Thursday, February 26, 2015

Dear Jesus, We Are Taking The Word of A Guy About You!


Although you have not seen* him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  Vss. 8-9

Well, there is a wonderful mystery of the faith.  What Peter says is right, for me at least.  I haven’t seen Jesus, but I love him.  Peter is assuming the same thing of his audience.  I would think that is a reasonable assumption.  If they didn’t, why would they read his letter?

Yes, “he” and “him” throughout this sentence refer to Jesus.  Pronouns can be funny things in Bible verses sometimes. 

Peter assumes his audience loves Jesus because their faith has been tested, because they have come through the fire.  Praise, glory, and honor in Jesus are the result of their faithfulness, as we have seen in the last sentence. 

And the testing of their faith results in the genuineness being revealed, because their faith is built upon the promise and plan that God has put into effect.  Thus they can love this Jesus who they’ve never seen.

Such is a grand testing of faith.  This guy-Peter-comes in and starts preaching about someone who showed up, died, and rose again back in the motherland.  There is only the whole ‘grand plan of God’ to explain it.  He doesn’t have the YouTube feed of Jesus walking on water, photobombs of Jesus and the feasting 5000, even network news to back him up with reports of a strange, new Judean phenom.

For two thousand years, all we’ve had is someone who told someone else about Jesus, and wrote it down for us to have now.   I am having a ‘mind blown’ moment about the power of faith.  I have never seen the guy and I love Jesus.  Wow.

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