If you have ever driven by my house, you may have noticed a red Volkswagen Van sitting there in my driveway. Madison and I purchased this van and a 1990s model Subaru Outback several years ago. We pulled the engine out of the Subaru and intended to put that motor into the Volkswagen Van. “Why would you do that?”, you might ask. First of all, the Volkswagen did not have a motor in it when we purchased it. The Subaru motor is far better than the Volkswagen motor. It has more power and is more reliable. Madison researched and purchased a complete kit to do the engine swap. The kit she purchased has every bracket, nut, and bolt to complete the project. The kit consists of about eight large boxes of parts. It is everything you need to put a Subaru motor into a Volkswagen Van. If you open up my garage, you will see all those boxes sitting on my garage floor. They are in the same place they have been sitting for the past several years.
Even though I have everything I need for Madison to own a running Volkswagen Van with a Subaru motor, what I actually have is a giant paperweight because I have yet to fully utilize the parts that I possess to transform that van from a hotel for yellow jackets into an adventure on wheels. I have not yet taken advantage of all the parts and tools I currently possess to complete the project.
You and I are like this Volkswagen that is sitting in my driveway. Look at what the Apostle Peter says as he is sitting in prison, most likely looking at the end of his life closing in.
2 Peter 1:1-4 (CSB)—Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
God’s power, shown to us through Jesus, has given us the full conversion kit. Every bracket, nut and bolt has been included. We are complete in Christ. We have everything we need for an abundant life and a Godly life.
Peter’s words are especially significant when you think about the fact that Peter knows what he is talking about. He’s been there. He’s made the mistakes. He’s doubted his abilities and his value. He’s felt shame and the weight of bad decisions. I can identify with that. And now, looking back on his life, he says, “Understand what I have learned.; You are now complete in Christ.”
Peter address his letter: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
If you have given your life to Jesus, if you believe that He is the only Son of God, sent to earth to pay the price for your sin and my sin by dying on the cross but defeating sin and death by rising three days later. If you believe that and have received the free gift of forgiveness and new life that God offers you, then this letter from Peter is addressed to you.
Notice that Peter is not telling us that everything we need for life and godliness will be given to us. No, he says, everything we need to live an abundant, fulfilled life—and everything we need to live like Christ—has already been given to us.
That means you don’t have to earn it because it is already yours.
You might be thinking, “But I don’t feel like I’m living an abundant, godly life. What I read here and what I’m experiencing are different things.”
You have to read the rest of what Peter says:
2 Peter 1:5-10 (CSB)—For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.
I have every bracket, nut, and bolt to make that Volkswagen Van an adventure on wheels. Now, all I need to do is put all those pieces in the correct places on the van. Then I will be able to finally sit in the drivers seat, turn the key and not just imagine what it will be like when that van is out of my driveway. It will be a reality.
Peter does not suggest adding anything to your salvation. Your faith in Jesus is what saves you, but if you want to be effective and fruitful in your relationship with Jesus, you need to put some nuts and bolts into place.
Peter says you need to hold onto your faith but supplement it with goodness. This is moral excellence—not just being willing to walk near the boundary of morality but pursuing moral excellence. This means that the darkness of our culture portrayed on our screens, in song lyrics, or even in the questionable jokes at school or in the break room at work has no place in our lives.
Then he says, add to goodness, knowledge. Seek to understand God’s character, His heart for you, and the incredible promises in His Word. When we pursue moral excellence, instead of filling our lives with garbage, we have room to take in the Word.
Knolwledg is beneficial, however, only if it leads us to love God and the people around us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
Next, he says, add to that self-control. Self-control is restraint exercised over one’s own impulses, emotions, or desires. Something that is certainly lacking in our culture. Our culture says if you want something, you should have it, even if you can’t afford it. Just borrow the money. We are all about instant gratification. Someone cuts you off in traffic, at the very least honk your horn and give them the finger.
AAA reports a 500% increase in reported cases of road rage over the last 10 years. A total of 12,610 injuries and 218 murders have been attributed to road rage over seven years in the United States. Learn how to exercise control over your impulses, emotions, and your desires instead of allowing them to control you.
In 1 Cor 9:27 Paul says, “I beat my body into submission so that I will be an effective witness when sharing the gospel.”
When you do this, instead of fixating on instant gratification, you will be able, Peter says, to add endurance. The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. Experiencing the fruit of your relationship with Jesus doesn’t require speed, it requires endurance.
In his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson says:
“There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”
Being good at anything, mastering any skill, takes an investment that requires endurance. Developing godliness, the next thing Peter says to add, is no exception. Knowing Jesus and becoming more like Him and learning to love Him is the goal of our faith.
That is why our purpose statement here at New Hope begins with the phrase, “We exist to know God.”
Godliness then leads us to love. When we know Him and pursue Him to become like Him, we are really saying we are learning to love people like Jesus showed us how to love.
This is a self-sacrificing brand of love that puts the needs of others ahead of our own needs. Peter says add that kind of love for those who are, number one, already a part of the Body of Christ, and then for the people who are a part of your circle of influence.
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Here is what I do not want you to walk away with today. I am not saying, “Just work harder. ” You’re not good enough, so pursue goodness, self-control, and godliness, and work harder at being better. That mindset only leads to frustration and exhaustion.
It’s not about simply working harder so you can impress God or impress the people around you.
What I am saying is that if you know Jesus as your Lord, you are not a pauper. You are a son or a daughter of the King of Kings. Don’t settle for a pauper’s life. Don’t settle for a life that is less than the life you have been given. The price that was paid for your royalty was too great. The body and the blood of Jesus were given so you might have life and have it in abundance. Don’t squander what you have been given by living as unwise people, Paul says to the Ephesians.
When you settle for less than moral excellence and take your cues for morality from our culture, you are settling for table scraps and leftovers when God has set a table with a seven-course banquet meal for you. Don’t settle for rummaging through the dumpster for your next meal when God has prepared something amazing for you.
But when you compromise morally, you are settling for something less.
When you allow yourself to be controlled by lust and don’t control your passions and desires, then you are playing with pebbles instead of the diamonds that God has given you.
It’s not that God simply wants you to work harder; it’s that He doesn’t want you to miss out on the abundant life. God’s heart is that you would be fruitful and useful and know the full measure of the life you have been given.
Does that require hard work? Yes, but Peter’s point is that you have everything you need for the task—everything you need for life and godliness.
You have everything you need to put all of the nuts and bolts into place. You have the presence of the Holy Spirit in you, you are a new creation, now let’s put this adventure on wheels together and see where God takes us.
Chris Hankel 
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