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Well, I'm excited about this year we're going to spend together doing the gospel one chapter at a time. This year, we're going to spend in 1 Peter, and I just love, love 1 Peter. I mean I actually love the whole Bible; but there's something particularly sweet and important about this passage of Scripture for our generation of believers. Maybe I’ll say it this way, I am absolutely convinced you will find yourself in 1 Peter; you'll find your questions in 1 Peter; you'll find your struggles in 1 Peter; you'll find some riches that maybe you didn't know were yours in 1 Peter. In many ways, I think that this little letter is very modern, contemporary. Here's why.

Peter’s writing to Gentiles, Gentiles living in regions; if you put them together are now what we would call, Turkey. And these Christians are suffering. There's no evidence that they're suffering government-decreed persecution or persecution that’s physical. But they're in a place and a culture where their faith is misunderstood, where they're facing religious discrimination, feeling under threat, mocked and verbally abused. And I think that's much like the conditions we're living in now where Christianity is largely misunderstood, not respected, and it feels like it's under threat.

And in that kind of culture, Peter is addressing the question, “What is the most dangerous thing for a Christian living in this kind of culture?” And you would think his answer would be, “Well, it's an increasing threat against Christianity.” That's not his answer. His answer is the most dangerous thing is “identity amnesia.” The most dangerous thing for a Christian living in that kind of culture, the one that we're living in, is that you would forget who you are in Christ and forget what you've been given in Christ, because you haven't just been forgiven, you've been given a brand-new identity. And so, Peter wants you to understand the value, the importance, the radical transforming power of understanding your identity in Christ.

And so, this little letter is marked by ten identity statements:  elect exiles, living stones, holy priesthood, spiritual house, chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for God's possession, sojourners, Christians, then, in Christ. Now, if you want to understand the importance of those, well, 2 Peter, chapter 1, really tells you. Peter is asking the question, “Why are people ineffective and unproductive in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't believers have the full harvest of the fruit of faith in their lives?”

And his answer is, these are interesting words because, “They're near sighted and blind, having forgotten that they've been cleansed from their past sins.” (Paraphrase.) Peter says, “They're not producing fruit that you would expect to be in a life of believer because they've forgotten who they are.” If you're going to live well in this generation, you need to be living out of your new identity in Christ. You need to know who you are, and in knowing who you are, know what you've been given in Christ. I think it's terribly, terribly important.

I'm so excited that we can go through this portion of Scripture that has, as a central theme, this issue of this new identity that is ours in Christ. Peter has a whole lot of other things to say to us, but they're all connected to, “This is who you are as a child of God.” I hope you'll hang in with me for this next year as we work our way through the treasures that are in this little letter.