This
week, we are looking at the opening section of a letter that is recorded for us
in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 1 Peter. Yesterday, we
looked on as the Apostle Peter, who
penned this letter in 65 A.D. to Jewish followers of Jesus that found
themselves in what we know today as modern day Turkey by describing these early
followers of Jesus as those who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of
God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and
be sprinkled with His blood. Peter here is revealing for us the reality that,
as followers of Jesus, they had been chosen and drawn by God to experience a
relationship with God by the predetermined plan of God.
Peter pointed
these Jewish followers of Jesus to Jesus death on the cross in their place, for
their rebellion that cleansed and removed their sins. We
discovered that, in the same way
today, as followers of Jesus, we have been chosen by God to experience a
relationship with God as a result of the predetermined plan of God and not
because of our performance. As followers of Jesus, we have been chosen by God
to experience a relationship with God by the transformational intervention and
activity of the Holy Spirit who gives us a new heart and a new spirit within
us.
As followers of Jesus, we have been chosen by God to
experience a relationship with God and to live lives that reveal and reflect
Jesus to the world around us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And as followers
of Jesus, we have been chosen by God to experience a relationship with God
through Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and
rebellion that satisfies God’s right and just
response to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity and removes the guilt
that results from our selfishness and rebellion.
After
describing how these early followers of Jesus were chosen by God to experience
a relationship with God, Peter extended a traditional greeting of grace and
peace. Peter hoped that these early followers of Jesus would experience God's
divine favor in their lives and a state of well being with God that was
continually increasing in their lives. Peter then makes a statement that reveals for us a
powerful and timeless truth when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. So
let’s look at that statement together, beginning in 1 Peter 1:3-5:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to
His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled
and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are
protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.
Now Peter’s
statement, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would
have sounded something like this: “Praise God, who according to His great
kindness and compassion that He has expressed to us in our greatest need has
caused us to experience a spiritual birth that results in us experiencing a
certain and sure hope for the future through Jesus life, death, and
resurrection." Now the phrase, has caused us, is passive and is past
tense.
In other
words, this is something that has already been done to you if you are a
follower of Jesus. You have already been born again. The phrase "born
again" is the idea of being born from above. To be born again is a
figurative phrase used to describe the spiritual birth of followers of Jesus
into new life in relationship with Jesus. As Jesus pointed out in a
conversation that is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible
called the gospel of John, being born again, being born from above is not
something you do. To be born again, to be born from above is something that the
Spirit of God does to you.
In addition,
when Peter uses the phrase living hope, he is revealing to followers of Jesus
throughout history that God's transformational activity and intervention in
history through Jesus life, death, and resurrection results in a new life in
relationship with Jesus and a confident expectation for the future that is
certain and sure. Then, in verse 4,
Peter explained to these early followers of Jesus that this confident
expectation for the future that is certain and sure that flows from God's
activity in history through Jesus that brings them into relationship with Jesus
provides them an inheritance as a part of the family of God.
Peter stated
that this inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away. When
Peter uses the word imperishable, this word refers to something that is
impervious to corruption and death. In addition, when Peter uses the word
undefiled, this word refers to something that is pure. And when Peter uses the
phrase will not fade away, this phrase conveys the sense of something that does
not lose its quality or character.
Peter's
point is that the inheritance we possess as a result of our relationship with
Jesus is incorruptible, is pure, and is unfading in its character or quality.
Now a natural question that could arise here is "Well Dave how could this
inheritance be so certain and secure that it is incorruptible, pure, and
unfading?" Peter provides the answer to that question in the last half of
verse 4 by explaining that this inheritance is "reserved in Heaven for
you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time.”
In other
words, this inheritance is preserved in its incorruptible, pure, and unfading condition
in Heaven for followers of Jesus to experience in the future. However, notice
what Peter states in verse 5: "who are protected by the power of God
through faith." The phrase who are protected is passive. In other words
this is not something you do to you. This is something that is done to you.
And what is
done to you is that God is guarding, protecting, and providing security for
followers of Jesus. And how God is guarding, protecting, and providing security
for followers of Jesus is through faith. The word faith here refers to a state
of confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. Notice
that Peter does not say by your faith. Instead Peter states through faith. In
other words, faith is not a work that we do for God. Faith is placing our
confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus life, death, and
resurrection.
Peter's point is that God is
actively at work to guard, protect, and provide security, through our trust in
what God has done for us through Jesus, so that we would experience the incorruptible, pure, and unfading
inheritance that He has in store for us in Heaven. In addition, when Peter states that this inheritance as a part of the family of God
is protected for a salvation to be revealed in the last time, he is revealing
for us the reality that at the end of God’s story here on earth, as Jesus ushers in the kingdom of heaven in its fullest
sense, the incorruptible, pure and unfading inheritance that has protected by
the power of God through faith will be made fully known to followers of Jesus
throughout history as they receive that inheritance.
And in the
same way today, as followers of Jesus, God's transformational activity and
intervention in history through Jesus life, death, and resurrection results in
a new life in relationship with Jesus and a confident expectation for the
future that is certain and sure. As followers
of Jesus, we possess an inheritance as a child of God who is a part of the
family of God.
An
inheritance that is incorruptible, is pure, and is unfading in its character or
quality. An inheritance that is preserved for followers of Jesus to experience
in the future: An inheritance that God is actively at
work to guard, protect, and provide security for: An inheritance that will be made fully known when Jesus returns to defeat
selfishness, sin and death and to usher in the kingdom of heaven in its fullest
sense. Peter then
transitions to address the current circumstances that these early followers of
Jesus found themselves in.
We will look at those circumstances Friday...
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