COV LIFE BLOG

1 Peter 1:3-5 – A Living Hope Through the Gospel

For some of you things have been hard and in God’s kindness they will get better. They’ll get a little easier. And for some of you things have been bad and they’ll improve. But for others of us, they may get worse.

But no matter where we are in those three categories that’s not where our hope is. Our hope is not found in, “If things are hard they’re going to get easier. If things are bad, they’re going to get better.” And our hope is not diminished if things are good and they get worse. That’s not where our hope is.

Our final healing doesn’t come until the resurrection of the dead.

That’s not all that John says. Listen to the rest of the sentence. “Your final healing is as far away as your resurrection from the dead, however, your invincible joy of hope is as close as the risen Lord Jesus Christ.”

That hope bears the fruit of joy now.

That resurrection then is life-giving now, which means you can throw yourself into life and you know that the defeats you experience in this life, however intensely personal and painful they may be, they are not the final word, and there is a final victory that awaits. And you know that the successes of this life, however wonderful they may be, are not your final hope and blessing. And so you can throw yourself into this life serving and loving and giving and know that this is not my final hope.

My hope is at the resurrection and that allows me to pursue this life with love and joy now, knowing that no matter what happens, nothing can take away my hope because nothing can take away the resurrection because Jesus has been raised from the dead.

I wonder if that’s where your hope is, Christian. I wonder if it’s there enough. I wonder if you’re like me, always looking for an interim hope, always looking for something now, in my own time, in my own condition, in my own circumstances, that I can cling to that’s going to be the thing that gets me through. Just listen to the pastor saying, “Your final healing is as far away as the resurrection from the dead.”

Have you had your hope in the wrong place? Christian, it will rob you of joy. It will rob you of usefulness if your hope is in the wrong place. But if your hope is in the resurrection, it will give you the joy and the energy to live life now no matter what the successes and defeats are, no matter what the blessings and the trials are, because you know that in the end neither the good things nor the bad things have the final word because your hope is waiting. It’s stored up, it’s kept, it’s in heaven.

Ligon Duncan

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read 1 Peter 1:3-5. How does a living hope in the midst of every trial and difficult season affect your perspective and your response? How can you grow in putting your hope in Christ in the midst of these times?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
O, For A Thousand Tongues to Sing by Charles Wesley