The Assurance of Our Hope

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well this evening we are going to continue our study in Peter’s letter to the dispersion As he said which is made up of mostly Hellenized Jews that were scattered throughout various parts of the Roman Empire So this is the audience that he’s been writing to and we’re gonna be taking a look at chapter 1 and picking up at verse 10 through 20 so if you have your copy of God’s word you can turn to that and let me just read those verses as we dive in verse 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you and 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. things into which the angels longed to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that would be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

And if you call him father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you are ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, 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.

Last time we considered Peter’s words of encouragement to the saints as he rehearsed the reason why they above all people have hope. And that is that they have the assurance of an inheritance as we saw that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept for them by God himself for salvation yet to be revealed. It was a pretty amazing list that he used to describe that. A faith that truly rests in the hope of such a glorious salvation is what enables us not only to endure, but to actually rejoice, though now for a while if necessary, we are grieved by various trials. Now when I say a faith that rests, I mean rests.

It’s the kind of rest that you do in a hammock. It’s not the kind of resting you do on a wobbly cop that might collapse at any moment. That kind of rest keeps you on edge, always wondering when the thing supporting you is about to give way. It’s not really resting if you’re always wondering when you’re about to hit the ground. Some Christians have a wobbly faith. It’s genuine enough to get them home to Jesus, but they are more likely to be dragged across the finish line by the Holy Spirit, then looking like Christian soldiers marching onwards. There’s a quote often attributed to Charles Spurgeon that says, a little faith will bring your soul to heaven.

A great faith will bring heaven to your soul. If we’re going to withstand the inevitable trials that happen in this life without sinful responses, then we need to fully rejoice in the glory that is yet to be revealed. Paul says as much in Romans 8.18 where he wrote, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the sufferings, or the sufferings not worthy to be compared to the glory that is yet to be revealed. Most of us can answer questions about why we have hope, but do we believe it all the way down into the crevices of our very soul? We have the theory down, but does it hold up in real life?

An important key for any Christian to thrive spiritually and not just survive is to maintain a heavenly perspective while walking on this earth. Consider a few examples that show how powerful perspective can be. How would you feel about heading into the worst week of your life if the following week you would be taking your dream vacation. Again, I want you to think about the power of perspective. How would you feel about a major financial disaster if you were gonna win the lottery the next month, if it’s okay for you to buy lottery tickets? How would you feel about being diagnosed with cancer if you knew a cure was going to be discovered soon after?

Now, these examples seem silly or contrived to you. How about this one? How would you feel if your existence was made up of 80 years of hardship, followed by an eternity of no pain, no suffering, and boundless joy? Most of us will acknowledge the point that I’m making when we’re all in the spiritual locker room before the big game, but why do we forget it when we’re on the field? Does the truth I’m speaking of affect our perceptions when trials hit? Now, I’m not saying that trials don’t hurt, they do. But the hurt can be greatly mitigated, I suggest, by our perception. That’s at least what Paul was trying to argue in Romans 8, 18.

And kids, if you’re following along the kids’ corner, then there’s really two points tonight. One is a glorious and mysterious plan. That’s the point I’ll be talking about now. Peter wants his readers’ perception to be tweaked and to really appreciate the salvation that awaits them in heaven. Picking up in verse 10, he says, concerning this salvation. He’s referring them back to verses three through five, where he wrote that God 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 by God’s power, who are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.

And notice that all of this is because of his great mercy. Not only do we have the most glorious future awaiting us, but there isn’t anything that we have to do to earn it. Purely God’s grace, God’s mercy upon us. Do we know this? Or do we know this? It’s not enough to give intellectual assent to this truth. We have to have a deep conviction of it for it to do any good at all in our lives. Peter takes the next few verses then to describe how this amazing salvation story has been and continues to be slowly revealed in his creation. I suppose if he had revealed it at all at one time, heads would have exploded. It’s so amazing.

The pace that God has chosen to reveal his redemptive plan creates more and more anticipation to those who are paying attention. It feels like a slingshot being stretched further and further back until finally it’s released. So continuing in verse 10, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the severance of Christ and the subsequent glories. For as much as we have yet to see of the fullness of God’s plan, consider what it was like to be an Old Testament prophet.

I wonder what it was like writing words that were on one hand your thoughts and on the other hand inspired by the Holy Spirit. Imagine you’ve just finished writing your letter and yet you aren’t quite sure the full meaning of what you’ve just put down on paper. What was it like for Isaiah to write, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed. Did he question how God could let the future Messiah suffer so? Whatever he and the other prophets were thinking, we are told that they sought eagerly to understand what the Spirit was communicating through them.

They obviously lived before the cross and a lot of what was to come was hidden from them. Today, we look back at the cross and we have a good deal more understanding of what the prophets wrote. But I do wonder, I do think we are sometimes guilty of losing the wonder that the prophets had and treat God’s redemptive plan as some kind of old news, even though it’s continuing to unfold before us. Jesus reminded his disciples in Matthew 13, 17, how blessed they were to witness firsthand things that prophets had written about, and that was before they understood what was to happen. Several times in the gospels, it keeps saying Jesus, at least three times in most of the gospels, Jesus said, hey, I’m heading to Jerusalem to suffer and to die, and three times it says, and the disciples didn’t get it.

They didn’t understand it. But even though their understanding was still somewhat limited and veiled, they were blessed with what they were seeing. How much more so should be for us? If the prophets were eager and the disciples were blessed, what does that make us in terms of what God’s given us, the revelation? Notice that Peter says the prophets predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. The sufferings of Christ are over, but the glories that Peter refers to are ongoing to this day. This means that we should have the same kind of anticipation the prophets had as we make careful inquiry into what God is currently doing.

Notice that Peter says it was the Spirit of Christ guiding the prophets as they wrote. But then, in this passage, he says the Spirit of Christ, but then in 2 Peter 1.21, he says, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So who guided the prophets? Was it the Spirit of Christ or the Holy Spirit? The answer is yes. In Romans 8, 9 through 11, we see the term Spirit, Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ used interchangeably. As a reading from there, it says, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your immortal bodies through the spirit who dwells in you. So we see all of this interchangeability in these terms. So where did all this careful inquiry lead the prophets? What did the Spirit show them? Take a look at verse 12. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in 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, things into which the angels longed to look.

Even though the prophets did not fully comprehend all that they wrote, the Spirit revealed to them that they were playing an important role and the grand reveal. The Bible regularly refers to God’s plan of redemption as a mystery that is being revealed over time. Paul calls it a mystery in Ephesians 3, 8 through 12, where he wrote to me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring delight for everyone, what is the plan of the mystery hidden in the ages in God? And later on it refers to this was according to God’s eternal purposes.

Notice why the mystery was hidden, so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Now I don’t know exactly who those beings in heaven are, but apparently it’s story time in heaven, just like it is here on earth. Peter affirms this by saying that even the angels to look at what God is doing. All of this suspense, Paul says, is according to God’s eternal purpose realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. That purpose is still being realized to this day and anybody who’s paying attention should be on the edge of their seats.

Apparently part of that plan is to purposely keep some people in the dark. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4, 3-4, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of the world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

But all of these facts just keep pointing to the suspense and what God is doing. And so then that moves me on to, I think, my second point, a proper and a hopeful response. Now that Peter has fired his readers up with the glorious details of their salvation. He then says, okay, so what? He calls them to action. Let’s look at verse 13. He starts off 13, therefore, there are numerous times in the New Testament where New Testament writers call believers to action in response to some reality. And typically we see them start off with that word, therefore, examples, therefore, since you’ve been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

Colossians 3.1, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance. Hebrews 12, one. Paul uses the same pattern starting in verse 13. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, if you use the King James Version of your Bible, you’ll see that Peter’s exhortation is interpreted a little more colorfully. He says, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. That puts a little more oomph on the command that he’s giving here. The phrase gird up your loins refers to the act of hitching up a long loose garment that was typically worn in ancient, orient times.

And you would bind up your garment, tie it up around your waist, so that it would not impede you as you prepared for some kind of action. If you were working on the farm or you were running a race, you’d want to take that fabric and just bring it right up to your waist and tie it there so you could be ready for action. We see it used in 1 Kings 18, 45 through 46, where Elijah is said to have girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Peter uses that phrase metaphorically by saying to gird up the loins of your mind. For what purpose are the readers then to gird up? For action. And we’ll see in a few verses what action he has in mind for them.

It’s clear that Peter wants his readers to mentally prepare for the task before them. The Christian life requires a mindset towards action as opposed to living a non-disciplined life. A genuine appreciation of one’s salvation results in an eagerness to prepare ourselves for the final outcome. Along with preparing for action comes an appropriate sober-mindedness. Now this does not mean that we walk around all the time with a nothing but business look on our face. We’re not called to be dour. But it does mean that we have ordered our thoughts aright, such that we are discerning of the times and are not prone to irrational thoughts or actions contrary to our salvation.

Sober-minded people are not likely to be tossed about with every emotion swinging between exhilaration and despair based on their circumstances. With eyes fixed on the finish line, they are able to apply the right kind of moderation in all of their thoughts and their behaviors. They are not impervious to the winds that blow about them, but they don’t swerve wildly about on their journey’s path from one extreme edge to the other.

One of the great benefits of our faith in crazy times like today is the stability that it brings to our hearts and minds, or should. It’s not being trite to say, you hear people say, well, what’s the worst thing that can happen to us? We die and then we go to heaven. That’s not a trite saying at all, that’s reality. That’s a proper perspective. If we truly grasp the perspective wrapped up in that statement, it will act as a stabilizer that keeps us from being tossed and turned by all the freaker outers. So then, after telling us to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober-minded, Peter tells us to set our sights.

He gives us the object of our focus. We are to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Just like a sprinter whose eyes are on the finish line, so we too set our hope on the promise of a glory yet to be revealed. Now that certainly is not easy with all the trials this life contains. But it’s good to remember Jesus’ words when he said, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, John 2029. We don’t see Jesus now, but we know that we will one day. And without hope, it keeps us fueled and going. Earlier I gave the comparison of resting on a hammock versus a wobbly cot.

on a hammock is the idea Peter has in mind when he says to set our hope fully. I doubt a hope that is less than that will ever enable us to endure when trials come our way will cave in eventually. In Comfort College’s New Testament survey class we’re reading through a series of books called 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power. It’s covering church history. And We’ve been reading about some of the persecution that the early church experienced. And in there, there was an excerpt that we had from an eyewitness account that has survived down through the ages that we still have it today. This is an actual person that witnessed the persecution that was happening around Lyon in Vienna, and that we have.

And so I don’t wanna just read a quick excerpt, it won’t be very long here, but just to give you an idea of the kind of full hope, the hope that fully rests that Peter’s talking about. This excerpt describes the persecution of a Christian slave girl named Blandina, who would not renounce her faith no matter what they did to her. Blandina was hung on a stake and exposed to the wild beasts who were supposed to attack her. She appeared as though she were hanging on a cross. Because of her art and prayers, she inspired the other combatants with great enthusiasm. They looked upon her in her ordeal, and they saw with their outward eyes in the shape of their sister, the one who was crucified for them, that he might convince those who believe in him that everyone who suffers for Christ’s glory has fellowship forever with the living God.

Since none of the wild beasts at the time attacked Blondina, she was taken down from the stake and thrown again into prison, preserved for another contest. Then, sometime later, they brought her out again, along with a 15-year-old boy named Ponticus, and began to torture them again, and the eyewitness report continues. So they subjected them to all the terrible sufferings and took them through the whole course of tortures, repeatedly pressing them to swear by the idols, but to no avail.

Ponticus was encouraged by his sister, Blandina, so that even the pagans could see she was confirming his strength. Ponticus died in that episode, but Blandina survived that round of torture, but then she did end up dying later when they finally dropped her from a basket into a pit that had a bull in it in the building ordered to death. That’s an example of setting hope fully on the grace that will be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Well, with a mind girded for action and sober and a hope fully resting on the full revelation of our salvation, Peter then lays out specific things we should be pursuing in preparation for that day.

So look at verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you are also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. The first thing we notice in Peter’s appeal to his readers is to be like obedient children. Now at first I can seem a little belittling. What adult wants to be called a child? And yet Peter is just simply drawing from Jesus’ own teaching when comparing true believers to being like children, that kind of simple humble faith. Jesus said that anyone who wants to enter into his kingdom must have humble faith like a child.

That’s a pattern for all believers, and Peter calls his readers attention to it. He calls all obedient children of God to no longer be conformed to the sinful passions that they once were. This, we know, is Christian’s discipline 101. Any follower of Christ must discipline themselves to put off the old self with its lusts and to put on the new self, which is patterned after Christ himself. Romans 12, one through two reiterates the command should not be conformed to this world and adds a little bit to it. You know the passage well. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. In addition to not being conformed, we have to then be obviously transformed. It’s a renewal process of our minds. We obviously know the reading of God’s words is essential for that. It’s a transformation. That’s a work that’s done by the Holy Spirit in conjunction then with our obedience to his leading.

Well having a hope that fully rests on faith requires us to pursue the godly disciplines that brings about change. We can’t say we have this hope and that we fully rest on that hope if we go through this life with a very lax and days ago attitude. We need to embrace the spiritual disciplines. We need to be building that spiritual muscle, allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us as our minds are being renewed.

Well Peter ups immensely the bar of what it means to be godly when he adds, as he is holy, so you also be holy in all your conduct. He brings to his readers’ minds the words from Leviticus 11.44 where God says, you shall be holy for I am holy. Now at first, that sounds like an insane command. Be holy like God.

No one can achieve that. But it’s important for us to understand what Peter’s getting at here. Clearly, nobody can achieve the holiness of God. If we could, he wouldn’t be God. God is set apart from his creation. He transcends it and is not entangled with it. And it has no effect on his character whatsoever. The word holy literally means to set apart. And when we speak of God being set apart, it means just that. His nature is set apart from creation and infinitely perfect. When we are called to be holy, it means that we too are set apart, but it includes the idea of being set apart for a sacred use or purpose. is the fuller definition.

God, of course, is not set apart for any purpose. He is simply set apart from all creation and its corruption. Because he cannot increase in holiness in any way, he then is the definition of holiness. Holiness is not an external concept floating out there that God has to measure up to. He is the definition of holiness.

He does not aspire to holiness. He is holy. So when we are told to be holy like He is holy, we are to look to Him as the model of holiness and be set apart from the sins that we formerly walked in. We will never in this life be totally free from sin, but we should look more and more like we are set apart from it as we walk. The more we mortify the flesh, the more we will find our hope resting on the fullness of our salvation and not the things of earth. This does not mean that we should become monks. There’s a kind of self-denial that is simply an effort to grow spiritually by means of the flesh, and that is useless.

Martin Luther figured that one out. Nevertheless, many Christians are content to settle for something less than a full pursuit of holiness. We find some kind of a level of peace where we’re like, okay, I’m not perfect, but Good enough, and that’s the wrong mindset. We need to constantly be pursuing greater and greater holiness. In a sermon that Spurgeon gave on this same passage I’m speaking on, he wrote these words, These are days of great looseness, everywhere I see great laxity of doctrinal belief and gross carelessness in religious practice. Christian people are doing today what their forefathers would have loathed.

Multitudes of professors are but very little different from worldlings. Men’s religion seems to hang loosely about them as if it did not fit them. The wonder is that it does not drop off of them. Men are so little braced up as to conscious, conscientious convictions and vigorous resolve that they easily go to pieces if assailed by error or temptation.

I just couldn’t, when I read that I just thought, wow, it sounds like he was like, preached that sermon like yesterday. very much descriptive of what’s going on today. Let’s continue on at verse 17. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransom from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Peter continues the idea that we are children by referring to God as our father. Just that term alone should help increase our longing for our salvation to be fully realized. What child wants to linger in a fearful place away from home when he knows this loving father is waiting? We should see this present existence comparatively speaking as something to leave behind. Peter says that we’re exiles, as such there should always be a nagging sense in us that we’re not home.

Do you have that sense? Or is this such a comfortable life that it only periodically crosses your mind that this world is not my home? Is there a longing? Is there a nagging in your soul? If not, perhaps you are not fully resting on the glory that is yet to to be revealed. The unbeliever fears death because it takes him from home. Death for a believer is welcome because it takes him to home. Peter goes on to stress a few things about our father that will help keep us focused and sober-minded. First, he points out that God is an impartial judge. Now, first, that might sound like God is a stern father who is just waiting to spank us when we mess up.

Impartial can sound cold and aloof. But to say that God is impartial is to simply say that he’s just. Even though we are his children, he’s not going to wink at our sin. Now thankfully, our sin no longer puts us under God’s condemnation, but it does subject us to his discipline.

But even his discipline, when he disciplines us as you know, is a feature of his love for us. Hebrews 12, five through six. My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be wary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

What child has not heard those dreadful words when they’ve been misbehaving all day? I heard them a lot growing up. Wait till your father gets home. In a loving father-child relationship, there is always present a kind of fear that helps motivate obedience. In a way similar to how a child, quote, fears yet loves his earthly father, Christians obey the heavenly father out of love, honor, and respect for his authority in their lives. If we don’t have a true fear of God and his displeasure, then again, that calls into question if we really have our priorities in the right place, and if we are anticipating that glory that’s yet to be revealed.

The Apostle Paul makes a similar appeal to the fear of God in 2 Corinthians 7.1. Since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Peter continues to build upon his reasoning for why we should be pursuing holiness by reminding his readers exactly what it cost to secure this salvation that God has given us. They were ransomed from their feudal ways, inherited from their forefathers. He’s referring to the demands of the law that kept their forefathers in feudal bondage. It was futile because the law could never make anyone righteous.

Romans 3.20 says, for by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. And yet we see over and over again where the Jews kept making the mistake that they can achieve righteousness that way. And Paul had to point out in Galatians that no, no, no, the law is a tutor, it’s a school master, it’s to teach you about the wholeness of God, but it’s not the standard by which you achieve that righteousness. The law holds men prisoner with its demands until God ransoms them. To be ransomed means to be released in exchange for a payment. In a believer’s case, The ransom was not a pot of silver or gold, perhaps the most valuable thing that Paul could use from an earthly perspective, but nothing like that, but it was the precious blood of Christ.

We were bought with the price, 1 Corinthians 6.20 says, so glorify God in your body. Titus 2.14 says, he gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God, Galatians 4,7 tells us. All of these verses drive home the same point. We were without hope in our sin. We were under God’s condemnation, condemning wrath with no earthly way to escape it. How should one live who understands what it costs to be ransomed from this sentence.

Peter makes it very clear that we should pursue holiness with all due diligence, rather than tolerate a certain amount of sin in our lives. To do anything less is to infer that the price of our ransom wasn’t really all that great. If I’m willing to tolerate some sin in my life, I am making a statement about what I think about the precious blood of Jesus and the price that was paid to ransom me.

To do anything less is to also say that our hope doesn’t fully rest on the revealing of our salvation. How long has God been working on this plan to bring about the salvation? Look at verse 20. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. From before the foundation of the world, God has had his eyes on those whom he would redeem. Peter says his plan was for the sake of you. The psalmist asked in Psalm eight, who is man that you regard him? God could have existed as a trinity forever without man and been exceedingly pleased to do so.

But in his infinite wisdom and love, he decided to bring us into the fellowship. What prompted him to do this? Peter started out his reflection on our salvation in verse three by saying, according to his mercy. Not according to his need to show off, not according to his need for companionship, simply according to his merciful love. I don’t even understand what it means to have mercy on a creation that you haven’t even created yet. Before the foundations of the earth, he had this plan, he had mercy. And so wrap your mind around that. Today’s up here chuckling. So somehow God had mercy on us before there wasn’t us.

Pretty crazy thought. Whatever it means, it shows an amazing capacity God has to love and to share it. How it must grieve him when we take a cavalier attitude and think of our salvation like a long-term life insurance plan with mediocre bearing on day-to-day life. And it doesn’t generate any longing in us. What should be the net effect of all that Peter is describing in these past few verses? What’s he hoping it’ll drive us to? He finishes up in the section and says, so that your faith and hope are in God. Peter started the main part of this letter by blessing God for causing us to be born again to a living hope.

Hope is a powerful force. It’s what motivates people to initiate. We do things because of what we hope the outcome will be. Those hopes include things like peace, security, love, comfort, meaning, and more. Those who do not know Christ will never find a lasting hope. In many cases, their hope will never materialize, or the objects of their hope won’t produce any lasting satisfaction. And yet the masses keep plodding on, driven by their false hopes. Peter’s been trying to get his readers to see the vastly superior hope they have in God. Their hope is not wishful. It has a guarantee that cannot fail. They and all believers are the benefactors of God’s merciful plan, whether we have been saved or being saved, whereby we have been saved, are being saved and will be saved.

Our salvation is an ongoing process. We’ve not received the fullness of our salvation and we have that hope of that fullness of that salvation, that hope and that glory that is yet to be revealed. When rightly perceived, this hope serves as a bulwark for our faith. It enabled the martyrs to gladly choose death rather than renounce their faith. It enabled Paul to consider his present sufferings not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. And it will enable us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling and to accept, if necessary, being grieved by various trials, as Peter says. So let’s pray.

Well, following these few short verses, Peter has continued to just lay down the foundation of his argument, pointing us back to this tremendous salvation that we have received and yet not fully received, trying to teach us that we really need to let go of the silly things in this life that we have rested our hope upon. And my prayer is that you would help each one of us, Father, to continue to take these truths from between our ears and drive them down deep into our heart, so that we are a people walking around full of hope, full of joy and thankfulness, and when the trials and tribulations do hit, they don’t slam us the way they slam a non-believer, but that we would be able to endure them with long suffering and patience, again, just knowing that they’re not worthy to be compared to the glory that’s yet to be received.

And so again, thank you for your word, Thank you for your mercy that brought about our salvation. And may we be found faithful as we seek to pursue a greater and greater holiness so that we can be good and obedient children in your sight. And just pray this all in your Son, Jesus’ name, amen.