Peter on apostasy

Introduction: A defining characteristic of Christian faith is its hope of eternal life. But even those who find such faith will at some point face the question whether one can be saved by faith in Jesus at one time and yet lose that saving faith later. To address this question, and why it matters for believers to know, it is worth to compare the sayings of Jesus himself about this subject, and what his followers wrote about it in the New Testament.

Warm-up: In sports or team projects, what determines whether you persevere or whether you quit?

1) Context: Was Peter himself ever tempted to give up his faith in Jesus? How? Jn 13:37-38; Jn 21:3

• Why did his stumbling not cause him to fall from the faith altogether? cf Jn 21:17-19
• Read 1Pet 1:3-5.  Why do these verses describe salvation as an inheritance?
• Should believers expect to inherit from Christ, or rather with Christ? cf Ro 8:17 [Co-heirs, not because he died, but because he is the designated heir, Gal 3:29; cf Mt 21:38]
• When is that inheritance available? cf 1Cor 15:50; 1Jn 3:2; Ro 8:24-25
• How can it be imperishable, v4? Hint: What would be the opposite of “…kept in heaven for you“? =>

2) Read 1Pet 5:10. How could Peter be so confident that if God initiates saving faith, He will surely also keep (preserve) it? Hint: Peter called Him the ‘God of all grace’. How does v10 spell out what is included in this combo grace package?

• Was such confidence in God’s grace a reason for Peter to become complacent and careless? Why not? cf 1Pet 1:3-15

3) Read 2Pet 1:3-5. Before discussing apostate teachers in the following chapter, Peter first explains here what is called the perseverance of the saints: How does God’s divine power ‘bestow’ (gr. doreomai) eternal life? v4

• v4: What did Peter mean by ‘promises’, and what makes those so ‘precious’?
  • Many couldn’t care less; so to whom are those promises precious?
  • One promise even includes to become ‘partakers in divine nature’. How does v4 explain what this can or cannot mean? Is it our present union with Christ by faith? Or is this a future aspect of our salvation when our bodies are made immortal? => v4b: When is such perfection reached: In this world, or only in the world to come? cf 1Pet 4:1-2; Ro 6:12
• “By these (gr.: plural) he granted to us…”: What did Peter find in these ‘excellencies of Jesus’ that assured him of his own salvation? [To feel the sense of awe behind his words, compare Jn 6:47, 68]
  • Did Peter think that God can promise to you eternal salvation today and then not keep it? Why not? [God cannot lie, cf Num 23:19; Tit 1:2; and his will and purpose are unchangeable, Heb 6:17-18] =>

4) Sometimes, though, it looks as if God’s promise were not unchangeable for all who seem to believe it: One example are apostate teachers, 2Pet 2. What characterises the ones that Peter wrote about, v1?

• What makes them look like genuine believers (cf Jesus’ parable about darnel and wheat)? =>
  • v1: Where will they show up?
  • v19: What sounds Christian in their talk?
  • v20: What looks Christian in their walk?
  • vv20-21: What is Christian in what they know?
• What makes them false teachers (v1) who are (lit.) ‘children of a curse’ (v14)? cf Mt 13:25v12: Ignorance – of what? cf 1Cor 2:14 Creatures of instinct: Instead of what else? [New creations, 1Pet 1:3,23]
  • v20: In what sense is it possible for someone to even ‘know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ’, yet without saving faith?
    • Read Jn 6:35-36 and 7:38 => How did Jesus explain what it means to truly believe in him?
  • How then can they introduce their false teaching secretly? [Not possible except in the disguise of a show of piety, cf Mt 7:15; Col 2:23, and in the name of (another) Jesus, Mt 7:21; 2Cor 11:4]
  • What then proves their falsehood and that they are at heart sectarian, gathering a following for themselves and not for the Lord Jesus? => doctrine:
• v1 (lit.) …denying ‘the-having-purchased-them-Master’ (gr. agorazo, buy in the market place)] => What could that mean?
  • Does ‘purchased’ mean truly saved? Or ‘liberated’, like the Israelites freed from Egypt’s yoke, but then still failed to enter the promised land because they never had any saving faith in God in the first place (Deut 32:5-6)?
  • Did Peter describe teachers who deny penal substitution? Or Antinomians who claim that you can have him as “Savior” even without submitting to Him as Lord/Master? [Or both, cf Jud 1:4; Tit 1:16]
    • Read 1Jn 2:23 => Why is it that all false teachers and their sects in essence deny the one true Christ, while still claiming to be of God?
    • What makes any denial of the one true Christ self(!)-destructive (i.e. leading to their own damnation)? [Rejection of the only available salvation leaves you with none, cf Jn 14:6; Heb 2:3]
• Overall, does Peter’s description fit someone who once was born again and saved by faith, but who now lost salvation? Why or why not? v22. How does Peter make it clear that he writes of people who never had any saving faith at all? => Hint: Does he say that the proverbial dog was ever anything other than a dog? cf v12
  • v3: ‘…condemnation from long ago‘: What is that? cf 1Pet 2:8

5) What was Peter‘s objective when he foretold the rise of such false teachers? cf 2Pet 3:1-3; 3:17

• Hint: Did he warn genuine believers that they are in danger to become such apostates?
• Or is Peter’s warning the means by which Christians will recognize false teachers so that they are not swept away by them?