Exposition Thursdays: 1 Peter The 24/7 Christian--1 Peter 1:3-12

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (ESV)

In this glorious passage, the major theme is the great imperishable salvation brought about by God the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ by which we now have a living hope via his resurrection from the dead, and in this we rejoice, which is something that those beforehand longed to have knowledge of.

When God is 'blessed', it means that He is exalted and lifted up in all His glory, and in this passage it is in relation to what He has done for the saints in Christ. The Lord God is a merciful God who chose to save sinners from the wrath that they rightly deserve. This living hope is grounded in the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ who is not dead but is risen! Amen! It is a living hope because Jesus is not in the grave, and just as Christ was raised imperishable, so shall we who trust in Him be likewise raised imperishable. Even more so, this salvation is being reserved by God through faith, so it cannot be lost as it is to be revealed in the end.

In this we rejoice, for, even though we suffer many trials, these hardships test our faith which is more precious that gold when it is test by fire. God uses these difficult times to conform us into the image of His Son, and they are specifically used to test the validity of our faith. It has already been stated in the previous verses that our salvation is being kept and Eph 1 speaks of us being sealed, so this does not indicate that our salvation can be lost. However, we do continue to live in the presence of sin, and our great God is not a deceiver, for through these trials we are made aware of Who we are trusting in: Creator or creation. Let us be thankful for these trials because they keep us from deluding ourselves into believing in Christ when our lifestyle may reflect the complete opposite. All of this will be to His glory when Christ comes in all His glory! Amen!

It is true that we who have lived well past the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection, and Ascension have not seen Him, yet Christ pronounces blessing upon those who believe and yet have not seen as was told in His appearance to Thomas. We believe because God has given us a heart to believe the authority of His Word; the Holy Spirit is the Agent by which regeneration occurs (John 3), and this application of salvation is made true because Christ conquered sin on the cross for His beloved sheep and three days later conquered death on the cross. From this, His joy is made known to us, and it is a joy that He promised in Jn 15 which is inexpressible and filled with glory to the salvation of our souls.

Today, we take for granted the glorious salvation brought by our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords! Amen. However, those who lived before the Incarnation were still looking to Him who was to come. They wrote and read about Him, yet they were not fully aware of when and who the Christ was going to be. One can only imagine how mysterious it was to write the very prophecies that spoke of Christ as glorious King yet also write that He would be executed. Even the angels were ignorant of the events that we now have revelation of. Truly, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deut 29:29 In Christ the Law was fulfilled, and in Him we are empowered to keep this Law.

Glory to Him who is Holy, Holy, Holy! Amen!