Our Glorious Inheritance

Read: 1 Peter 1:3-5

Do you ever wonder why your faith doesn’t quite connect with life? Many Christians do. They are doing the right things. Believing the right things. Praying and reading the word. But they feel their faith does not connect with their life. We could spend a lot of time analysing the possible reasons.Perhaps more importantly, the words Peter writes are the best solution. Positively, the best way for faith in Christ to connect with and impact life.

Remember, he’s writing to exiles: displaced people. People who don’t fit in. Life was hard. They had lost a great deal. The culture they lived in considered them fools. Sometimes they must have looked at their lives and circumstances and asked whether in following Jesus they had made the best choice…

New Birth

Peter directs their minds to three surprising realities: realities that made an incredible difference to how they would live. The first surprising reality is found in v.3:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth …” (1 Peter 1:3, NIV)

New birth is well accepted language in Christian circles, but what does it mean? At the very least, it means our natural birth is not enough to bring us into real life. Life is wonderful. Sure. But if we’re honest it falls short of expectations. Life holds great capacity for disappointment and pain. Sickness. Relationship breakdown. We fail ourselves and others. Warfare. Injustice. Violence and abuse.

The Bible says this has its roots in our separation from God. In human sin. At best we are indifferent to God. At worst, we are his enemies. Either way, without Jesus, people are on the road to hell.

Because of His mercy and grace, God gives new life to people

Peter does not disagree with that. But he wants us to see that because of Jesus sin does not have the last word. He wants to open our eyes to something glorious: Because of His mercy and grace, God gives new life to people. New life! Life that is not at the mercy of fallenness, sin and rebellion.

This is what Jesus refers to when he’s speaking with Nicodemus (see John 3:1-5). Later Jesus says,

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:14–17, NIV)

This ‘lifting up’ refers to Jesus’ death on the Cross. God is rich in mercy: he lifted up his Son on the Cross so new birth would come to everyone who believes! Nicodemus was a religious leader, a rich man. Peter’s people were refugees. But all of them were born rebels and sinners. Yet in his great mercy God had given new life.

This is one of the most wonderful truths about Christianity. In his great mercy God has given us new life. A free gift to fallen people, even though the cost to Jesus was unfathomable. In his great mercy, God gives new life. Irrespective of your past. Irrespective of your failings, your sins, your inner rebellion. Irrespective of how much you have wronged others, or how they have broken and wronged you. In Jesus God gives new life to all who look to him in faith.

You know why it’s so good? Why Peter overflows with praise? Because this new birth transcends our circumstances.

new birth transcends our circumstances

How broken do you feel today? Is there heaviness within? Life’s circumstances bearing down on you?

God wants you to receive his new birth. To look to him in faith. To trust the Jesus whose death opens up a new reality.

Living Hope

The second surprising reality is seen in the second half of verse 3:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3, NIV)

For us, using the word ‘hope’ introduces a measure of uncertainty.

Are you going to get that new job? Hope so…

Will you have enough money for the holiday? I hope to!

I hope this new Government can get the economy back on track…

No certainty with any of that!

Christian hope is very different. Christian hope is not about uncertainty. Christian hope is about waiting, waiting for something you know is coming.

In a two weeks’ time, we’ll see the AFL Grand Final,* perhaps between the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers. None of us will be there. Many of us will watch it on the television. One of those teams will win. There’ll be all sorts of celebration when the final siren goes. And while the final is held over in Melbourne, 3435km away, we know that trophy is coming to Perth. We know there’s be a champion’s parade in the city or in Fremantle. We know the flag belongs in WA. It’s just that we’ll have to wait to see that reality.

That’s Christian hope. You know it’s coming. It’s an absolute certainty. You just have to wait for it. And you know it’s coming because a great victory has been won. Christian hope is based on a greater victory! The victory Jesus has won over death on the Cross. This victory is grounded Jesus’ defeat of the evil one! This victory is grounded in Jesus’ rising from the dead!

Think of what Paul writes to the Christians in Rome:

“…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4, NIV)

Or to the Colossian Christians:

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…” (Colossians 3:1–3, NIV)

Can you see what it’s saying? Through Jesus’ resurrection we live a new life, now! Through Jesus’ resurrection our minds are set on things above, now! Our thoughts are directed to God’s things, now. Set on the things of his Kingdom, now.

God the Father has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Just let that sink in. Not only is Jesus’ resurrection a real resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection is already at work in you.

No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me!

A new life has been born in us! Why? Because new life was born to the world through the resurrection of Jesus!

Just how Jesus’s resurrection makes a difference we will start to see when we look at verse 6 and following (next week). All we need to understand now is that the resurrection of Jesus is way more than a matter of Christian teaching! It is that, but it is way more! It is why you are alive in Jesus! It is why you can live differently, why you can cope with being rejected by your culture and the people around you. This living hope is the most astounding power of good in the world!

You’re not just a man trying to make ends meet, or a woman trying to make something of your life … you are living in hope through Christ’s resurrection!

Imperishable inheritance

This brings us to the third surprising reality. We find it in verses 4-5

“[In his great mercy he has given us new birth] … into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:4–5, NIV)

We think of inheritance as a financial gift which comes when someone dies. A good inheritance can set a person up, or relieve financial pressure. The inheritance Peter speaks of is so much better. It’s not money: it’s life itself. More life, and better life than we could ever imagine (see John 10:10, MSG). An inheritance that does not perish, spoil or fade.

This is the promise of God himself that we and our world will one day be fully liberated from sin, from the fall, from grief, from tears, from all the frustration of this fallen world. This inheritance is kept in heaven, and it’s fullness is out of sight. But one day, as N.T. Wright so aptly reminds us, heaven’s curtain would be drawn back, and the imperishable inheritance – which at present is kept safe in heaven – will be merged with our earthly reality. And all of life itself will be transformed fully. Christ’s new life will soak through our world and overflow with God’s presence, love and mercy!

Why does Peter mention this inheritance here? Because in a time when people rarely left their village, these people were now exiles in a foreign land. They had left behind livelihoods, homes, quite possibly members of their family. They had lost much. But in Jesus they had gained everything. The God who had given new birth, who had given his Son for them, would ensure than nothing would take their glorious inheritance.

The really interesting thing is that their eternal inheritance did not prevent them from engaging with their world. It didn’t get them just thinking about eternity, and forgetting about the world around them. On the contrary, it changed how they viewed the world. And this Kingdom life started to overflow and influence every aspect of their lives and existence. God’s eternal future started bubbling over into their everyday now.

There’s the connection between faith and life friends! There’s the power of the risen Christ in his people! They had been brought into the glorious reality of the Kingdom of God! This living hope empowered them to changed lives. Their inheritance was secure! This is the thing: as a believer your life, your existence is no longer shaped by this world’s society and culture.

Did you know that?

Do you understand?

You do not belong in the culture in which you reside. Remember: you’re exiles! Jesus is risen! And his resurrection life is now at work in you! You are raised with Christ! You live a new life! And so you do not belong to this world’s society and culture. You belong to the society and culture of the Kingdom. This new birth, this living hope, this inheritance is yours! It will never perish, spoil, or fade! By the power of Christ’s salvation the Father guards it in heaven for you! God calls you to live this life! To express it. Speak it.

Kingdom thoughts.

Kingdom values.

Kingdom behaviour.

Kingdom love.

Kingdom compassion.

This is where you belong! This is your country! Your true country. Your first and only allegiance. Isn’t that what Paul declares so powerfully?

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20–21, NIV)

An imperishable inheritance! Grounded in the transformational death, resurrection and rule of Jesus Christ, kept in heaven for you!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3–5, NIV)

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* This illustration shows my humanity. As it turned out, only one WA AFL side made it to the Grand Final, and then they lost – and woefully so. But you get the point: Christian hope is based on the rock solid certainty of Jesus’ victory. The battle is already won in principle, we’re just waiting for the consummation when Jesus returns for all to see as Victorious and Glorious Lord.