1. Hope and holiness (13-16)

• We are called to be holy. Objectively, we are moving toward climactic holiness in the new heaven and the new earth. So align your conduct now with this ultimate hope, Christian! Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus is revealed at his coming!

2. The Father and holiness (17)

• What draws us toward holiness? The commanding, demanding judgment of the Father which completely fills us, in a certain sense, with anticipation, and in another sense, with fear. God holds us to account and yet provides us with a name we can call upon: we call upon our Father. Fear and reverence for this Father do not drive us from him, but toward him, in obedience to him.

3. Jesus Christ and holiness (18-21)

• As we grow in grace and in our estimation of the worth of Christ, we are increasingly broken by the horror of our sin, by the shame of it, the ugliness of it, and that only Christ’s death was sufficient to pay for. The focusing on the death of Christ becomes in itself a God-given means to pursue holiness. Not to pursue holiness is to despise and insult the inestimable value of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.

4. The Word of God and holiness (22-2:3)

• The very gospel that was declared to Peter’s readers is the word of the Lord that stands forever. Adherence to the gospel is adherence to that which endures forever. The same cannot be said of adherence to a political system or an economic theory or professional advancement. That which has transformed us and granted us new life from God himself has not been physical impregnation, but spiritual new birth, brought about by the enduring word of God. HOLINESS?

I received a tremendous amount of help in this sermon from resources by D.A. Carson, Karen Jobes, and Kevin DeYoung.