EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/27/2025 10:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “PT-2 Salvation ‘Substance”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: 2 Peter 1-2
Message of the verse: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;”
Well we finally got through the first verse, and now it is time to begin looking at the second verse from 2 Peter, and in tonight’s SD we will finish looking at this verse as we only got halfway through looking at in last evening’s SD.
I will pick up from where I left off last evening as I was quoting from John MacArthur’s commentary. “All this grace and peace comes in (through) the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. It is not available to those who do not know and wholeheartedly embrace the gospel. Knowledge (epignosis; cf. 1:8; 2:20) is a strengthened form of the basic Greek word for ‘knowledge (gnosis; cf. 1:5, 6; 3:18). It conveys the idea of a full, rich, through subject (cf. Rom. 3:20; 10:2; Eph. 1:17). The substance of one’s salvation is this kind of rational, objective knowledge of God through His Word (cf. John 8:32; 14:6; 17:17; w John 2). This fundamental concept of knowledge was first of all an Old Testament one (cf. Ex. 5:2; Judg. 2:10; 1 Sam. 2:12; Prov. 2:5; Hos. 2:20; 5:4). Paul often used the same word in relation to divine truth (Eph. 1:17; 4:13; Phil. 1:9; Col. 1:9, 10; 2:2; 3:10; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1). The knowledge that brings salvation derives not from feelings, intuition, emotion, or personal experience, but only from the revealed truth, based on the gospel preached in and from the Word: ‘So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ’ (Rom. 10:17; cf. v. 14).
“Salvation requires a genuine knowledge of the person and work of Jesus Christ (cf. Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10). It involves not merely knowing the truth about Him, but actually knowing Him through the truth of His Word (cf. John 20:30-31; 21:24; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; 1 John 5:11-13). Hence Peter closed this letter by exhorting his believing readers, who already possessed that saving knowledge, to ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (3:18). Knowing the Lord in salvation is the starting point. The rest of the believer’s life is a pursuit of greater knowledge of the glory of the Lord and His grace. Paul said that was his passionate pursuit; ‘That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death’ (Phil. 3:10). He also made it clear that being consumed with the glory of his Lord was the means by which the Holy Spirit transformed him into Christlikeness (2 Cor. 3:18).”
Lord will in tomorrow evening’s SD we will begin to look at “Salvation’s Sufficiency” from 2 Peter 1:3-4).
9/27/2025 10:27 PM
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