A Glorious Inheritance
In his first epistle, Peter wrote not only to believers who faced ridicule for their faith, but also ones who experienced enough persecution that they had to flee their homeland. At the very start of the letter, he called them “elect exiles”. He would then encourage them by stating, “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.” (1 Peter 1:3-4) Almost exactly one year ago, I shared these same verses in another article I wrote for the bulletin. However, I did not go into great detail regarding Peter’s teaching. This time I want to focus on three main truths we can glean from this passage.
First, every believer in Christ has a living hope. Many people misunderstand the biblical meaning of the word hope. Oftentimes, when we think of hope, we think of a wish, a desire, or even favorable chance. For instance, on cloudy days, some people will say, “I hope it rains” or when it comes to sports, you will hear many people say, “I sure hope my team wins!” However, this is far from what biblical hope teaches. The Greek word for hope speaks of an assured confidence and a strong anticipation. It is not cloudy, but concrete. Praise the Lord that our hope of heaven is not a mere chance, but it is a reality! Such hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because I know that Christ lives today, I can have strong confidence in the future promise of heaven!
Second, the Christian’s heavenly inheritance is incorruptible, imperishable, and eternal! Years ago, I owned a 91 Chevy S10 pickup. When I got it, it had well over 200,000 miles on it, the bed was rusted, there was no A/C, and the driver’s side door was off level to the point that sometimes when I would go around a sharp curve, it would swing open (I fixed this with bungee cords). I also had to screw in cabinet handles for each door, because the original handles were long gone. Am I complaining about this truck? Not in the least. It was dependable and it got me from point A to point B. I am simply magnifying the reality that everything in this world will eventually waste away. Yet, our riches in Christ are not like a car that rusts, a house that decays, or food that rots. It will remain forever and will never be tainted by the corruption of sin. What wonderful treasure we have in Christ!
