“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. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”
In the introduction to this study we saw that Peter began with some very matter of fact statements about God’s foreknowledge of those who were His.
Peter told the believers in these regions to which this letter would go that they were chosen by God in accordance with His foreknowledge of them, and we learned that Peter wasn’t just referring to advance knowledge of men and events but a divine foreordination. That’s why he uses the word ‘chosen’. It is why Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose Me but I chose you”. Jn 15:16
This was not like a new coach coming to an existing team and saying to himself, ‘well, this is what I have to work with; might as well make the best of it’. He did the choosing before anyone knew they would be on His ‘team’.
When Paul first went to Corinth he wasn’t there long before he was rejected by the Jews there and went to the Gentiles with the gospel.
During the night the Lord spoke to Paul by a vision, encouraging him to go on with the work and not fear, saying, ‘for I have many people in this city’. (Acts 18:9-10)
Well, humanly speaking He did not yet have many people in that city. But He knew who was His and who He had predestined to respond to the gospel message, and the church thrived there and Paul stayed with them for 18 months before moving on.
As I’ve already noted, Peter makes no effort to defend his doctrine here, he just states matter of factly that they were chosen of God according to His will and for His glory.
Should we be proud that we were chosen for adoption by God? Puffed up maybe? Absolutely not!
We were all children of wrath, we were all dead in trespasses and sins and deserving of eternal separation from God; in fact, separated already and without hope. Listen to Paul writing to the Ephesian Christians (2:1-7)
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Rather than being puffed up that we are saved and going to Heaven, as the church in our society has acted so often over past years, we should be amazed and deeply humbled that He would bestow His grace on sinners such as we. Like the song asks, ‘Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?’ Isaac Watts
Listen folks. Think about those t-shirts and those bumper stickers, please. I’m not knocking them, except that I think bumper stickers devalue a vehicle once they start looking torn and faded. But I do wear the shirts on occasion and I have no place to criticize for that. I’m just asking that you please think about the message you’re sending.
Some of those things make a simple statement of truth that might make another person think and might even inspire comments so you can get a conversation started.
But many of them sound sarcastic, they sound judgmental, they sound haughty and they tend only to intimidate and insult rather than help. Let your life and your words be your testimony. Wear the shirts, but please don’t let them do your witnessing for you and before you buy them try to imagine how their message would come across to someone ignorant of the truth.
A popular bumper sticker some years back said, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”. Well as Christians we know that was supposed to be more of a confession and encouragement than anything.
It was trying to say that we don’t think we’re perfect, we only rejoice that in our imperfection we are forgiven by God.
But I actually heard a non-Christian who read that sticker say, “Well that’s just arrogant. So you’re forgiven and I’m not. Well, whooptie-do!”
Well I’ve harped on stickers and shirts enough. The fact is that the church as an organization has been pretty inventive in the ways she has found to send to the unchurched masses the message that Christians are just better people and because of the things they do they are not as good and are therefore deserving of rejection by us.
There is apparently a widespread ignorance throughout the church of Jesus Christ, of what the Scriptures are really saying about us. Of course we’re going to be haughty if we go along thinking we are saved because when we heard the gospel we lifted our noble heads, shot a clean, well-manicured right hand into the air and proudly declared, ‘sign me up’!
Perhaps the reason people aren’t responding to us like the first century Greeks responded to Paul and the other Apostles is because we’re not making it clear that salvation comes to those who are recipients of God’s mercy and grace alone.
Ok, some responded well and some responded badly. The Apostles suffered for telling the good news. But at least they got some response. Are people doing anything but ignoring us? Probably not. Because very few of us would be willing to be beat up by 10 just for the sake of seeing 1 come to Christ.
MERCY AND GRACE
Well, let’s get into the text. After his initial salutation in verses 1 and 2 Peter breaks into an anthem of praise to God. He just can’t wait. He’s full of praises to God and he is about to tell us why.
“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,…”
Let’s pause to consider that word, ‘mercy’.
We just heard it in those verses from Ephesians when Paul said that God made us alive together with Christ because He is rich in mercy. Peter is saying the same thing here, but first let’s go briefly to Romans 9 and see it again there.
“What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” (Vs 14-16)
So you see, in our backwards thinking we want to challenge the very idea that God is just in choosing some and rejecting others. This is sinful thinking and according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit. Because the response that should come from us would be amazement that in His mercy He would save any!
Has God chosen to predestine some and then call them and justify them and glorify them? Yes! In accordance with His great mercy!
Not because He was somehow required; not because we have a right to demand from Him some behavior in accordance with our twisted assessment of what is fair and what is not, but because He is great in mercy!
Listen. Mercy is not the same as grace.
Grace has to do with guilt. If you have offended me or sinned against me in some way and I forgive you unconditionally I am being gracious. That is grace.
Mercy has to do with looking on someone’s misery and caring for them. Helping them. Lifting them up. Showing compassion. One commentator said that God’s mercy takes the sinner from misery to glory and God’s grace takes him from guilt to acquittal.
Therefore when Peter says that God the Father, according to His great mercy caused us to be born again, implied in that is the fact that we needed mercy.
We were miserable. We were in misery. We were in a position of needing compassion and help because we were lost and without help or hope. We were not deserving in any way, not to any degree did we merit His favor. He showed mercy simply because He will have mercy upon whom He wills to have mercy.
BORN AGAIN
Now according to His great mercy, and listen to the wording here, He caused us to be born again.
He caused it. If you go to Ezekiel 37 you’ll see that God puts a question to the prophet as he stands in the valley of dry bones, and asks, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
The prophet isn’t stupid, he knows enough not to answer according to his own knowledge. “Oh Lord God, You know”. Smart man.
Hear what comes next:
“Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.’ ” Ezek 37:5-6
Jesus, when talking to Nicodemus, used this term, ‘born again’. We sometimes rephrase it, ‘born from above’.
Did any of you cause your own birth? Did you have any awareness at all? No. Of course not. You were born of the will of man according to the flesh. In like manner, you were born according to the will of God according to the spirit.
It’s what John was talking about in chapter one of his gospel.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (vs 12-13)
In all the places in Scripture where someone is given life, not once do you see them asking for it. In every case, whether they were born in the flesh or brought back from death, it was always by the will of God entirely.
He caused us to be born again.
When he says ‘born again’, he is referring to regeneration. We were born from our mother’s womb once, but it is God who causes us to be born the second time, spiritually.
And this regeneration results in us receiving a living hope.
The fallen world has no hope. When they say they hope for something it is not in the sense of looking toward a certain end; it is more of a wishful thinking. ‘I hope I get that promotion.’ ‘I hope the lab results are negative.’ ‘We’re hoping for a boy this time.’
Believers in Christ have a living, enduring hope. Like Hebrews 1:1 says, we have the assurance of what we hope for in the exercise of faith.
What gives us this assurance? What makes our hope a living one? It comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Christians! Everything said before and everything that will come after is solidly founded on this. The central message of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Paul said to the Corinthians, “…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” 1 Cor 15:17
All of this means absolutely nothing if Christ was not resurrected from the dead. It means less than nothing, it means we are all deceived and headed for a great disappointment. Because if He is not raised then none will be raised.
The antithesis of this of course is that if He did rise from the dead then our hope is absolutely certain. If God raised Him from the dead His life is assurance of our life and therefore of everything He promised.
That’s why in 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul went on to declare triumphantly, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”
That is why we have a living hope, and that is why we look forward with a settled conviction, a certainty of faith, that what comes next is true also.
“…to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…”
Listen!
“…who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
PERPETUALLY NEW INHERITANCE
Do you know that when you purchase a brand new car that no one has ever owned before, the moment you drive it off the property of the car lot and the wheels hit public roadway your car is used. Its value has immediately diminished and it can never be sold as a new car again.
We all know that everything in this world is perishable. Everything is defiled, stained, polluted by sin. Romans 8:21 tells us that the creation itself is in slavery to corruption. Everything of this world fades in its own way.
You can spend a ridiculous amount of money on a designer purse or sweater and with continued use it will grow old and faded and perhaps torn or stretched.
You can build a new house and it won’t be too long before you’ll be replacing things. First light bulbs; then washers in bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Eventually, rain gutters, sprinkler heads and small appliances. As time goes by you’ll hardly be able to keep up with the decay. You all know exactly what I mean.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ensures for us an inheritance in the Heavens that is not the least affected by time or by sin for it is reserved for us in a place where time does not apply and sin cannot go.
Reserved in heaven and protected by the power of God. How much more secure could it be than that?
Now before we go on I just want to make quick reference to this phrase in verse 5, “…a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
If you are a Christian you are already saved in that you are delivered from the penalty of sin. Romans 8:1 says “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. The word for ‘condemnation’ there has to do with passing of judgment with an implication of punishment to follow.
There is no penalty for those who are in Christ because the penalty was paid in full when God judged sin in the body of His sinless Son on the cross.
So you are saved, you have experienced salvation from the penalty of sin.
There is another sense in which you are being saved; an ongoing process.
Since you are saved from sin’s penalty and since the Holy Spirit lives in you He continues the process of sanctification which is a perpetual cleansing from sin. And it is also a deliverance from the power of sin. Sin is no longer your master. You confess your sin to God and He is faithful and righteous to forgive you of sin and cleanse you from unrighteousness.
What Peter makes reference to here is the final deliverance from the very presence of sin when you are taken to Heaven and glorified, never to suffer the presence of sin again. It is your final salvation, and it includes not only deliverance from the presence of sin but also receipt of the rewards waiting there for you and all who have believed. Our inheritance will only then be fully complete when Jesus has returned and all who are His will receive their rewards at His judgment seat. This is as certain as all the rest that we have been talking about today.
REJOICING IN THE FIRE
Peter says “In this you greatly rejoice”. The term indicates an abundance of happiness and the language guys say that it conveys the notion of a continual joy and happiness.
“Even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials”
Right here in the middle of all this talk of joy and security and unfading inheritance protected by the power of God, is this one line of reference to their suffering and their testing.
Christians, you can have happiness even in the midst of all the trouble that comes to your life when you remember what God has brought forth and established by His own hand and preserved for you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is why even in the process of his own trials Paul was able to assure the Corinthians with these words:
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor 4:16-18
He said ‘momentary light affliction’ even though he was beaten and whipped and shipwrecked and imprisoned and starved and humiliated and rejected by his own kinsmen, for the same reason Peter said, “for a little while”. They both knew that anything the world can dish out is temporary, while the faith we have is more precious than gold, in that gold itself will pass away but our faith will not.
Can they ever hope to extinguish our faith? Can they hope to deny us what God has provided by His own hand? Can they take away what Jesus has purchased with His blood? Of course not!
So what will be the ultimate result of the trials that come against us? Not the world’s purposes, but God’s.
“..praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Believer, don’t get discouraged. God is looking forward to giving you the rewards that He has reserved for you. He is desiring to praise you as a good and faithful servant who has endured the fiery trial and thereby had your faith proven and perfected. He has promised to give you glory and He will indeed glorify you in His Kingdom forever. It is a sure and certain thing and cannot fail.
BELIEVING IS SEEING
I want to close with just a few words about verse 8. Peter says “…and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”
This is reminiscent of Jesus’ words to Thomas, when Thomas had insisted that he would not believe Jesus was alive unless he touched His wounds. When Jesus appeared to Thomas He said, ‘blessed are those who did not see and yet have believed’.
Listen, Christian, you are saved after believing in something you cannot see. You did not insist upon seeing before you would believe. But you can rejoice in this today. God is a rewarder of faith. When you believe in what you cannot see, you will eventually see what you have believed.
Hang tough. When you are in the midst of your various trials keep reminding yourself that they are only purifying your faith as the fire causes dross to rise to the surface and purify the gold.
Keep reminding yourself that you didn’t choose God, He chose you and sent His Son to be the propitiation for your sins. And having done that He raised Him up on the third day and because He lives you too shall live.
Keep reminding yourself that the God who did all that without our seeking or desiring Him at all, has also said that you have an imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance safe in His storehouse until you get there to receive it, and it delights Him to praise you for your faith, honor you with your rewards, glorify you so that you might be just like Jesus.
And then keep reminding yourself that because you have believed without seeing, you have His promise that you will finally see what you have believed, and even your joy itself will be glorified.
