1 Peter 1:4—An inheritance
…to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…1 Peter 1:4
INHERITANCE!
Think about it! You have been named as the beneficiary of an unlimited, immeasurable inheritance.
Every single person who believes in Jesus is named in this magnificent will, written and signed in the blood of Jesus, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and authorized by none other than the Creator of the universe Himself.
And if I’m reading Peter’s letter correctly, you obtain this amazing inheritance through your living hope in Christ (see verse 3).
No doubt—it’s a good thing to be named as someone’s heir. They may still be alive, but your name is right there in the will. Their assets are still their own—you can’t access them as long as the person is alive—but upon their death (and then a waiting period of roughly six or so months in many cases in the US), those assets start showing up in your account.
Jesus shared some of His treasure—forgiveness, healings, deliverances—while He was alive on the earth, but it wasn’t until He died at Calvary that there was a transfer of funds from His account to yours. And again, according to Peter, the avenue by which you obtain this inheritance is through the living hope birthed in your heart by faith in His resurrection from the dead.
… reserved in heaven for you…
When my dad passed away seven years ago, I didn’t automatically gain access to the entire portion that he willed to me, even though when he was alive, he would bless me from time to time from his accounts. I did, however, receive a part of the inheritance he had specifically placed in my name to be received immediately upon his death. All I had to do to access those assets was to present the death certificate to the one in charge of that particular account. Life insurance is distributed in a similar manner—no probate and no waiting upon creditors to claim their share.
I have a theory that our inheritance in Christ is similar to this. First, all of us receive from Christ’s treasure before we know Him. We may not be aware of it; most of the time we are clueless when the Lord intervenes on our behalf and bestows a blessing on us—but Jesus is generous to the godly and the ungodly alike—and He pulls from His treasure chest of kindness as He seeks to bring each one of us to repentance.
When you become born again to a living hope through your faith in His resurrection, you’re still alive and well on planet earth, yet you are an entirely new being. You start learning about Him, His loving nature, and the specific treasure He has stored up for those who are called by His name. And you start making withdrawals on that inheritance which is reserved—stored away—in Heaven for you. Prayers get answered and you grow in grace.
But the full inheritance is not what we see, hear, or experience here on the earth. The full inheritance—from which we make prayer withdrawals now in this life—is reserved for us in Heaven—to be revealed to us on that Day when we see Him face to face. Right now, as the apostle Paul wrote, we only know in part. But then—when we arrive in Heaven—we will know fully, as fully as He has known us (see 1 Corinthians 13:12).
… an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away…
The inheritance we humans receive from our parents can perish all too easily. We can spend it all; the banks that hold it can collapse; the stock market in which it is stored may crash; someone could sue us for every dime, and, whoosh! there it goes; the buildings and properties we’ve received from our parents can burn down or blow away in a raging storm.
But the inheritance from God is imperishable. It will never be spent up; it will never collapse, crash, burn, or blow away. The inheritance you have received from God is indestructible and limitless.
Your inheritance from God is undefiled. Whereas wealth can be accumulated by unscrupulous methods—through fraud, taking bribes, charging outrageous interest, lying, stealing, and all other manner of devious, manipulative scheming—the inheritance from God is clean. It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it (see Proverbs 10:22). The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds (Psalm 145:17).
The inheritance of the Lord will not fade away. God will never slowly lose interest in you; He will never phase you out of His good graces—nor will His inheritance for you ever run out or lose its magnificence. It is imperishable; it is undefiled; it will never fade away.
It is reserved in Heaven—for you.
Dorothy
But as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9, International Standard Version
© 2015, Dorothy Frick
Read More1 Peter 1:3—The living hope
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…1 Peter 1:3
Blessed. Great mercy. Born again. Living hope. Resurrection from the dead. This is the vocabulary of the redeemed. These are the flashing neon lights pointing ever upward in a dark and fallen world.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Your God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is blessed. Before time began He was blessed; He has remained blessed throughout history; He is blessed now; and He will always be blessed forever and ever. He will never not be blessed—this fact stands as a pillar of truth for all eternity.
… who according to His great mercy…
Everything that God does, He does in mercy—the mercy which endures forever. It never runs out; it never stops; it never ends.
God plans according to mercy; He works behind the scenes according to mercy; He displays His power according to mercy; He enacts His great promises according to His mercy. He moves silently among us according to His great mercy.
… has caused us to be born again…
It is according to His great mercy that you have been drawn to Him. Your curiosity, your hunger, your restless questions—all were stimulated and agitated by His tender mercy toward you. And that moment you recognized your very real need for a Savior? It was brought to you by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—according to His great mercy. You responded; the Son of God entered your life by your invitation; and you were born again.
… to a living hope…
One key ingredient that is birthed within you when you are born again is an undeniable, unquenchable, unfading hope. This hope is not the fleeting, fickle hope of one who wishes to win the lottery or who hopes for the sun to come out tomorrow; no. This hope is alive. It was born within you when you were born from above; and it permeates your very being every day, quietly propelling you to keep going; prompting you to look up; helping you to stay strong; and steadying you like an anchor. As you fix your hope on the living God, you come to realize that He carries you through the ups and downs of life as your personal Guide, Instructor, Counselor, and Security Guard. This is your birth right—an indestructible living hope.
…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Your hope is supported by nothing less than the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Hope that clings to anything less is wasted energy, but the hope that draws its strength from that certain dawn when the stone was rolled away and the Lord rose victorious over death and the grave—now that’s a hope that’s been to hell and back—and lives triumphantly to rejoice over every other foe through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Dorothy
…we have fixed our hope on the living God…1 Timothy 4:10a
© 2015, Dorothy Frick
Read More1 Peter 1:1-2—Greetings
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. 1 Peter 1:1-2
I have a confession to make: Whenever I start one of the New Testament letters, I zip right through the opening part, scanning until I land on the “meat” of the section.
If you’re anything like me, you do the same thing. And, like me, you run the risk of passing over some life-changing, mini-explosions of truth.
Take Peter’s first letter, for example. His salutation is loaded with power-packed nuggets.
To those who reside as aliens, scattered…
The very minute these folks opened their hearts to the redemptive touch of Jesus Christ, they became branded as enemies of the state and of traditional religious concerns. As a result, new converts were forced to go underground or to pull up roots, scattering in all directions from the epicenter of anti-Christian persecution. They were now aliens in their own land…and foreigners in the lands to which they escaped.
Not only were they displaced physically—making them aliens in a natural sense—but as Peter pointed out later in his letter, by their faith in Jesus, they had also become spiritual aliens to the entire world system:
“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).
Like them, you, too, are an alien to this current world system if you have received Jesus as your Lord. As uncomfortable or uncool as that may seem, it is the rock-bottom, sober truth. You have been born from above; never again are you to take your cues or calling from the course of this world—your directives and identity from here on out are from the Father and His Word.
… who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…
You may have been chosen last on every team; you may have always sat home on prom night, dateless; you may still experience being overlooked or dismissed by your peers. But there is One—the only One who really matters when all is said and done—who searched through the annals of time and found you…and chose you—from among the cream of the crop—to be His own. And now, through faith in His Son, you are His. You are chosen. You will always be His chosen one.
… by the sanctifying work of the Spirit…
There is so much that degrades and defiles on this earth. None of us have remained unaffected by the downward spiral of this world’s fallen system. From gloomy depression to fiery rage; from uncontrollable lust to uncontainable greed; from insatiable violence to inconsolable self-pity—each of us has experienced the tyranny of sin. Whether you are stuck in the perpetual role of the defeated underdog, or you find yourself groping blindly in unending invisibility, or you’ve become bloated with the heady hot air of perceived self-importance—none of us have emerged entirely unscathed.
Enter the Spirit of God upon the cry of a man when he first recognizes his need for a Savior. From that very moment the sanctifying work of the Spirit begins—setting the man apart as God’s child and continuing with the man for the rest of his days. Though the man falls a time or two, the Spirit of God will pick him up and dust him off and will continue to guide him and help him throughout life. On the day the man takes his last breath, the Spirit of God will be with him and will usher him to his eternal home.
… to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood…
The Holy Spirit sets us apart; the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Because of this, we are free agents—no longer bogged down in the quagmire of sin and destruction—liberated to obey Jesus, the Shepherd of our souls, and to be His disciples.
May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
This is the heart of the New Covenant. Grace has been poured out upon you for the taking. Peace—depth of peace in the midst of the world’s turbulence—has been reserved for you in Christ. Grace and peace are stored up to your account, ready to be accessed, never running out, fully supplied for you in this life and throughout the span of eternity. In the fullest measure, grace and peace are yours…in Christ Jesus.
Dorothy
© 2015, Dorothy Frick
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