Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ: 2 Peter 1:1
A famous saying of Augustine is ‘Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe’. In our text, Peter speaks of something that he calls ‘like precious faith’ that he and his audience have obtained. It’s a lovely expression; let’s examine it.
The first thing about this like precious faith is that it has been obtained. These Christians could not have produced it themselves. They have obtained it by the grace of God, the same as we have obtained it. Because of the love of God, He has given it to us. Because we have obtained it from God, it is ours forever. That is precious.
It is also precious to see the word ‘like’. The same faith that Peter had is ours. He was writing to folks in his day that had the same faith as him, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he was writing to us, too. Every soul that has trusted Christ has the same faith as you and me. What a wonderful, precious fellowship!
So what is faith? We have already seen how Augustine defines it. The writer of Hebrews identifies faith as ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ Hebrews 11:1. Peter is referring to what Luke calls ‘those things which are most surely believed among us (Luke 1:1). The truths of Scripture that we embrace and base our all upon for time and for eternity. – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/TP5NBfZJRHo