2 Peter 3:11–14
The Preacher:
A. Skevington Wood has just been released as minister of Southlands Methodist Church, York, England, to the Movement for World Evangelization. B.A. of University of Leeds, he studied further at Wesley College, Leeds, and was ordained in 1943, thereafter ministering in several English and Scottish towns. Later he earned the Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. A former President of the British Christian Endeavour Union, and a leading supporter of the 1955 Graham Crusade in Glasgow, Dr. Wood is author of several works on church history and evangelism; his latest book: The Inextinguishable Blaze: Spiritual Renewal and Advance in the Eighteenth Century.
The Text:
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
The Series:
This is the ninth in a series by British and European preachers. Future issues will include sermons by Chaplain William R. Mackay of Northern Scotland, the Rev. J. A. Motyer of Bristol, and the Rev. James Philip of Edinburgh,
There is a common question which falls from our lips in one circumstance or another most weeks of the year. Each of us uses it often. It is this: “What are you looking for?” Usually it is addressed to someone who has lost something and has instituted a search for it. They are rummaging here, there, and everywhere, and if we break in upon the scene and want to help them or are just plain curious, we enquire: “What are you looking for?”
That is a question the Bible asks too. It challenges every man with regard to the objective of his life. The query relates not so much to something we once had and have unfortunately lost as to something we may enjoy in the future if our heart is truly set upon it. This passage from Second Peter leads up to three verses which all refer to what the Christian is looking for. The verb employed in each instance means to look out for, to await, to expect. It is used by our Lord in the parable of the wise and evil servants to indicate that the master of the latter will come in a day when he is not looking for him and in an hour of which he is not aware. It is used to describe the expectation of the people concerning John the Baptist as they mused in their hearts as to whether he was the Messiah: the Authorized Version margin has “in suspense.” It is used when John sent two of his disciples to enquire of the Lord, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” It is used to denote how the people waited for Zacharias as he tarried in the temple and for Jesus after the miracle at Gadara.
It is used several times in the Book of Acts: of the beggar at the Beautiful Gate who gave heed to Peter and John because he expected to receive something from them, of Cornelius who waited for Peter and the brethren from Joppa, of the passengers and crew in the storm-tossed boat that bore Paul on his Rome-ward way who had tarried and continued fasting for fourteen days, and of the barbarians on Malta who, when Paul was attacked by a viper, looked when he should have swollen up or dropped down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm had come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. This verb to look for, then, is an important one in the vocabulary of the Advent hope. We shall do well to ponder it in all its occurrences and allow its significance elsewhere in Scripture to shed light upon the verses now before us.
We live in a generation that sets little store by the expectation of the Lord’s return. Indeed the Bishop of Woolwich, Dr. J. A. T. Robinson, has observed that “the Second Advent and its accompaniments appear to the modern as a simple contradiction of all his presumptions about the future of the world, immediate or remote.” The consequence is that he could hardly care less about the things which mean so much to Christians who live in the daily anticipation of Christ’s coming again. Sadly enough, even the Church itself, which ought to be the guardian of these precious truths, has sometimes allowed them to slip through its fingers in a false and foolish attempt to match the spirit of the age.
The Occasion
Let us then examine the three “look fors” in these verses. First we have the occasion of the Christian’s expectation (v. 12): “Looking for and hasting unto the day of God.” This is the occasion in a double sense. It is at once the event which draws the believer’s gaze and the ground of his hope. It is the occasion which occasions his expectation.
Added intensity is afforded by the verb that follows. Christians are not only looking for but hasting unto the coming of God’s great day. That does not mean, as the Revised Version margin suggests, that they are hastening the arrival of the end, for no man can do that. The times and the seasons are altogether in the hand of God, and nothing we do can either advance or retard them. What the apostle tells us here is that believers are hastening towards that day with eager desire and fervent longing. They are running a race, and this is the goal always in view.
The coming or Parousia of Christ has already been alluded to in verse 4 of this chapter, and the word has occurred earlier in 1:16 with reference to “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” which was proclaimed by Peter and his colleagues in the Gospel, as over against the cleverly devised myths fabricated by the false prophets and teachers through whom the truth was brought into disrepute. In classical Greek the term “parousia” means basically the presence or arrival of persons or things. But it also had a special connotation, and it is here that we learn what it signifies for Christians with reference to the Lord’s return. It was a technical expression to denote the arrival of an emperor, a king, a governor, or any other Very Important Person into a town or province. Exceptional preparations would be made. Taxes would be imposed to provide him with a suitable gift: in the case of a king it would be a golden diadem. It was quite common for the provinces to date a new era from the parousia of the emperor. That happened when Gauis Caesar visited Cos in A.D. 4 and when Hadrian went to Greece in A.D. 124. A new period of time emerged when the king came. It was also an occasion when petitions were presented and injustices rectified. Often an amnesty was declared and prisoners were released. We can readily realize that in the numerous passages of the New Testament where this word refers to the Second Advent, the secular usage would point up its application to Christ the coming King.
However, here in verse 12 it is the coming not of the deliverer but of the deliverance that is spoken of as the occasion of the Christian’s expectation. What believers are looking for is the day of God. It is mentioned in verse 10 as breaking in as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. This is the day towards which all things move. It is also the day wherein, or by reason of which, the heavens will dissolve in fire and the elements of earth melt with fervent heat. Peter supplies a vivid description of this dissolution. The heavens will pass away with a cracking crash, a sudden, sizzling, spluttering roar. The earth will disintegrate to flames. The advance of scientific knowledge, so far from casting doubt upon the possibility of such a catastrophe, merely serves to underline its literal likelihood. Was not this what our Lord himself declared: “Heaven and earth shall pass away”? This, then, is the occasion of the Christian’s expectation. He looks for the coming day of God, with all its attendant terrors for the wicked.
The Substance
But for the righteous there is something beyond the scene of destruction. They look for a new future. In verse 13 we find the second indication of what believers look for. Here is the substance of the Christian’s expectation. “Nevertheless we—in contrast to the unbelievers—look for new heavens and a new earth.” There are two words in the Bible for new. One means that which has just been called into being, as we speak of a newborn baby. But if we are thinking of what is new not under the aspect of time but of quality, another adjective must be commandeered, and it this that occurs here. It means that which is new contrasted with that which is worn out. Our Lord employs it to speak of a new garment and new bottles. Archbishop Trench said that it carries with it a sense of the unwonted. It speaks of that which is utterly different from anything that has been known before. The tomb in which our Lord lay was new in this aspect. It was not necessarily recently hewn, but it had never been used until that day.
We learn from Hebrews that the present heavens and earth will perish and wax old like a garment. God will eventually fold them up like a vesture, and they will be exchanged for that which is brand-new and unique. The substance of the Christian’s expectation is not renewed heavens and earth, but new heavens and earth. It is not the old article renovated; it is a totally new creation. “For, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth,” says the Lord in Isaiah 65:17, “and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
This is the promise which forms the ground of our hope. “To look for anything which God has not promised,” declared Matthew Henry, “is presumption.” But when we have the assurance of his Word, we can be confident that it will come to pass. The scoffers may ridicule and ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” but God will vindicate himself and his people. It is in mercy that God prolongs the age of grace. He is not slack concerning his promise, as some make out. He is long-suffering towards all mankind and unwilling that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
How we need to cling to this blessed disclosure of his will and purpose in these testing days! Never was there a time when more scorn was poured upon the evangelical doctrines of our Lord’s return. Never was it more unfashionable, even in ecclesiastical circles, to profess attachment to this testimony. Never was it easier for men to buttress their rejection of God’s revelation with ill-digested arguments from prevalent science. Never did it seem more cultured and clever and up-to-date to decry the Scripture message concerning the end. Never was it harder for true believers to hold on in faith and hope and love. “Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Sin banished, Satan bound, and Christ the righteous King in recognized command—this is the vision that spurs us on.
The Incentive
It leads the apostle to his next consideration. Those who now abide in Christ anticipate that righteousness which is the hallmark of the new heavens and earth. It is not a righteousness of their own, for all our righteousness is as filthy rags. It is the righteousness of Christ himself, imputed to us at the Cross when we were justified by faith alone, but also imparted to us through the Holy Spirit as we grow in grace. So the third “look for” has to do with the incentive of the Christian’s expectation (v. 14). This takes up the theme of verse 11. It would appear that the false teachers had divorced the Christian hope from the Christian life. As Dr. Paul S. Minear effectively puts it: “The victorious Christ had become the object of hope: the crucified Lord was no longer its source and ground and motive power. The hope of glory was therefore separated from the transfiguration wrought by Christ in the Christian.” Now that is a constant peril to those who hold the Advent truth. We must see to it that all who claim allegiance to the blessed hope are endeavoring after the blessed life. Peter says that we must be diligent to this end.
Something that C. S. Lewis wrote in his book on Christian Behaviour is relevant to the issue involved here. “Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.… It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
This diligence, according to the apostle, is to be exercised in order that we may be found of (or by) Christ at his return living in peace, without spot or blemish. In 2:13 the libertine mockers of the faith are called spots and blemishes. Christians are to be just the opposite, so Peter puts a negative in front of each of those repulsive terms and urges his readers to make it their eager aim to be discovered by Christ when he comes as unspotted and unblemished. Those same words are used of the Lord Jesus himself in 1 Peter 1:19 where he reminds us that we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” We are to be as he is in the world. We can be found in him at the end only as we live in him now. “In Christ” should be the Christian’s permanent address. This alone will enable us to weather the mortal storm in these atomic times.
That stalwart evangelical scholar, Principal James Denney of Glasgow, had little patience with any sort of woolly mysticism. He suspected those who talked about being lost in God without reference to the essential mediacy of His Son. He used to affirm trenchantly: “I would rather be found in Christ than lost in God.” We have found Christ because he first found us. May we also be found in him, so that when he comes in power and great glory we shall be found of him without blame.
Awards For Best Sermons On Human Destiny
Universalism with its profoundly unbiblical thesis that all men are already saved is sweeping Protestantism. To arouse active concern over this distorted “gospel” which cuts the nerve of both evangelism and missions, CHRISTIANITY TODAY announces a stimulating venture. More than $1,000 will be awarded for relevant sermons (abridged to 2,500 words in written form) that (1) expose the fallacies of this contemporary movement and (2) faithfully expound the biblical revelation of man’s final destiny and the ground and conditions of his redemption. Selection of winners will be by CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S editorial readers, whose decisions will be final. First, second, and third place awards of $500, $250, and $125, respectively, will he paid upon publication of the sermons. The editors reserve the right to publish two additional manuscripts selected for fourth and fifth place awards of $75 each. All rights to winning manuscripts become magazine property.
All entries must be original sermons actually preached to a congregation sometime during 1962. Two typewritten, doubles-paced copies of each submitted sermon should be postmarked to the Washington office of CHRISTIANITY TODAY no later than December 31, 1962. No manuscript will be returned unless a self-addressed, stamped envelope accompanies the entry. Attached to each sermon (both copies) should be a cover page giving the contributor’s name, address, and present station of service.
