Peter exhorts his readers to have utmost confidence in the Word of God. The Word is totally reliable, completely sure, absolutely certain. Peter uses himself as an example of one who places his confidence in the Word above all other testimonies to the veracity of God, Christ, and salvation in Christ, including his own.
He was an eyewitness of Christ’s glory! He saw with his own eyes that Christ was the Son of God. He knew the Gospel to be true from his own sighting! He also heard God’s voice from heaven declaring approval of His Son with his own two ears! (1:16-18). However, Peter urges believers not to base their confidence in the Gospel chiefly upon his eye-witness testimony.
Peter urges, “Don’t take my testimony as your foundational certainty! Go straight to the Word, read it, and believe it!” “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (1:19). Let Peter’s admonishment sink in. In other words, he declares, “Don’t just take my word for it, read the Word yourself!”
Why does Peter default to the Word and submit his own experience to the certainty of the Word? Because the Word comes straight from God. Peter’s testimony, as with any man’s testimony, removes the hearer one step. Peter is saying, “Don’t go through me, go straight to the Word!” “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (1:21). Since Peter also wrote Scripture, he would possibly say, “What I say about Christ is indeed reliable, but what I have written about Christ is ABSOLUTELY certain!”
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