2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Today’s passage for discussion is 1 PET 1: 5-9, a continuation of what Peter had to say about the living hope which is the hope of the resurrection that we all share. For the sake of context, I will begin citing it with verses 3-4 from yesterday. “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of His great mercy, He gave us a new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for His people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away. They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God’s power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time. Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a awhile because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire: and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed. You love Him, and although you have not seen Him, and you believe in Him, although you do not now see Him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express, because you are receiving the salvation of your soul, which is the purpose of your faith in Him.”
As I was reading this passage, I was brought back to some key concepts that Paul spoke about in Romans. RO 8: 18-19, “I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. All of creation waits eagerly for God to reveal His sons [those who will be glorified].” RO 8: 22-25, “For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the travail of childbirth. But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us His sons and set our whole being free. For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who hopes for something he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Many people have tried to determine exactly when this Day of Christ when this glorification will take place. We are told that we are not to know the exact day and to prepare ourselves for it. 1THESS 4: 14-17 gives us what we need to know about that Day. “We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in Him. What we are teaching you now is the Lord’s teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died. There will be the shout of command, the archangel’s voice, the sound of God’s trumpet [shofar], and the Lord Himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So then, encourage one another with these words.” What a meeting in the air that will be!
When ore is mined from the earth in search of precious metal, it comes as a mixture of that metal with lots of different impurities, each with its own melting point. A refiner’s fire that slowly heats and re-heats the mixture, piece by piece, degree by degree destroys the impurities until nothing but the precious metal is left. Our lives are that way too. When we are first saved from the market place of slavery to sin, we are still imperfect. That is why it is necessary for God with our participation to put our faith through a sort of refiner’s fire. Rather than flames in this fire, it is our suffering, trials, and sorrows through which we must (with God’s help) work. If God has His way with us, this work of sanctification will be successful, so that when Christ is ready to meet us in the air, we are ready. This spiritual refiner’s fire is spoken of several places in the Scriptures. PR 27: 17, “People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron.” PR 27: 21, “Fire tests gold and silver; a person’s reputation can also be tested.” ZECH 13: 8-9, “And throughout the land two-thirds of the people will die [referring to Jews living at the time of the Tribulation]. And I will test the third that survives [the Jewish remnant] and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to Me, and I will answer them. I will tell them they are My people and they will confess that I am their God.” MAL 3: 1-3, “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send My messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant. But who will be able to endure the Day when He comes? Who will be able to survive when He appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal. He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver…” 1 COR 3: 13-15, “And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burnt up, then he will lose it; but he himself will be saved, as if he had escaped through the fire.”
How great will be our rejoicing when we come through the refiner’s fire and know that we are together seeing the purpose of our faith come to fruition!
PRAYER: O Lord, when we study the Scriptures, You allow us to have a very different perspective on our suffering than we would without faith. Without faith, there is hopelessness, anger, and unending misery. We are truly victims of Satan. However, when we have faith, we enjoy a view of things closer to Your own. You let us know there is a reason for our suffering, one which works in our best interests when we trust and obey You. We are also able to know that there will be the reward of this wonderful meeting in the air with our Lord, resurrection bodies awaiting us, and eternal joy & fellowship with You after the wedding feast of the Lamb. We can share in that hope, believing that Jesus died on the cross and went ahead of us. In doing so, He made the way open for believers and was prepared by You to take our prayers directly to You. He opened the Holy of Holies in heaven to us by this magnificent sacrifice on the cross. Our suffering on earth is not pointless, Dear Father; instead, it is with a wonderful purpose. Thank You for giving us that knowledge and the living hope which we can share with each other. We humbly approach You in an attitude of worship, praise, respect, trust, willingness to obey, and joyful anticipation. In the meanwhile, we will encourage each other’s faith in You. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at 1 PET 1: 10-12 and see how the work of the OT prophets carried out God’s will for us today. In the meanwhile, never let a day go by that we don’t stretch to reach toward God’s perspective on our suffering. Know that we never have to suffer alone, because our loving Abba is their to guide us through it, and our fellow believers are there to encourage us in our faith. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn