A Hope And An Inheritance

I Peter 1:3-9

A lost job.  A failed marriage.  Bad medical report.  Strained relationship with family members.  An empty bank account with mounting bills.  Any one of these can leave us feeling hopeless, and especially if one faces several of them.  Add to this the fear and uncertainty we all face in the world today with terrorist attacks, threats of war, etc.  It makes us want to cry out, “Where are you, God?  What am I going to do?  Life is just so hopeless!”  The people the Apostle Peter was writing to here were in just such a position.  Many were facing life and death situations.  Where was their hope?

Peter, who was facing these trials along with them, told them, and us, that we have a “living hope” (vs. 3).   The Resurrection has brought hope to everything in our life.  The resurrection of Jesus, the fulfillment of that prophecy and promise shows us that God will honor all of His promises.  We can trust that He is always with us and will never forsake us.  That is a hope that can keep us going in our dark days.  Our living hope is eternal life promised to those who have believed in Jesus.  Nothing is hopeless if we have Jesus.  We can have hope because He rose from the dead.

God has also promised His children an inheritance (vs. 4-5).  We all would love to get a nice inheritance from some relative - money, property, favorite belongings.  Those things can all be lost.  The money when the economy collapses, the property can burn or wear down, and belongings can be stolen.  What God has promised to us is incorruptible.  It will not decay.  It is undefiled, unpolluted, and unstained with evil.  It is safer and more protected than all the fortune in Ft. Knox.  God has adopted us as His children, and all the treasures of heaven have been given to us as our inheritance.  It is guaranteed, and we can base our confidence on the indestructible truth of God’s Word.

So then, we might ask, why does God allow us, His adopted children, to go through all the trials that we do?  The Apostle Peter touches on this in the remaining verses of this passage.  Peter tells us that our trials do not last, they are merely “for a season” (vs. 6).  God sometimes allows us to face trials so as to test our faith.  In verse 7 Peter uses the analogy of testing precious metals, such as gold, with fire.  Gold is put through the flames to refine it, to remove all impurities.  If gold could talk it might say that it doesn’t like that process.  But the purer the gold the better, and that gold would like being made into a beautiful piece of jewelry.  Our faith is much more precious than gold, and God is refining our faith by fire.  He wants all impurities, such as doubt, fear, anxiety to be burned out.  He only wants remaining pure “gold”, like faith peace, joy.  Then, as he finishes this verse, Peter says this will result in praise and glory when Jesus returns.  That is much more valuable than gold.

At the time of the writing of Peter’s letter, most of the believers had never seen Jesus, and certainly none of us have.  We love Him, though, and can trust and believe in His Word (vs. 8).  We can trust Him that He can redeem every situation .  God will use everything in our life for our good.