3:17
Referring back to the discussion on verse 15, we now see that what Peter is saying is not anti-semitic at all. He is not saying they killed the Lord in order to consider them less worthy than himself, or to condemn them, but to point out the truth of the matter, and to call them to repentance and faith. They acted in ignorance. There are several instances in the New Testament of it speaking of people acting in ignorance. In Acts 17:30 Paul tells the Athenians that they acted in ignorance in making images of gold or stone. In Eph 4:18 Paul speaks of people generally acting in dark ways because of their ignorance, and in 1 Tim 1:13 he speaks of himself acting in ignorance when he persecuted the church. And in 1 Peter 1:14 Peter speaks of the believers past lifestyles being a result of their ignorance. We need to appreciate that the Bible does not use ignorance as an excuse, they are still guilty. Rather, they have now been made aware of the truth, and they need to respond to the truth. What we see is a “model” where people are told that their behaviour is wrong, evil; part of the reason is that they were ignorant of the truth, now the truth has been made known to them, and they need to repent and believe. This Biblical model is very different from the model so often adopted by the “church” today, which more often than not seems to say sin does not matter .
3:18
Man sinned, but God used this to fulfil His plans, His plans told through the prophets long ago. The suffering of the Messiah was necessary for the justification of sinners. The sovereignty of God and human responsibility are in no way contradictory. We may at times trouble ourselves, wondering how the two can work together, but the Bible has no such problems, We make decisions, we are responsible for our decisions and actions, and they matter, but God’s will is always fulfilled.
No comments:
Post a Comment