THE SECURITY OF OUR LIVING HOPE

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 5, 2018 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: September 5, 2018 from 1 Peter 1:3-5

Theme: We who are in Christ can be confident in a living hope even while in the midst of trials.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Peter opens the body of his letter with one big sentence. In the original language, it runs from verse 3 to verse 12. And this one big sentence has one great theme—hope.

Hope is something that we all need. Perhaps the best way to define it is as an assured and satisfying anticipation about the future. When it is used as a verb, it is the act of expecting something to come that is good and satisfying. When the Bible uses this word with respect to our salvation, it doesn’t speak of something that we hope for but are uncertain will actually happen. Rather, it speaks of something that is sure and certain and that will not fail.

Verses 3-12 speak of our sure and certain hope in Christ for future glory. It speaks of it in three aspects: vv. 3-5 looks ahead to its future certainty; vv. 6-9 looks downward to its present practicality; vv. 10-12 looks backward to its past testimony.

In verses 3-5, the apostle Peter urges us to cast our eyes ahead to that future glory—affirming to us that it is an absolutely certain hope to which we can give our all. He wrote;

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).

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In these words, Peter gives us seven affirmations that show the security of this future hope to us; that …

1. IT COMES FROM GOD THE FATHER (v. 3).

Peter began this letter to suffering Christians with an offering of thanks: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ …” It may be that he was saying that God is both “our God” and “the Father of the Lord Jesus”; or it may be that he is saying that—to our Lord Jesus—God is both “God” and “Father”. Both certainly are true—and both underscore the security of our hope. After Jesus rose from the dead, He told Mary of Magdala;

“Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’” (John 20:17).

What security we can have in our hope! It comes to us from Him who is “the God and Father” of our Lord Jesus and of us who are in the Lord Jesus! Jesus’ Father is now our Father, and His God is now our God. It’s from Him that our living hope comes; and “[i]f God is or us who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

2. IT IS BASED ON HIS ABUNDANT MERCY (v. 3).

Peter wrote, “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope …” Our hope does not depend upon our worthiness—because if it did, it certainly wouldn’t be a very secure hope! But rather, it is ours “according to His abundant mercy”.

Peter would certainly have known something of our need for this as fallen and fallible people. He himself had denied the Lord three times—and with an oath. And yet, the Lord Jesus forgave him and put him back into service. In a similar way, the apostle Paul once wrote;

… where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:20-21).

We should praise God that no amount of failure on our part will ever take this hope away from us. It is never ours on the basis of our worthiness, but only ours according to God’s abundant mercy.

3. IT IS ONE TO WHICH GOD HAS BEGOTTEN US AGAIN (v. 3).

While it’s true that our hope is not dependent upon what we are, it’s also true that God does not leave us to remain what we once were. Peter wrote that God the Father, according to His abundant mercy, “has begotten us again to a living hope”.

The word that Peter uses means to be “begotten” or “born” a second time. None of us can enjoy the glorious hope that Peter describes unless we are “begotten again” to it. Jesus said that “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Before, we were ‘dead’ in trespasses and sin. But that old ‘us’ has been nailed to Jesus’ cross, and we have been raised with Him as a new ‘us’. As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 5:17;

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If anyone is a new creation, they have a new hope. And we have been begotten again to that new and living hope in Christ.

4. IT IS MADE SURE TO US BY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS (v. 3).

This new hope of ours is not something that we have merely imagined for ourselves. It is not an abstract spiritual ‘wish’. The security of it is confirmed to us by an historic event—something that was an actual, eye-witnessed event that occurred on planet earth in actual time/space reality. Peter said that we have been begotten again to this living hope “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.

Peter calls this a “living hope”; and that hope is “living” because it was secured for us through a “living Savior”. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. But then he affirmed;

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20).

The fact that Jesus not only died for us but also rose from the dead for us is the fact that makes certain to us that ours is a living hope. If Jesus hadn’t risen—if He had remained in the tomb and His body was still there today—then our hope would also be dead. A dead Lord Jesus would mean a dead hope. But we have a hope that is as “living” as our risen Savior.

5. IT IS ONE THAT CANNOT, IN ANY WAY, BE LOST TO US (v. 4).

Peter goes on to write that we have been begotten again “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you …”

When someone receives an inheritance, at least two things have to be true. First, the person who receives it must be qualified to receive it—a true son or daughter. And we have been ‘begotten again’ by God the Father to this inheritance and are now qualified to receive it. Second, the inheritance must be giving by someone who is qualified to give it. And our inheritance is given to us by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—whose inheritance it is His to share. Because those two qualifications are in place, nothing else in the universe can take this glorious inheritance away from us.

And consider what we’re told about this inheritance. First, note that it is ‘incorruptible’—or, as some translations have it, “imperishable”. It is not subject to any form of decay. It will always keep its freshness and newness. Second, note that it is “undefiled”. It cannot be affected by the imperfections of sin by which other things on earth are affected. It cannot be corrupted. And third, it is an inheritance that “does not fade away”. It will never lose its value over time, or grow old and rot, or ever become ‘boring’ to us. In other words, this inheritance that is ours in Christ—this ‘living hope’—is unlike anything on earth; because it is ‘death-proof’, ‘sin-proof’, and ‘age-proof’. And finally, note that it is kept as safe as a thing can be. Peter says that it is far out of the reach of any kind of theft or damage; because it is “reserved in heaven” for us.

If our hearts are rightly oriented to this inheritance, then our ‘hope’ is as secure in this fallen world as our inheritance is in heaven. Jesus said;

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21).

6. IT IS ONE FOR WHICH WE OURSELVES ARE KEPT (v. 5).

We may rejoice that this inheritance is kept for us. But what if we ourselves ‘blow it’ and somehow fail to reach this inheritance? Praise God that—for those of us who are in Christ—such a thing will never happen. Peter says that we are those “who are kept by the power of God through faith” for this inheritance.

Note that we are kept “through faith”. It’s true that we have a part to play in it all. We are to trust in the promises of God and do as we are commanded to do in God’s word so that we can grow in our faith. 2 Peter 1:5-11 tells us;

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-11).

But as diligently as we try to grow in our faith, we will always do so imperfectly. And yet, even this isn’t the decisive thing. God didn’t send His Son to redeem us for this glorious future only to leave it up to us to get ourselves to where we can receive it. We have a promise from God’s word—that we ourselves are kept “by the power of God” for this great inheritance that is being kept for us!

7. IT IS ONE THAT IS READY TO BE REVEALED (v. 5).

Finally, note that we are kept by the power of God “for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (v. 5). It will finally be revealed to us at the time when the Lord Jesus returns. It’s then, on that glorious day, that we will finally see it. But what God wants us to know is that everything that is necessary for us to have that inheritance has now already been done for us in Christ; and our inheritance is now—presently—fully prepared for our reception. It is already ours and is “ready to be revealed”; awaiting only our arrival into the safe-keeping of our Father’s house for it to be unveiled to us in all of its glory and joyfulness. It’s like the Lord Jesus said to the poor, persecuted church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:9;

“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich) …” (Revelation 2:9).

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Now; we’re living in a cultural environment that is growing increasingly hostile to our faith. Our situation is much like that of those ancient Christians to whom Peter wrote. If we were to only look at things on a strictly human level, it would become easy for us to lose hope.

But that’s what Peter is telling us in this letter to be careful not to do! Our hope isn’t based on the trials and problems and difficulties that we see on the human level. Our hope stands out as a truly “living hope”—a gloriously “lively” hope (as it is in the King James Version). It is one that is ‘seven-fold’ secure. It’s one that, when we have our hearts and minds properly oriented to it, will make what it says in 1 Peter 3:15 happen through us—even in the face of suffering:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you … (1 Peter 3:15a).

EA