Last week we discussed what we called "imperatives of the gospel." It is common in the New Testament epistles for the authors to move from the indicative (all that is true about the gospel) to the imperative (how the gospel plays out in our lives). This week, we will be sticking to the imperatives as we wrestle with Peter's call to holiness in 1 Peter 1:14-16. One thing to keep in mind as we continue on in our study of 1 Peter is that God's act of sanctifying us is a loving work of grace in our lives. The more one understands God’s loving work in sanctification, the more they will desire it. In book III of Calvin’s Institutes, Calvin refers to these doctrines as a double grace: “we principally receive a double grace: namely, that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s spirit we may cultivate blamelessness and purity of life.” I think this terminology is extremely helpful to us in that it emphasizes the grace of God in sanctification.

Works done for the glory of God are in and of themselves a gracious gift of God. In view of Paul’s teaching in Romans 3, we are completely and utterly dead in sin. The reality that God would work in us in such a way that we can now please him with our lives is nothing short of spectacular! There is perhaps no more beautiful wording in all of literature that connects this truth with the human heart than that of the famous hymn we sung two weeks ago written by Augustus Toplady: “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.” The joyous plea in the hymn is for the “double cure” of God’s salvific work whereby he changes the believer’s status in justification and renews him after the character of God in sanctification.