Friday, April 21

3 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, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

1 Peter 1:3-4

Imperishable, Undefiled, Unfading

1 Peter 1:3-4 is a beautiful passage that focuses on the living hope we have in Jesus Christ.As Peter contemplates the grace of God to open this pastoral letter, he breaks into a praise in verse 3 praising God and FAther of our Lord Jesus. It is from the Father's mercy that we have been born again to a living hope through Jesus Christ.Hope is an interesting concept. There is a human need for hope…Christian or not…we a hope making machines.

• We hope there wont be any traffic
• We hope our sports teams win
• We hope that our jobs will give us a raise
• We hope that our children grow up to be successful
• We hope that we will finally be able to have kids
• We hope that our parents will survive cancer
• We hope that our community will thrive
• We hope that nothing bad happens to someone we love

Sadly, most of the time, our hope is just in hope for hope sakes. There is no substance, no reason, we just toss our hopes up and maybe it will make us feel better. We’re hopeful…but what is the SUBSTANCE of that hope. What is the means…while our movies tend to end with happy endings sometimes our lives do not. It’s just a placebo effect…I think this will make me better but it never does.So what is Christian Hope?The beautiful thing is our Christian hope is not in a proposition or an idea our hope is in a person. Jesus Christ.Jesus’ death on the cross secures our forgiveness and reconciliation with the Father, the resurrection is what we are reconciled for: a life with Jesus; being like Jesus; glorifying the Father as participants of his eternal New Creation. This is our final hope and the deep longing of our hearts, minds and souls.