I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. 1 Peter 5:12 (NIV)
Perhaps you have recognized that you are a sinner who needs a Savior, and Jesus Christ is precisely the Savior you need. You have told Him you believe in Him and have decided to follow Him. The big question now is, “Where do you go from here?”
That’s the question we are going to seek to answer from 1 Peter over these next few weeks. More than any other book in the Bible, 1 Peter is about the experience of the Christian life. It is a manual of discipleship.
In 1 Peter 5:12, Peter gives a clear statement of why he wrote this letter—so younger Christians would know that what they have in Jesus Christ is the true grace of God.
Peter knew the highs and lows of the Christian life from his own experience. He confessed Jesus as the Christ, but he also denied he ever knew Jesus. He walked on water because of his great faith, and he nearly drowned because of his weak faith. And the Spirit of God prompted him to write this letter that sets out the experience of the Christian life.
We are going to work on the assumption that everything the Holy Spirit prompted Peter to write to them is relevant to us. What people needed to get grounded in the Christian faith in the first century is the same thing Christians need to get grounded in the twenty-first century.
We will come to God’s discipleship manual and learn from it, as God gave it to the apostle Peter, so that this letter may give direction to the whole of our Christian lives.
Have you trusted Jesus to be the ruler your life? Ask Him to guide you to a closer relationship with Him as you study 1 Peter in the coming weeks.
