Hope, Not Hopefulness

Scripture Text – 1 Peter 1:3-9

Peter directly relates Christian hope to an “inheritance” for God’s people; that inheritance, obviously, is salvation. “Receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls,” Peter wrote. Seeing “souls saved” or “getting souls saved” are overused and underdefined phrases in evangelism. Peter is therefore talking about the whole human being in the experience of salvation when he makes reference to the salvation of souls. Salvation is God’s liberating us from the power of sin and self-destruction, setting us in a right relationship with God, and working in our lives to make us healthy and whole persons in all respects; it’s an ongoing process. All of the best we can know in these areas of life is just a mere “down payment” of that complete inheritance which is not fully realized until we step into eternity. We can’t even imagine the bounty awaiting us when we receive the inheritance in full. So, for now, we sing, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.”

We have difficulty trying to comprehend the value of God’s gift of salvation which we as His children will someday fully inherit. The Apostle picks three beautiful terms to describe salvation, which is life with God. It is life unending and immortal. It is life undefiled and pure, unstained by any moral or spiritual evil. It is life unfading as a flower which never loses its beauty.

Christian hope gives God’s people the assurance of God’s protection. Now, that is not properly interpreted the way it is popularly treated. Protection by God means that once we become children of God, we are not left to “go it alone.” As we face the difficulties of life, as we struggle to make our lives more of what God wants them to be, as we deal with the continuing battle between good and evil, God is with us. God never leaves or forsakes us.