blood is precious,...
Holiness is a beautiful word. Applied to God, it refers to the perfection of all his attributes combined into a single description of his nature. God is holy. Since all of God’s attributes are perfectly good, his holiness is beautiful. How does holiness apply to...
In 1 Peter, hope is a powerful thing. It is the reason for being and doing. It motivates us to be and do. The call to set our hope fully on the grace of God in Christ is to be heeded because our lives depend...
We are called to consider salvation. In the trials and testings of life, we may be tempted to neglect our salvation for some form of self-generated coping scheme or doubt our salvation because our circumstances are so difficult, or come to believe that our salvation...
In the various trials of life that test our faith, from where does our joy come? Our joy comes from God; his great mercy toward us in Christ, his work in us to conform us to the image of Christ, and his promise to get...
