What Causes Someone to Live a Godly Life? – Lessons from 2 Peter 2:5-9

Colossians 2:13 tells us, “¹³ When you were dead ^[a]in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,” This forgiveness is something that we have. Because of the cross, God is able to righteously forgive and cleanse us of our sins.

The ball is now in our court. Do you receive what he has done? The gospel is about faith through grace. God is not withholding forgiveness from us until we do enough good deeds. It is a gift of grace. When we believe in God, He saves us and we are forgiven.

What causes us to live a holy life? Some think that if we preach that we have been completely forgiven, people will live an ungodly lifestyle. So the enemy has these false fences around the gospel of Grace to scare people away. The truth is that when you know you have been forgiven, you will live godly.

2 Peter 2:5-9 give an amazing list of character qualities such as: diligence, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. As it lists these amazing attributes Paul explains what it takes to get these things. In verse nine he says, “⁹ For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”

Now what is the reason some do not have these great qualities? Because they have forgotten they have been forgiven from their sins. It is the very fact that we know we have been forgiven that we are set free. What is this purification from our sins? This is talking about how we have been cleansed from our sins. Because of the cross, we are under a waterfall of forgiveness.

What I love about this passage is how he explains to us about how Peter is ultimately saying, “stop living in the past.” Of all of the disciples of Jesus, he would have had a hard time forgiving himself. Here he had denied Jesus multiple times and had to realize God’s true heart. He realizes that God had forgiven him of his sins. That is what changed his and that will change your life.

What causes us to have self-control, moral excellence, and godliness? Remembering that you have been forgiven. It is that the very fact that you have been forgiven that causes our lives to change. We don’t realize how good God really is. We think that if we do enough, then God will love me.