...continued
Statements about who I am:
1 Peter 1:17-25
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Christ Jesus has been raised from the dead so that our faith and hope are in God. And our obedience to the truth, exhibited by brotherly love, so proves the purification of our souls that it is said that our souls are purified by our obedience, or better yet, through it, and this must be done because we have been born again. As the apostle John also indicates:
1 John
2:5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. 3:3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
I hope you see the connection between 1 Peter 1:21-22 and 1 John 3:3. Those who hope in the future glory are pure in heart, and with that hope we build hope, for if we do hope in Him then we have all the more reason to hope because that hope in the future of our glorified state with Him is that hope by which we are comforted, even in the stinking pit of this present exile: our fallen situation and the remnant of our sinful selves not withstanding that which is promised to us! Not that we simply hope in hope itself, but that the hope we have from God is based in verse 20 and 21 of 1 Peter 1: that we have faith and hope in God because He raise Christ from the dead. What follows in 1 Peter is the great contrast; that fantastic chasm between the imperishable Christ and the weakness of merely earthly things. Our hope must be in God because, not only do the created things in nature wither, but so do the trials we face. Even the strongholds of mountain ranges in all their apparent permanence will fall by God’s hand to be resurrected on That Day to a more perfect form, so too are the most difficult valleys of our experience, wherein we now morn, they likewise will one day show us their resurrected form in eternity: having born perhaps an unknown fruit in our lives which benefited our sanctification.
Romans 4:18-25
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." 23 But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Abraham had all the worldly reason he needed to doubt the promises of God; in fact he failed to trust Him and took the matter of fulfilling God’s promise into his own hands. But God’s promise to Abraham was without condition, just like His promise to all of us who trust Him, it will never fail and like Abraham, the pattern of our lives should testify to future generations that we too, in the face of what appear to be impossible situations, will acknowledge that what is impossible with man is quite possible with God because, in the likeness of the faith that Abraham had, we see that our God is the one who created material out of immaterial, and thus we are enabled to believe God against the feasibility as things are rendered feasible in human considerations. God is not a man, but is spirit and He created all things great and small by the word of His power and thus with it, He also upholds the universe! How much more then is He capable of keeping the promise to Abraham and his offspring, of which we are also to be counted, that he would be heir of the world which promise did not come through obedience to the law, but by the righteousness of Christ obtained through faith, for as Paul stated earlier in His letter, this righteousness was counted to him before he was circumcised, and as it is elsewhere stated, “…so then it does not depend on the man who wills or who runs, but on God who has mercy”—and that mercy is grounded in the finished work of Christ, who does all things well and for our good. And finally, our hope in God is established by the statement, “It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
And for further building up of our faith and trust, and hope in God:
Ephesians 1
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
to be continued…
Statements about who I am:
1 Peter 1:17-25
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Christ Jesus has been raised from the dead so that our faith and hope are in God. And our obedience to the truth, exhibited by brotherly love, so proves the purification of our souls that it is said that our souls are purified by our obedience, or better yet, through it, and this must be done because we have been born again. As the apostle John also indicates:
1 John
2:5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. 3:3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
I hope you see the connection between 1 Peter 1:21-22 and 1 John 3:3. Those who hope in the future glory are pure in heart, and with that hope we build hope, for if we do hope in Him then we have all the more reason to hope because that hope in the future of our glorified state with Him is that hope by which we are comforted, even in the stinking pit of this present exile: our fallen situation and the remnant of our sinful selves not withstanding that which is promised to us! Not that we simply hope in hope itself, but that the hope we have from God is based in verse 20 and 21 of 1 Peter 1: that we have faith and hope in God because He raise Christ from the dead. What follows in 1 Peter is the great contrast; that fantastic chasm between the imperishable Christ and the weakness of merely earthly things. Our hope must be in God because, not only do the created things in nature wither, but so do the trials we face. Even the strongholds of mountain ranges in all their apparent permanence will fall by God’s hand to be resurrected on That Day to a more perfect form, so too are the most difficult valleys of our experience, wherein we now morn, they likewise will one day show us their resurrected form in eternity: having born perhaps an unknown fruit in our lives which benefited our sanctification.
Romans 4:18-25
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." 23 But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Abraham had all the worldly reason he needed to doubt the promises of God; in fact he failed to trust Him and took the matter of fulfilling God’s promise into his own hands. But God’s promise to Abraham was without condition, just like His promise to all of us who trust Him, it will never fail and like Abraham, the pattern of our lives should testify to future generations that we too, in the face of what appear to be impossible situations, will acknowledge that what is impossible with man is quite possible with God because, in the likeness of the faith that Abraham had, we see that our God is the one who created material out of immaterial, and thus we are enabled to believe God against the feasibility as things are rendered feasible in human considerations. God is not a man, but is spirit and He created all things great and small by the word of His power and thus with it, He also upholds the universe! How much more then is He capable of keeping the promise to Abraham and his offspring, of which we are also to be counted, that he would be heir of the world which promise did not come through obedience to the law, but by the righteousness of Christ obtained through faith, for as Paul stated earlier in His letter, this righteousness was counted to him before he was circumcised, and as it is elsewhere stated, “…so then it does not depend on the man who wills or who runs, but on God who has mercy”—and that mercy is grounded in the finished work of Christ, who does all things well and for our good. And finally, our hope in God is established by the statement, “It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
And for further building up of our faith and trust, and hope in God:
Ephesians 1
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
to be continued…
2 comments:
Jason,
This is a great statement:
"Not that we simply hope in hope itself, but that the hope we have from God is based in verse 20 and 21 of 1 Peter 1: that we have faith and hope in God because He raise Christ from the dead"
I think a lot of times we tell people that there is hope, and we leave it at that. Your point is that hope in hope is no hope at all. When we are in the pit of worry and when we help others there with us we must point to the Christ of our hope and the only Sovereign.
Good stuff and great, great point.
This and all these statements I must say, come from a tender and sincere heart, having faced a very few and very simply sufferings; yet still I find myself in need of this reminder because my strange and sinful love for dispair and self-pity often cloud my vision of Christ.
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