Finally, Inheriting what Adam and Eve Bungled

By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

“imperishable, undefiled, and unfading”, these sound to me like they are attributes of God., to use an expression from classic systematic theology.  Systematic Theology, the systematic approach to Scripture with the purpose of drawing out universal theological subjects and themes.  An example are the divine ‘omni’s’;  God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient-all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing.

So, our inheritance...

Imperishable: the inheritance cannot perish, it cannot be destroyed, it cannot rot.  Undefiled: the inheritance cannot be tainted by the effects of sin and evil in the world (because it ain’t in the world).  Unfading: the inheritance will never lose its luster, but is as amazing and powerful on the  day we accepted it until the day when it comes into our hands.

The inheritance comes from God’s great mercy.  It is a new birth into a living hope.  It comes through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  What we have inherited is what God already has, eternal (imperishable) life, in the realm of perfection (undefiled), that is everlasting (unfading).  It is what we were created to achieve in the Garden of Eden until Adam and Eve bungled it (and each person has bungled it in turn since that day). 

From the dredges of high school or college literature, I have a memory of a Greek myth concerning someone who had eternal life, but not eternal youth or vitality.  A wikipedia search later revealed the name of Tithonus, half blessed by Zeus-Tithonus aging forever but never dying.  I wonder if Peter knew that myth.  Because we are certainly getting a much better deal.

This inheritance is what Jesus died for in our place, accepting punishment in our place.  This inheritance is what he was raised for, brought to the new birth everyone can in turn receive.