Conduct yourselves with fear, knowing that you were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:17-19)

"And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."  (1 Peter 1:17-19; ESV)

What you think about a thing determines what you do with it.

If I showed you a cup that had become a family heirloom, which I explained to you had both intense nostalgic value, and which after becoming lost, my grandfather paid thousands of dollars to retrieve it, and I presented it to you to handle, what would you do with it? I think the way you handled it would be vastly different than if you thought that cup was simply bought for a dollar at the local supermarket. You would handle that cup with carefulness, with reverence, and with fear, knowing how much value it had been given, because of the price that was paid for it.

In 1 Peter 1:17 we are told to "conduct yourselves with fear", and following immediately after speaking of our Father who "judges impartially according to one's deeds", we might assume Peter is speaking of that kind of terror of judgement, that trembling of appearing in the holy court room, which we have commonly heard about. However, Peter's sentence doesn't stop at verse 17, but he further explains why we are to conduct ourselves with fear, because we know God has ransomed us with the precious blood of Christ. I think it is the kind of fear which is more like the handling of that cup given a value beyond obvious comprehension. We do not flee in terror, but are drawn to it in marvel and awe, and yet very carefully, very hesitantly. As we think about our lives, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we handle ourselves with great care. Because we know that if God would judge us only on our own merits, we would suffer deservedly his terrible wrath. And yet, nevertheless, he gave his one and only Son, that Christ's death--his precious blood--was the ransom-price to redeem as from our slavery in sin.

If that is what we think about our life, what will we do with it?

Noah as a new Adam: Creation Redemption and Renewal

I was just reading the account of Noah again (see Genesis 6-9). The echoes of Adam and the creation account are very strong. Once again there is only water, a great deep over the face of the whole earth. Out of that water God brings a new beginning to life, to repopulate the world. God's covenant with Noah has the familiar words "be fruitful and multiply" as well as the familiar idea of dominion.

But there are also some striking differences.

In the case of Noah there is a new sense of hope. Never again will God send a flood to destroy the earth, or curse the ground for man's sake, even though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21-22, 9:11-16). The first creation account carried the gloomy shadow of the curse. At the very beginning of this renewed creation, the LORD covenants not to curse. This is a better covenent!

After the first creation account, the reign of death also begins, and there is a marring of the whole scene by the black marks of Cain killing Abel (Gen. 4:1-15), and Lamech's murderous boastings (Gen. 4:23-24). This culminates in God sending the flood to purge a world filled with violence (Gen. 6:11-13). And significantly, in this new creation account, from the beginning God pre-empts murder and violence with strong explicit law, not present in the first creation account (Gen. 9:5-7). The prospect of a better creation!

But at the end of this new creation account, there is failure again, as the creation is disfigured by th shame of sin and curse (Gen. 9:20-25). While there are clear pictures in this account of redemption and renewal, of God healing the creation he loves, rather than completely abandoning it, Noah is not the true answer to problems of humanity. The continuing presence of sin in the world after Noah tells use that something even better is still to come. The account of Noah is not the end of God's work of redemption, but only the beginnings of showing us what really needs to happen.

Now in our age we have the privilege of seeing more fully what God had in store the whole time, of what is and will be perfectly accomplished in Christ. And so we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, as we say "Come, Lord Jesus!"