The Great Sending, Chapter 39

STUDY 39: Not Yet Seeing, but Believing and Rejoicing

pp. 194-196
Reference:  1 Peter 1:18-25; 2:21-25; 3:18-22

Reverand Dr. Dale Meyer

Older churchgoers grew up in “Christian” America. Going to church, knowing Bible stories, and living by the Ten Commandments were generally accepted both in and out of church. Not everyone was a true believer, but American public life had a very Christian feel to it.

“Christian” America is gone, and it’s not about to come back. We can grieve what’s been lost, or we can see as never before that faith is all about Jesus Christ.

The Epistle of 1 Peter contains three important passages about Jesus. The first is in Chapter 1, verses 18-25, the Missio Dei to you and to me. When you read these verses, notice the emphasis on redemption. It’s not gold or silver, your paycheck or your retirement account, that saves you, but only the blood of the Passover victim, Jesus. The word “redeem” or “ransom” evokes the image of being freed from slavery. God’s mission to you began in eternity. “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” (1:20). These are more than sentimental, feel-good words, in the way many Americans think of faith; this is substance. Jesus, only Jesus, was sent from eternity to deliver you.

God’s mission should never leave our consciousness. That’s why the second Christological passage, 2:21-25, dwells more on Christ’s passion, especially focusing on the injustice of his suffering and death. In doing so, Peter transitions: God’s mission to us shapes our mission to others. “To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps,” Peter writes. Jesus our Savior is also Jesus our Example. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 invites us into his mission, even if it means suffering injustice. In America we are blessed with ways to address suffering but that’s not our bottom line. Following Jesus in faith and life is, whatever happens.

Is your Lord Jesus only history? Jesus’s first-century ministry is the heart of Peter’s three Christological passages, but in the third passage, 3:18-25, Peter focuses on what happened after the cross, and what is still to come. As the Apostle’s Creed states, “He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.”

Followers of the living Lord are not the curators of a museum!

Peter encourages his readers: “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”
(1:13). The best is yet to come!

“Christian” America is gone, but something eternally better is coming. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1:8-9).