A Living Hope Through A Living Christ

1 Peter 1 : 3, 4:

We have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, unfading.

From the resurrection, says the apostle Peter, issues a living hope. That is bread for the soul, and bread for the world that lives in the shadow of death, and struggles to wrest itself from the threats of death.

A living hope. That is hope unaffected by change or decay; unaffected by the devaluation of the dollar, or the trading conditions at the stock exchange.

And that living hope is not only vital, it is vitalizing: it affords new power, new expectations, new possibilities, new courage, new compassion.

According to our text, a living hope arises from two things: a new birth and an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and unfading. As for the new birth, that means participation in a new life, or a new environment. Here it is a life not controlled by the powers of the present age: death and depth and height, or principalities, or things present or things to come, or anything in all creation. No, the new life is life that is both ruled and served by Christ who is the Lord of all, "He sets me high upon a rock," and lifts me out of this world of space and time, out of the world of change and decay, and sin, and defeat, and brings me in living touch with eternity and eternal life. A new birth: that is to be born anew not from perishable seed but from imperishable. (I Peter 1 : 23)

And the new hope arises from an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. I have been granted a new life - I have also been granted a new future. It is a future which is not "exposed to the gnawing tooth of time, nor will it grow less as I grow old". It s glory will grow brighter as I grow closer to Him who by His death secured for us an eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9: 15)

Thus the resurrection of our Lord issues into a living hope. Indeed it was given us that our joy might be complete (John 15 : 11). But it was also given us that we might declare publicly the deeds of Him who called us out of the corruptible, the defiled and the fading into the imperishable, the undefiled, and the unfading: his marvelous light. (I Peter 2 : 9)