A Living Hope
A compilation
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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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, 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.—1 Peter 1:3–5
All of us struggle at times with discouragement, with concerns that might build to worry or anxiety. Add the worldwide crisis into the mix, challenges with health, money, politics, emotional and relational stress, and it’s not surprising that doubts and strife abound among people today. …
Sometimes, it seems as though hope is just fading away. But the wonderful truth is that God has a remedy. That’s not unusual; He is the God of Hope! … Hope has a name, and it’s Jesus Christ.
Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant 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). Those who trust in Jesus are born into a new family, a new kingdom, and a new life involving the God of hope. We are set free from living a life of placing hope in the world instead of Christ. We are a new creation, Christ is the gracious King, and God is our benevolent Father (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 3:1). All of these wonderful truths are anchored in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. …
In Jesus, we have a blessed hope; He will return. Paul describes Christians as “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). How amazing is it that this life is not all that we have? It is easy to be so focused on day-to-day living that we forget that our Savior is coming to gather us to Himself. We will never be separated from Him or His holiness. We will spend eternity together. …
Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Our hope is not far off from us. Christ isn’t isolated from us—He’s right there in our lives. Because Jesus is always with us and lives in us, we can be sure that He hears us when we pray. Jesus is intimately involved with us, everywhere, all the time (Psalm 139:7–10). God isn’t simply with us; He is orchestrating our lives for good. God is right in the middle of it with us. Even in difficult circumstances, we can have hope because God in His sovereignty has us right where He wants us to be. Whether it is to grow us in faith or draw us closer to Him, God has us where we are for a reason, and He is sustaining us through each difficulty (Isaiah 41:10; Romans 5:1–5). …
There’s no situation so impossible, agonizing, and depleting of vitality that the risen Lord cannot share His resurrection life with us and see us through it, and if He so wills, even deliver us out of that situation. May we, today, find help, hope, and comfort in Jesus Christ, our living hope.—Jeff Christianson1
An imperishable inheritance
We have a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). This living hope will never end and sustains us as we endure suffering. Ours is a living hope only because its foundation is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The fact that Jesus was raised to life two thousand years ago gives us an unshakable conviction that our hope is not in vain. His resurrection vindicates Him as the Lord of creation who is even now making all things new (Revelation 21:5).
This living hope is our hope of salvation that includes an imperishable inheritance (1 Peter 1:4). The new life that we have in Christ is something that can never be taken away. In fact, it will be even more glorious once we reach the eternal state.
This inheritance, which we will fully experience when we see God face to face in the “last time,” can never be lost because God is keeping it for us and guarding us through faith (1 Peter 1:5). In the final analysis, God not only initiates our salvation by initially causing us to be born again, He also keeps His people secure in their salvation “through faith.” That is to say, it is God who grants us the ability to have faith, and once we exercise that faith, He sustains and increases it. …
John Calvin tells us that 1 Peter begins with a description of our indestructible hope so that we may “enjoy the invaluable treasure of a future life; and also that we may not be broken down by present troubles, but patiently endure them, being satisfied with eternal happiness.” Our living hope makes us able to stand firm in the midst of trouble, knowing that our ultimate reward is not found in this fallen world. Take some time to thank God for granting to us this hope.—Ligonier.org2
From death to life
Death, it turns out, was not part of God’s original plan for His creation; it was the result of man’s disobedience to God. God had intended for man to live forever, but He could no longer permit that because of man’s fallen, sinful nature. Death is the penalty of sin, and it is one we all must suffer. “Through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
The good news, however, is that the sting of death has been overcome. Jesus Christ conquered death through His resurrection. The Bible calls Jesus’ resurrection the “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). Because Jesus was raised from the dead, there is the promise that others will be raised too. This will occur at Jesus’ second coming, when everyone alive who has accepted Jesus into their hearts will receive new, supernatural bodies, like Jesus’ at His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).
If we trust in Jesus, we too have a living hope of entering heaven for all eternity, without any of the pain or problems we have now. “And God shall wipe away all tears from [our] eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).—Uday Paul
New birth into hope
Peter states that it is the “new birth” that provides our living hope, affirming that salvation is a gift from God. Just as an infant does nothing to be born, we experience rebirth not because of who we are or anything we have done. We are born of God (John 1:13) through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Salvation changes who we are (2 Corinthians 5:17), making us dead to sin and alive to righteousness in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:5). …
Living hope is anchored in the past—Jesus rose from the dead (Matthew 28:6). It continues in the present—Jesus is alive (Colossians 3:1). And it endures throughout the future—Jesus promises eternal, resurrection life (John 3:16; 4:14; 5:24) …
We have an inheritance that will never be touched by death, stained by evil, or faded with time; it is death-proof, sin-proof, and age-proof. This inheritance is also fail-proof because God guards and preserves it in heaven for us. … The believer’s living hope is solid and secure: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19–20). Jesus Christ is our Savior, our salvation, our Living Hope.—GotQuestions.org3
Resurrection hope
Because Peter says that the living hope is secured by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he may have in mind the resurrection of the believer as well. God has promised that the believer in Christ, the one who is born again by the Spirit of God, will be resurrected one day and will spend eternity with Him in the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21). Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of this (see 1 Corinthians 15).
However, the resurrection of believers has not happened yet. Beloved believers continue to die. Persecution is on the rise. In fact, one of the major themes in First Peter is how to live under persecution. All the “evidence” would seem to be contrary to the idea of the Christian’s final victory. Based on all of our experience, suffering and death seem to carry the day. However, there is one overriding piece of evidence that cannot be excluded—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus guarantees that His sacrifice for our sins was an acceptable sacrifice. He beat death and He promises to give a new, glorified, resurrected body to all who trust in Him.
Because Christians have the hope of a future resurrection and an eternity with Jesus, they can live in hope now. What we know will happen in the future colors the way we view the present. Christians are hopeful and hope-filled people. Christ’s resurrection is the gateway for everything else that God has promised. God has proven Himself in the past and guaranteed our future, so our hope is a present reality. The living hope encompasses everything that God has promised but has not yet come to pass.—Compelling Truth4
Published on Anchor May 2024. Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by Michael Dooley.
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