1. The media is able to be tricked easily into believing something and then project that to the whole world.

At least twice in the movie someone was killed and the media twisted it in order to cover for the Vatican. Or, perhaps more accurately, the Vatican released an official statement about the incident and the media ran with it. The movie showed at least 4 different languages represented in the media, covering much of the world who would be eating up this lie. I am not sure if this was a major point they were trying to get across but I know I saw it as pretty important. We can indeed be fed a good deal of important information from media outlets such as TV, internet, radio, and newspapers (does anyone read those anymore?), but they can easily be twisted or lied to (or do the lying themselves) and it suddenly gets received as absolute truth. A dangerous concept in real life to be sure.

2. There was a strong sense that passionate belief in something does no make it true or right.

Towards the end of the movie a major decision was about to be made, something that would change the course of the Catholic church. The cardinals were conversing and becoming convinced of something and one of them said that if the Holy Spirit is leading them to do __________ (I won’t give it away), they should do it because it is God’s will. Come to find out that they were wrong and evidence showed just moments later. The point here is that passionate belief about anything can be misled. Even cloaking it around words like “Holy Spirit” and “God’s will” doesn’t make someone less susceptible to being fooled. We need to seek wise counsel, rely on God’s leading (just because we could be led astray doesn’t mean we always will be), and take a humble and patient approach to big decisions. Only God is perfect, and while we can make wise decisions it is best to do so slowly and with more prayer than we normally think is necessary.

Just some thoughts from a decent movie draped in Catholic mystery.

I say all of that because I was thinking about it this morning after reading a very well known verse – Romans 6:23. It says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Growing up in Sunday school I must have known this one since kindergarten or 1st grade… not that I really got it, but I probably got a nice gold star on the Sunday School poster next to my name for saying it by memory. Good times. Anyway, the verse is very powerful when you think about what is being implied. I believe Paul was a master communicator who was filled with the Holy Spirit to write down God’s inspired Word, the Bible. Therefore, let’s break these two concepts down.

For the wages of sin is death

Paul has been arguing in Romans 6 (and other places) that sin leads to death. It is the logical outcome of our rebellion against God’s holiness, his commands, and his overall character. It is what we all deserve – it is what’s “fair” in this life. (As a side note, I believe this means we should love the fact that, for believers in Christ, life is not “fair”, meaning that we don’t get what we deserve, which is eternal damnation in hell as righteous punishment for our sin.) The reason I brought up my Scandia experience is that my wages for all those hours under my boss was some money – it was my justified payment for what I did. In a similar way, the justified payment, or the justified outcome, of anyone’s life lived under sin and not under God’s grace which comes through faith in Christ, is death. That is, both the physical death we will all experience (unless Christ returns before that happens), and also eternal death – separation from God forever. These are the wages of sin, and these are the wages everyone either is under today who is apart from Christ, or was under before you came to Christ (or before he came to you and rescued you, which I would argue is a more accurate way to describe it).

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul now juxtaposes what belonging to sin leads to with what belonging to God leads to. The free gift is the exact opposite of the justified payment (wages) – there is nothing about a free gift that anyone can boast in and say “Ya, I got it because I worked really hard for it.” Sometimes kids think they got a free gift from their parents because they manipulated their parents and dropped not-so-subtle hints about what they want for their birthday, but if the parent is a good parent then, in the end, they know that the kid got it because of a free gift of love. God is the “Free Gift Giver” here – he is the one who knows our condition better than anyone and yet still offers this free gift through Jesus Christ. We do not earn it, we receive it (Romans 3:24). You are a Christian because you received something from God… you did not pay him back and thus receive your just due.

And what is this outcome of this free gift to be received on faith? Eternal life! The contrast should be obvious by now, but the outcome of all your work under sin as your “boss” or more accurately as your owner, is death – physical death and eternal separation from God. Yet the outcome of God’s undeserved gift of grace is eternal life IN Jesus Christ. Eternal life is given for everyone in Christ – everyone who has come to receive this gift and live for him. Everyone who has come out of the bondage of sin, the ownership of such a brutal taskmaster, and into this marvelous light. Everyone who has seen their rebellion and seen what their Creator did in order to have them back. Everyone who recognizes that the chasm between them and God would never be jumped over or somehow breached unless God himself became a man and took our punishment for us. The gift of eternal life is entirely free to you and I, but not to God. It cost the life of the Son, who willingly sacrificed himself on the cross for our sin, in order that we might become children of God.

Praise his name today! While we were sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We who were working for sin, under the bondage of sin, on our way to receiving our just payment of death have been rescued. Yes we will die in this life because of the effects of sin, and yes there are still consequences to our sin that we still struggle with. But you can go about your day and the rest of your life knowing God has rescued you, given you free grace through Jesus Christ, and that your physical death one day has been transformed so that it is no longer the end of anything but the doorway into eternal life with God our Savior.

Currently, millions of Americans are worried sick about our economy and our unemployment rate. We are also worried about the health care bill passing or not passing and the seemingly constant threat of terrorism. There are many more concerns that many people have, and many of them are legitimate. But please take a moment to step outside of your current issues and worries and read Revelation 4 and 5. If properly understood, it will raise your eyes above your situation and onto the One who “created all things and by his will they existed and were created” as well as lift your eyes to Jesus who was “slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”

In chapter 4 of Revelation, John describes the Throne in Heaven. He uses incredible, heart stirring imagery of what he saw or what things were like – I just imagine John writing down very reflectively of this true story and can only come up with so many human words to describe this very divine experience. John gets the unimaginable privilege of seeing the throne room of Heaven as it stands right now – consider it the reality beyond your reality. At this very moment, while our world scurries about like busy ants, while we fret over very trivial and very serious things alike, while we are consumed in our personal little world, God is on the throne and God is not worried or losing control (unlike us). He is the One who is worthy of our praise and deepest affections, He is the one who created all things and who is leading human history to it’s eventual coming climax. He raises up leaders and brings leaders down, He is drawing men and women to himself from all walks of life, all nationalities, and out of all kinds of false religions through the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it penetrates the whole world. The state of our union may be disagreed upon (and it always will be), the issues will be there until this final act is over… but the state of the Throne has not changed.

The Ruler and Creator of all things is the Lord, He is the King of kings, He is mighty to save and is accomplishing his will on earth. He is moving throughout every nation, in the midst of earthquakes in Haiti and wars in the Middle East. He is moving with no regard to border or popularity. He is moving through underground churches in China, mega-churches in America, and house churches on every continent (does anyone live in Antarctica? If so, He’s moving there too). We have reason to be concerned about political issues that affect our daily lives – please don’t think I’m trashing all your cares and worries. But we have far greater reason to have secure peace and hope in times of trouble, because Jesus is the Lion and the Lamb, the One who rescued us from our sin and gives eternal life. And, no matter what the state of our union is or becomes, that will always be true.

Just some thoughts

So, anyways, I totally stunk it up today. Since last week I have developed what I believe is known as the “yips” in the golf world – an unforeseen problem with your swing that causes you to hit the ball in the wrong direction. I didn’t have it on every hole, but on enough to be sure. Not only that, but it rained for about 8 holes. And I’m not talking the misty kind of rain that comes on coast almost every day. I’m talking about side ways rain that felt like the ocean was just spitting on you! We were drenched through and through but kept on going… I mean, this is Pebble Beach here! You don’t just quit after 11 holes because of a little rain. Not only was I soaked, so were all my clubs and their grips. On the 15th hole I took off my glove (who needs a glove in a down pour?) and took a whack at it, and I’m pretty sure the club flew further than the ball. It soared for about 3 seconds through the air, hit some branches and tumbled down. Poor 5 wood… it doesn’t deserve to be treated so poorly. Fortunately the rain stopped on the 15th hole and the sun actually came out pretty quickly. I miraculously got par on hole 16 and 17, then bogeyed 18 (perhaps the most famous par 5 in the world, literally) just before the clouds threatened again.

If you’ve made it all the way to this point, I’m impressed. Most people fall asleep when talking about golf for more than 5 minutes, let alone when reading about someone else’s round for a couple paragraphs. But let me mention a few things I was thinking about either before playing, during the round, or afterward in reflection.

1. It’s amazing that God created a world with such creativity that we can mold it and make golf courses all over it. That also goes for parks, fields, and many more things. God providentially allowed grass to be planted, bunkers to be placed in certain spots, and all of that. Awesome.

2. Amidst such beauty, who cares how you play. And if you do care too much, then you either need to be getting paid tons of money for playing on some professional tour or you need to quit. It was horrible weather and an incredible experience all at the same time.

3. Sometimes, when I’m at places where I know some people have been before, I just get this awe-struck sensation. Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson, and countless other golfers and celebrities have been held captive by the beauty of Pebble Beach for many years, and now I’m in that number – not in the talent sort of way, but in the “I’ve-been-there-too” way.

4. Jesus is better than Pebble Beach. No, seriously, I was thinking this. The good news about Jesus coming to earth to die for my sins, and rising again and being the Ruler over all the earth is much cooler than saying I played Pebble. Who really cares about Pebble? OK, I do and so do many others. But just think about it… if who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us isn’t more important than a place like Pebble, or your favorite vacation spot, or your dream vacation, or that home, or that financial goal, or that relationship, something is seriously wrong with us. Honestly I don’t always think in these terms, but as I was thanking God for this beautiful place he made and allowed mankind to carve up into that golf course, I realized that while it’s cool to play golf along cliffs and watch your golf ball sail into the ocean several times, it’s way better to know my sins have been paid for by Christ and totally forgiven.

More could be said about my day today, but that’s all anyone would want to read. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to play and would have played 18 holes in terrible weather if I needed to. But while this was a day I’ll remember the rest of my life, I’d be OK if it had never happened. Life would go on, God would be God, Jesus would be my Savior, and I’d still be OK. This is the perspective I hope to have on other things as well, and by God’s grace will grow into as I mature in him.

Peter is continuing his discourse on what Christ did and who Christ is, telling us in v. 20 that “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world…” Jesus is God who has lived eternally past and will live eternally in the future. But why did he come? Peter answers that immediately – he came for our sake, the sake of those who are believers in God through Jesus. Christ came into human history for my sake and for your sake. He didn’t just come to give us truth, to be the truth, which he was and still is today. He came for us, so that we could belong to our Heavenly Father. God the Father raised Christ from the dead and gave him glory so that our faith and hope are in God, Peter goes on to explain. The “so that” is important here as it shows the purpose for which God raised Jesus from the dead. In some way it seems to me that the resurrection, while of course necessary in the salvation plan of God, also served to increase our faith and hope in God himself. We believe God and hope in him because Christ was risen from death. He conquered it, and God will conquer it for us as well. My hope does not have to be rooted in what I can do anymore, nor do I have some vain “hope” that in the end I’ve done enough for God to accept me. He has accepted me and given me a new and living hope, as Peter has already mentioned, through the resurrection of Jesus.

Peter begins a new thought in v. 22, moving from the explanation of who Jesus is and what God has accomplished into exhorting believers toward maturity in Christ. His basic message is this: because of all God has done, love one another from a pure heart. The super-natural response for each individual Christian is to NOT keep it to themselves but to share this love that God has given them with others. Specifically Peter has in mind Christians loving other Christians – this does not mean we are only to love Christians and shun non-Christians, but rather the point here is that there needs to be a mutual love for one another because of what God has done in each heart. The line of reasoning for v. 22 and 23 could go something like this: Since you have been born again to a new life following Jesus, obey Christ’s greatest commands to love God and love one another in brotherly (and sisterly) love. The important idea is “since” – that is, because God has given you new life, a new and living hope in Jesus, the response must be one of love. And as the world sees our love for one another – which must be different and deeper than the world’s vain version of love – spiritual light is reflected in our Christian communities to a world desperately in need of light.

The idea of being “born again” (in v. 23) is one of the best known and most mocked ideas in all of Christianity. Yet it comes up several times in Peter’s writing, and he obviously gets it from Christ. Here’s the deal: you simply can’t get away from the fact that conversion is like a new birth. You were born into futility in this world, spiritually dead, blind, and dumb. You cannot save yourself and the only hope you have is for God to do a supernatural work and re-birth you and me. While there are many ways to describe what happens to someone when they become a Christian, one inevitable fact remains: they are born-again as Christians. What I find ridiculous is when people say “born-again Christian” as if there is another kind of Christian. There isn’t. If you’re a Christian, you’re a born-again Christian. I will be the first to admit that I get uncomfortable at the questions some pose, such as “So are you a ‘born-again’ Christian?” But the fact remains that this is exactly what happened. I once was dead and now am alive. I once had no true hope and now have a living hope because I belong to a living Savior and the only true living God, my Heavenly Father. Born again is exactly what happened, and if you’re not born again you’re not a Christian. This new birth is of “imperishable seed” Peter goes on to explain. This is because my first birth was natural (though the birth process is amazing, it is still natural) and this second birth is super-natural. It is the coming to a knowledge of Jesus Christ that so changes you that you’re literally re-born.

Peter then uses the Old Testament to say something that the Bible says over and over in different ways: you and I are a blip on the radar of human history, like the grass in a field or a flower in a garden. If this were a movie, you would be in it for, oh I don’t know, 0.3 seconds or less. You’d have to try and pause the scene at just the right time so your friends could see you in the far back-drop of the scene. We are not the main Characters… God is. We are not the main point… He is, and His Word stands forever. It cannot be stamped out, killed out, chased out, legislated out, or anything else. Verse 25 says “And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” This good news about Jesus that Peter was inspired to proclaim will stand forever, changing the lives of all who receive it in faith. Praise his name.

Peter is beginning to move from his opening discourse, rich in theology and elevating the salvation of God in Christ, to getting into the “nitty-gritty” of the Christian life. Like other authors the Holy Spirit inspired to write Scripture, he will mix theology with practical implications, but here it’s more on the implication side – basically answering the question, “so what?” What difference does this living hope through the resurrection make in my behavior, motivation, thinking, and so on?

Verse 13 begins with “therefore”. Whenever you see that word, always ask this question: What is the therefore, there for? It’s a little play on words that helps me remember everything is connected. One danger of blogging about chunks of Scripture is my tendency to isolate it and treat it like its own entity, when that is entirely wrong because Peter is writing a letter, possibly all in one sitting, that is a unified whole. Peter’s appeal here is that, because of all the prophets prophesied about and because this has been fulfilled in Christ, we need to be sober minded and ready for action, living for Jesus. Our hope is to be set on something interesting, namely the grace that will come to us at the revelation of Jesus. This is speaking of a future grace that we have not yet received. That is not to say we haven’t already received grace, because we most certainly do every day, but Peter is reminding us the God is not done dispensing grace and when Christ comes fully revealed as King of all creation, his children will receive even greater grace. Beautiful.

Something comes up in this passage a couple of times that I think is worth focusing on. Peter talks about our “former ignorance” in verse 14 and then refers to the “futile ways inherited from your forefathers” in verse 18. The call is to not live like you once lived, before you knew God, before you knew what Christ had done for you, before you had received grace and been filled with a living hope. Notice though that Peter does not deny the pull of the former passions, but simply call us not to be conformed to them any longer. Christianity does not deny the existence of evil nor does it pretend that all Christians have some experience of immediately being released from addiction, temptation, or past sins. Some of those sins are simply ignorant people not knowing how to live, and some of them are the sins of our forefathers (dad, mom, grandparents… anyone influential in our lives in my opinion). We all have these things – ways that we see ourselves being just like what we hated in our parents, former passions and addictions that still haunt us and that we still pursue. But Peter does not simply say that being a Christian means gritting it out and becoming moralistic in order to stop these things, he gives us hope once again based on the character of God and the work of Christ.

Peter calls Christians to avoid these former ways of life based on God’s character. He refers to God in verse 17 as both Father and Judge. We are his children (verse 14) and he is our true Father. We have inherited sins, addictions, and so much more from our parents but God becomes our Father through Jesus Christ his Son. We are adopted into this family of God, born again to a new Father, thus being able to leave behind passions and sins of our fathers. This is not an excuse to distance ourselves from our parents, but it is an encouragement to know that you once belonged to a lineage that was carnal and ignorant, but now have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and your identity at its core has been altered to now belong to God as Father. But God is also Judge – he will judge the living and the dead and we are included in that. Now is not the time to get into all the judgment stuff (nor am I adequate yet at explaining it), but Christians will be judged by God their Father, albeit in a different way than non-Christians. Just think of it! Your Father is your Judge! Does that not take some of the edge off of this whole “I’ll be judged” thing? You step up to the judgment seat, and who is judging you but your Heavenly Father who sent his Son to die so that you might live, who has already forgiven you and who is there to talk about your life with Him… not your life previously without him. Amazing.

Lastly, the great news is that you and I are ransomed from the futile ways of our forefathers, which I see as another way of describing our passions of former ignorance as well. We were ignorant of God’s ways, blinded to His goodness and maybe even denying his existence – certainly denying his authority! Yet we were ransomed, which is an illustration of being released from slavery. Perhaps one of the most dangerous and deadly things about sin is that we don’t realize we are slaves to it. We get so comfortable in it at times that we forget, or perhaps never knew, that we are enslaved to passions of our own and passions/sins of our family lineage as well. Yet Christ gave his life, like the lamb of the old covenant, in our place and for our sins. He is the Lamb of God, perfect and without sin, who paid the price (thus ransoming us from slavery to sin) so that we might be free to know and love Him. What a wonderful Savior. So the call is not to “try real had not to sin anymore like your daddy did” but it is to “live in the new life with your Heavenly Father who ransomed you through the blood of his Son to live with a living hope, set on the grace of God”. This is our motivation for obedience as children, because we have a Father in Heaven who has accomplished all that we couldn’t so we could belong to Him.

We have here some of the most revealing words written about God’s plan for the ages. Peter masterfully sums up what God was doing through the prophets and prophecies, and who the prophets were serving in their ministry.

Peter begins v. 10 with “concerning this salvation” – the salvation he has been explaining in the opening 9 verses. This is the salvation about the wonderful mercy of God, the resurrection of Christ, the living hope that we have as believers because we believe in a living Savior, and even the various trials we need to persevere in so that we may have a faith more precious than gold. Peter informs us that it is this salvation that the prophets had prophesied about so long ago. He does not name any one prophet but lumps them all together, as if to say “Remember all those prophets? Well every one of them were being informed in bits and pieces of the glorious grace that was to come through Someone.” Though they did not name Christ as such they knew he was coming, they knew he would suffer and die for our sins, would rise again, and would fulfill many other specific prophecies as well.

Verse 11 tells us that the prophets eagerly inquired (of the Lord, I would imagine) what person this would be and when these things would take place. What anticipation they must have had! O to be one of those fortunate and faithful men, who even though many suffered and died in the service of the Lord were able to get a foretaste of things to come. Here the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ, which is a wonderful reminder that the Holy Spirit is not some rogue part of the Trinity swooping down at Pentecost in Acts 2 and taking over. He is part of the eternal Triune Godhead, involved in every part of the creation and new creation process. He does not operate on his own, but points us to Christ and is thus the very Spirit of Christ. He is the one who witnessed to the prophets, who inspired every word in the entire Book.

Verse 12 is a verse that everyone needs to memorize… and if not memorize word for word, at least become intimately familiar with the key ideas. The prophets were told that they, who lived thousands of years ago, were not serving themselves but US! Now of course, Peter is writing to a group of people here. However he is writing to a scattered and general group of people, and this is most certainly still true today. The “you” in the text is not so much specific people, but A Specific People, if you will, the people of God. The prophets were aware that they were involved in something much greater than themselves, something that would not come to pass in their lifetime even, and yet they gladly pressed in to the Holy Spirit and shared what they received from Him. So, how did they serve us? They served us by foretelling what would come to pass in Christ, namely 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.” We see here that the news continues to spread through word of mouth, through preaching.

Preaching is under suspicion in many circles today, and partially for good reason. Many preachers have abused their positions of authority, manipulated and maligned the word of God, and had self-serving goals in the pulpit. However, the perversion of some preachers does not mean that the concept of preaching is to blame! Preaching is simply proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, the news that He is the Savior of the world, the One who came from Heaven, died for our sins, rose for our new life, and the One who will return to judge the living and the dead. Preaching happens when we instruct, from God’s Word, others to follow Jesus Christ – his example, his teachings, his heart. Preaching is still a primary tool God uses to bring people to a saving knowledge of him. Many preachers do not preach in the biblical sense, but have made it a time for counseling sessions, nice anecdotes and self-exaltation. They will be judged harshly for this, but let us not think God does not still use preaching in mighty ways today.

Finally, this news, this GOOD NEWS about Jesus Christ which the prophets of old had some knowledge of and we now have a fuller picture of on this side of the cross, this is something into which “angels long to look”. This blows my mind! Angelic creatures who serve God faithfully, who worship him constantly, are floored at the concept of God rescuing sinners. Think about it though: there are many fallen angels which we call demons, who denied God’s authority and sought their own. They have been judged by God already and will be finally judged forever with Satan on the last day. However, us humans, who also deny God’s authority and even his very existence (which, James tells us, even demons don’t do!), God has pursued, died for, and saved?!?! This is truly magnificent, altogether mysterious and head-scratching to angels looking into it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be dwelt upon more frequently, more deeply, and it needs to cause us to be in awe of God, as the angels are. We so frequently and so foolishly believe we have it all down, and perhaps this is in part because we have so simplified it that it fits onto small brochures we can pass out to people. But angels are still longing to look into the Gospel, still awe-struck at the God of the universe for doing this. We too need hearts full of wonder at God’s merciful dealings with us.

We pick up with Peter’s flow of thought from v. 3-10. He tells his readers in v. 6, “in this you rejoice…” They rejoice in God’s mercy (v. 3) expressed through Jesus Christ and the living hope they have because Jesus is alive. In short, Peter is confident they are rejoicing in God. It makes me think, what am I most joyful for? What do I rejoice IN? The answer is easily found when trials come your way. In fact this is Peter’s next thought in v. 6-7, what happens in trials. The thing I most rejoice in is revealed when trials come. Joy is robbed if your have been rejoicing (taking the greatest joy) in anything but God. Because everything else people hope for outside of God can die, break, betray you, hurt you, and so on – thus stealing our joy. Peter’s readers rejoice not in themselves, their talents, their money, their spouse, children, job, hobbies, none of that. They are rejoicing in what God has done for them through Christ, because of His great mercy.

Peter introduces an idea common in the Bible in v. 7: trials are good for us as Christians. This is completely antithetical to the notion that many of us have about trials, whether we are Christians or not. We think in terms of what’s “fair” or “unfair” and we base that, really, on a very Karmic idea of the world. We hope that if we do more good than bad, then more good should come back to us. And we think (even if we wouldn’t admit it) that if something bad happens to us, then we are being punished – either by God himself or just by karma for something bad we must have done. What a horrible, satanic, dreadful way to live! Though God has instituted some level of cause and effect in the universe, it is not the ultimate reason for everything that happens to us. God allows, dare I say brings about, some difficulties into our lives to test the genuineness of our faith and grow us in maturity. Here testing of faith is equated to the heat that even gold can be destroyed in. But the only thing heat will do to true faith is make it more pure. It is not the heat that makes the faith, but it’s the heat (trials, difficulties, suffering of many kinds) that shows our faith and purifies it.

The result of these necessary trials in our lives? “Praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Is your faith honorable? Is mine? This is a difficult question for me to face for I fear the answer is “no, actually, it’s not”. My faith wanes quickly. I want a deeper knowledge of God and deeper faith in Him. I want my faith to be honorable and praiseworthy when Christ returns and restores all things. But that’s why God has given me TODAY – to take one step closer to Him, to choose Him over everything else that is vying for my attention, that clamors and claws its way into my heart. Oh Lord, may my heart grow deeper in faith!

Verse 8 is seriously an incredible verse. Remember who is writing this. We are reading a letter from Peter… the same Peter that denied Christ three times, the same Peter Jesus asked three times “do you love me” and the same Peter who was there when Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen and who have believed” to doubting Thomas (John 20:29). So, now read v. 8 again – Though you have not seen him, you love him! Peter saw him and Jesus wanted to make sure he loved him. I sense Peter applauding the faith of his readers, who have believed and love Jesus without seeing him (they’re probably one generation after Jesus, in contact with people like Peter who DID see him). Not only that, but they rejoice in Christ with a joy that is “inexpressible and full of glory”. The idea of a joy filled with glory is mind boggling to me. I’m not sure if I get it, and I definitely don’t sense that this is my kind of joy… not yet at least. Christians alone can have a glory-filled joy – a weighty, beautiful, meaningful, full-of-truth kind of joy that nothing else in the universe produces outside of God himself. A joy that cannot be stolen, that is inexpressible – words cannot fully convey the glory of knowing the glorious One who made you and saved you.

What is the result of all this? Of this faith and love? Of these trials that are necessary for our good? Of this great mercy of God and this living hope? The salvation of our souls, that’s what. Our belief, or faith (they seem interchangeable here), results in salvation. It results in the forgiveness of sin, the payment Christ made on the cross being credited to you as if you had paid it, and in receiving His righteousness as if you earned it. But you didn’t. You (hopefully) simply believed the great news of Jesus Christ. You received as truth that could save your souls the news of who He is, what He did, and that He lives today and will one day complete everything that has been begun. What a glorious Savior. As we’ll see next in v. 10-12, this was God’s plan all along.

I Peter 1:1-5

Peter starts off by naming himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He knows who he is and what he has been called to do by the Lord. As soon as Jesus had ascended back into heaven, he took on his role and was instrumental at Pentecost and in Acts 10 when the Holy Spirit came in power to Gentiles as well. He was not without his faults even in this role – one such example is the racism he showed against Gentiles, which is mentioned in Galatians 2 and for which it seems he repented of. Paul is writing to Christians all over the place. This seems important because it does not get specific like Paul normally did when he wrote to a person (like Timothy) or a church with issues that he addressed (like Galatians, Corinthians, etc.). One thing I was not aware of, which my ESV study Bible points out, is that Peter is writing primarily to Gentiles. This is peculiar because he uses the word “dispersion”, which was a normal reference to scattered Jews in the Old Testament, as well as the dispersion of Jewish Christians due to persecution in Acts. But the cities he references are Gentile (to the Jews, Gentile means any non-Jew) and point therefore to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to spread the news about Jesus far beyond Jewish borders. Peter has a pastoral heart to encourage these Christians and teach them the Gospel.

Verse 2 blows me away. Few verses have as clear a witness to the Trinity as this verse does. God the Father is mentioned as the One with foreknowledge of his elect people, God the Holy Spirit is said to be sanctifying the believers, and God the Son is the One we are to obey (as the Spirit sanctifies/matures us to do so) and the one who has sprinkled us with his blood. The sprinkling with blood is a reference to the new covenant we have with God through Jesus Christ. In the old covenant, blood was shed and sprinkled in several places around the altar, and even on the people, symbolizing their union with God as His people. Now, the new covenant has been inaugurated, the Lamb of God has come to make a permanent sacrifice, and we are symbolically sprinkled with his blood through faith in Christ, thus becoming God’s people. Again, the fact that this is a Jewish guy (Peter) writing to a non-Jewish audience is critical because Peter uses a Jewish reference point (sprinkling with blood) to describe what has happened to them. Here he is clearly indicating that we are all God’s people through Jesus Christ, and this is not a primarily Jewish privilege any longer.

The Trinity seriously hurts my mind to even think about. But as a quick side note I did hear a very interesting thought on the Trinity from Tim Keller. He was giving Augustine’s take on the Trinity and basically said Augustine is the one from whom most well known arguments about the Trinity have come from throughout history (Augustine lived in the 5th century). Not that Augustine had everything right, but this may be helpful. Here’s how the thought goes: if there is no God at all, then chaos rules the universe. If there is a uni-personal God, all by Himself, then power dominates the universe over love because love cannot exist outside of relationship. But if there is a Triune God, each being distinct yet still one God, then loving community is the basis of everything in the universe, for it existed before humans ever came into the world. Interesting idea to me.

Verses 3-5 include an opening statement of praise to God then one long run-on sentence about what God has done. I love long run-on sentences because I’m not allowed to do them in our grammar system, but they show one complete thought in the Scriptures. Verse numbers sometimes get in the way of this and even do damage to the over-arching thought because people will start from a verse that is not the beginning of the sentence, and thus may get an incomplete picture of what is being said. One thing that strikes me here is that the cross is not mentioned here directly – the death of Christ briefly is but the main focal point is what the resurrection of Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. It seems to me that Christians, myself included, spend a great deal of time understanding the cross – why Christ went to it, what was accomplished on it, and so on (which is very, very important to understand) – yet they don’t think much about the resurrection. But as Paul said in I Corinthians 15, the whole message of Christianity falls apart if Christ isn’t alive. Peter says in verse 3 that we are “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. It is not the death of Christ that gives us this hope, but the FACT that Christ is alive! We have a living hope because our Savior is a living Savior. We have an eternal hope because our God is eternally alive. A dead Savior is no Savior at all. We are also promised an inheritance that will never fade, be defiled, or perish under any circumstances. It is “kept in Heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (v. 5). How sweet is that! It’s not our faith that guards our inheritance in Heaven (as if it were up to us to keep or lose it!), but it is guarded by God’s power. Faith is important because this happens through faith, but it seems to me here that even this faith is held by God’s power.

The opening thoughts of Peter describe the glorious Gospel through which we are saved. It is not only for Jews but for the whole world, as God is the one, true God of the universe. Salvation is a triune effort from beginning to end, and we are also held by God’s power through faith, by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit for all eternity. This will all be finally revealed “in the last time”. At the end of history, God will fully unveil his sovereign plan and bring us into eternal dwelling with Him. It will be unlike and exceedingly better than anything we could possibly imagine!

To alleviate any confusion, I’m talking about the fall of mankind. That’s the fall I hate. I woke up this morning thinking about it because I woke up with a sore throat. And I knew it was coming is the worst part. Yesterday morning I woke up with just a little something “extra”, if you will, in my throat and I knew what was coming. To be sure, people are suffering much more than me at this moment, but getting even a little bit sick reminds me that my body is decaying. I’m 25 years old, which puts me squarely in the generation who still avoids thinking about death and acts like they aren’t getting older. But I am thinking about it. How did we get here?

We got here because mankind has perverted our created intent, rebelled against our glorious Creator, and have been put under a curse as a result. This is commonly called “the fall” and we need to learn to attribute much more to it than we do. Yet most people, including many in the academic sphere, avoid admitting we are all fallen and the world is under a curse. We want to believe mankind can fix themselves, that if we just get more education we will be o.k., or if we get more funding in the ghettos to clean up the streets, or more cops in bad neighborhoods, and so on, that we can save the world. But if we look at history just for a few moments, we will see nothing we have tried has worked. The truth is, we need a Savior. We need Someone who can change us, Someone who can identify with our troubles, temptations, and humanity and yet Someone who is altogether different from us.

The Someone we need is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who came from Heaven, came to a fallen and broken world, and died for it. He died and rose so that we might die to sin and live with and for Him forever. He didn’t become fallen, but He came for the fallen world. For some crazy reason, the God of the universe, the very God who has laid a curse on this world (because He is just and must punish sin), has also loved it so much that He sent His Son (because He is merciful), Jesus, to bear the weight of the curse so that we would could come to know Him, love Him, and start returning to our created intent and be in relationship with Him (redemption). The story continues… the fall is still upon us, the consequences of our sin (sickness and death especially) are all around us, and yet our hearts and minds are changed because God has revealed His truth to us. We can now live as lights in the world as a witness to his love and truth, even in the midst of this fallen world. And we are promised that the world will, ultimately, be “re-created” – renewed by its Maker to its perfect, original place to be enjoyed by all those who know and love Him. No, we will not be chubby angels on clouds, nor will we just “sing of His love forever”. I’m sure we will sing – but we will eat, dance, drink, love, laugh, and enjoy eternity with God and experience indescribable glory forever.

Yes, I hate the fall. I really hate sore throats, disease, cancer, death, accidents where children get killed, the fact that mental and physical disabilities exist (though God can, and does, redeem people with them and use them mightily for his glory), and so much more. Yet when I am reminded that the fall is not final, it is temporary and will be removed, and the curse will be lifted, I am filled with hope and joy. Christ is my Savior, my Lord, my King, my Friend, my Advocate, and so much more. The Holy Spirit lives in me to point me to Christ, teaches me about my fallen state but also about His transforming power, and works through me. The Father and all His perfection is my future.

For the record, I didn’t think about ALL of this at 5:30 a.m. today… it sort of just came to me as I wrote.