A powerful set of verses. Peter speaks about the inheritance we have – and our hope. He reinforces what Paul teaches when he states that God gives us new birth – it is not something earned by us… it is GIVEN by God out of His mercy, not our worthiness.

Good stuff, folks. Enjoy!

As usual, the video link is below, and the audio links to Spotify and iTunes is to the right…

Our Hope and Inheritance

And now……

From now on, I will add the written transcript for each podcast here. If you wish to receive the PDF version, you can email me at paige@coffeebiblepaige.com and I will gladly email it to you.

Here is today’s transcript:

1:3-9 Our Faith

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter just finished talking to us in his introduction about how the believers that he was addressing (which is north and east Paul’s ministry area out of Ephesus in what’s now Turkey). Peter tells us that we have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God through the sanctifying work of the spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ.

Today in verse three:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

All right, let’s break this down a little bit. First of all Peter mentions an inheritance.  An inheritance is something that’s ours when somebody else dies. My mom and dad passed away and I received an inheritance.

But Peter says that this is an inheritance that is kept in heaven for us for when WE die. We die… and WE receive an inheritance. But the other more traditional way of looking at it also applies – an inheritance is mine when somebody ELSE passes away and leaves it to me. Well, Jesus died didn’t he? I will see the fullness of that inheritance when God calls me home.This kind of reminds me of trust funds which are passed on to a younger person when they are a child and an older wealthy relative dies. That inheritance is theirs, but they cannot touch it until of a legal age.

Given… not earned

Peter says in God’s great mercy verse three He has given us new birth – this new life. Look at Peter’s choice of words here. Peter says God has GIVEN us new birth. All right, this is like a really sly way of reinforcing what I have been learning through the New Testament and the Old Testament this last couple years. My salvation is nothing I’ve earned. Paul says in Ephesians 2:

“…for by grace are you saved through faith and even that faith is not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God…”

We haven’t earned our inheritance – our new birth. We haven’t achieved new birth status on our own. No  – 

“…in his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope…”

 All right, this word “hope” here isn’t meant to be translated as wishful thinking  – something that you hope happens This is an expectation of something that will happen, as in you’re confidently looking forward to something that is assured. Well, guess what? This hope that’s been planted in me is a living hope – it doesn’t fade away. It’s stronger now than it was when I first bowed my knee to Christ back in 1975. In his great mercy God gave me new birth  – GAVE it to me. I have been given a certain hope –  a living hope –  an expectation of something that’s coming –  something that’s not here yet, but is coming.

We are Shielded

Peter says:

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time

What are we shielded from? From the destruction offered by the enemy of our souls – Satan himself. There will be a day when our God will reveal Himself and will completely destroy the enemy. On that day, we will be shielded from that destruction. On the days prior to that day, we are also shielded from the enemy’s attempts to remove us from God’s protection. Throughout God’s Word, I see God’s proclivity to taking His people THROUGH trials, not out of them. Noah… Moses and Israel… both had to face the terror that assailed them. God brought both through their trials.

…until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time

As I described in Ephesians, our salvation is a three-fold process. 

Peter is talking about the “Glorification” we will experience when we enter through Heaven’s gates for the first time – when we will receive our inheritance – whatever it is. The incredible glory of being done with sin? That would be enough for me. No more tears? More than enough.

Paul says in Ephesians that he has good works prepared for us. I truly believe that those good works God has prepared for us are not just good works here on this mud ball we call earth But on the other side of death’s curtain there are new adventures to be had, I believe. I love the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. His premise is that there are adventures on the other side of death’s door waiting for us. When we die, we walk from one place to another from adventures here to adventures there. I totally and completely believe that.

I’m 

“…shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed the last time.”

That salvation is that moment when we stand in front of him and we receive the final installment of this salvation process… i.e. our glorification, mentioned above.

We are shielded by God’s power until the coming of that salvation – until that end point is reached when we stand in front of him and hear 

“…well done good and faithful servant…” 

THAT is not wishful thinking  – that is a hope – a living hope  – an expectation this will happen. And 

Trials and Grief have a purpose 

6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials…

Yep, we We stumble and bumble our way through life here on planet Earth. We are indeed beset with many trials  as the enemy of our souls tries to destroy us. He can’t destroy us . Peter says 

7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

In other words these trials separate the “wannabes” from the true Children of God. Those with “genuine” faith shine, those without fall away. The real gold shines, that which is not real gold  sloughs off.

Peter says these trials come to prove the genuineness of your faith. When trials come – true believers persevere and are still standing in the end… much like the soldier Paul describes in Ephesians when he says 

“… and having done all, to stand…”

Though now it may be all we can do to just stand, there will come a day when the enemy of our soul will see the power of Christ unleashed in us in such a way that he cannot ignore it. Right now He ignores it. Right now, he mocks. He can make our life miserable. But there will come a day When he will see the real believers unleashed –  and he will be forced to give Glory and honor to Christ. 

In Star Wars  – of course, there had to be a Star Wars reference – episode 4 Luke Skywalker is being discipled by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi is fighting Darth Vader and when Obi-Wan sees that Luke is safe on the Millennium Falcon He holds up his lightsaber in front of him and Darth Vader says something to the effect  of  “I will strike you down old man” and Obi-Wan Kenobi says something to the effect of “if you strike me down I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine” Of course Darth Vader strikes him down and Obi-Wan disappears.

That’s kind of what happens with us. When the enemy strikes us down i.e. when we die, all he does is remove this outer shell that we’re walking around in. The interior  – the part of us that is real  – our soul  – our spirit – is unleashed. When we are struck down by the enemy of our soul, we will find ourselves standing in front of God, freed from sin and more powerful than we could possibly imagine.

Then he closes off this passage saying

 8 Though you have not seen him, 

I haven’t.

you love him; 

I do.

and even though you do not see him now, 

I don’t.

you believe in him 

I do.

and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

That last phrase 

“…you are receiving…” 

“you are receiving” hints at something that’s in process. This supports what Paul said in Ephesians 2. Remember when I said that the salvation process we go through is a triune process? We’re justified. We’re being sanctified. We’ll be glorified. Peter is saying here you’re receiving, now, the end result of your faith – your sanctification.

Our salvation is guaranteed –  heaven is guaranteed. That is our inheritance and there will come a day we will stand in front of him and hear those words

 “…well done good and faithful servant…”

 and we will be revealed To the entire universe. I can’t wait. 

In His Grip,