GOD AND OUR SAVIOUR

The second epistle of Peter, like many other second epistles, was written with spiritual decline and departure in view. Peter mentions the rise of false teachers, ch. 2.1, and the serious nature of their error, both in terms of their doctrines, ‘damnable heresies’, v. 1, as well as their practices, ‘pernicious ways’, v. 2.

Peter writes to those who gladly confess that Jesus Christ is ‘our God and Saviour’, v. 1 JND. What firmer ground could there be for those exposed to the subtle wiles of the adversary than to know that their faith is in a Saviour who is God? Peter’s Jewish readers would be familiar with the concept of God as one who saves His people from their sins but Peter must establish that truth for all believers.

At the birth of the Lord, the angel had brought the message to Joseph: ‘thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins’, Matt. 1. 21. As the angel also said, this was the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy - Immanuel, God with us! The Jehovah of the Old Testament was manifest as the Jesus of the New. ‘Our God and Saviour’ had come in incarnation!

The Lord had once said to His disciples, ‘ye believe in God, believe also in me’, John 14.1. This instruction from the Lord was to establish that He was an equal object for faith, because He was God. Hence, He says to Philip, ‘he that hath seen me hath seen the Father’, 14. 9. But His departure from them, ‘I go’, vv. 3, 4, was to take Him via the cross, and it was there that He would lay the foundation for His title as Saviour.

Peter had proved these truths of the Lord’s deity and title as Saviour, Matt. 14. 30, and he had preached them, Acts 2. 21, 36. He bids his readers to remember them for the ‘entire redemptive program in Christ rests on His deity’, D. Edmond Hiebert. Equally, as we appreciate something of the significance of the Lord’s titles as God and Saviour so our Christian lives should be affected. We owe our allegiance to one who is God, possessed of all the characteristics essential to deity. Our salvation is secure because it is grounded in one who is God, but the life we live should reflect the cost that He had to pay in order to purchase that salvation.