On this episode, Spencer and Jack move into the text of 2 Peter 3, a chapter that very much ties together the new creation themes of Genesis, Isaiah, and Paul. Come study this incredible chapter with us and see what God has said about the “new heavens and new earth”.

Music:
“Kid Kodi”
Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue

Show Notes

Episode #43 – New Creation in Peter –
2 Peter 3:11–13

Setting

• Peter is encouraging Christian growth, perseverance, and faithfulness in light of some false teachers. 
• False Teachers:
  • Deny the second coming of Christ, and therefore, the judgment. 
  • So, they live boldly in sin. 
• Peter’s concern will be to encourage Christian living, in light of the coming of Christ and the judgment day. 

Context

• “Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.” (1:4). 
  • “Promises” – heaven; eternal life; “eternal kingdom” (v. 11)
  • “Escape from the corruption that is in the world”
    • Note that Peter does not say we desire to escape the world, but merely the corruption of the world. 
  • “Divine Nature”
    • “Nature” – nature, species, kind, physically, being 
    • Our goal is for our whole selves, not just some spiritual part of us, to be caught up with God. 
    • This idea connects us back with human beings being created in the image of God, but losing that image bearing ability because of sin. 
• Peter connects Christ’s second coming to the Transfiguration (2:16–18)
• Peter compares what will happen to the world when Christ returns to what happened to the world when God sent the flood (3:5–7). 
  • The world “perished” by water during the flood (3:6). 
    • The perishing of the world was not total destruction, but was a cleansing flood, designed to kill/punish the evildoers, while sparing the righteous (i.e., Noah) to inhabit the earth once again. 
    • This connects with earlier statements by Peter about the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah (2:4–10). Peter’s point here is proving that God has a history of destroying the wicked but sparing the righteous (i.e., Noah and Lot). 
• The certainty of God’s promises (3:8–10)
  • The purpose of the fire is to “disclose” “the earth and everything that is done on it.” 
• “We wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” (3:11–13)
• Prophets (3:2) and Paul (3:15)