Cosmic Joy to Overcome Earthly Trials

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  vvs. 6-7 

Peter’s audience rejoices in what they have received by the mercy of God.  What they have received is a cosmic-level change of life and circumstance.  It is nothing less than God providing to them a covenant that cannot fail, God setting up a system that is not dependent on how the people act.  It is not an excuse to live lives of sin and evil, simply assuming God covers all the bad we do.  But God knows and judges the heart.  It is a cosmic-level knowledge that God knows the true intention of our hearts even in the midst of human failure.

They can rejoice because the new birth, the living hope, these were accomplished through the resurrection of Jesus.  A real, permanent event took place to solidify the promise of God.  Understand what took place before, temporary sacrifices of animals to take the place of the sinner, taking on the punishment of death that is judgment for sin.  Those sacrifices could not end, for sin did not end.

To the Jews who lived with easy access to Jerusalem, the sacrifices could be brought with relative ease to the temple.  But these are Jews of the Diaspora, scattered across the Roman Empire.  They returned to Jerusalem as they were able, maybe once a year, maybe not, maybe never.  What Peter is preaching is freedom from the geographic binding they have to the Promised Land.

This did not mean they could not return, it simply meant that they could return from a desire, not an obligation.  It was liberating. 

But in opposition to the rejoicing taking place at a cosmic level, there are trials because of the faith going on in their daily lives.  Peter starts with reminding them of the joy they have as a foundation to deal with those trials.

Which we will look at more tomorrow.

Peter is Writing to People Experiencing Who Are Experiencing Trials for Their Faith.

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  vvs. 6-7 

To sum things up to date, Peter is greeting the Jewish believers in the section of modern-day Turkey that seems to be his area of missionary responsibility.  He leads with God, not Jesus, supporting the idea of a Jewish audience, using God as the entry point into their religious thinking.  From there, Peter lays out what the promise of salvation is, through the last sentence.

 But it seems that the actual experience of Peter’s readers is not as positive.  Peter is seeking to give interpretation to the suffering that they have undergone, looking from a present to a future view.

In this you rejoice,  They rejoice in the promise of God’s new birth into a living hope as outlined in the last sentence.

even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,  This line seems to get at the reason for Peter’s letter, a letter of support and interpretation of the persecution they are receiving for their faith.

so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—  Persecution, Peter is arguing, makes their faith more real-not something of convenience, but a refined commodity of great value.

may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  The readers are being assured of the reward for their faithfulness, looking forward to when it shall be revealed.

 

This letter was written before the Fall of Jerusalem, before the faithful were scattered to the four winds of the Empire.  This sentence and the last carry an immediacy about the end times, when ‘it shall be revealed’.  Jesus was very clear that the date of His return was not known on earth, but the expectation of Jesus’ return is very strong in this writing.

Peter Wrote Before the Separation of Christian and Jew

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. 1 Peter 1: 3-5

Going back to the beginning of the letter, Peter is writing to the Jewish Diaspora.  If he were writing to Gentiles-to us-as Paul did, his introduction would have put Jesus in the center stage.  Consider, for example, Romans 1:

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the glory of God…”

For Peter, God “chose and destined”, God be “blessed” as the Father of Jesus, by God’s great mercy, God has given us a new birth… 

Why is this so important?  Because Peter is seeking a seamless intersection of the Jewish faith with the coming and presence of Jesus.  The division of church and synagogue will not come until later.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is an expansion of the Messianic expectation found in the Old Testament.  God is sending somebody, someone the Jewish faith is expecting.  Peter says this person is Jesus.

But God is the author, the protector, and the preserver of all that has come about.  The inheritance is in heaven, protected by God, accessed through our faith, but preserved to the final salvation at the end of time.  All of this is from God, because…

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  1 Peter 1: 6-7 

These words we will consider next.

We Are Working Up To The Final Reveal!

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.

Herein is the final part of the promise, its ultimate fulfillment.  This is about the end of time.  It does not contain the complex imagery or final battles described in the book of Revelation.  The new birth, the living hope, the inheritance kept in heaven, protected by the power of God through faith, these are the elements of ‘salvation’. 

Being saved, being born again, gaining our salvation, having new life in Christ, however we want to say it, Peter has brought together all the elements in one sentence.  In bringing about our salvation, it begins in the mercy of God.

It is ready to be revealed in the last time.  Not now, then, sometime…we are still waiting.  This is the stuff of the Second Coming, of Jesus’ final return.  Then, everything will be fulfilled. 

In the present, we are building toward that.  The resurrection of Jesus has happened, the mercy of God is ours, a new birth to a living hope, they are promised.  The work of today is to prepare for the final revealing.  This is the reason for Peter's letter.  The work to that final achievement is going forward.  This letter is a step along the way.

 

God is in Charge of the Prenup.

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.

The new birth and the inheritance are being protected by the power of God.  Peter has seen it, living through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, living under the blessing.  The new birth is a new life in Christ.  The inheritance is the eternity of that new life.  

The power of God protects them, but the mercy of God is what granted them in the first place.  They may be understood as something being kept in heaven until some future point in time, protected by the power of God, but through faith.  Faith is our part of the bargain. 

This is the change.  In previous relationship agreements-kind of "divine-human prenuptial agreements"; in bible-lingo the term is ‘covenant’-in previous covenant agreements between God and humanity, our end of the bargain was dependent on our behavior.  Do good, get blessed.  Screw up, get cursed.  It works very nicely with the geography of Israel, because the land of Israel is dependent on rainfall. 

There is imagery throughout the Old Testament of God sending the blessing of rain when they behaved, and turning off the tap when they didn’t.

But that didn’t work.  Such covenants linked faith with actions, doing and believing the right thing, and blessings followed.  But people began to assume their actions gave the blessings, they turned faith upon themselves.  Comfort carried them away from the God who cared for them.  So punishment would come, the people would get their acts together, realize the true giver of their blessings, and there would be another round of covenant, until that too slipped away.

This time, the prenup is in God’s power, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.  It begins with faith, a faith in the reality that Jesus died so we don’t have to.  And actions, instead of being required first, now follow from the faith, actions of gratitude so that we will never forget where the blessings came from.  Thank you Lord for straightening us out.

Our Inheritance: God is Keeping Our Grubby Hands Off-For Now

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.

The inheritance is kept in heaven.  Great, so what use is it to us down here?  Well, we are given a new birth into a living hope.  The hope is what will come to us in time.  The Promise of God's mercy is fulfilled at the end of time.  Given that the inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, why would we keep it down here on the earth?

Taken by itself, I might ask what are we supposed to do in the here and now? 

But that will come.  Peter is not telling us the inheritance being kept in heaven is because we are somehow unworthy of it until we get there.  No, it is in heaven, backed by the full faith and credit of our Father who art in Heaven. 

This is a new relationship between God and humanity.  Relationships were reestablished with Abraham, with Moses, with David, but all ended in failure-because of humanity.  This relationship, this is a promise that God is making to humanity that will not fail.  

And it will not fail because we have nothing to do with it.  It was by God’s mercy that we are offered a new birth.  It was by the death and resurrection of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that it took place-not by anything we were supposed to do.  And God preserves this gift for us until its final fulfillment up in heaven.  God is keeping our grubby hands off of it so it cannot fail. 

Fort Knox, the Bank of England, whatever earthly place of security that we can imagine, has nothing on the security of heaven.  Thank you Lord.

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.