02 Believer's Inheritance
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3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The apostle Peter follows the introduction of his first letter with a sweeping doxology regarding the wonder of salvation. A doxology is simply a liturgical formula of praise to God. Peter considered it essential to begin the body of the letter with this joyous song (or paean) of praise inasmuch as the believers he addressed faced severe persecution from Rome. The passage today is a hymn of worship designed to encourage Christians living in a hostile world. I encouraged them to look past their temporal troubles and rejoice in their eternal inheritance. What Peter is doing in this passage is to sweep the readers hearts upward in exalted praise to the Lord, to sweep their hearts upward in the joy of adoration and the joy of anticipation of the inheritance that is waiting for them. This is why earlier I said that it was a hymn of praise, and it is meant to encourage believers in the throes if a difficult time living in a hostile world.
Peter’s doxology has components that help all believers praise God more intelligently. To help the church grasp its eternal inheritance and bless and worship God more fully, Peter sets forth five relevant features: the source, motive, appropriation, nature, and security of the believer’s inheritance.
THE SOURCE OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
THE SOURCE OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
1 Peter 1:3a (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Peter assumes it is necessary for believers to bless God. The intention is so implicit that the Greek text omits the word be, which the translators added. Εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς (Eulogētos ho Theos). The literal translation of this phrase is Blessed the God. The way Peter starts this verse with “bless God,” it conveys the expectation that they are to bless God as the source of all spiritual inheritance. The apostle adores God and implores others to do the same.
As we continue on with our verse here: καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (and Father of the Lord of us Jesus Christ).
Here Peter further calls Him the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a phrase that identified God in a distinctly Christian way. Historically the Jews had blessed God as their creator and redeemer from Egypt. His creation emphasized His sovereign power at work and His redemption of Israel from Egypt His saving power at work. But those who became Christians were to bless God as the Father of their Lord Jesus Christ.
With one exception found in Matthew 27:46 where the Father forsook Christ on the cross, every time the Gospels record that Jesus addressed God, He called Him “Father” or “My Father.” In so doing, Jesus was breaking with the Jewish tradition that seldom called God Father, and always in a collective rather than personal sense. Furthermore, in calling God His Father, Jesus was claiming to be of the same nature as God, in fact he was going further than that by claiming to share the nature of God. What Saint Nicholus called Homoosius (Greek for same substance, homo meaning same and osius roughly translating as substance or essence) at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD in response to Arius and his teachings that became known as Arianism . What the council of Nicea codified was the orthodox teaching that ontologically (meaning in being or existance) the Father and the Son are co-eternal, and co-existent. In fact it went further to say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all homoosius and co-eternal and co-existant.
The easiest way to think about it is that God is one what, and three who’s. One being and three persons. All of this is clearly taught in scripture. While speaking with the Jews at an observance of the Feast of the Dedication, Christ declared,
30 I and the Father are one.”
Later, in response to Philip’s request that He reveal the Father, Jesus said,
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Jesus affirmed that He and the Father possess the same divine nature—that He is fully God. The Father and the Son mutually share the same life—one is intimately and eternally equal to the other—and no one can truly know one without truly knowing the other. No person can claim to know God unless he knows Him as the One revealed in Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus Himself said,
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
In his writings, the apostle Paul also declared the Father and the Son to be of the same essence:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
as well as in Ephesians 1:3. Likewise, John wrote in his second epistle:
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
Whenever the New Testament calls God Father, it primarily denotes that He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is also the Father of all believers.
One commentator calls Peter’s use in verse 3 of Christ’s full redemptive name “a concentrated confession.” All that the Bible reveals about the Savior appears in that title: Lord identifies Him as sovereign Ruler; Jesus as incarnate Son; and Christ as anointed Messiah-King. The apostle personalizes that magnificent title with the simple inclusion of the pronoun our. The divine Lord of the universe belongs to all believers, as does the Jesus who lived, died, and rose again for them, and as does the Christ, the Messiah whom God anointed to be their eternal King who will grant them their glorious inheritance.
THE MOTIVE FOR THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
THE MOTIVE FOR THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
1 Peter 1:3b (ESV)
According to his great mercy,
His great mercy was the motive behind God’s granting believers eternal life—sharing the very life of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Ephesians 2:4–5 also expresses this divine generosity,
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Both here in 1 Peter and in Ephesians, the apostolic writers added an enlarging adjective (great and “rich”). But what is mercy?
Mercy focuses on the sinner’s miserable, pitiful condition. The gospel is prompted by God’s compassion toward those who were dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1–3). All believers were once in that wretched, helpless condition, compounded by a deceitful heart (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Eccl. 9:3; Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21–23), corrupt mind (Rom. 8:7–8; 1 Cor. 2:14), and wicked desires (Eph. 4:17–19; 5:8; Titus 1:15) that made them slaves to sin, headed for just punishment in hell. Therefore they needed God, in mercy, to show compassion toward their desperate, lost condition and remedy it (cf. Isa. 63:9; Hab. 3:2; Matt. 9:27; Mark 5:19; Luke 1:78; Rom. 9:15–16, 18; 11:30–32; 1 Tim. 1:13; 1 Peter 2:10).
Mercy is not the same as grace. Mercy concerns an individual’s miserable condition, whereas grace concerns his guilt, which caused that condition. Divine mercy takes the sinner from misery to glory (a change of condition), and divine grace takes him from guilt to acquittal (a change of position; see Rom. 3:24; Eph. 1:7).
One simple way to look at it is that Mercy is not getting something we do deserve, and Grace is getting something we do not deserve.
The Lord grieves over the unredeemed sinner’s condition of gloom and despair (Ezek. 18:23, 32; Matt. 23:37–39). That is manifest clearly during His incarnation as Jesus healed people’s diseases (Matt. 4:23–24; 14:14; 15:30; Mark 1:34; Luke 6:17–19). Here is one example:
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.
He could have demonstrated His deity in many other ways, but He chose healings because they best illustrated the compassionate, merciful heart of God toward sinners suffering the temporal misery of their fallen condition (cf. Matt. 9:5–13; Mark 2:3–12). Jesus’ healing miracles, which nearly banished illness from Israel, were proof that what the Old Testament said about God the Father being merciful (Ex. 34:6; Ps. 108:4; Lam. 3:22; Mic. 7:18) was true.
Apart from even the possibility of any merit or worthiness on the sinner’s part, God grants mercy to whomever He will:
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Here Paul is quoting Exodus 33:19 and what he is saying is that out of Christ’s infinite compassion and free, abundant, and limitless mercy, He chose to grant eternal life—it was not because of anything sinners could do or deserve. It is completely understandable that Paul called God “the Father of mercies” (2 Cor. 1:3).
THE APPROPRIATION OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
THE APPROPRIATION OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
1 Peter 1:3c (ESV)
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
The prophet Jeremiah once asked the rhetorical question,
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
His graphic analogy implied a negative answer to the question of whether or not sinners could change their natures. Humanity’s sinful nature needs changing (Mark 1:14–15; John 3:7, 17–21, 36; cf. Gen. 6:5; Jer. 2:22; 17:9–10; Rom. 1:18–2:2; 3:10–18), but only God, working through His Holy Spirit, can transform the sinful human heart (Jer. 31:31–34; John 3:5–6, 8; Acts 2:38–39; cf. Ezek. 37:14; Acts 15:8; Rom. 8:11; 1 John 5:4). In order for sinners to receive an eternal inheritance from God, they must experience His means of spiritual transformation, the new birth. Peter affirms that truth in this last portion of verse 3, when he says God has caused believers to be born again.
Jesus effectively explained the necessity of regeneration—the new birth—to Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish teacher.
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
To illustrate the means of the new birth, Jesus referred to the episode of the bronze serpent (Num. 21:4–9), an Old Testament narrative Nicodemus would have known well. When the snake-bitten Israelites in the wilderness acknowledged their sin and God’s judgment on them for it and looked to the means He provided to deliver them (a bronze snake on a pole), they received physical healing from their poisonous bites. By analogy, if sinners would experience spiritual deliverance, they must recognize their spiritual condition as poisoned by their sin and experience salvation from spiritual and eternal death by looking to the Son of God and trusting in Him as their Savior. Jesus cut to the core of Nicodemus’s self-righteousness and told him what all sinners need to hear, that they are spiritually regenerated only by faith in Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:12–13; Titus 3:5; James 1:18). Before we move on I want to look at verse 15 quickly here.
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
This is an accurate translation, but I want to caution us that can lead us into bit of a trap. When we hear the word whoever, we have a contextual meaning in our modern English. We think of anyone right? But is that what the author is trying to convey here? Let’s look at a literal translation of the greek. 15 ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ἐν αὐτῷ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Hina So that Pas=all or every ho=the pisteuōn=believing (verb that is a present participle so it is occuring now) en=in autō=him echē =may have zōēn=life aiōnion=eternal. Another way to translate this is as follows, So that all the ones who believe in Him may have eternal life. So why did I bring this up? Well the greek construction we see here in verse 15 is the same construction that is found in the most famous verse of the bible and the very next verse John 3:16.
Turning back to the main narrative this morning Peter goes on to declare that regeneration results in believers receiving a living hope. The unbelieving world knows only dying hopes (Job 8:13; Prov. 10:28; Eph. 2:12), but believers have a living, undying hope (Pss. 33:18; 39:7; Rom. 5:5; Eph. 4:4; Titus 2:13; Heb. 6:19) that will come to a complete, final, and glorious fulfillment (Rom. 5:2; Col. 1:27). It is a hope that Peter later described when he wrote,
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
This hope is what prompted Paul to tell the Philippians,
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
At death believers’ hope becomes reality as they enter the glorious presence of God and the full, unhindered, joyous fellowship with the Trinity, the angels, and other saints (Rom. 5:1–2; Gal. 5:5).
The means of Christians’ appropriating this living hope and eternal inheritance is spiritual birth, and the power for that appropriation was demonstrated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus told Martha, just prior to the raising of her brother Lazarus from the grave,
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Paul instructed the Corinthians concerning the vital ramifications of the resurrection,
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Even if one hoped in Christ in this life, but not beyond it, he would be lost . However, Christ rose from the dead, forever securing the believer’s living hope in heaven by finally conquering death.
THE NATURE OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
THE NATURE OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
1 Peter 1:4 (ESV)
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
The key word of this entire passage is inheritance, which is wealth passed down, or a legacy one receives as a member of a family. The concept had roots in the Old Testament, which the Jewish Christians in Peter’s audience would have easily identified with. Inhereitance here is from the greek word κληρονομίαν (klēronomian). In fact the same Greek root rendered inheritance here is used in the Septuagint to speak of the portions of Canaan allotted by God to each tribe in Israel except Levi. The word is also used numerous times of other kinds of inheritance as well.
In fact Klēronomia is often translated “possession” in English translations of the Old Testament.
The Old Testament repeatedly affirms that under the old covenant the people of God, the nation of Israel, received an inheritance. Peter told his readers that just as Israel received an earthly inheritance, the land of Canaan, so the church receives a spiritual inheritance in heaven (Acts 20:32; 26:18; Eph. 1:11, 18; Col. 1:12; 3:24; Heb. 9:15). The apostle reminded them that in the midst of their persecution they ought to praise God and patiently wait for His promised eternal inheritance (4:13; Matt. 24:13; Heb. 12:2–3; cf. Rom. 6:18; 8:18; 12:12). Therefore he wanted to increase their knowledge (and that of all believers) of the eternal blessing that is already theirs by promise in Christ (cf. Rom. 8:16–17; 1 John 3:2–3). Until then, God is in the process of maturing His children and conforming their behavior so that it is increasingly consistent with their spiritual inheritance (cf. 4:12–13, 19; 5:10; Heb. 12:5–12; James 1:2–4; 5:11). Peter’s words remind of Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians to focus on that inheritance: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1–2; cf. Matt. 6:33; 1 John 2:15–17).
Peter adds three descriptive terms to further define the kind of inheritance believers obtain: it is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away. Imperishable (ἄφθαρτον, aphtharton) refers to what is not corruptible, not liable to death, or not subject to destruction. Unlike the Israelites’ earthly inheritance that came and went because of their sins, believers’ spiritual inheritance will never be subject to destruction. Believers’ inheritance in heaven, yet to be revealed in the future, is a glorious treasure that will never be lost.
Undefiled (ἀμίαντον, amianton) describes things that are unstained or unpolluted. Everything in the fallen creation is stained and polluted by sin (Rom. 8:20–22; 1 John 5:19), and therefore it is all flawed. That is what the apostle Paul referred to when he wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (Rom. 8:22). All earthly inheritance is defiled, but not the undefiled inheritance believers have in Jesus Christ (cf. Phil. 3:7–9; Col. 1:12). It is flawless and perfect.
Finally, the believer’s inheritance will not fade away. That phrase translates the word (ἀμάραντον, amaranton) which was used in secular Greek to describe a flower that did not wither or die. The term in this context suggests that believers have an inheritance that will never lose its magnificence. None of the decaying elements of the world can affect the kingdom of heaven. None of the ravages of time or the evils of sin can touch the believer’s inheritance because it is in a timeless, sinless realm. Later in this letter, Peter reiterates the unfading nature of the church’s inheritance:
4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE
1 Peter 1:4–5 (ESV)
kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Having pledged that the believer’s spiritual inheritance was permanent in nature, Peter adds to his readers’ security by declaring that the believer’s inheritance is kept in heaven. Its nature is fixed and unalterable and so is its place. Kept (τετηρημένην, tetērēmenēn) literally translates as being reserved but conveys the idea that something “guarded” or “watched over.” The perfect passive participle conveys the idea of the already existing inheritance being carefully guarded in heaven for all those who trust in Christ. Not only will that inheritance not change, but no one will plunder it. The reality of a guarded and imperishable eternal inheritance is precisely what Jesus referred to when He said,
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Heaven is the securest place in all the universe. The apostle John characterizes it as a place where
27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Not only is the inheritance divinely guarded, those who possess it are also protected by the power of God from doing anything to forfeit it or be severed from it. God’s power is His sovereign omnipotence that continuously protects His elect. If God is for believers, no one can successfully oppose them. All the details of this promise are to provide the believer with an undying hope of heaven, so as to provide joy and endurance.
The Christian’s continued faith in God is evidence of His keeping and protecting work. At conversion, God energizes faith in believers’ hearts, and as He keeps them He continues to energize their faith. By His grace, God’s omnipotent, protecting power and the believer’s perseverance of faith always work hand in hand.
This security for the believer and his inheritance both look beyond this life and human history for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Salvation (σωτηρίαν, sōtērian) means “rescue” or “deliverance,” and here it denotes the full, final, eternal life God has not yet consummated. The New Testament implicitly reveals a threefold chronology for salvation.
Past Aspect
Past Aspect
The past aspect of salvation is justification; it comes when one believes in Christ and is delivered from the penalty of sin.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Present Aspect
Present Aspect
The present aspect of salvation is sanctification. Believers are continually being delivered from the power of sin.
Ephesians 2:8 declares,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Salvation thus is a past occurrence with continuing results in the present.
Future Aspect
Future Aspect
Salvation also has a future aspect, glorification
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
Whenever a believer dies, God completely and finally delivers him from the presence of sin and instantly brings him into his eternal inheritance in His heavenly presence. Paul eloquently expressed to Timothy his personal confidence in the certainty of his future inheritance:
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
The book of Hebrews has much to say about the believer’s future inheritance. In reference to angels, the writer rhetorically asks,
4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Later on the writer says this concerning Christ and the new covenant:
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
The future aspect of salvation is particularly said to be ready, that is, complete and already awaiting the believer’s arrival. But future salvation is also connected to the end of human history. Peter says it is to be revealed in the last time. God will not make believers’ inheritance fully complete until the last episode of redemptive history, namely the return of Jesus Christ. After Christs return, all believers receive rewards at the judgment seat of Christ:
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
And the fullness of the Christian’s eternal inheritance will be realized at the end of the millennial kingdom when God creates the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1–27):
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Just as originally the Lord Himself was the inheritance of the Levites, the priestly tribe of Israel, so He also is the inheritance of the royal priesthood of Christ. The psalmist knew with certainty that he would inherit God:
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
The prophet Jeremiah, even in the midst of the most difficult times, firmly grasped the same concept:
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
Christians are also heirs of God with Christ:
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Friends, what has God given to us for which we should adore Him? Peter says He’s given us an eternal inheritance. He’s given us a salvation ready to be revealed in the last season. What he means by that is we haven’t yet entered into the fullness of it. We haven’t yet experienced all there is of it. That still waits the revelation, the revelation obviously of Christ in all His glory that comes in the last time. We have a taste of it now but not the fullness. But God has granted it to us. It is now an inheritance. It is an inheritance which we possess in some measure but not yet in all its fullness but which is guaranteed to us. God is the source. Mercy was the motive. And that’s so wonderful because He gave it to us not because we deserved it so we don’t have to keep deserving it to keep it, He gave it to us because we were so miserable He had compassion on us. And no matter how miserable we’ll be after that, we’ll never be as miserable as we were before that. And so, He will continue to have that same compassion and His mercy will be new every morning.
And the means by which the inheritance came to us, the new birth which has given us this living hope based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ out from the dead. And this inheritance can never perish, never be stained, never fade and is secured to us and we to it. And Peter says, I don’t care what your physical circumstance, I don’t care what your earthly condition, you ought to praise God for that. You ought to bless God for that. May our hearts do that very thing. Let’s pray together.
Forgive us, Lord, for taking for granted that reality that will cause us to spend eternity in constant praise. O how that speaks of our fallenness, the ugliness of our sinful hearts that we can get so indifferent to that great salvation You’ve given us. We so often preoccupied with useless inconsequential trivia that we can lose our joy. We can get so distracted that we take our focus off of You and off of eternity and off of heaven and on to this passing, fading, perishing, defiled earth. Oh great King, help us to transcend this banal world and focus on the things in the heavenly realm. How it speaks to us of the ugliness of our sin. So often we justify ourselves and say we have not committed this sin and we have never committed that sin all the while convincing ourselves that we are noble. And then we are confronted with the indifference of our hearts toward our eternal salvation, the sickening lack of gratitude, the self-centeredness, the ugly indulgence of our own will and our own way which we pursue chasing the things of this world. In the end, when the sarcophagus is finally opened in the last time, it all crumbles.
Lord, how this shows us the sinfulness of our own hearts. Thank You for unmasking that. Give us a new compulsion to live in the heavenlies, to invest in eternity, to long to be with You and to endure anything in this life for the sufferings here are certainly not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be ours in that day when we see Christ face to face. In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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