The Inward Reality of Christian Submission: 1 Peter 2:16-20

My grandma loved the worst stuff. She had a passion for it. And she was zealous in her regard for the worst things, always trying to educate me on the how I should like them with her, particularly at meal time. ‘You should eat your broccoli,’ she would say, ‘it’s the best part.’ She was convinced that potato peels, lima beans, and bread crusts were the standout of any meal they were involved in. Deep down I was sad for her. Could she really be so confused as to think those were the best part of the meal? As a parent with particular kids, I understand what she was trying to do; it was some kind of attempt at misdirection and coercion. The trouble was, I knew she was wrong.

But the Lord never gets things wrong, and though we might not have a taste for the things he calls right and good, he is not aiming at misdirection or coercion to get us to do what he wants. What he calls us to is true wisdom for our lives. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:13-14 to, ‘Be subject… to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him.’ Submission is a part of following Christ, not just in our submission to Christ, but to those authorities who are over us in the government (14), in the workplace (18), and as wives relate to their husbands (3:1). And this list in 1 Peter is not exhaustive, certainly we could think of other areas where we are called to live submissive lives (and we should).

As we saw in our previous study, our submission to these institutions has an outward effect; as worship of God, and as a testimony to the world. But not all of the effect is outward, Peter goes on to tell us here that our submission really is good for us. It serves us in our lives as well. Though we may not always see it as the ‘best part,’ It is clear in this text that our submission is doing something for us too.

Submission proves our freedom

As a kid, was there anything better than Saturday? It felt like the ultimate freedom. No alarm clock, nowhere to be, just the day in front to do whatever with. When we think of freedom, we often think of that kind of freedom; the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want to do it. And so we often apply the freedom that we have in the gospel to that definition of freedom; license to live however we want.

However, this is a misunderstanding of true freedom. True freedom is the ability to act according to something bigger than ourselves. To be set free to act in a standard. A compass, for example, is not a restriction to freedom. It provides more freedom. It gives the freedom to travel more directly, more quickly, and more safely. Freedom in Christ works much the same way. Consider how Peter uses freedom in verse 16; we are commanded to ‘Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.’ Notice Peter’s connection; living as free people is to live as a servant of God. Freedom leads to serving a standard; something larger than ourselves. The freedom that we have in Christ has not set us free to disregard God’s standard, but to now live according to it; to serve God.

But that’s not a misdirection. Peter really is saying that true freedom sets us free to obey God rightly. On the one hand, this is because the gospel has freed us, not just from the penalty of sin, but the power of it too. Our sin nature kept us from obedience before we were saved. We were totally depraved, unable to serve and obey God at all. We were not sinful to the full capacity of the deepest, darkest areas of sinfulness, but we were totally unable to please God with our lives. We now have the freedom to obey God because of our regeneration and spiritual rebirth that has given us new hearts and new affections for God’s standard.

But in addition to that, God has given us freedom in the gospel by calling us his children. He has reclaimed our identity; giving us status in Christ Jesus. And that status is not without consequence. In the context of 1 Peter, the identity that we have been given applies to our submission to human institutions. We submit to those institutions out of our new identity because we believe God has given us a new and better status in sonship to him. He has, by extension, freed us from a need to find our worth in status in this world through that new identity in Christ. Therefore, we believe that God has given us all the status we need as his children and we no longer need to appeal to a worldly measuring stick to find our value. We can submit to worldly institutions because we no longer need to fight for our rights to have substance and meaning.

As a result, our submission reveals what we are believing. If we submit freely, it reveals that we believe the gospel has truly given us ultimate satisfaction and status before God; that our most significant rights will not be stolen by surrendering to those in authority over us. This is why Peter tells us to ‘live as people who are free.’ We are already free and cannot create our freedom in the way we live. Our freedom has already been declared. We are to believe the gospel and live according to it by submitting to those human institutions. And if we find it difficult to submit, it might be because we have not thought or believed the identity we have been given in Christ fully enough, and so we do not live as free. Submission proves our freedom.

Submission promotes pleasure in God

But failing to live in the freedom of the gospel in our submission is not neutral. Rejecting God’s counsel and refusing to submit in the freedom we have been given is costly to us.

Verses 19 says, ‘For this (submission) finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.’ Peter says here that our submission finds favor with God. He mentions it again in vs 20. He is not saying that our favor before God is dictated by our obedience. But he is saying that our intimacy with God is affected by our obedience. Peter tells us, here, that our submission to human institutions causes us to feel the favor of God. When we submit to human institutions, we walk with God in good conscience and feel fellowship with him as his favor with us.

Conversely, if we reject obedience to this charge to submit to human institutions, we do not just resist those over us, we do violence to our relationship with God. No, we certainly do not threaten our salvation through our works. Peter has already said that is guarded for us, in heaven, by God (1:3-5). However, our disobedience in this area, particularly ongoing disobedience, can have the effect of harming our relationship with him in that it jeopardizes our feeling of hope and comfort in the gospel.

This makes sense. After all, when we invest in hope in this world by failing to submit based on our freedom in the gospel, what do expect to receive? How can we be comforted in God’s view of us and the intimacy of such a claim on our lives when we are so intimately concerned with what the world thinks and the identity we can get in it? When we understand the gospel, our submission to human institutions no longer looks like something we detest, but actually serves to reveal and produce something that is good for us; revealing our freedom in Christ and creating intimacy with God.

Questions for Personal Reflection and Application:

1.     There are so many things that we want to be known for in this life. What status or identity in this life do you value highly or want people to know you for? How does the gospel override that status?

2.     Psalm 73 shows the perceived relational damage that our sin has between us and God. Read Psalm 73:21-26. How does the psalmist describe his relationship with God in the midst of his sin in verses 21-22? Where was God during this time according to 23-26? How does this encourage you in your repentance when you fail to submit to God as you should?