The Weekly Perspective
by Burke Shade, Associate Pastor
“…even denying the Master who bought them…” — from 2 Peter 2:1
This phrase, while a monumental theological brain teaser, is a great passage to encourage you to persevere in faithfulness and love for Jesus and his church.
How so? Well, it can’t be true that the decretally elect would deny Jesus who ransomed them on the cross. What good is the decree, then? It isn’t everlasting, because these people, by denying the Master who bought/ransomed them, bring destruction upon themselves three ways in the context: destructive heresies, which bring destruction upon these persons, a destruction which is not far away in time, v. 3. Most don’t believe the decretally elect are subjects of destruction.
So Peter must be talking about covenantal destruction, not decretal. About destruction of people who are in covenant with God but then who reject those covenantal blessings by being a false prophet and teacher among the church, teaching heresies that destroy people and cause them to fall away, heresies that even destroy themselves in the end, v. 1e. These are people in the church who have suffered shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19), and have fallen away or are in the process as they prey on the sheep of the church. These are the Christians who haven’t been “diligent to confirm their calling and election…” (2 Peter 1:10). Like King Saul, like Judas (v. 20-22), like the guy in 1 Corinthians 5.
Peter is warning his audience, and you, to watch out for these false teachers, and to live by what is revealed (Deuteronomy 29:29), not by their false teachings. To live by what Peter the Apostle is teaching in chapter 1, versus their misleading beliefs.
In short, he doesn’t want you to deny Jesus your Lord who bought you with his ransoming death. He wants you to proclaim him, and live by His Word!