1 Peter 1:22

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Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. ~ 1 Peter 1:22

Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter. We are trichotomous beings; we have a spirit, a soul and a body. The only part of us that is "born again" is our spirit which is the arena of our justification. Having been justified by our faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ which is a one time event, we have been awakened to God by the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is what it means to be "born again." 

Our soul, on the other hand, is made up of our mind, our will, and our emotions. It is the arena for our sanctification. This process whereby God is changing our souls takes time, a long time for the desired change to happen. The goal of this process is not a better us, it is about us dying to the self life and being defined by God. As a result of being more and more defined by God, we acquire His wisdom which when applied, we grow in our sanctification.

Today's verse begins with: "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." 

The word "purified" is written in such a way that it reveals that someone outside of us brought about the purification. It also reveals we have not only been cleansed, but we therefore have new capabilities; in this case to love authentically. This means our loving of one another is predicated on the purifying of our souls which has done and is continuing to do through the process of sanctification.

No human purifies himself. No, it was the Lord Jesus Christ who made us new creatures through our faith in Him. Apart from Christ, we cannot purify our hearts. Apart from Christ we are unable to truly love one another most sincerely. It was the Lord Jesus who purified our souls at the point of our salvation and He continues to purify our souls through the application of His word and His Spirit. Of course, we play a role in all of this as we avail ourselves to Him and obey His word. Godly conduct only comes from a godly character, and a godly character only comes from Christ, as we remain in Him and as He remains in us. When all of this happens, we will have received the capacity to sincerely love others, even in the most difficult of circumstances.  

In context the Apostle Peter has reminded these young believers in Christ that they had been selected by God, and they had been given a living hope because of the resurrected Christ. And, when we obey God, we are living the lives the Lord Jesus died to give us. When we obey Him or acquire and appropriate His wisdom, we will be less defined by sin. 

The next words in today's verse are: "in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart."

Having been made alive to God, we can authentically love others, especially those who struggle like we. The Greek word translated "sincere" means without hypocrisy. It literally means "in a full stretch" or "an intense strain." When we are being sincere or authentic or real, we are like a stretched blown up balloon which we are able to see through. When we come to know the Lord Jesus and His love for us, we will increasingly be defined by Him and His love for us. When this happens our authenticity will be seen by others. We will not be looked upon as phony, but real.

It is out of a heart that has been made pure that we love sincerely. When we operate out of Christ's love for us, we will be holy and we will have the ability to love others purely. Peter knew this principle very well. After all, he knew what it looked like to be inauthentic when he denied knowing the Lord Jesus three times the night He was betrayed. It wasn't until after the cross and the coming of the Holy Spirit that Peter began to truly experience the love of Christ and he began to learn to love this way, empowered by Christ. 

Peter never forgot the love the Lord Jesus showed him when he denied his association with Him three times, and no doubt the heart-desire of this aging apostle was to obey the Lord's command to feed His sheep. As a result, Peter, therefore, encouraged these young followers of Christ to prepare their minds for action in the difficult days they were facing, and to be sober in spirit and in soul learning to be totally dependent upon Him. 

Matthew Henry once said, "Hypocrisy is to do the devil's work in God's uniform." It is at this point that we discover that we best lead by our weaknesses, underscoring the word of God where it says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." We get the credit for leading but we know full well that we are at our core following servants. The Lord Jesus is the author and perfecter of our salvation. And, we are at our best when we are being empowered by Him to love others. We were made to be loved by the Lord Jesus who enables us to love others through His empowerment to do so. It is in the fulfillment of these two in our lives that we are able to realize what it means to be holy and complete in the Lord Jesus.

1 Peter 1:21

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Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. ~ 1 Peter 1:21

Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter where we are being given tools to withstand the onslaughts to undermine our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. After God created this world and all its inhabitants, man chose to give life a go apart from God. It did not go as well as they thought. In fact, they found themselves in the clutches of that fallen angel who had long ago decided the same thing. We naturally want to be autonomous beings but we can not make it on our own apart from our Maker.

As made obvious in today's verse, it is through the Lord Jesus Christ that we came to believe in the God of the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of God to man. And, in His revealing, we have come to understand that God is love. It is out of our understanding that God is love that we discover our truest identity. God created us with two basic yet most profound needs: to be loved and to love. It is from our need to be loved that we discover security, the type of security that creates a certain familiarity with growing in our trust of God. And, from our need to love we discover our significance, or the true meaning or purpose for which we are on this earth. This is the essence of this revelation; We are most fulfilled in a relationship with God and making Him known to others.

The Greek word translated "raised" in today's verse is best translated: "having raised up." God, having raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead, grants those who honestly seek for truth the ability to evaluate correctly what is really real. It was Joseph Parker who once said, "An extreme condition demands an extreme remedy. Until you see that you are doomed and damned apart from Jesus Christ, you will never truly count his blood precious in your sight."

Once we have gotten to the point of believing in God, even though we are yet in the midst of our struggles, we will discover ourselves being more and more defined by God as He reveals His truth to us. This is the hope of the believer in Christ. And, the cornerstone of our hope, the hope of the alien who is living in a world that is not his home, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In Romans 6:9 we read, “When Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death as the end.” 

This explains why our cemetery experiences are different now. We once went to cemeteries on this earth to say good-bye to the dead but now we go to say we will see you later. It is all because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. Through His perfect life and perfect death and perfect resurrection, the Lord Jesus vanquished death for all who hope in Him. The resurrection of Jesus Christ shouts there is nothing too difficult for God. 

C.S. Lewis wrote, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ not only gives the believer hope, it emboldens us to place our focus on the goal of discovering Him and His purposes for each day of our lives. When our daily focus is on the purpose of His resurrection, it will draw forth the purpose of our suffering, enabling us to endure because we know that God's ways are enduring, purposeful and true. Many are His purposes for which we go through suffering, namely that others come to know Him through us. And, even though we suffer, we can rest assured that the results will be unfathomable when we are finally in heaven with Him.

In the end, as Peter points out in this verse the key is that the Lord Jesus is glorified. We glorify Him most when our faith and hope are firmly in Him. When we were slaves to sin, our fallen nature controlled us but once redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Christ, we entered into a new realm, a realm of wonder and endlessly beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus. The great theologian John Owen once wrote, “No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight in heaven who does not, in some measure, behold it by faith in this world.”

1 Peter 1:20

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He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ~ 1 Peter 1:20

Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter where the Apostle Peter is giving us the where with all to maintaining a vital walk with God in the midst of a wicked world that does not like God. Today's passage proves that no man, woman, boy or girl has ever been an afterthought in the mind of God. It's not like you and I came along and God said, "Oh, yeah, what am I going to do with them?" No, we were never an afterthought; you and I were a forethought for God and this verse proves it.  

It was not as if when man sinned that God was caught off guard. No, God is never surprised because He sees everything in the instantaneous now. It was not as if when Adam and Eve sinned that God said to Himself that He had to all of a sudden become our Redeemer. No, no, no. Today's verse iterates: "He was chosen before the creation of the world." In Revelation 13:8 the Lord Jesus Christ is called "the Lamb that was slain from the foundations of the world." It was decided before this world was even created that the Lord Jesus Christ would come to earth to redeem man from his wicked condition of sin. The Lord Jesus chose to do this in order to reorient fallen mankind into a possible relationship with God. 

In John 1:1 we read: "In the beginning was the Word." Those words "in the beginning" in the Greek are identical to the first two words of the Bible: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." By using these words the Apostle John was saying that before there was any matter, before He made anything, the Lord Jesus was. "In the beginning was the Word." So, there at the beginning, when those things were brought into being, He was there already. 

In John 1:3, we read, "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." Everything that was made was made through the Lord Jesus who was there as the Son of God before the beginning of time, space and matter. The Lord Jesus was there not only before matter; He was there before time and space. And, we know that without matter, there is no time and space.

So, when John says, "In the beginning was the Word," he was highlighting the fact that before anything else was, the Lord Jesus was. He did not come into being, He was there when the beginning of time began. This is difficult for the human mind to grasp because we are limited by time, space and matter. We lack the ability to view all things from the standpoint of eternity.

As we see throughout the Bible, God operates according to covenants. The covenant of redemption is called a “covenant” because it is a plan involving two parties. It is not a covenant between God and man, it is a covenant between God, the Father and God, the Son. God is one in essence and three in person from all eternity.

According to today's verse, the Lord Jesus Christ "was revealed in these last times," which means His coming to the earth was a historical event, to make it plain that God loves man. His life, death, burial and resurrection is the most documented event in all of human history. The New Testament provides accounts from multiple sources who witnessed the Lord Jesus firsthand after His resurrection. In fact, the Lord Jesus made ten separate appearances to His disciples between the resurrection and His ascension into heaven, over a period of 40 days. Some of those appearances were to individual disciples, some were to several disciples at the same time, and once even to 500 at one time.

Particularly noteworthy is that there were no accounts of witnesses who came forth and disputed these appearances or called it a “hoax.” Not a single one. Nor do we find any historical record of any witness accounts that were contradictory. While there are skeptics of the biblical account of the Lord Jesus, there’s actually far more reliable historical evidence for His life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection than for any other historical figure of ancient times. 

The Lord Jesus willingly humbled Himself in order to embrace the plan of God the Father to redeem fallen mankind. And, the Lord Jesus agreed before the creation of the world to do the task. He was not forced by the Father to relinquish His glory and be subjected to humiliation. Rather, He willingly "made Himself of no reputation." The Father did not strip the Son of His eternal glory but the Son agreed to lay it aside temporarily for the sake of our salvation.

I have learned that when I lost all hope of being the perfect person of faith and I abandoned my hope in myself, it was then that I began to learn of the God-sized heart that the Lord Jesus has for me. When we have been granted such revelation, we enter into His joy and His joy keeps us in this massive fight of faith. You see, we arrive at this place of being declared winners by Him when we abandon the self life, even the self life that appears to be spiritual. The more His grace grips us the more we will recognize that which will not endure into eternity. We think that we are being spiritual when we seemingly make a name for ourselves through our determination to be perfect. When we do that we prove that we have failed to recognize the fact that all of our victories were earned by the Lord Jesus. And, it all began in eternity past.

1 Peter 1:17-19

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17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ~ 1 Peter 1:17-19 

Today, we continue our study of 1 Peter which has as its main theme: How to navigate living a God-defined life in a world that is contrary to the Christian faith. The recipients of this letter were enduring incredible pressure to turn away from God and His culture; they needed hope. I always find it mind-blowing when I know the need and I discover that God meets the need in a very unusual way. This most often is the case with God. You see, in order to get through the pressure and the trials they were going through, they needed to grow in their fear of God. When we get to the place where we are in an healthy way fearing God we will come to see that this type of fear is what is needed in order to cancel out the fear of man.

In v.17 we read, "Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear."

The Bible is the Christian's flashlight which helps us to navigate in this dark world. When we live according to God's culture, we do so because we believe His truth is the truth. In addition, according to this verse, we believe there is coming a day when there will be a final reckoning before Him. God's judgment is the light at the end of this dark tunnel known as this fallen world. On that final the day of judgment God will bring to light what is hidden in the darkness and will expose the motives of everyone's hearts. At that time each one will receive good news from God or bad news. That which will determine the difference is what we chose to do with the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Much of the Bible is a call to faith in the God of the Bible, yet most are defined by the "fear of man" more often than not. This explains why the most often repeated command in Scripture is "fear not" repeated some 365 times in the Bible. The word translated "impartially" literally means that God does not judge "by the face." He does not judge by superficial factors like economic status, education or skin color. God judges on the basis of what we did in response to the claims of Christ to be the Savior of all of the willing.

The Apostle Peter wrote this letter to believers, and according to the scriptures, Christians will never have to stand before God and give an account for our salvation on the basis of our good works. In this verse, the judgement Peter references is about the judgment seat of Christ, where Christians will give account for how we used the resources God had given us. According to 1 Corinthians 3:8-15, 5:10, God will judge our choices or works at the judgement seat of Christ. This judgement will not determine whether we will enter heaven; this judgement will determine the position we will have in eternity with God. 

This is why the Apostle Peter wrote those final words in v.17: "...live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear."  When we have a close walk with God and we call Him Father, then we will also know that He will impartially judge us according to our work at the judgement seat of Christ. With this being the case, we will live our lives in reverential fear of God. There are two types of fear in the Bible: one causes us to run from Him and the other causes us to run to Him. In this verse the Apostle refers to the latter. It is out of a deep respect and awe or fear of God that the believer in Christ lives his life; that is if We get it. When we come to the understanding that God is who He says He is and we understand that He knows how to live our lives better than we, we will yield our existence to Him. This will not mean that we will be perfect, it just means that we will grow at yielding to His sovereign wisdom.

In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."

The word "redeemed" means to buy back from bondage. The Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth as God's ransom in order to deliver us from the penalty and power of sin. As the Apostle Peter wrote these words, he no doubt, had in mind the Jewish Passover where an innocent lamb was slain for the forgiveness of the people's sin. The lamb had to be an unblemished and spotless lamb, slain to redeem those with willing hearts of belief. All of those innocent lambs that were slain down through the centuries ALL pointed to the Lamb of God once slain for the forgiveness of all sin.

The Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious and innocent blood in order to redeem you and me from the bonds of the evil one. The very life of God was offered up for you and me. God Himself paid the price that sin created. He, at the cost of His own blood, redeemed us to be His very own sons and daughters. These sobering facts, that God is a fearful God who paid the price for our salvation must be the daily motivation of the believer in Christ to yield our lives to Him for His purposes. 

The price for sinful man's redemption was the death of the Lamb of God because it was God who was the One who had to be satisfied. And, the blood of the Lord Jesus was without blemish or defect; He is the perfect Son of God. This means His death was a substitutionary atonement made on the behalf of all humble enough to believe in His promise of eternal life through Him. Christ’s perfection was used to redeem us in our imperfect condition of sinfulness. All of our moral corruption, our heaped-up sins, our wayward thoughts, words, actions, and inactions were laid upon the Lord Jesus at the altar of sacrifice, the cross of Calvary. And all of God’s divine and eternal attributes were reconciled in Him to us by His death on that tree.

1 Peter 1:14-16

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14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16)

Today, we return to 1 Peter wherein the Apostle Peter is giving us principles which will enable us to navigate a testimony of God's power and faithfulness in this very dark world. The key to a godly life is the pronouncement of God through the yielded life of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are godly, we are only godly because of God's presence in and through our lives.

In v.14 of today's passage we read, "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance."

In the Message translation of this verse we read, "As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness."

When we are being defined by the Lord, we literally will be seen as children of obedience. Found only four times in the New Testament, this word translated "ignorance" is the Greek noun "agnoia" which means "living outside of the will of God." Without knowing the truth of God in Christ, we will be the home of ignorance. When we are hearing the gospel and we are knowing God, we will not be defined by this rebellious and ignorant world. And, as we grow in our hearts ability to see the trustworthy heart of God, we will be defined by His way of thinking and His power will produce His character in and through us.

The word "conform" is written in the passive voice, meaning "to be fashioned by something outside of us."  This is the identical word used in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." 

This command "do not conform to evil desires,"  literally means to make a complete break with our former way of thinking and living. The phrase "evil desires" refers to informed passions, drives, or ambitions. When we were dead to God in our sins and trespasses, we were conformed to the world's passions and drives and desires and ambitions. When we were in our ignorance, we didn't even think about the choices that we made for they were adamic to us. Our sinful desires were our default mode before we became believers in Christ. But now, since we are informed by God's wisdom and His definition of things, we recognize the foolishness of any way other than God's way. This is the result of realizing that we have the choice daily to be defined by God or by the evil one. When we allow the evil one to beckon us to be defined by sin, we score points for him.

In v.15-16 of today's passage we read, "15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy."

For a very long time when I thought of the word "holy", I thought "sinlessness." And, in the back of my mind, I have always known that sinlessness is impossible for any human. In time, I learned through a careful study of the word "holiness," I garnered a different understanding of its definition. Literally, the Apostle Peter is saying "live out of the holiness that Christ earned for you." He isn't saying manufacture the holiness, because we can't. He is saying, "experience God's holiness as you yield to Him."

Holiness in the Bible is to be "set apart." In the character of God, we see everything we have ever wanted out of life. And, due to the fact that He now lives in and through the believer in Jesus, the believer in Christ is positioned to experience the expression of all of God's characteristics in a holy way. The role we play is to be willing to allow God to express Himself in, to, and through our yielded lives. 

God's holiness pervades all of His attributes. His love is a holy love. His mercy is a holy mercy. His justice is a holy justice. His wrath is a holy wrath. Holiness is what sets Him apart. When we refuse to allow the world to squeeze us into its mold, it is then God will most profoundly express Himself in, to, and through us. And, as a result, we will live out of the holiness Christ earned for us. Since holiness is God's nature, it is His holiness that completes us.

God's holiness is not some experience for a small group of "spiritual elites." God's holiness is who God is, and, we can never have a proper, complete or satisfying relationship with God and miss His essence. We do well to think of God's holiness in terms of God being without creation. Our tendency is to bring God down to our level. But our whole God is not determined by our issues. When He sent His Son to earth, God took on human nature out of His eternal holy love, not because sin made Him do it. It is only the wholeness of God that can transform our brokenness.

God's wholeness appears everywhere in scripture. His love, for example, is a whole love which means He desires to produce in us His wholeness which tears away our insecurities. When this happens, we will be a people who are secure in His love for us. When we miss God’s wholeness, we will discover that we have missed Him. But, when we encounter God's wholeness, we will be empowered by Him to be capable of living out of His favor for us and His culture is found primarily in His word.

1 Peter 1:13

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Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ~ 1 Peter 1:13

Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter. All of the epistles in the New Testament are about sanctification teaching. You will remember that justification is a one time event in the life of the believer in the Lord Jesus. Our justification is based solely on the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. To be justified before God is to be pronounced by Him totally forgiven. 

Sanctification, on the other hand, is a process whereby God is changing our souls from the inside out. Through this lifelong process God delivers us from the power of sin by inculcating His culture into us. He inculcates His culture in our souls through His word and His Spirit. The end result of this process is that our souls which are made up of our minds, wills and emotions are being actively informed by God's definitions of all things.

Up to this point in this first epistle of Peter, all the verbs are in the indicative mode; that is they state fact. In today's verse it changes and now the Apostle employs imperatives which are commands. This approach dovetails with the goal of all New Testament epistles in the life of the believer in Christ. 

Today's verse begins with the word "therefore" which is an adverb that denotes a result or a consequence. Here, the Apostle was pointing out to his readers the consequential result of all he had written about up til that point in the letter. The Apostle Peter couches today's verse in two participles which are best translated: "having alerted your minds for action, and remaining serious-minded."

With the inclusion of the words "fully sober" the Apostle was addressing the need to be clear-minded. This clear-mindedness carries with it spiritual steadfastness, having self-control, and balanced priorities. This one Greek word describes a disciplined mind that is not intoxicated by the allurements of this world. Peter wrote this admonition because our adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking anyone weak enough that he may possibly devour. This spiritual alertness enables us to see the ultimate realities causing us to be invested in the eternal. This is the thrust of this verse.

The Greek word that Peter uses for "hope" is best translated "a confident expectation." Hope is faith projected out into the future. It suggests an attitude of optimism based upon one's experience with seeing God's faithfulness over time. Peter is calling us to hope because it glorifies God. When we truly trust God for the future, we will affirm by that trusting that God is trustworthy. And, when we trust Him that brings Him glory. When we do not trust God, we do not bring Him glory. 

In Proverbs 23:7 we read, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." In other words, what we believe determines how we behave; what we think determines what we do. If we walk in the darkness in our minds, we will walk in the darkness in real life. It all begins and ends in the mind which is one third of what makes up our souls. 

The foundation of all our choices should be the Word of God. So, Peter says the first step toward the kind of life that has the vantage point of eternity comes on the heels of discovering what God's Word says about a given subject. This is what keeps us secure and strong. When everything else is falling down around us, we must get back to the one thing we know is true, the Word of God. Then, we will be guided in our thinking by the truth. When we are grounded in and by the word of God, we will be able to move forward even while being knocked about by this evil world. 

Today's verse ends with the words: "...when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming." This is a reference to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. Unlike His first coming when He came as the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world, at His Second Coming the Lord Jesus will come as the conquering lion who will deal with the ever increasing evil in this world. At His Second Coming there will be a sharp sword  in the mouth of the Lord Jesus. 

The sword in the mouth of the Lord Jesus is analogous of the Word of God. Those who responded affirmatively to His Word during and after His first coming will have no need to fear His Word at His Second Coming. But, those who did not respond to His Word in the affirmative before and after His first coming will will be judged by His word at His Second Coming. This is why today's verse is so important. As we respond affirmatively to God's Word, we will be positioned to help others to come to faith in the Lord Jesus before it is too late.

1 Peter 1:10-12

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10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. ~ 1 Peter 1:10-12

Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter where we are being equipped with the tools that enable us to navigate a faithful walk with the Lord amid this perilous world. In today's passage the Apostle Peter gives us a twofold view of our salvation; one from the vantage point of the Old Testament prophets and one from the vantage point of the angels in heaven. While the god of this world wants to use the trials and troubles in our lives to turn us away from the God of the Bible, God desires to use those very same trials and troubles to deepen our heart's ability to see Him. 

In v.10-11 of today's passage we read, "10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow."

In order to help us to see God with our hearts, the Apostle Peter highlights God's incredible plan of salvation which has been in the making for centuries. God, over thousands of years, moved the Old Testament prophets to describe this mystery that they at the time didn't understand. The Old Testament prophets wrote specifically of the sufferings of the promised Messiah. In Isaiah 53 we read in detail of the Lord Jesus while He hung on the cross. Isaiah gave us this description of the suffering servant some 700 years before the the Lord Jesus came as the Lamb who took away the sin of the world. In Psalm 22 David wrote of the Lord Jesus hanging on His cross 1,000 years before His first coming.

According to Luke 24:44-46 before the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, He told His disciples that afterwards He would open their minds and they would be enabled to see what the prophets had to say about God's plan of salvation. One would have to be blind to not recognize the 300 plus prophecies in the Old Testament of the coming Lamb of God who would be punished on the behalf of all who would be humble enough to believe in Him. In John 3:19, the Lord Jesus described the reason why man would not be willing to receive the free gift of salvation when He said, "The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light."

In v.12 of today's passage we read, "It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things."

Today's passage underscores the fact that there is a tapestry in all of our lives. Like the first century Christians, believers in Christ are involved in the sovereign plan of God that even the angels of heaven do not understand. We should take courage in knowing that the sovereign God of the Bible is bringing to perfect fruition His incredible and intricate plan to rescue all who are willing of heart enough to receive His free gift of salvation. We can trust God even when we do not understand what we are going through, because, one day, we will see and we will know as He.

In John 20:29 we read, "Then Jesus told Thomas, 'You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.'"

One of the twelve disciples of the Lord Jesus,Thomas, had to go through eight days of utter anguish before he was positioned to believe that the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead. As believers in Christ, we will, until our dying day, have within us the believer and the unbeliever which will be engaged in a civil war. This war is helpful in our discovery of the truth. Doubt is the shadow cast by faith. Doubt is the desire of our hearts crying out for more certainty. 

It is doubt that creates the questions with which we wrestle. So, not all doubt is bad; it is just the flip side of faith. There is a difference between honest and dishonest doubters. The honest want to know the truth, whereas, the dishonest do not want to know the truth. Thomas had lived in his disbelief for eight days which was strategic, for in those eight days Thomas was forced to entertain the right questions.

We believe in the Lord Jesus, having not seen Him. We believe because of His spoken word which we hear with our hearts. We believe the Bible, because the Spirit of God has given us not only faith in Christ, but also faith in His word. We weren’t argued into believing in the God of the Bible; we were led by the Holy Spirit into believing. We do not need to see the risen Lord Jesus to believe in Him and to love Him. And, our changed lives are only explained by a supernatural experience called the new birth.

1 Peter 1:8-9

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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. ~ 1 Peter 1:8-9

Today, we return to the epistle of 1 Peter where the Apostle Peter is giving us a blueprint on how to navigate through this life that presents us with many multifaceted trials. Essential are these trials because they aid at helping us to know God more intimately. We think that trials should not be a natural thing for us as Christians but they are musts in order for us to grow in our walk with the Lord. These trials serve to force us to seek with the Lord with all of our hearts, something we do not naturally do on our own.

In v.8 of today's passage we read, "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."

Part of our difficulty is that we think that if we are given enough tangible evidence of God's existence, we will believe in Him easier and more. The Apostle Peter saw the Lord Jesus with his own eyes, and yes, he believed in Him and loved Him. But, as the Lord Jesus told His disciples in John 20:29 before ascending into heaven, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed."

You and I believe in and grow in our love for the Lord Jesus, even though we do not seen Him with our eyes. In order to aid us in seeing Him with our hearts, God has given us His Holy Spirit who enables us to anticipate His involvement and purposes in our lives, especially through our trials. He has also given us His word which enables us to recognize His voice when He speaks to our hearts. Of course, we do not hear His voice audibly, our hearts hear Him when He speaks to us. And, the more we are in His word, the more modulated our hearts will be to His voice.

Biblical faith, which is a product of our response to God's faithfulness is becoming more convinced that God is in control and is rendering His will in our lives. There are no more dangerous people in the world than those who have no fear of the outcome! Because of this, we can realize and experience a radical, counter cultural life because we have courage in Him. When we leave everything in God's hands we will eventually see God's hands in everything.

In the rest of this epistle, Peter unpacks what it means to live faithfully and courageously in this world. He tells us to be holy as God is holy. To be holy is not to be perfect in our behavior, it is to be perfect in our position in Christ which He earned for us. In Christ, we have arrived as perfect before the only One who matters, even when we have utterly blown it.

Sometimes we think the answer is to have enough of whatever this world offers us but Peter is saying there is nothing in this world that can compare with the greatness of knowing Christ. The surety of God's promises gives us an amazing contentment right now, because everything we will ever need or could ever need is ours in Christ. The key is that God defines us, and He uses discomfort to get us to this place. Our trials perform an integral part of our joy. When we experience trials, the good thing they do for us is to prove the genuineness of our faith and the development of our love for the Lord. The combination of these two: trust and love result further in His joy come to bear in our lives.

The word "joy" appears 158 times in the Bible, the word "rejoice" 199 times. Altogether words like "gladness," "joy," "joyful," "rejoicing," appear almost 500 times in the Bible. In Psalm 4 we read, "You have put gladness in my heart." In Psalm 37 we read, "Delight yourself in the Lord." In Psalm 5 we read, "Let all those rejoice who put their trust in you; let them ever shout for joy." In Psalm 32 we read, "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright." 

Then when we get to the New Testament, we read such a verse as: "Rejoice in the Lord." That imperative was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in a Roman prison. For him to be able to write that in those circumstances and give a command, that tells us that joy has little to do with what's going on around us and a lot to do with what's going on inside us. And the reason we are not more joyful is because we lack the ability to see the connection between our trials and our faith, love and joy in the Lord.  

This inexpressible and glorious joy that Peter speaks of is the product of the trials doing the work in our souls they were intended by God to do. In fact, these trials deliver the very joy of the Lord into our existence, even when life seems to be falling apart all around us. This joy is so foreign to us that we find it difficult to gather words to describe it. And, it pronounces the very presence of God in our lives.

Horatio G. Spafford was a lawyer in Chicago in the late 1800's. It was he who wrote the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul."  Spafford wrote that hymn after his children died at sea. After their deaths, Spafford went to the very spot where their sea vessel went down and he wrote the oft treasured hymn. One of the verses reads, "Oh Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; the trump shall resound, and the Lord will descend, even so, it is well with my soul." 

These are the words of a man  who had grown to love and trust the Lord Jesus. It is when we have developed trust and love in the Lord that we are positioned to experience His joy. Coming to the place of giving to God the control of our lives, frees us to move forward in our sanctification or as Peter puts it  "the salvation of your souls." 

The arena of our justification is our spirits which is where we are born again; having believed on the Lord Jesus as our savior, our spirits have been made alive to God. The battlefield where our sanctification takes place is in our souls. Sanctification is the changing of our minds, wills and emotions by the thoughts of God. Our sanctification leads us to the kind of life God is calling us to live for our benefit and the benefit of others. It is God's desire to use our lives in the process of others coming to know Him, and He rarely blesses us with only us in mind.

1 Peter 1:6-7

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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. ~ 1 Peter 1:6-7

Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter where the Apostle Peter provides us with a blueprint on how to handle suffering. He did this for the recipients of this letter who had been enduring persecution due to their obedience to the God of the Bible. Persecution ensures that the very things that we tend to trust in the most like comfort and ease and affluence and prosperity and safety and freedom becomes less of a crutch for the believer. When these crutches are removed, we discover what is really real, and we invest accordingly.

In today's passage, the Apostle makes the point that all of our trials potentially produce at least one purpose. In addition to getting us to investing in the really real, our trials serve to create a roadway into the hearts of those upon whom we have influence. In today's passage we learn of the two things which we must have in order to growth in our faith in the God of the Bible. This faith is best described as our heart's ability to see God.

In v.6 of today's passage we read, "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 

Today's passage begins with: "In all this..." The word "this" modifies "the suffering" mentioned in the previous verses. When we come to understand the purpose behind our troubles, we will inevitably rejoice because the presence of God is magnified in and through our lives. According to Romans 10:17, when we hear with our hearts the spoken word of God, the other ingredient to a growing faith is brought to bare in our lives. When out of our trials we turn to God, we will experience the purpose of our trials which is a heightened awareness of His presence which is designed to enable our faith to grow even stronger than we ever thought it could be. 

The Apostle ends v.6 with "all kinds of trials." In the KJV we read, "manifold trials" which when literally translated reads, "many-colored trials." I find it very instructive that this same Greek word is also found in 1 Peter 4:10 where the adjective is applied to God's grace, "the manifold grace of God." When our trials are varied, God’s grace is just as varied. It is the amazing grace of God that gives us the power and the desire to do what pleases Him in the middle of the most tragic circumstances of our lives. And His grace is specifically designed to meet us right where our tragedy hits us. 

The ultimate goal of it all is that we see Him in an increasing multifaceted way. The depth of our heart's to see God renders a knowledge of Him that is ever increasing. And, we will know Him most deeply due to our trials which drive us to Him in our times of our greatest need. I'm so glad God doesn't rescue me when I want to be rescued out of my trials because I would miss out on so much with Him.

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "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."

Our faith in the God of the Bible is much like our muscles, if we do not exercise them, they will not grow. In fact, unused faith will atrophy. This is the design of our troubles: they serve in pushing us into a deeper reality with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the trials are helpful in that. The key isn't just faith, the key is that the God of the Bible is the object of our faith. And our trials hone our heart's ability to see and hear God.

The Apostle Peter uses the metaphor of a refining fire. The purified gold is the product of the distress caused by intense heat. Similarly, suffering has the same effect on our faith in the God of the Bible. Our suffering enables us to see our utter inadequacy. It also enables us to see His utter adequacy. And, when we are let down enough by those inadequacies, it is then that we are granted the opportunity to place our lives more increasingly in the hands of our adequate heavenly Father.  When we are overwhelmed and cry out to Him for help, we discover His presence and His involvement in the details of our lives. We eventually will notice even a design to our trials and our troubles.

Our suffering deepens our appreciation for the sufferings of the Lord Jesus on our behalf. Like gold that is refined by the intense heat of fire, we will embrace a disposition that will be less self absorbed and more dependent upon the One who has our best interest at heart. When we withdraw from Him due to these intense fiery trials, we limit our heart's ability to see and experience Him for ourselves. And, as a result, we forfeit the opportunity to learn His definitions of things and we will not be trained in His culture.

C. S. Lewis once eloquently said: "Pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rebel soul." A jeweler knows if the gold that he holds is real or fake by placing it in a fire. Our faith is no different. A faith that cannot be tested by intensity is a faith that cannot be trusted. So, God puts it through the fire in order to strengthen it. God is not out to burn us; He is always out to bless us. But sometimes those blessings are disguised in trials.

And the result of it all will be magnified when the Lord Jesus is revealed. In that moment we will see that every ounce of the unwanted trials and troubles that came into our live had purpose. In that moment we will praise, glorify and honor the Lord Jesus. These three words reveal something that is far more precious than the gold and the diamonds of this world. These three words, praise, glory and honor are words of worship. When He is revealed we will be so enthralled with Him that we will break out in intense worship. The beauty of it all will be in the recognition that our trials and troubles and persecutions prepared our hearts for the explosions of praise and worship that we will render in that moment. It will be a crescendo moment that will not be paralleled by any other.

1 Peter 1:5

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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. ~ 1 Peter 1:3-5

Today, I include v.3-4 in with today's verse for the sake of context. In this letter, the Apostle Peter is providing us with a blueprint on how to live the Christian life in the context of suffering. In v.3-5 the Apostle provides us with three buoys that enable us who are now of another world to navigate the treacherous waters of this world. In v.3-4 we have considered two results of our new birth: a living hope and an enduring inheritance. Today, we consider the next result of our new birth found in 1 Peter 1:5 that we are shielded by God's power.

The believers to whom Peter wrote this letter were being persecuted intensely. They struggled in the midst of their trials to discover God's purpose in it. In order to comfort these suffering believers, Peter reminds them they were shielded by the power of God. The word "shielded" means "guarded" in the same way as a military post is guarded by soldiers. The military guard, in this case, is the Holy Spirit who has the responsibility to guard or protect the believer and his inheritance in Christ for eternity. 

Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that something or someone poses a threat to us. The believer in Christ does not have to be controlled by fear, but by the immense power of God to guard our eternity. This power grants the believer in Christ the ability to use his trials as an asset rather than a hindrance. The key is that we operate daily from a transcendent point of view that is only granted by God's word and His Holy Spirit. This is why a life lived while walking in the Spirit is so important. 

In Ephesians 1:14 the Apostle Paul wrote of the promised Holy Spirit who was given by God to the the believer in Christ as the guarantee of our "salvation" in Christ. This inheritance is our home, our real home. Our home is where we are most at home. Homeliness is defined not by us but by the Lord Jesus, the One who best defines all things. The Holy Spirit guards and guarantees our eventual abiding place with the Lord Jesus and home is naturally where the heart is. God has, through the Holy Spirit, chosen to make His home within the believer in Christ. Our home is not a proximity. Our home is a person. And, that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. He completes all of His creation through His presence.

The believer in Christ and our inheritance is being "shielded by God’s power." Interestingly, this is the same power that God used to create all things, and it is the very same power that  raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. God does not promise us the absence of suffering, However, He does promise something much greater; He promises us the ability to transcend and to live according to His precepts. And, when we are living in this way, we discover how suffering serves us. This is why the Apostle Paul references our blessings in the book of Ephesians as being accessed in the heavenly realms. And, when we live according to God's culture, we transcend to the place where we see that what we thought was a curse was actually a blessing.

I know a young lady very close to me who is incredibly skilled at solving problems; she can solve any problem. This young lady has the ability to see well in advance in order to straighten out that which has been made crooked. And the amazing part of it all, she acquired these valuable and very sought out skills by going through many family related trials while growing up. She and her sisters had it rough growing up without a father in the picture. If you look closely enough, you will notice the same is true in your life. Your strengths were acquired through going through many unwanted difficulties and learning from them.

The Bible speaks of our "inheritance" as a past event, we were forgiven by God for the penalty of our sin through the death of Christ on the cross. This, the Bible calls our justification. The Bible also speaks of our "inheritance" as a present event or our sanctification through which God is saving us from the power of sin. We do not have to obey sin because as God inculcates His culture within us through His Spirit and His word, we will see the utter stupidity of giving in to sin. Finally, the Bible speaks of our "inheritance" as a future event where we will be will be saved from the presence of sin. This is referred to in the Bible as glorification. When that day comes, we will realize the consummation of our inheritance in Christ earned by Christ on our behalf.