What's the Big Deal About Walking Away from Jesus...Can it Be THAT Bad?

No one expects Peter to begin his letter with an earthshattering statement. But he does.

He opens his second letter purposely using a specific undeniable grammatical construction that shakes the ground under every reader who understands what he is doing. Using this linguistic grammatical structure...

Peter claims that Jesus is God!

In 2 Peter 1:1, Peter uses a Koine Greek grammar rule, (what grammarians have termed the Granville Sharp Rule) to present A Grand and Sharp Divine View of the Role of Jesus. At the very beginning of his letter Peter presents a quaking declaration of Jesus’ full and unmistakable identity of divinity that reverberates throughout the rest of his letter.

The rule is simple: In Koine Greek, when a single definite article-(“the”) connects two singular, personal nouns joined by καί (“and”), those nouns refer to one person. That’s a rule!

Peter uses it in the opening line of his letter:

“Our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (1:1)

τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

The two nouns that Peter equates as one are God and Savior, and the one person to whom they refer is Jesus Christ. (See the illustration.) Noted occurrences of the Granville Sharp rule are located in the following verses - Acts 20:28; Gal 2:20; Eph 5:5; Col 2:2; 2 Thess 1:12; Titus 2:13; 1 John 5:20; & Jude 4.

Peter isn’t hinting. He isn’t implying. He isn’t being poetic. He is being precise, intentional, grammatical and unapologetic. One definite article governing two nouns is a purposeful way to identify those two nouns as a single, unified person or object. In this case, “God” and “Savior” are united in the one definite person of Jesus Christ. That is a Grand rule! A Grand Rule that gives us a Sharp View of Jesus as the divine God and Savior!

To an English reader today, the phrase may seem subtle and most likely unnoticeable. To a Greek reader in Peter’s day, it is a very clear, grand cataclysmic introductory bombshell. Peter begins his letter with this theological earthquake. And because this grammatical rule is so important to the entirety of Peter’s letter, it is worth double citation:

“Our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (1:1)

τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ  σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

the God of us and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is not a passing phrase. It is the decisive theological anchor of the entire letter. It is cutting edge-Sharp. Everything Peter will say in the rest of his letter— about growth, false teachers, the future, and daily life — is in Sharp focus on this single Grand reality: Jesus is God. Not “like God.” Not “sent by God.” Not “reflecting God.” He is God. That is a Grand and Sharp focus on Jesus as God. That is exactly what the Granville Sharp Rule states.

This earthshaking grammatical construction gives us A Grand and Sharp View of the Role of Jesus: He is the God who saves, the very God Israel confesses throughout the Old Testament. The titles Peter uses in his letter — “God” and “Savior” — are titles Yahweh reserves only for Himself:

• “I, the LORD, am your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:3)

• “Besides Me there is no Savior.” (Isaiah 43:11)

• “I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:5)

Peter places both these titles squarely on the shoulders of Jesus by using one simple grammatical rule that rocks the page. That's not subtle or unnoticeable. That’s purposeful and intentional identification.

Peter’s letter is driven by an urgency of a genuine pastoral crisis: He is writing to a believing community consisting of various groups struggling in their faith at various levels of weakness: some "lacking spiritual growth" (1:9), some "barely escaping living in error"(2:18), some contemplating "forsaking the way" (2:15), some who have "forgotten the forgiveness of their sins" (1:9), and some even "denying their Master who bought them" (2:1) and have walked away from the God-Jesus.

Those community congregants who have walked away from Jesus cannot be categorized as merely immoral non-believers. No, they are believers who have drifted so far away from Jesus, they now have reached a stage where they have become blind to the divine identity of the One from whom they have walked away to the point of even forgotten that they have been forgiven of their sins.

Peter writes because he knows the truth they do not: abandoning Jesus is abandoning God.

Peter begins his letter with Jesus Himself, with a grandly-divine and sharply-in-focus Jesus so that the weight of his warnings could be understood by those who might be asking What's the Big Deal About Walking Away from Jesus...Can it Be THAT Bad? Peter has an opinion on that!

Peter begins speaking to his audience in this way and continues this way throughout his letter. Peter never changes audience participants. That is, he speaks to the same community throughout the letter, a community that, from the beginning of his letter to the end, knows (ἐπίγνωσις/ἐπιγινώσκω) Jesus: a community who has “been granted a faith of equal standing to all other believers” (1:1) and are encouraged to continue to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (3:18).

The understanding we gain from Peter's use of "know" (ἐπίγνωσις/ἐπιγινώσκω) is that since the audience participants never change throughout the letter, the false teachers who Peter warns in chapter 3 know Jesus personally because they are part of that believing community who were granted equal faith in chapter 1.

That means the faith of those whom Peter warns in chapter 3 is equal to the faith of those Peter blesses in chapter 1. The audience of chapter 3 is from within that believing community he addresses in chapter 1. They are not outsiders dabbling in doctrinal or moral error. They are believing Christians who have become spiritually ineffective and unproductive (1:9). They are believers who have drifted away from a growing mindset and chose to walk away from a relationship with Jesus altogether (2:1). And because Jesus is God, walking away from a relationship with Him is walking away from a relationship with God Himself, the One who granted them faith in the first place.

That is why the stakes in are so high for Peter. That is why it is a BIG DEAL.

Having laid the foundation in 1:1 of Jesus' divinity, Peter then builds a more detailed model of Jesus’ divine activity in the rest of the chapter: He characterizes Jesus in a way that only God is characterized:

• Jesus shares in the divine bestowal of grace and peace (1:2).

• Jesus possesses divine power (1:3).

• Jesus grants life and godliness — something only God can do (1:3).

• Jesus’ divine nature allows believers to partake of His divine nature (1:4).

• Knowing Jesus produces godliness (1:8). How else is godliness produced if not by God

• Jesus rules an eternal kingdom (1:11). Only God is eternal.

By the time we reach verse 11, Peter has already introduced Jesus as God, Savior, Life‑Giver, Mediator of divine nature, and Eternal King. This is not a casual introduction. It is an earth‑shaking theological declaration that should rattle the cage of anyone who asks, “What’s the big deal about walking away from Jesus? Can it be THAT bad?” Peter's answer is, "Yes — it definitely can." Because when one walks away from a relationship with Jesus, one walks away from a relationship with God.

Because when one walks away from a relationship with Jesus, one walks away from the One who possesses and imparts the greatest blessings of all:

• every blessing of grace and peace He offers, (1:2)

• the life and godliness His divine power grants, (1:3)

• the participation in His divine nature, (1:4)

• the granting of His great and precious promises, (1:4)

• the provision of a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom He rules. (1:11)

These are not small losses. They are catastrophic losses. Nothing is more devastating than choosing to step outside the kingdom of God, cutting oneself off from faith, grace, peace, and His divine nature He meant us to share. Everything else we fear is small compared to the tragedy of rejecting Him and the abundance of life He freely offers.

So, yes, for Peter, one's relationship with Jesus is a BIG DEAL and the consequences of walking away from him make it a BIG DEAL. There is no bigger deal than walking away from a saving relationship with God. So, yes, it can be THAT bad.